A writer from Abergavenny has been named as the winner of the 2026 Rhys Davies Short Story Competition.

Ben Fergusson, who lives in the town with his husband and son, won the award for his story, ‘Piedmont’, depicting two mothers who arrive in Italy as strangers before being united by the unprecedented circumstances involving their sons. As they navigate unfamiliar territory, unknown truths and distorted memories, they grapple with their own sense of self and responsibility in the extraordinary story about love and loss.

“It is a complete surprise and a huge honour to win this year's Rhys Davies Short Story Award,” Ben said.

“To be in the company of such wonderful writers from Wales in this year's anthology is incredible. ‘Piedmont’ is a special story for me. It was inspired by a visit to Piedmont in Italy and the idea of writing about aspects of gay married life, from parenthood to widowhood and loss, that would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago.”

“As a gay husband and father living in Wales, it is particularly poignant to win an award named in honour of Rhys Davies – a gay Welsh writer who was not able, in his prolific output of hundreds of short stories, to write explicitly about gay characters. But who, through creative writing, was still able to unpick ideas around social conservatism and the shifting complexities of relationships and personal identities.”

Ben is the thirteenth winner of the competition since it first launched in 1991. In 2021, the competition was relaunched by Swansea University’s Cultural Institute on behalf of the Rhys Davies Trust and in association with Parthian Books.

The winner received £1,000 and his story will now feature in the Rhys Davies Short Story Award Anthology 2026, which is published by Parthian. That will be launched at Swansea’s Waterstones store on Wednesday October 18 this year at 6pm. Alongside Ben will be judge and acclaimed fiction writer, Tyler Keevil, editor, Elaine Canning and Richard Davies of Parthian.

“All the stories selected as finalists are evocative, captivating, and beautifully rendered,” Keevil said of those who had worked so hard on their entries.

“In such a strong field, it was particularly difficult to select an overall winner. ‘Piedmont’ stood out due to its rich characterisation, its sense of pathos, and its distinctive use of narrative perspective. Like many classics of the form, it somehow feels like more than a short story: it has the depth and scope of a novel, distilled to its essence. It’s stunning.”

Fergusson has now published three novels and one non-fiction book, ‘The Spring of Kasper Meier’ won the 2015 Betty Task Prize, the HWA Debut Crown and saw Ben shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of The Year Award.

He is a literary translator from German and, in 2020, won a Stephen Spender Prize for translated poetry. His forthcoming novel for children will be published by Faber and won the Faber Action! Prize 2026. Ben is now a senior lecturer in creative writing at Cardiff Metropolitan University.