For all those eagerly awaiting a sequel to Wolf Hall, here's something to keep you going. This year's Guardian Weekend fiction special includes a new story by Hilary Mantel, following two girls from very different backgrounds during one oppresively hot summer. She's joined by the likes of David Mitchell, who has left the 18th century Japan of his latest novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, to revisit the fictional world of Black Swan Green, and Barbara Trapido, whose heroine befriends an intriguing nuisance neighbour.

Our short story competition had a summer theme this year, which seemed to inspire in you thoughts of long childhood holidays and family disputes. A surprising number of the submissions were written in the first person from the perspective of a child or teenager, including this year's winning story, Jellyfish by Anna Towers. The judges, Wells Tower and Tessa Hadley, were impressed by the story's language and imagery. "She doesn't underline and belabour her point," says Hadley, "it feels very precisely controlled, as if she knows exactly what she wants to do with this material. The language is beautifully fluid and marvellously visual."

Towers, 25, studied creative writing, and works part time in a bingo hall in Hartlepool, a setting which has inspired her first novel. "I'm hoping to finish it this year," she says, citing influences including Stephen Fry, Magnus Mills and in particular Alan Bennett, "because he comes from an ordinary northern background".

Let us know what you think of the winning story, and the five runners-up chosen by our judges. And tell us the authors – established or up-and-coming – whom you'd like to see in next summer's fiction special.