10 short story competitions to enter in 2017

We’re well into the year now and your resolution to fulfil your writing dreams may have slowed under the weight of other priorities. But don’t let that goal to write slip away – instead start slow and stretch your creative muscles by entering short story competitions. Short stories are a great way to inspire you and competitions can spur you on with their submission deadline. So we’ve found a few short story competitions for you to enter before the end of this year. Good luck!

Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Awards
American-based Writer’s Digest is offering an online short story competition. Open to most countries, simply choose your favourite genre from Romance, Thriller, Crime, Horror, Science-Fiction, and Young Adult and get writing!
Closes: October 16, 2017
Word limit: 4000
Prizes: One grand prize winner will get USD$2500 in cash, a paid trip to the Writer’s Digest conference, an author interview in the Writer’s Digest May/June 2018 issue, a $100 gift voucher for www.writersdigestshop.com, and a copy of the 2018 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. Additionally, one first prize winner from each genre will receive USD$500 in cash and a USD$100 gift voucher for writersdigestshop.com.

Scarlet Stiletto Awards 2017
This crime short story competition, organised by the Sisters in Crime Australia is running for its 24th year.
Closes: 31 August, 2017
Word limit: 5000
Prize: $1500 and the iconic trophy, a scarlet stiletto.

The Cesar Egido Serrano Foundation’s Flash Fiction Competition
This competition is for very short fiction pieces and open to writers from all countries. Entries are accepted in four languages: English, Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew. With a generous prize on offer, the contest is extremely competitive.
Closes: 23 November, 2017
Word limit: 100 words
Prize: First prize US$20,000. Three prizes of US$1000 each will be awarded for the best stories in each of the other remaining languages.

Margot Manchester Memorial Short Story Award 2017
Run by the society of Women Writers Tasmania
Closes: 31 August, 2017
Word limit: 1500 word short story
Prize: Winner will receive $200 and the runner up will receive $50, plus awards for the highly commended and commended efforts.

ESU-Roly Sussex Short Story Award 2017
This short story award is aimed at finding writers who present creative writing of outstanding quality, particularly those that feature thought provoking and original works.
Closes: 25 August, 2017
Word limit: 3000
Prize: First prize winner stands to receive $7500 and the runner up $1500.

Thunderbolt Prize for Crime Writing
The New England Thunderbolt Prize for crime writing is a national award for unpublished short-form crime writing.
Closes: 21 September, 2017
Prize: Prizes are awarded for different categories, including crime fiction, non-fiction, poetry and youth award.
Entry fee: $10 for adults, $5 for youths (under 18)

Lane Cove Literary Awards
Run by the Lane Cove Council, the Lane Cove Literary Awards aims to promote a love of writing and recognise Australian talent for writers of over 16 years of age.
Closes: 23 August, 2017
Word limit: 3000 words, memoirs under 2000 and all poems must be single, complete poems with a maximum length of 50 lines and 1000 wods.
Prize: The winner of the short story award will receive $2000, the winner of the memoir category and poetry prize will both receive $1500.

Overland NUW Fair Australia Prize
The focus of this prize is to foster an interest in the Australian future and encourage writers of fiction, poetry and essays to question and engage in the collective future of Australians.
Closes: 31 August, 2017
Word limit: 3000
Prize: The winning entries will be featured in a Fair Australia supplement in Overland 229, set to be launched in Melbourne in early December 2017, as well as a prize of $4000.

Boroondara Literary Awards
This is an open-themed short story competition open to all Australian residents.
Closes: 25 August, 2017
Word limit: Between 1500 and 3000 words
Prize: First prize $1500, second prize $1000 and third prize $500.

Odyssey House Victoria
Based in Victoria, but open to all Australians, this short story competition invites you to write about the theme of ‘courage’ and overcoming challenges. The competition is open to writers of all ages and varying levels of experience.
Closes: 3 November, 2017
Word limit: 1500
Prize: The first prize winner will receive $1000 and a full year membership to Writers Victoria, the second prize will win $100 and third prize will win $50.

And if you LOVE writing short stories and want to give your short-form fiction the winning edge, check out the online course Short Story Essentials.