Flash fiction prize winner is our very own Cammy!

FLASH fiction winner Cammy Harley is going to use her Waterstone gift voucher to buy more writing materials, like lovely Leuchtturm notebooks.

Cammy, The Southern Star’s local pages editor, entered and won the competition at the launch event of Cork County Council’s One City One Book featuring Liberty Terrace, written by her good friend Madeleine D’Arcy.

‘Everyone got a copy of the book at the launch and inside was a postcard. On that postcard, we were all invited to submit a very short story,’ she said.

‘My story was a bit morbid. It was about a girl walking through the town whose memories were triggered by the buildings she passed until she came to the bridge leading out of town.’ 

Over the years, Cammy has built up ‘a stamina for scribbling’ by taking part in a daily 10@10 writing exercise with another good friend, Camille Dorney.

‘She has five kids and I have six, so we used to write fiction for 10 minutes every day at 10pm,’ said Cammy, who explained that since Covid, it is something of a misnomer because they now do it every day at 7am.

‘We both love writing and when the 10 minutes are up, there’s always a quick call back to listen to what the other has written,’ she said.

Cammy’s life is steeped in books. In the midst of her busy schedule, which sees her contributing the Bantry notes to The Southern Star, as well as editing all the local towns’ pages, she also works three days a week at Bantry Bookshop.