The Newcomer Prize for Short Stories

The Newcomer Prize for Short Stories

We're always working to discover new authors and new stories to publish alongside our regular contributors. The Newcomer Prize is part of this: it's a short story competition only open to authors who have not been previously published by The Fiction Desk, and who have not yet published a novel or collection of short stories on paper.

We welcome the same range of literary and crossover genre fiction to the Newcomer Prize that we feature in the pages of our anthologies. If you've not yet read us, it's worth picking up one or two of our previous volumes to see what we publish.
How to Enter

The 2018 edition of the Newcomer Prize is now open. The deadline for entries is Thursday, 31 May 2018. There's a first prize of £500 and a second prize of £250. Entry costs £8, and the competition is judged by Rob Redman, editor and founder of The Fiction Desk. For full terms of entry, please see the online entry form.

If you're looking for inspiration, the winning stories from last year's competition will appear in our next anthology, due this spring. Why notsubscribe to the anthology series and receive your copy as soon as it's published?
Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to enter a story or stories for the Newcomer Prize, you need to meet the following conditions:
The story you are entering must not have been published anywhere before, including in print, digital formats, or online.
You have not been published previously by The Fiction Desk.
You have not had a novel or collection of your short stories published in physical, printed format. (Ebook-only or website publications don't matter, as long as they don't include the story you're entering. Having had individual stories published in magazines and anthologies also doesn't affect eligibility.)