The Hand That Wields The Priest

"I scribbled it in the radiotherapy waiting room."

Writer Emily Devane was inspired to write her flash fiction piece The Hand That Wields The Priest while looking at another patient's angling magazine in hospital. The story has won several prizes and is quiet story with dark undertones about a child and their father as they go for a fishing expedition that changes everything. 

In an honest and warm piece for the 100 voices for 100 years project, Emily talks about the time of writing it and how the story's success has helped chart her progress into recovery.  

Emily Devane is a writer living in West Yorkshire, whose work has been published in various anthologies, including The Nottingham Review and The Lonely Crowd. She was chosen as a Word Factory Apprentice in 2016 and last year received a Northern Writers' Award for her short story collection-in-progress. Her story, 'The Hand That Wields The Priest', won the Bath Flash Fiction Award, was published in 'Where The Lobsters Run Free', and has since been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It was recently a finalist for the Best Small Fictions Anthology.