Writer V Sanjay Kumar has won the first prize of £5,000 (Rs 4.8 lakh) in this year’s UK Bridport Prize short story competition for his story “The Fore Caddy”.

The Bengaluru-based writer, whose most recent novel The Third Squad was published last year, bagged the top spot out of a total of 4,300 stories that were entered for this year’s prize.

“Reading through this year’s entries, I thought a lot about what makes a great short story truly great,” Monica Ali, this year’s short story judge said. “The best ones make the back of your neck tingle. They make you feel newly alive to the world”.

Talking about “The Fore Caddy”, Ali said the story was “heartbreaking and beautiful...the style is deceptively simple, but the mastery of voice and tone and character is anything but simple to achieve”.

Established in 1973, with over £18,000 (Rs 17.2 lakh) in prize money to be won annually, the prestigious Bridport Prize is awarded in the categories of short story, flash fiction and poetry. Next year’s prize will open on November 15.