£3,000 international writing award for the Scottish Arts Club Short Story Competition is open to writers worldwide and stories on any topic up to 2,000 words. Managed by the Scottish Arts Trust, and with international best selling author Ian Rankin as chief judge, the competition closes for entries on 28 February 2023. First prize is £3,000, second prize £500 and third prize £250.
Learn more about the awards and previous winners at www.scottishartstrust.org
As a charity run by volunteers, the Scottish Arts Trust rely on writers to spread the word about their competitions. If you’d be happy to receive an email, no more than twice a year, with an update on their competition deadlines, judges and prize money, don’t forget to sign up to their newsletter!
NEW! The Write Mango Award
The main competition is open to stories on any subject. While the Scottish Arts Trust love the passionate, emotionally driven stories that many writers submit for the awards, they also love those quirky stories that sometimes leave us laughing out loud or just totally bemused. To celebrate the latter they have introduced the Write Mango Award — for stories that are fun, amusing, bizarre and as delicious as a mango.
The winner of the first Write Mango Award will get a trophy, a cash prize and oodles of publicity because they know everyone is going to want to read the Write Mango winner. If you are submitting a ‘mango’ story just say so on the entry form – your story will still be considered for the £3,000 main award. The Write Mango Award is open to writers worldwide.
For Published and Unpublished Writers
The main competition is open to all writers, published and unpublished. The Scottish Arts Trust are delighted to celebrate all their stories. They are especially pleased, however, with the success of many previously unpublished writers. Two of the three most recent winners of the competition were previously unpublished and so were at least a third of the writers who appeared in their recent anthology.
Publication in their beautiful anthologies, with fab covers by contemporary artist Gordon Mitchell, is offered to at least twenty of the top stories. They also offer the £750 Isobel Lodge Award which goes to the top story entered by an unpublished writer living in Scotland. Learn more about their anthologies at Books and Writers — Scottish Arts Trust
Entry fees
Entry to the competition costs £10 per story. Writers may enter as many stories as they wish. Free entry is offered to all writers living in Scotland in a household that receives any form of income support or universal credit. While the deadline for the main competition is 28 February, all applications for free entry must be submitted by 31 January.
About the Scottish Arts Trust
The Scottish Arts Trust promotes innovation and creativity in the arts through voluntary action. Their writing competitions, which also include the Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction, are entirely managed by volunteers on behalf of the Trust. As a registered charity, the Trust also supports the Scottish Portrait Awards and the Scottish Landscape Awards. All funds raised through their competitions are used to support the arts in Scotland. Learn more about the Scottish Arts Trust at www.scottishartstrust.org
The Scottish Arts Trust is a registered charity (SC044753). Registered office 24 Rutland Square, Edinburgh EH1 2BW.
