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An English teacher from Caerphilly has won a short story competition, with her entry described as “bristling with an irresistible melancholia and brimming with a bold confidence.”

Laura Morris, 43, who is head of English at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Edern in Cardiff, entered the 2022 Rhys Davies Short Story Competition with her story ‘Cree’.

The competition is open to writers aged 18 and above who were born in or have lived in Wales for at least two years, and aims to recognise the best unpublished short stories.

Entries can be in any style or any subject, up to a maximum of 5,000 words in English.

Ms Morris’s story is about an the friendship between a 55-year-old junior school teacher and her young pupil, who, with a school inspection looming, build a time machine together.

Ms Morris, who has a Masters in Creative Writing from Bangor University, has had work published and even broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Her competition win earned her a £1,000 prize, with her entry featured in the Rhys Davies Short Story Award Anthology 2022. The stories from the other 11 finalists in this year’s competition will also feature in the anthology.

The competition was named after the Rhondda-born writer Rhys Davies, who was born in 1901 and wrote more than 100 stories, 20 novels, three novellas, two topographical books about Wales, two plays and an autobiography.

This year’s guest judge, the multi-award-winning Welsh novelist and playwright Rachel Trezise, said: “Laura Morris’ ‘Cree’ bristles with an irresistible melancholia and brims with a bold confidence. It’s maturity of tone lived long in my memory bringing me back to the story, bittersweet though it is, time and again.”

Speaking of her win, Ms Morris said: “I was introduced to Rhys Davies’ short stories at university, when I was just starting to write. Davies’ portrayal of women continues to fascinate me, as women and womanhood are central to my own stories. I am delighted that my short story ‘Cree’ has won this award, but I am even more delighted for the story’s protagonist, Meryl, as she has never won anything.

“It is an honour to receive this recognition from Rachel Trezise – a writer whose work I admire.”