Short story competitions 2024

[Updated 11/5] Happy New Year, writers and readers. I had two choices today – start spring-cleaning my house to prepare for 2024 or spruce up my writing lists… So here’s a freshly dusted list of upcoming competitions, giving you a few goals to aim for this year.

As ever, I’ll update the list as new competitions are announced, so pop back every now and then to see what’s been added. Do please check out the finer details for yourself when you’re entering anything, good luck and let me know how you get on!

Actual Marian Keyes is one of the judges
  • Prolitzer Prize for Prose 2024
  • Closing date: January 21
  • Prizes: 1st place £200. Two runners- up will receive £50. All three will be published in Issue 35 of Prole literary journal
  • Judge: writer and editor Dave Wakely
  • Word limit: 2,500 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £5 for one entry, £3 for any subsequent entries. Open internationally
  • Bournemouth Writing Prize 2024
  • Closing date: January 22
  • Prize: 1st place £500, professional feedback on a sample of work (short story or short extract from a novel) from one of the judges and a professionally produced recording of the work. In previous year, all shortlistees have been published in anthologies by Bournemouth University’s onsite press Fresher Publishing, but they’re a bit hazy about it in this year’s T&Cs
  • Judges: editorial director Ansa Khan Khattak and agent Julia Silk
  • Word limit: 3,000 words (plus a 75-word bio)
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £10 for one entry, £17 for two, £21 for three. Open internationally
  • From the Well Short Story Competition 2024
  • Closing date: January 28 (5pm)
  • Prizes: 1st place a place on West Cork Literary Festival’s three-day short story writing workshop in Bantry, Co Cork, which will be given by Jan Carson, and €250 toward accommodation. The winner and two others will feature in the 2024 festival (which runs 12-19 July) as part of the anthology launch event in Bantry Library. Twenty stories will be selected for inclusion in the 2024 From the Well Short Story Anthology
  • Judges: doesn’t say, but the head judge is usually writer Billy O’Callaghan
  • Word limit: 2,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee:  free to enter, one entry only. Open to writers who are registered members of any library (though I’m never clear whether they mean in Ireland or internationally)
  • The Prototype Prize – Short Form
  • Closing date: February 1
  • Prize: 1st place £2,000 plus publication by Monitor Books, with an excerpt of the work published by frieze magazine
  • Judges: poet Bhanu Kapil, novelist Tom McCarthy and artist Elizabeth Price
  • Word limit: 3,000 words
  • Theme: none, but the competition us open to fiction, poetry or non-fiction that is ‘at the intersections of different literary and artistic forms’
  • Entry fee: free to enter. Open to writers resident in UK or Ireland
  • Cranked Anvil Short Story Competition
  • Closing date: January 31, but quarterly with closing dates in April, July and October
  • Prize: 1st place £100, 2nd place £50. Both will be published on the Cranked Anvil website and will be considered for any future anthology
  • Judges: doesn’t say
  • Word limit: 1,500 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £5 for one story, £8 for two. Open internationally
  • ChipLitFest Short Story Competition 2024
  • Closing date: February 4
  • Prizes: 1st place £500 and the chance to meet with Jo Unwin Literary Agency at Somerset House in London to discuss your writing career. 2nd place £100, 3rd place £50. The three winning stories will be published on the Chipping Norton Literary Festival website
  • Judge: literary agent Jo Unwin
  • Word limit: 2,500 words or 5,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £5 for stories of up to 2,500 words, £8 for stories of up to 5,000 words, mutiple entries permitted. Some sponsored free entries are available for low-income writers, on application. Open internationally
  • Writers’ & Artists’ Short Story Competition
  • Closing date:  February 12
  • Prize: a place on an Arvon Residential Writing Week (worth £850), and publication on the Writers & Artists website
  • Judge: writer Kirsty Logan
  • Word limit: 2,000 words
  • Theme: ‘Risk’
  • Entry fee: free to enter, you just have to register for a (free) account, one entry only. Open internationally
