Hysteria Readers 2025
The Hysteria Writing Competition couldn’t take place each year without the help of our wonderful volunteer readers. You can find out more about this year’s team below. Each reader reviews all the entries in their category, allowing them to really see what makes a good entry.
As you know, fashions and tastes change, and the unique review form allows the teams to be as unbiased as possible and your entry will be judged against the same criteria as every other. All the readers try not to judge each piece against any other.
Readers are looking to see if they’d recommend your entry to a friend, how unique it was and whether it leaves them feeling satisfied after reading. Of course, they are looking at a few other things too, but I wouldn’t want to give all the secrets away!
I don’t ask readers to be expert writers either, although there are a fair few each year. I’m also looking for passionate readers, those who read anything and everything and who can spot a good story or poem quickly and easily.
The reading team is always chosen from a bunch of people who all volunteer their time and experience, and I hope you’ll make them all welcome. And, if you’d like to be a reader in next year’s competition, just add yourself to the mailing list and I’ll be in touch in March next year.
Flash Fiction Readers
Charlotte Emery moved to Dorset three years ago. Charlotte works in Community Development and has a lifelong love of books and reading. Charlotte has rekindled her love of writing and is exploring ideas and writing styles. She’s delighted to be part of Hysteria and is looking forward to reading amazing flash fiction.
Malina Douglas seeks poignant, imaginative stories. Her flash fiction was awarded first place in the Oxford Prize, 2023, and shortlisted by Defenestrationism and Leicester Writes. Publications include Cast of Wonders, Metastellar, Ginosko, WestWords and The Rumen. She runs a weekly writing workshop in Tbilisi, Sakartvelo and can be found on BlueSky or Substack @iridescentwords.
Christopher Muscato is a writer and reader from Colorado, USA. He is the former writer-in-residence of the High Plains Library District and currently enjoys being a first reader for multiple fiction magazines. His works can be found scattered throughout various anthologies and fiction journals.
Patricia Good is a writer of flash fiction and short stories. Her work has been published in writing magazines and last year her short story entry was accepted for the Parracombe Prize Anthology. At the moment she’s grappling with creative non-fiction. She enjoys reading a wide variety of fiction and is looking forward to reading the entries in the Flash Fiction Category of this year’s competition.
Pilar Garcia Claramonte discovered creative writing late in life. Now retired, she is making up for lost time with the help of some great teachers and writing buddies. Her flash fiction has been published in Mslexia’s “Best Women’s Short Fiction 2024” and been highly commended in the Bath Flash Fiction Award
Poetry Readers
Annette Iles grew up in New Zealand, but after some years of travelling put down new roots in the Midlands, where she lives in a small canal-side village. She began writing after she retired, when an adult education class introduced her to the pleasures and challenges of poetry. Her work has been published in magazines and anthologies, and she was the delighted winner of the poetry category in Hysteria’s 2023 competition.
Daphne Larner is a writer whose natural inclination is towards poetry and shorter forms, such as flash fiction. Her biggest contradiction to this is writing a memoir, similarly therapeutic, but which evades completion! Her adult education combined a 3-year course in community theatre arts, training as a social worker and study in mental health. She moved to Dorset aged 60 and developed her art and creative writing interests, has been placed in competitions and published in anthologies.
Eithne Cullen was born in Dublin and moved to London when she was six. Her poetry pamphlet The Smell of Dust was published in 2021. She’s also written two novels: The Ogress of Reading and Never Not in my Thoughts, and a short story collection, Pencils and other stories.
Maureen Abel is a writer, researcher, and sustainability advocate who is passionate about storytelling and poetry. Her work explores themes of resilience, identity, and environmental justice.
Sue Spiers lives in Hampshire and has been writing poetry since 2006. She has a BA from the Open University and currently edits their poetry society’s annual anthology. Sue has been widely published in poetry magazines and in two Hysteria anthologies. She was longlisted in the 2024 National Poetry competition.
Yvonne James works as a director at an educational consultancy company. Despite always having a love of the emotional journey poetry can evoke, she discovered during her English and Creative Writing degree in particular, that she genuinely enjoyed the near therapeutic qualities of writing poetry. Since then, she has been published in anthologies including Hysteria 8 and zines, such as Snakeskin Poetry. She sends very best wishes to the 2025 entrants and is genuinely looking forward to the privilege of reading your entered creations!
Short Story Readers
Denarii Peters. Prizewinning author Denarii is lost in the Lincolnshire Wolds. Over twenty of her stories have appeared in various anthologies. Her own collection Will You Walk into My Parlour was published by Crystal Clear Books in October 2024. Her trilogy The Reluctant Reaper is due out beginning in summer 2025.
Jane Derry has always been an avid reader, studying English literature at Manchester and becoming a librarian. She moved to London and worked at SOAS. After meeting her husband, she moved to Portugal for 7 years, then moved back to London with her daughter, working at the Cartoon Museum. They returned to Portugal for another 5 years, and she started writing short stories, with one printed in Prima magazine. Three years ago, she contracted Guillain-Barré, causing a stroke. Her brain was fine, and she continues to write. She now understands the value of life and the importance of creativity.
Rachel Angel lives in North Wales. Since gaining a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing with the Open University, Rachel has joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme. Rachel is looking forward to reading the short story entries this year.
Sally Anderson lives on the D’Entrecasteaux Channel in southern Tasmania and has just retired from nursing so now has time to start the ‘To Do’ list. Her first job will be outwitting the possum who raids her Silverbeet most nights. Short stories, personal essays and creative non-fiction are her prefered reading and writing, but she always has a psychological thriller on the go too. She has won short story competitions, had a memoir accepted for radio and an essay published in ‘The Australian’ newspaper. In 2023 she began a Creative Writing Diploma with UTAS, so reading for Hysteria now is timely – a real privilege to share different approaches to writing. All the best to those clever people crafting submissions.
Steven Patchett is an Engineer, Husband, Father and Writer living in the wilds of Northumberland. Comfortable with writing both literary and genre fiction, Steven has pieces in journals as diverse as Commuter Lit, Paragraph Planet and Trembling with Fear, amongst others. His first novella is finally out on submission. You can find him at linktr.ee/stevenpatchett.