**£3,000 first prize for writers worldwide and stories on any topic up to 2,000 words!**

  
2024 marked ten years since we first launched the short story competition. With a £3,000 first prize (ten times higher than our first prize ten years ago) it has grown to become one of the UK’s leading short story competitions.

  
We are especially thrilled with the success of the Isobel Lodge Award, one of the specialist prizes in the competition, which every year brings new Scottish talent to the fore. The award is presented to the top story entered in the competition by an unpublished writer living in Scotland.

  
We welcome stories in all genres: literary, historic, crime, romance, gritty realism, contemporary, humour and more. The Write Mango Award is another specialist award within the competition that celebrates those bizarre, quirky stories that can sometimes leave us laughing out loud. The Write Mango winner receives £300 plus the fabulous mango award sculpture created by artist Fiona Maher.

  
The writers of at least twenty long-listed short stories are offered publication in our next anthology featuring a fabulous cover by Edinburgh-based artist Gordon Mitchell RSA. The top twenty includes the Isobel Lodge Award winner plus at least five of the top Write Mango stories.

If you live in Scotland and you or your immediate family receives any form of income support or universal credit you are entitled to free entry to the competition.

Publication is offered to authors of the top twenty stories in The Edinburgh Anthology, published annually.

  
Edinburg Short Story Awards:

* First Prize £3,000
* Second Prize £500
* Third Prize £250

  
The First Write Award - Open to unpublished writers worldwide

* £300 plus publication

  
The Write Mango Short Story Award - Open to writers worldwide

* Prize: £300 plus publication

  
The Isobel Lodge Award - Open to unpublished writers living in Scotland

* Prize: £750 plus publication

  
The Edinburgh Writing Awards Dinner - All the finalists for the short story competition are invited to the Edinburgh Writing Awards Dinner when the prize winners are announced. It is held each year at the Scottish Arts Club in Edinburgh on the last Saturday in September.

  
A limited number of bursaries are available for talented, under-represented writers and illustrators through our bursary scheme. Bursaries may be awarded to entrants affected by low household income, all forms of discrimination, disability, who are full-time carers, ex-offenders or affected by any other barrier. No questions asked. In your application we ask you to submit the actual work you wish to enter for the competition - **_Applications for Short Story Bursaries are open now and until 10 December 2024_**.

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Scottish Arts Trust