Charnwood Arts's popular world-wide writing competition - miniWORDS - has come to a close for another year with the announcement of the winner of miniWORDS 2009. There was just one category in this year's competition: miniSTORIES, a narrative in prose or verse in 50 words or fewer.

This year's competition has spread wider than any other, attracting almost 1,700 entries from all over the world. The three judges pored over the entries for weeks in a very closely fought contest.

But now all the work is behind them and Charnwood Arts is pleased to announce that the winner of miniWORDS 2009 is Elizabeth Harris from Bath.

Elizabeth's untitled piece brings her a cash prize of £250, made possible by this year's sponsor, Anstey based print and promotions company, Ask Sue Witts.

The three judges also selected second, third, fourth place as well as commended places to writers who entered the ever-popular miniSTORIES category online.

Competition manager, Catherine Gillam, said:

"This year's competition was more popular than ever and we're thrilled by the continued support we've received from regular entrants as well as new writers".

Elizabeth's winning entry:

In the 'canned goods' aisle I saw a man with a shark's head.
I watched him fill his basket with tinned sardines. Naturally.
He sighed, the air whistling through his gills.
"Tins ain't the same. Nothing beats 'em fresh."
Nodding, I turned my eyes back to the baked beans.

You can read all of the winning and commended entries in the world's biggest little writing competition on the miniWORDS website, which can be found at http://miniwords2009.sharedspace.org