Writers from around the world are invited to enter the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award 2020. The winner will receive £30,000 (approximately US$39,000), making this the most valuable prize in the world for a single short story.
The prize is for stories up to 6000 words in length and there is no entry fee. Stories can be either unpublished or published. If published, the work must not have appeared before 1 January 2019.
Writers can enter regardless of their nationality or residency but they must have a track record of published creative writing in the UK or Ireland. In 2020 the Award attracted over 1300 entries from 40 countries. The judges read the entries ‘blind’, without knowing the author’s identity.
Related: A Guide to Short Story Contests in 2019
Related: American Short Fiction is Accepting Submissions
Related: Boulevard Short Fiction Contest for Emerging Writers
The 2019 Sunday Times Short Story Award was won by Danielle McLaughlin for her story ‘A Partial List of the Saved’. Previous winners include Courtney Zoffness (2018), Bret Anthony Johnston (2017), Jonathan Tel (2016) and Yiyun Li (2015).
This is the second year that Audible has been the prize’s major sponsor. A feature of the 2020 award will be an Audible audiobook anthology of the shortlisted stories which aims to “dramatically broaden the audience for the short story”. Shortlisted authors will receive an extra £1000 fee, on top of a prize payment of £1000, for being included in the anthology.
Entries for the 2020 award close at 6pm GMT on Friday 13 December 2019. A longlist of up to twenty entries will be published in May 2020 and the winner will be announced on 2 July. Full terms and conditions for the prize can be found here and writers can access the entry form via the Short Story Award website.
Watch the Sunday Times Short Story Award 2019 shortlist discuss their stories, writing process and more.