  • CWA/Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition 2024
  • Closing date: February 29 (6pm)
  • Prize: £500 plus two weekend passes to CrimeFest 2024 (May 9-12) in Bristol, UK, run by the Crime Writers’ Association
  • Judges: doesn’t say
  • Word limit: 3,500 words
  • Theme: a mystery that fits into crime writer Allingham’s definition of what makes a great story: “The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it”
  • Entry fee: £18 per entry, mutiple entries permitted. Open internationally
  • Exeter Writers 15th Short Story Competition
  • Closing date: February 29
  • Prizes: 1st place £700, 2nd place £350, 3rd place £250. There is also a £100 prize for the best entry by a Devon-based writer
  • Judges: doesn’t say
  • Word limit: 3,000 words (no min requirement)
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £7 per entry, multiple entries permitted. Open internationally
  • Edinburgh Short Story Competition
  • Closing date: February 29
  • Prizes: 1st place £3,000, 2nd place £500, 3rd place £250. There is also a category called the Write Mango Award for humorous stories, with a first prize of £300 and a sculpture created by artist Fiona Maher. And there is a £750 Isobel Lodge Award for unpublished writers living or studying in Scotland. At least twenty stories will be included in the anthology
  • Judges: writers Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman
  • Word limit: 2,000 words
  • Theme: none, though the Mango category is for stories that fit the description of ‘fun, amusing, bizarre and as delicious as a mango’ (they will also be in the running for the main prize)
  • Entry fee: £10 per entry, multiple entries permitted. Open internationally
  • Flash 500 Short Story Competition
  • Closing date: February 29
  • Prizes: 1st place £500, 2nd place £200, 3rd place £100
  • Judge: author Natali Simmonds
  • Word limit: 1,000-3,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry details: £7 for one story, £12 for two, £16 for three, £20 for four. There is also an option to receive a critique for £30 per story. Open internationally
  • Dingle Lit Short Story Competition
  • Closing date: February 29
  • Prizes: 1st place a week’s stay at Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig for the winner of the short story in English, and a week’s retreat in West Kerry Gaeltacht for the winner of the Irish-language award. The runner-up in each category will receive €250 and a place on a Dingle Lit writing workshop in 2024. Each 3rd place prizewinner will reveive €100 and a place on a Dingle Lit writing workshop. All winners will be published on the festival website and extracts from the stories will be featured in the brochure. The winners will also be invited to the 2024 Dingle Lit Festival in Kerry (dates TBA) to read from their work
  • Judges: author Nicole Flattery, literary agent Anna Stein, festival director Camilla Dinkel, and Irish-language writer Cathal Póirtér
  • Word limit: 3,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry details: €20 per story, one entry only. Open to writers who are resident on the island of Ireland 
  • The Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize 2024
  • Closing date: March 1
  • Prizes: 1st place £3,000, 2nd and 3rd place £1,000 each. The three winners will be invited to attend The Alpine Fellowship 2024 symposium (a charitable foundation that supports, commissions and showcases artists, writers, academics and playwrights), dates and location TBA. Travel expenses of up to £500 will be offered
  • Judges: doesn’t say
  • Word limit: 2,500 words (NB All genres of writing are permitted, including fiction, non-fiction and non-academic essays)
  • Theme: ‘Language’
  • Entry fee: free to enter, one entry only. Open internationally
  • Short Fiction International Short Story Prize 2024
  • Closing date: March 31 (opens for entries January 15)
  • Prizes: 1st place £1,000, 2nd place £300, 3rd place £100. All three will be published by Short Fiction literary journal
  • Judge: writers Yan Ge and Wendy Erskine
  • Word limit: 5,000 words (no min requirement)
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £10 per entry in January and February, and £12 in March. 40 free entries are available to those for whom the fee represents a barrier to entry. Open internationally
