[UPDATED 19/1/21] It may feel a bit soon to be looking towards next year’s UK and Ireland short story awards, but there are quite a few currently open and waiting for your wonderful words. Of course, the Covid crisis has played havoc in terms of planning 2021 arts festivals, so there aren’t as many accompanying… Read More 2021 short story competition guide
I am deeply immersed in novel edits at the moment, but I had to put down my quill and open the door of my artist’s garret for a moment to yell out a bit of good writing news. A story of mine has made the longlist of this year’s Cambridge Short Story Prize (list is… Read More Cambridge Short Story Prize longlist
[UPDATED 9/11] I generally update my competition listings as I see new opportunities pop up, but I thought I’d do a new post because the last one was a while back. Quite a few competions have extended their deadlines or amended their prizes due to the Covid-19 crisis, so there may be a few things… Read More Short story competitions April-December
[Updated 10/4/20 – please note that some deadlines have been extended due to the Covid-19 crisis] Can you believe we’re casually referring to 2020 as something imminent and not the setting for a sci-fi series where everyone dresses in tin foil smocks? How on earth did that happen? In this bold new world, there will… Read More Your 2020 short story competition guide
[Updated 13/11/19] The last time I did a short story round-up, the year was just beginning and the days were short – though the month was looong. Now here we are, already halfway through 2019, and some of us are in the middle of unprecedented heatwaves. Good times. Here’s a brand new list of opportunities… Read More Short story competitions July-December 2019
[Updated 16/9/19] Writing is a funny old game that you can easily spend more money on than you earn from it. To make progress, you need to get your work out into the world and hopefully build a reputation as a writer. But regularly entering competitions is costly, and you can run up quite a… Read More Free-to-enter writing competitions
[Updated regularly] It may feel as if January is in its 95th day, but you have to trust me when I say it really is coming to an end. And if you’ve been struggling to get back to disciplined writing time after the lovely laziness of Christmas, this list of upcoming short story competitions might… Read More 2019 short story competitions
[UPDATED 6/12/18] The great thing about annual short story competitions is that they seem to loop back around in no time, so if you’ve had no luck one year you can soon try your hand again. Here’s a list of some interesting ones open for entries over the coming months. As ever, it isn’t a… Read More Winter-spring short story competition round-up
I was absolutely overjoyed to win my first short story competition recently. Yesterday saw the launch of the From the Well competition anthology, which takes its name from my entry Smoke in the Rain. Finally getting to hold a copy of the book was overwhelming, particularly as it was officially presented by the Cork County Deputy… Read More From the Well competition
A bit of happy news dropped into my inbox yesterday – a story of mine, ‘A Simple Loss of Balance’, has been longlisted for the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award 2017. I was even happier to see the name of my writing group pal Sinéad Slattery on there too, plus a host of writers whose… Read More Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award 2017 longlist
