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The competition is open to any writer who is unpublished, or has been published fewer than four times.

The 2024 theme is ‘It didn’t have to be this way’. Writers can interpret and represent the theme in any way they choose. Each story must include the phrase ‘It didn’t have to be this way’ somewhere in the story. Writers must produce their own title.

The top three winners receive editorial comments on their submitted works.

Stories must not have been previously published. Entrants must own the copyright to the story submitted. Writers retain copyright, but give permission for their work to be published on our website and in an anthology.

We are keen to encourage quality, so suggest writers to check their stories before submitting using Prowritingaid. They have free and paid versions and are the best writing software we know to help improve grammar, readability and check for repetition, ‘sticky’ sentences and suggest alternatives.