Tag Archives: short story competitions

Enter the Bath Short Story Award 2024

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Roman Baths pigeons by Judy DarleyThe annual Bath Short Story Award is open for entries from aspiring and established writers worldwide.

The competition closes to entries on Monday, 15th April at midnight BST. You’re invited to submit stories up to a maximum of 2,200 words on any theme or subject.

The year’s judge is award-winning novelist and short story champion, Sophie Haydock. Read an interview with her.

Each submission costs £9.

The Bath Short Story Award prizes

First prize: £1200
Second prize £300
Third prize £100
Acorn Award for an unpublished witer £100
Local writer prize £50 in book vouchers donated by Mr B’s Emporium of Books, Bath.

Final Results will be out by July/August 2024.

Find full details of how to enter here. Good luck!

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at JudyDarley (@) iCloud (dot) com.

Enter Ironclad Creative Short Story Competition Winter 2023

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Dusk by Judy DarleyIronclad Creative CIC is seeking stories that respond in any way to the word ‘Dusk.’

The Ironclad Creative Short Story Competition is for both published and unpublished writers. They’re hungry for original writing in English and you can be from anywhere in the world.

Your story can be any genre and length up to 6k words.

However, they’re not accepting plays or poetry for this competition.
They says: “We’re looking for writers who have exciting voices and can move us.”
Deadline:
23:59 (GMT) on 16th November 2023
Entry Fee:
£6 per story
You could win:
  • The winning writer will be offered a prize of £100 and publication in the Ironclad Creative CIC anthology
  • The second place writer will be offered a prize of £50 and publication in their anthology
  • Two further shortlisted writers will be offered prizes of £25 each, and publication in the anthology
  • Up to 10 other longlisted writers will be offered publication in the anthology (depending on the length of the winning, second place and shortlisted stories).

If you’re submitting more than one story, you need to pay £6 per entry. Include your name and ONE title in the reference & email subject line. Then ensure you make clear in your email what the title of the multiple entries are AND state the total amount you paid via PayPal.

A small number of free places are available for low income writers. Please email michelle@ironcladcreative.org to request this but don’t send your work – if they have free entries left, they’ll let you know what to do.

Find full details here and make sure you’ve read the terms and conditions before entering.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley(at)iCloud(dot)com.

Enter the Bristol Short Story Prize

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Bristol hot air balloons cr Judy DarleyGot a story shuffling about inside your head? The Bristol Short Story Prize 2023 is open for entries. The closing date is 26th April 2023. Submissions can be up to a maximum length of 4,000 words.

Twenty shortlisted stories will be selected for publications in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 16.

The writing competition prizes

  • First prize is £1,000
  • Second prize is £500
  • Third prize is £250.
  • Each of the 17 remaining shortlisted writers will receive £100.

An additional prize of £100, The Sansom Award, in recognition of the contribution to Bristol publishing of John and Angela Sansom, will be presented to the highest placed story by a Bristol writer.

Entry costs £9 for each submission, but there are 250 free online entries available to those for whom the entry fee is a barrier to submitting.

The 2023 Judging Panel comprises Abi Fellows, a literary agent at TGLA working across both fiction and non-fiction for children and adults, Heather Marks, a creative producer, editor, and writer and part of the immersive change agency Words of Colour, and Daniel Ross, the co-owner and co-founder of independent bookshop Storysmith.

The 2022 Bristol Short Story Prize was won by Diana Powell for her story A Cure For All Our Ills. Sufiyaan Salam won second prize and Johanna Spiers won third prize.

An interview with Diana, where she talks in-depth about her triumph and her writing, is available here.

The 2021 Bristol Short Story Prize was won by Isidora Cortes-Monroy for her story Cake for the Disappeared. Amanda Ong won second prize and Sarah Tinsley was awarded third prize.

The 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize was won by Florida-based writer Stephen Narain.

The 2019 Bristol Short Story Prize was won by Sydney-based writer Cameron Stewart for his story Black Snow.

The 2018 Bristol Short Story Prize was won by Dizz Tate  for her story, Cowboy Boot. 2nd prize went to Chloe Wilson. You can read an interview with Dizz about her win, here. Chloe Wilson has been signed by literary agent Kate Johnson of the New York-based MacKenzie Wolf Literary Agency.

For full details or to enter, go to www.bristolprize.co.uk.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at judydarley(at)iCloud(dot)com

Submit stories on a ‘clean vs green’ theme

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Leaf & raindrops by Judy Darley
The Green Stories crew are inviting short stories on the theme of ‘clean vs green’ for their latest competition, closing to entries on 21st July.