  • Mairtín Crawford Award for Short Story 2024
  • Closing date: April 10
  • Prizes: 1st place £500 and a ‘Time to Write’ package, which includes a three-night stay at a Hotel in Belfast, plus four days of dedicated writing space in The Crescent arts centre. Two runners-up will each receive £250
  • Judge: writers Lucy Caldwell and Wendy Erskine
  • Word limit: 2,500 words (no min requirement)
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £10 per entry, some free entries available on request. Open to writers who were born in, are citizens of or are residents of UK or Ireland
  • Bath Short Story Award 2024
  • Closing date: April 15
  • Prizes: 1st place £1,200, 2nd place £300, 3rd place £100. There is also an Acorn Award of £100 for the best unpublished writer. Up to twenty of the winning and shortlisted writers will be published in the annual anthology, and will receive a contributor copy
  • Judge: author and editor Sophie Haycock
  • Word limit: 2,200 words (no minimum requirement)
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £9 per entry, multiple entries permitted. Open internationally
  • ChipLitFest Short Story Competition 2024
  • Closing date: April 28
  • Prizes: 1st place £500 and a meeting with literary agent Jo Unwin. 2nd place £100, 3rd place £50. All three stories will be published on the ChipLitFest website. This competition is part of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival, which is on hiatus this year
  • Judge: Jo Unwin
  • Word limit: you can choose between a 2,500-word category or a 5,000-word category
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £5 for a 2,500-word entry, £8 for a 5,000-word entry, free entry for low-income writers. Open internationally
  • Ironclad Creative Short Story Competition Spring 2024
  • Closing date: April 30
  • Prizes: 1st place £100, 2nd place £50, 3rd and 4th place £25. The winners and up to 10 other shortlisted writers may be offered publication in an anthology
  • Judge: doesn’t say
  • Word limit: 6,000 words (no minimum requirement)
  • Theme: 7.12am
  • Entry fee: £7 per entry, a limited number of free places available on application. Open internationally
  • New Writers 1000-word Short Story Competition 2024
  • Closing date: April 30
  • Prizes: 1st place £1,000, a second prize of £300 and a third prize of £200
  • Judge: author Cassandra Parkin
  • Word limit: 1,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £10 for one entry, £19 for two, £27 for three. £1 from each entry will be donated to  First Story, a creative writing charity for young people. Open internationally
  • RTE Short Story Competition 2024
  • Closing date: May 10
  • Prizes: 1st place €5,000, 2nd place €4,000, 3rd place €3,000; the other shortlisted authors will each receive a fee of €250. The prizes will be announced at an awards evening in the autumn, which all ten shortlisted writers are invited to attend. All 10 stories will be broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1
  • Judges: writer Neil Hegarty, Claire Kilroy and Kathleen McMahon
  • Word limit: 1,800-2,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: free to enter, one entry only. Open internationally
Judge Wendy Erskine
  • Bridport Prize for Short Story
  • Closing date: May 31
  • Prizes: 1st place £5,000, an invitation to take part in the awards celebration and feedback from the judges and Bridport Prize professional partners. 2nd place £1,000, 3rd place £500, both with an invitation to the awards ceremony. Ten Highly Commended stories will be awarded £100 each. All the winning and highly commended pieces will be published in an anthology. Literary agency AM Heath will read all the shortlistees and consider representation
  • Judge: writer Wendy Erskine
  • Word limit: 5,000 words (no minimum requirement)
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £14 per entry, multiple entries permitted. Some bursaries available for low-income writers, on application. Open internationally
  • Yeovil Literary Prize for Short Story
  • Closing date: May 31
  • Prizes: 1st place £600, 2nd place £250, 3rd place £125
  • Judge: writer Julie Goodall
  • Word limit: 2,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £8 per entry, multiple entries permitted. Open internationally
  • Write By The Sea Short Story Competition 2024
  • Closing date: June 21
