Category: Short story competitions

12 things we’ve learnt from judging Furious Fiction

Furious Fiction has been going for two years now and that’s a lot of challenges under our proverbial belt! We love dishing up a new set of criteria each month, and as a result, a wide variety of stories have stood on the podium. On closer inspection however, there... read more

Furphy short story competition opens 1 February 2020

Furphy might be better known in Australia as a beer.  However, the company is hosting a competition for short stories with a prize of $15,000! According to the Furphy Story website: Everyone can write at least one good story. That was the belief of J. F. Archibald, the editor... read more

Award for digitally published work now open

Do you have digitally published works? Then we have a prize for you!  The Woollahra Digital Literary Award celebrates works originally published in a digital format - e.g. epub, online articles etc. And, it’s in its fourth year and going strong. There are guidelines for eligible work (it can... read more

Voices of Women Program now open for 2020

The Voices of Women Writing Competition for 2020 is now open!  Are you writing short narrative stories in the first-person voice? Join the adventure in 2020 as Voices of Women presents CLEARWAY: CREATE THE SPACE: The annual writers’ competition. Hear your own short stories performed live by amazingly powerful... read more

Furious Fiction January 2020 winner and shortlist

A new year of Furious Fiction and a new crop of hopeful storytellers (and some veterans!) lining up to showcase their skills. With the devastating bushfires at their peak earlier this month, a lot of writers used the challenge as a chance to express their emotions through their words – some... read more

Furious Fiction December 2019 winner and shortlist

It was the day before Christmas and throughout the world, writers sat waiting and curiosity swirled.  Whose holiday was about to get merrier? Let’s find out – here were the criteria... Each story had to include SOMETHING EITHER BEING SENT OR RECEIVED IN THE MAIL. Each story had to include... read more

Furious Fiction October 2019 winner and shortlist

Furious Fiction celebrated its 21st fabulous instalment this month – and we marked the occasion by tipping out 20 of the previous winning words and asking you to pick some for your story. Plus, because it was our birthday-but-you-get-the-presents, we wanted stories set in either a... read more

Furious Fiction September 2019 winner and shortlist

This month, more than 1000 writers entered Furious Fiction – mixing alchemy with creativity in the hope of stumbling upon the magic story elixir. The September criteria were varied and many: Each story had to include the name of at least ONE element from the periodic table. Each story’s first... read more

Our favourite 29-word stories…

Last week, we asked you to come up with a story that was exactly 29 words in length. No more, no fewer. But that wasn’t all. We also wanted the first and last word to be the same. And finally, we wanted this story to take us somewhere, somehow... read more

Enter our 29-word story challenge!

Okay, end of winter – cobwebs and all that. Time to stretch your creative muscles. Keen to play? Today’s the 29th, so we challenge you to write a story that uses EXACTLY 29 words. But wait, there’s more. Your story has to begin and end with the SAME word... read more

7 short story competitions with huge prizes

There are lots of reasons why you might enter short story competitions. They’re a great incentive to help you finish and hone your story. They’re also an excellent opportunity to get your story in front of famous judges – who could be agents, publishers or writers. And of course... read more

International short story competition now open

The Wollongong Writers Festival Short Story Prize 2019 is open to everyone – including writers outside Australia.  There’s $1,000 up for grabs for the winner of the competition. This year’s theme is “All Lit Up” and the word limit is 2,500 words. From the Wollongong Writers Festival... read more

Furious Fiction August 2019 winner and shortlist

This month’s Furious Fiction continued to break records, with almost 1400 entries received across the weekend! The theme was a little different too, as we got all descriptive. The August criteria were: Each story had to include, word for word, ALL of the following SIX descriptions: SHINY, SILVER COLD... read more

Furious Fiction July 2019 winner and shortlist

This month we rode the story train and received a record number of entries for Furious Fiction yet again (we keep breaking those records) – as nearly 1200 writers climbed aboard. It’s official – writers love trains! Here were the JULY requirements each story had to meet: The story had to... read more

Furious Fiction June 2019 winner and shortlist

Near-record entries came flooding in for June’s Furious Fiction this month (more than 1000 stories across the weekend!) – which means our fans well and truly came to the PARTY. We put that word in caps just then for a reason – because that played a big part(y) in... read more

Furious Fiction May 2019 winner and shortlist

“Mayhem” was one of the words we required of storytellers in May, and combined with the mix of other criteria it was probably an appropriate description for our list of must-haves this month! That said, we had our second biggest ever response as nearly 1000 stories vied to be... read more

Furious Fiction April 2019 winner and shortlist

Writing short fiction is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. If you’ve never done anything like this before, it could have you spending most of the Furious Fiction weekend asking yourself “what’s it going to be then, eh?” And so it... read more

Furious Fiction March 2019 winner and shortlist

Writing can be a lot like doing the laundry. You put a jumble of ideas and words into the machine and then--- actually, this simile isn’t doing it for us. Let’s just get to the winning Furious Fiction stories! For March’s criteria, we sent many into a... read more