£3,000 first prize for writers worldwide and stories on any topic up to 2,000 words.

We’ve come a long way since 2014 when we held the first Scottish Arts Club Short Story Competition, which was the original name of the Edinburgh Short Story Award. Back then, the first prize was just £300. The first prize is now ten times higher, although the entry fee has stayed the same and we’ve introduced free entry for writers living in Scotland who receive any form of income support or universal credit.

Judges have included Alexander McCall Smith who was our chief judge for the first six years of the competition, followed by Andrew O’Hagan and Ian Rankin.

• First Prize £3,000 – Open to writers worldwide

• Second Prize £500 – Open to writers worldwide

• Third Prize £250 – Open to writers worldwide

• Isobel Lodge Award £750 – Open to unpublished writers living in Scotland

• Write Mango Flash Award £300 – Open to writers worldwide

• Publication is offered to authors of the top twenty stories (or more) in our next anthology.

£10 entry fee per story.

Free entry is offered to writers living in Scotland whose immediate family receives any form of income support including Universal Credit, disability allowance, carers allowance, tax credit, rental subsidy or anything similar.

We are keen to encourage quality submissions, 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.