Deadline: June 30, 2023
Fee: Free
About the Competiton
The annual Writers College Short Story Competition is held to acknowledge excellence in creative writing in the short story form.
The competition is open to any writer who is unpublished or has been published fewer than four times.
THEME FOR 2023: Words Have Consequences
The top three winners receive editorial comments on their submitted works.
We aim to support beginner writers. We only accept stories from writers who have never been published, or who have been published fewer than four times in any genre. This includes fiction and non-fiction, in any publication (for payment or otherwise). Journalists, copywriters or web writers must please not enter. People who made a living from writing at any point in their life (e.g. decades earlier) are also not eligible for entry. We make an exception for unpaid articles for community or work newsletters or blogs where the circulation is under 1000.
Competition Guidelines
- We accept stories in any genre (literary/horror/sci-fi/fantasy/spec fic). However, literary fiction tends to fare best with our judges. Please read past winning entries (scroll down this page) to get a sense of the kind of writing that we like.
- All submissions and enquiries can be sent to Nichola Meyer: [email protected]
- The competition is open to anyone, from any country aged 16 and over.
- Entrants must submit a story of maximum word count: 2000 words. Any entries exceeding the word count by 50 words will not be considered.
- The 2023 theme is ‘Words have consequences’. Writers can interpret and represent the theme in any way they choose. Each story must include the phrase ‘Words have consequences’ somewhere in the story. Writers must produce their own title.
- Only one story per entrant is allowed.
- We only accept entries written in English.
- For more guidelines and submission guidelines click here
