Writers' & Artists' Short Story Competition 2025
Enter our free annual short story competition and be in with a chance of winning a place on an Arvon Residential Writing Week (worth £850) as well as seeing your story published on our site.
To enter, all you have to do is submit a short story (for adults) of no more than 2,000 words on the theme of wonder via our online competition form, and ensure that you have a (free!) account on our website. You can attach your entry in either txt, pdf, doc, or docx format, while you can add your contact details and a little bit of information about yourself and your writing experience in the 'Covering letter' field if you'd like.
The closing date for entries is midnight 14th February 2025, and the winner - along with two runners-up - will be announced on the blog pages of this site in March 2025.
Don't forget to read the terms and conditions in full (below) before you click on the 'Enter now' button at the bottom of the page.
Good luck!
This year's judge
Vanessa Onwuemezi is a writer living in London. She has a BA in Biological Sciences, an MSc in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology and completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London in 2018. She is the winner of The White Review Short Story Prize 2019 and her work has appeared in literary and art magazines, including Granta, Frieze and Prototype. Her debut short story collection, Dark Neighbourhood, was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2021, and was named one of The Guardian's best books of 2021. It was shortlisted for both the Republic of Consciousness Prize and the Edge Hill Prize in 2022 and her short story Green Afternoon was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2022. She has written several exhibition texts, most recently for SMIIILLLLEEEE, Rachel Jones, Thaddaeus Ropac gallery, 2021 and The Exile of Dionysus, Bill Lynch, Brighton CCA, 2022.
Photo credit: Lewis Khan
About Arvon
Arvon hosts residential creative writing courses in three rural writing houses in the UK. With the opportunity to live and work with professional writers, participants transform their writing through workshops, one-to-one tutorials, time and space to write. Five-day courses and shorter courses are available in a wide range of genres and have provided inspiration to thousands of people at all stages of their writing lives. An online programme of writing courses, masterclasses and live readings also runs year-round. Find out more and book a course online at www.arvon.org
These are the full terms and conditions for Writers' & Artists' Yearbook Short Story Competition 2025.
1. No purchase necessary, but entrants must be registered on www.writersandartists.co.uk.
2. The competition is open to all ages, professions and nationalities, and you don’t have to reside in the UK to enter.
3. All entries must be original and unpublished. Entrants must not have an existing publishing contract or agent representation.
4. Writers may submit one entry only.
5. Winners will be notified at the email address stated in their entry. Sign-up for our newsletter if you want to be notified about the winner or check back on www.writersandartists.co.uk. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook, where competition updates will also be posted.
6. Entries must be submitted via our online form. You can access this by clicking the 'Enter now' button on the individual competition landing page.
7. Your entry must be submitted before midnight on 14th February 2025. Entries will not be considered after this date.
8. By submitting, all entrants thereby grant Bloomsbury Publishing Plc the right to publish their entry on www.writersandartists.co.uk in the event of their work being shortlisted and/or winning the competition.
9. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc cannot accept responsibility for entries which are not received or which are received after the closing date due to technical failure or for any other reason.
10. Winners agree to participate in publicity events in connection with the competition, should any be organised.
11. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and the winners may enter into agreements which will grant Bloomsbury Publishing Plc the publishing, broadcasting, serial and electronic rights in the shortlisted and winning entries.
12. The winners of the competition will be notified in March 2025 and the winning entries published on www.writersandartists.co.uk.
13. Prizes must be taken by 31st December 2025 and are subject to availability.
14. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc are not responsible for travel costs to and from the writing retreat, so if you live outside of the UK, you will be responsible for your own travel costs.
15. The winning prize cannot be exchanged for the monetary equivalent.
16. The decision of the competition judges will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
17. Employees of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, and members of their immediate family, are excluded from participating in the competition.