  • Prizes: 1st place €500, a free weekend pass to the Write By The Sea festival 2024 (which takes place in Kilmore Quay, Wexford, September 27-29) and publication on the festival website. 2nd place €300, 3rd place €200
  • Judge: doesn’t say
  • Word limit: 2,500 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: €10 for one entry, €25 for three entries (in any of the four categories). Open internationally
  • Molly Keane Creative Writing Award 2024
  • Closing date: June 14 (12 noon)
  • Prize: 1st place €250 plus a writing course at the Molly Keane Writers Retreat in Ardmore, Co Waterford, to the value of €300. The winning story will be announced at an online Culture Night event in September
  • Judges: doesn’t say
  • Word limit: 2,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: free to enter, one entry only. Open to writer resident on the island of Ireland
  • Wells Festival of Literarature 2024 Short Story Competition
  • Closing date: June 30 (opens for entries April 1)
  • Prizes: 1st place £750, 2nd place £300, 3rd place £200. There is also a prize of £100 for a local author. There will be a prize-giving as part of the Wells Festival of Literature, which takes place in the city of Wells, Somerset, October 18-26
  • Judge: writer and creative writing lecturer Susmita Bhattacharya
  • Word limit: 1,000-2,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £6 per entry, multiple entries permitted. Open internationally
Judge Louise Kennedy
  • The Moth Short Story Prize 2024
  • Closing date: June 30
  • Prizes: 1st place €3,000, 2nd place a week at Circle of Misse writing retreat in France plus a travel stipend, 3rd place €1,000. Note: the competition continues even though the magazine is no longer. The winning story will be printed as part of the summer fiction series in the Irish Times, while the 2nd and 3rd-prize-winning stories will be published in the Irish Times online
  • Judge: writer Louise Kennedy
  • Word limit: 3,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: €15 per entry, multiple entries permitted. Open internationally
  • The Henshaw Press Short Story Competition
  • Closing date: June 30 (this competition runs quarterly and has been taken over by Hobeck Books)
  • Prizes: 1st place £200 and publication in an anthology and on the Henshaw Press website, 2nd place £100, 3rd place £50
  • Judges: doesn’t say
  • Word limit: 2,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £6 per entry with the option of a critique for an extra £14, with profits going to buy books for a chosen school. Open internationally
  • 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize
  • Closing date: July 1 (5pm)
  • Prizes: 1st place £1,000 and publication in Wasafiri magazine. All winners and shortlisted writers will be offered the Chapter and Verse or Free Reads mentoring scheme in partnership with The Literary Consultancy, and a conversation with The Good Literary Agency to discuss their career progression, as well as a one-year print subscription to Wasafiri
  • Judges: chair Margaret Busby and novelist Isabel Waidner 
  • Word limit: 3,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £12 for a single entry, £16 for a double entry, £6 for a single subsidised entry. Open internationally
  • The HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition 2024
  • Closing date: July 1
  • Prizes: 1st place £500, mentoring sessions with both the Chair of the Historical Writers’ Association (HWA) and Curtis Brown literary agent Norah Perkins, and publication in the Whispering Gallery and Historia online magazines. Two Highly Commended writers will also be offered mentoring. All six shortlisted writers will have their stories published as an ebook/print-on-demand edition by the HWA and Dorothy Dunnett Society via Amazon and will receive two print copies
  • Judges: doesn’t say
  • Word limit: 3,500 words
  • Theme: none, but stories must be historical, ie. set at least 35 years in the past
  • Entry fee: £5 per entry, some free entries available on application. Open internationally
  • Hastings Book Festival Short Story Competition
  • Closing date: July 7 (10pm)
  • Prizes: 1st place £250, 2nd place £100, 3rd place £50. Prizes will be presented at the Hastings Book Festival (September 13-22)
  • Word limit: 2,500 words
  • Judge: author VG Lee
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £8.25 for one entry, £15 for two, £21 for three. Some free entries are available, on request. Open internationally
