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Short Stories

Nobrow Short Story Competition

Information

Closing date: 
9 December 2019
Entry: 
Open to all writers of 18 and over with an unpublished and not yet submitted story or creative non-fiction piece. No entry fee
Prize: 
The overall winner will receive £2000, all selected contributors will receive £150 and two complimentary copies of the book

Nobrow Short Story Competition for writers! Up to twelve winning entries will be published in our short story anthology, and this beautifully illustrated book will celebrate the best short fiction and non-fiction writing.  Read more

Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2020

Information

Closing date: 
1 November 2019
Entry: 
Open to Commonwealth writers for unpublished stories in 11 languages No entry fee
Prize: 
Overall winner £5,000, five regional winners £2,500

Entrants can submit in 11 languages and the prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000-5,000 words). The five regional winners each receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives a total of £5,000.

Entries must be 2,000 words minimum, 5,000 words maximum.  Read more

The Caterpillar Story Prize 2019

Information

Closing date: 
30 September 2019
Entry: 
Open to all writers over 16 Entry fee €12
Prize: 
First Prize €1,000, Second Prize a week’s retreat at the marvellous Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Co. Monaghan, Ireland.

This annual award is given to the best story (of no more than 1,500 words) written by an adult for children aged 7-11.
Anyone can enter, as long as you are over 16 and your story is previously unpublished.


THE JUDGE

We are delighted to announce that Kelly McCaughrain will judge The Caterpillar Story Prize 2019.

HOW TO ENTER  Read more

Aesthetica Creative Writing Award

Information

Closing date: 
31 August 2019
Entry: 
Open to writers across the world Entry fees Short Fiction £13.50, Poetry £9
Prize: 
£1,000 prize money for the Poetry winner and the Short Fiction Winner

Aesthetica Creative Writing Award is Open for Entries  Read more

The Author of Tomorrow

Information

Closing date: 
31 May 2019
Entry: 
Open to young people of any nationality writing short stories in English in three different age groups No entry fee
Prize: 
16-21 years £1,000, 12-15 years and 11 and under £100 plus £150 in book tokens for their school, library or charity of choice

The Author of Tomorrow is designed to find the adventure writers of the future. Part of the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, it is an annual competition open to young people, aged 21 and under, who have completed a short piece of adventure writing in English.   Read more

The Moth Short Story Prize 2019

Information

Closing date: 
30 June 2019
Entry: 
Open to any writer over 16 from anywhere in the world Entry fee €15 per story
Prize: 
1st prize €3,000, 2nd prize week-long writing retreat at Circle of Misse in France plus €250 travel stipend and 3rd prize €1,000

This year's judge is Kit de Waal.

The Prize is open to anyone (over 16), as long as the work is original and previously unpublished. There is a word limit of 5,000 words.

The winners will be announced in September 2019 and all three stories will appear in the autumn issue of the Morh Magazine.  Read more

Futurebook Story Competition

Information

Closing date: 
30 October 2018
Entry: 
Open to international writers of 18 or over No entry fee
Prize: 
Reading your story at the Futurebook conference, publication on the Pigeonhole app and full set of novels from this year’s Arthur C. Clarke shortlist.

Calling all writers!

Could you create a fresh and exciting vision of the future of the book?  Read more

LoveReading Very Short Story Award 2019

Information

Closing date: 
31 October 2018
Entry: 
Unpublished stories by writers from all over the world No entry fee
Prize: 
The winning story will be read by a professional actor on The LoveReading Podcast, and published on the LoveReading website.

LoveReading.co.uk has launched a competition for stories of between 600-1000 words in length, written in English, in any genre. The award is open to entries from overseas as well as the UK, from both unpublished and published authors. However, only unpublished stories are eligible for entry.  Read more

The Caterpillar Story Prize 2018

Information

Closing date: 
30 September 2018
Entry: 
The Prize is open to anyone (over 16), as long as the work is original and previously unpublished. Entry fee £12 per story
Prize: 
£1,000

The entry fee is €12 per story, and you can enter as many stories as you like.  Read more

Manchester Poetry and Fiction Prizes 2018

Information

Closing date: 
14 September 2018
Entry: 
Open to all internationally £17.50 entry fee for each prize
Prize: 
£10,000 for each

Poetry Prize

Judges

Adam O'Riordan (Chair), Gillian Clarke, Carol Ann Duffy and Imtiaz Dharker  Read more

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16 September 2019 - What's new

September 2019
  • ‘Sometimes I feel like I talk about these things too dramatically. I'm sure some writers might read this and go, "For f*** sake you just published a book. Get over yourself." But you have to understand - before, there was none of it, then everything changed... It's changed my life, and made it so interesting and exciting. So happy, on a cellular level...
  Read more

Nobrow Short Story Competition

Information

Closing date: 
9 December 2019
Entry: 
Open to all writers of 18 and over with an unpublished and not yet submitted story or creative non-fiction piece. No entry fee
Prize: 
The overall winner will receive £2000, all selected contributors will receive £150 and two complimentary copies of the book

Nobrow Short Story Competition for writers! Up to twelve winning entries will be published in our short story anthology, and this beautifully illustrated book will celebrate the best short fiction and non-fiction writing.  Read more

'Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.'

— John Steinbeck

When your first book is a bestseller

17 September 2019

‘Sometimes I feel like I talk about these things too dramatically. I'm sure some writers might read this and go, "For f*** sake you just published a book. Get over yourself." But you have to understand - before, there was none of it, then everything changed...

It's changed my life, and made it so interesting and exciting. So happy, on a cellular level...  Read more