First prize is £500. Entering is free.

The competition has been devised as a way of myth-busting: “Often when promoting waste reduction and reduction of high-energy activities, such as running hot water, we come up against health and safety issues. Some of these are valid, but many are misinformed.”

The judges are seeking engaging fictional stories that help readers understand how over-cleaning can mean that we kill our bodies’ ‘good’ bacteria through over-use of harsh cleaning products.

“Your challenge is to write a short story (between 1000 and 3000 words) that helps to raise awareness and shift attitudes, especially for those people who assume that the more detergent the better.”

You’ll also need to provide around 200 words on the thinking around your story and how it meets the criteria.

The Green Stories website has story briefs and suggestions to inspire you, as well as plenty of information to make sure you get the details rights.

Find full details here: www.greenstories.org.uk/upcoming-competitions/short-story-clean-vs-green/ 

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Enter a Bedtime Story Competition

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Ted. By Judy Darley

The lovely folks at Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts, are inviting entries of bedtime stories for their competition, inspired by their current series of online Bedtime Stories performed by Dorset artist Michele O’Brien.

They say, “Not only do we think bedtime stories can be the best part of the day for lots of children but also for parents. As part of our ‘It’s All About You!’ #Lockdown themed creative engagement programme we are giving you the opportunity to be creative and write your very own Bedtime Story with the winning story performed by one of our associate artists from Black Cherry Theatre Company.”

There are no age restrictions and you may want to team up with your household and do this as a family project. Stories must be typed and no more than 2500 words

All you have to do is read and comply with the Conditions of Entry, give your story a title and submit it with your name, contact number, email address and social media handles to learning@lighthousepoole.co.uk by midnight on Tuesday 21st July 2020.  

Find full details here.

Entries can be on any subject relevant to a bedtime story and in any style or form and you can enter more than once if you wish.

Worldwide copyright of each entry remains with the author, but Lighthouse Poole has unrestricted rights to publish the winning stories and any extracts from the opening chapters along with any other relevant promotional material.  Lighthouse Poole will commission a Lighthouse Associate Artist to perform at least one of the winning stories which will be uploaded to its social media platforms and website.

Winners will be notified by email on or before 31 July 2020.

Good luck!

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud(dot)com.

Book review – What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi

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What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi Sold as a short story collection, Helen Oyeyemi’s latest creation has more in common with a sort of atlas, or a street view of a world most of us only glimpse between the places we walk and the places we avoid, or are avoided by. Shadowy gardens where unthinkable things bloom, doors that only stay closed when locked, marshlands where the drowned form communities, puppetry schools where the living and the made blur and tangle – all these and more make up the richly imagined dreamscape these stories inhabit.

Helen Oyeyemi’s writing is gorgeously painterly and wryly, sometimes wickedly, funny. Passion ripples under the characters’ skin, and reminds us that boundaries and societal rules are often less natural than the yearnings that drive us. Contemporary fictions hinged on social media sit alongside dark fairytales that feel eons old, and characters swim from one tale to emerge as cameos in others. It further deepens the sense of entering a fully formed world where history and present blend, and nothing matters more than the characters’ own foibles. Continue reading →

Dragonfly Tea want your short stories

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Tea plantation cr Judy DarleySeeking a boost for your short story writing? Dragonfly Tea have launched their 2017 short story competition in partnership with Henley Literary Festival.

invite you a short story on the theme of Journey, and submit it to their short story competition before 11:59pm (GMT) on Monday 31st July 2017. Your tale can’t be more than 3,000 words long; there is no minimum length.

There is also a children’s competition too, with categories for ages 4-7, 8-11 and 12-15. Tales in this section must be on the theme of adventure and must not be more than 500 words long, not including the title.

The the competitions are open to all non-professional fiction writers who are UK residents. In other words, you can only enter is you have never received a fee for your written work, be that fiction or non-fiction. Prize money received as a result of entering work into a competition is not considered a fee.

The competitions are free to enter.

Entries can be submitted via post or online via the online entry page of the Dragonfly Tea website.

Prizes

Main competition

  • 1st – £1500
  • 2nd – £750
  • 3rd – £250

Children’s Competition, in each category

  • £50 voucher for each winner plus £100 voucher for their school.

Finalists from all categories will be invited to the Henley Literary Festival on Sunday 8th October 2017 for a special awards ceremony and prize giving.

Find full details of these creative writing competitions.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at Judy(at)socket creative(dot)com.