short story competitions – Life of Cri.me

From the Mslexia website:-

It’s that time of year again when our Women’s Short Story Competition is open for business! As always, the 2016 competition welcomes writers of all levels of experience, writing stories on any subject – in any style. Up for grabs is a sumptuous £2,000 first prize, publication in the June 2016 issue of Mslexia and the fantastic exposure that this competition gives its finalists. So if you’ve got a story – or an idea – that could fit into our 2,200 word limit, we’d love to see your work.

Alongside the fabulous £2,000 first prize the winner also gets the option of attending a week’s writing retreat at Anam Cara, and a day with an editor at Virago Press.

Entries cost £10 each and there is no limit to the number of stories you can submit The competition closes on 14th March 2016, with prizes valid until May 2017. Full details on how to enter can be found here

Fancy having a go at some Flash Fiction? Reader’s Digest has, this month launched it’s annual 100 word short story competition.

There are three categories—one for adults and two categories for schools: one for children aged 12–18 and one for children under 12.

Your stories should be original, unpublished and exactly 100 words long—not even a single word shorter or longer!

Entries must be in by February 20.

The editorial team will then pick a shortlist of three in each category and post them online on March 6.

You can vote for your favourite, and the one with the most votes will scoop the top prize.Voting will close on March 27 and winning entries will be published in our June issue.

What you can win…

Adults: The winner will receive £2,000, and two runners-up will each receive £200.

12-18’s: The winner will receive a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 (8.0, WiFi) and a Samsung Gear S watch (choice of colour), plus £150 for their school. Two runners-up will each receive £100.

Under-12’s: The winner will receive a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 (8.0, WiFi), plus £100 for their school. Two runners-up will each receive £75.