  • HG Wells Short Story Competition 2024
  • Closing date: July 8 (11pm)
  • Prizes: 1st place £500 for the Senior category (aged 22 or above) and £1,000 for the Junior prize (aged up to 21). All shortlisted entries will be published in an anthology in paperback and on Kindle
  • Judges: doesn’t say
  • Word limit: 1,500-5,000 words
  • Theme: ‘The Fool’
  • Entry fee: £10 per entry for the Senior category or £5 for those with student ID. The Junior category is free. Open internationally
  • Doris Gooderson Short Story Competition 2024
  • Closing date: July 12
  • Prizes: 1st place £200, 2nd place £100, 3rd place £50
  • Judge: doesn’t say
  • Word limit: 1,200 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £5 per entry, multiple entries permitted. At least 50% of the profits will be donated to the Severn Hospice. Open internationally
  • Leicester Writes Short Story Prize 2024
  • Closing date: July 15
  • Prizes: 1st place £200, 2nd place £100, 3rd place £75. A longlist of up to 20 stories will be published in an anthology and all authors will receive a complimentary copy
  • Judges: Abi Hynes, Iqbal Hussain and Laura Coleman
  • Word limit: 3,500 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £7 per entry, up to three entries permitted. Open internationally
  • Olga Sinclair Prize 2024
  • Closing date: July 31
  • Prizes: 1st place £500, 2nd place £250, 3rd place £100. The winners and seven shortlisted stories will be published in the Norwich Writers’ Circle annual anthology
  • Word limit: 2,000 words
  • Judge: Ross Greenwood
  • Theme: ‘Nature’
  • Entry fee: £9 per entry, £7 per entry for two or more. Open internationally
  • Anthology Magazine Short Story Competition 2024
  • Closing date: July 31
  • Prizes: 1st place €1,000, publication in Anthology magazine and a one-year subscription. 2nd place €250, 3rd place €150
  • Judges: doesn’t say
  • Word limit: 1,500 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: €18 per story, multiple entries permitted. Open internationally
  • Fiction Factory Short Story Competition
  • Closing date: July 31
  • Prize: 1st place £500. Winners wil be published on the Fiction Factory website and in an anthology
  • Judge: editor and author Sue Copsey
  • Word limit: 3,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £7 for one story, £13 for two, £18 for three. Open internationally
  • Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2024
  • Closing date: August 31
  • Prize: 1st place £2,500, publication in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual, a five-day course with Arvon, a one-year print subscription to Granta, one-year digital subscription to Mslexia, a consultation with Redhammer Management, a six-week short story course with Curtis Brown Creative, full membership to Litopia, and a one-year Deluxe subscription to The London Magazine
  • Judges:  jury list here
  • Word limit: 2,000 words
  • Theme: none, but they are particularly interested in ‘works that reflect upon our ever changing world’
  • Entry fee: £18 per entry up to August 31, late fee entry £24 September 1-8 (I don’t really understand this as the closing date is Aug 31, but this is what it says on website), multiple entries permitted. Open internationally

  • The Bedford Short Story Competition 2024
  • Closing date: October 31
  • Prizes: 1st place £1,500, 2nd place £300, 3rd place £200. The winners and shortlisted stories will be published in an anthology
  • Judges: literary agent Olivia Maidment, and writers Stephen Bywater and Paul Barnes
  • Word limit: 3,000 words
  • Theme: none
  • Entry fee: £8.50 for one entry, £17 for three. Open internationally

PS. If you’re new to writing and/or submitting, you might find a useful tip or two in my post 6 Things I’ve Learned About Entering Competitions

PPS. What’s that you say? You wish you could buy me a coffee in return for all this invaluable information? Funnily enough, there’s a way to do that now on my immensely popular Ko-fi page – link here

Photos: ha11ok/Pixabay; Wokandapix/Pixabay

One thought on “Short story competitions 2024”

  1. Your Inspirational Fiction is a timeless melody that resonates in the hearts of readers, echoing the triumph of the human spirit over life’s tumultuous symphony.

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