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Short Story Competitions

Calling all short story writers! We’ve pulled together a list of short story competitions, awards and prizes for you to have on your radar. To the best of our knowledge, these competitions run every year, but do make sure to check with each of them directly for everything you need to know before submitting your work.

Short Story Competitions.

Aesthetica Creative Writing Award

This competition is run by the prestigious art magazine every year, writers can enter short stories up to 2,000 words. Find out more here.

Anthology Short Story Competition

Anthology Short Story Competition is open to original and previously unpublished short stories in the English language by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. There is no restriction on theme or style. Stories submitted must not exceed the maximum of 1,500 words. Get all the details here.

Bath Short Story Award

Launched in 2012 the International Bath Short Story Award has rapidly become established as one of the prominent short story competitions in the UK receiving over fifteen hundred world-wide entries each year and producing a yearly anthology of short-listed and winning authors. Head to their website to find out everything you need to know.

BBC National Short Story Award

This prize is run yearly and only open to authors with a prior record of publishing creative work in the UK. Stories up to 8,000 words are accepted and may be submitted by the author or by their agent. Shortlisted stories are awarded a prize of £600. Get the full details here.

Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize

Run by the well-known and beloved London bookshop, the Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize welcomes entries of original short fiction between 1000 and 5000 words. The winner will receive £1,000 and 12 shortlisted writers will be included in an anthology. Find out more here.

Bridport Short Story Competition

With one of the largest cash prizes for a short story competition, the Bridport Short Story prize has helped many writers launch careers and achieve success. Details here.

Creators of Justice Literary Awards

The Creators of Justice Literary Awards is an annual, international contest featuring works which highlight the struggle for human rights and social justice across the world. Writers can submit one poem, essay, or short story on an annual theme. More here.

Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction

Run by indie publisher Comma Press, this prize is open to both published and unpublished writers and aims to seek out the best established and up and coming voices in the form. Find out everything you need to know here.

Inclusive Voices Short Story Competition

A unique competition, the Inclusive Voices Short Story Competition asks writers for stories up to 550 words and ‘should feature a character with a print disability’ which aligns with their mission as a charity who have been providing audiobooks to people who struggle to read print for fifty years. More here.

Mairtín Crawford Awards

For the Mairtín Crawford Awards, both published and unpublished writers are invited to submit a short story of up to 2,500 words for the short story award, with the only stipulation being that they have not yet published a full collection of poetry, short stories, or a novel. Details here.

Manchester Fiction Prize

The Manchester Fiction Prize is open internationally to anyone aged 16 or over (there is no upper age limit) and awards a cash prize of £10,000 to the writer of the best short story submitted.

Mogford Prize for Food and Drink Writing

A unique competition, the Mogford Prize for Food and Drink Writing is an annual short story competition open to writers across the globe. The prize awards £10,000 to the best short story that has food and drink at its heart. Head to their website to find out more.

Mslexia’s Short Story Competition

Run by the magazine for women-writers, Mslexia’s annual competition is for unpublished complete short fiction of up to 3,000 words. Get the full details here.

Rhys Davies Short Story Competition

The Rhys Davies Short Story Competition is a distinguished national writing competition for writers born or living in Wales. The first prize is £1,000 and publication in a short story anthology to be published by Parthian Books. More here.

Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition

The competition is open to original, unpublished and un-broadcast short stories in the English language of 3,000 words or fewer. The story can be on any subject, in any style, by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. Winner gets €2,000, featured reading at the Cork International Short Story Festival (with four-night hotel stay and full board) and publication in Southword. Find out more here.

The Aurora Prize for Writing

The Aurora Prize is a national writing competition, seeking outstanding new writing in short fiction and poetry run by Writing East Midlands. More here.

The Bedford Competition

Open internationally, there are prizes totalling £4,600 and all winning and shortlisted stories and poems are published as an anthology.

The Bristol Short Story Prize

This is an annual international writing competition open to all published and unpublished, UK and non-UK-based writers.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize

The prize is open to all Commonwealth citizens aged 18 and over entering a story of between 2,500 and 5,000 words. The regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives a total of £5,000. The winning stories are published online by Granta and in a special print collection by Paper + Ink.

The Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize

Galley Beggar Press’ mission is to ‘support talented new writers, and to demonstrate the wonderful things that can be done with the short story form.’ Writers supported by the indie publisher’s short story prize have gone on to achieve amazing things, such as signing with agents and securing book deals as a result of taking part in the prize. Galley Beggar Press have added that their ‘winners have been profiled in the Bookseller, the Irish Times, Guardian and elsewhere.’ Co-run by one of our brilliant Ultimate Novel Writing Course tutors Sam Jordison, we’re big fans of this prize. Get more details about the prize here.

The Moth Prizes

The Moth Magazine runs an annual short story prize open to anyone from anywhere in the world, as long as their writing is original and previously unpublished. Details here.

The Royal Society of Literature V. S. Pritchett Short Story Prize

The annual prize of £1,000 goes to the best unpublished short story of the year. The winning entry is also published in Prospect magazine and the RSL Review. Check their website for more information.

The Society of Authors’ Awards

The Society of Authors runs annual awards, which are open to writers at all stages of their careers. Among them is The ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award for a short story (applicants need to have had at least one short story accepted for publication); and The McKitterick Prize, which is given annually to an author over the age of 40 for a first novel, published or unpublished. All details here.

Here are our top tips for entering writing competitions.

Write, write, write. Then put your writing away in a drawer.

Time spent away from your story can give you a chance to return with fresh eyes. This is crucial as it allows you to see the story the way a reader will. The next best thing is to…

Share your writing with a trusted writer friend.

We say ‘writer’ friend and not friends or family for a reason: constructive criticism is what you need most before you send your work out into the world. Sharing your story with someone who cares about you (and might not be a writer themselves) might only elicit good feedback. It’s great to have a nurturing support system, but at this stage, you want to focus on making your writing as good as it can be.

Once you have submitted your work, follow any suggestions the competition might have.

This could mean adding their email address to your contacts so any emails from them won’t be sent to spam or it could be making a note of key upcoming dates. Some competitions require longlisted and shortlisted writers to send additional words if they reach the next round.

Before you submit your work to a writing competition, make sure you have checked the following.

The competition deadline.

Competitions typically have strict deadlines to submit your work, make sure to put a reminder in your diary so you don’t miss out.

The submission guidelines.

Competitions tend to have specific guidance on how to enter your work. Read them carefully and make sure to follow the rules as detailed. Remember, if you have any questions, the competitions are usually happy to answer them, assuming you have left plenty of time before the deadline.

The terms and conditions of entry.

Competitions will have stipulations around who can enter, make sure you’ve checked you are eligible before potentially wasting time submitting and/or entry free.

That’s it from us, if you do enter any of these competitions we wish you the very best of luck.