The Bath Short Story Award

05/08/2026

International Short Story Competition

05/08/2026

We’re extremely excited to announce the results of our 2026 Bath Short Story Award with huge congratulations to Charlotte Sinclair, our 1st prize winner for her remarkable story ‘The Wedding Guest’. We were thrilled to be able to chat to Charlotte, a journalist who writes for the Financial Times, Guardian and other papers, and was working at home, supervising her 10 year old’s homework. Think our call was a pleasant distraction. We also had lovely conversations with 3rd prize winner Bristol writer Alex Sinclair Lack, who also won the Local Prize for his story ‘Afloat’, and with Acorn Award winner Sara Muldowney for ‘Only the Doors’ . We didn’t manage to speak to Lea Lang, who won 2nd Prize for ‘Letholigica - on the removal of words’ but have heard since how delighted she was to have done so well. Lea lives in Munich while Ayesha Farhat, the Highly Commended writer of ‘A Legacy of Tea Coasters’, lives in Norway. So truly international. So do visit our site and read up about our shortlisted authors as well as the judge’s report.

International Short Story Competition

24/07/2026

Congratulations to all those shortlisted in the 2026 BSSA. Please do not identity your story until results are announced on Tuesday, August 4th

Many congratulations to the writers shortlisted in our 2026 Award. The stories are with our judge, Gordon Wise and results will be announced on 4th August

28/04/2026

The 2026 BSSA has now closed. We thank all those who entered. It’s now up to our reading team to chose the stories that will be sent to shortlist judge Gordon Wise of Curtis Brown. Further details about long/short list to follow in a few weeks.

26/04/2026

Good luck to all those running the London Marathon today! And good luck to all those embarking on a writing marathon to get stories to us by the closing date tomorrow, Monday , April 27th at 23:59. Reminder: stories can be of any genre but must not be over 2200 words (there is no minimum length). 1st prize is £1200 (out of a £1750 prize fund) and there is also a Local Prize as well as the Acorn Award for an Unpublished Writer of Fiction (winning one of those awards doesn’t bar you from winning one of the three big prizes). We’re delighted to welcome literary agent Gordon Wise from Curtis Brown as our shortlist judge. All shortlisted stories will be in our 2026 anthology. Full details on our website so pick up your quills and get writing! https://www.bathshortstoryaward.org/enter/

25/04/2026

Two more full days till we close on Monday 27th. No time for procrastination! £1200 1st prize out of a total £1750 prize fund. Our judge is literary agent Gordon Wise of Curtis Brown

£9.00 GBP per entry choose quantity at checkout Entry is made here online via PayPal and email. To make your entry, pay using the PayPal button. Once you have your PayPal receipt, simply ‘For…

20/04/2026

We’re in the final week! Just 7 days until we close on Monday, April 27th. 1st prize £1200 out of prize fund of £1750. Our judge is literary agent Gordon Wise of Curtis Brown. There’s no time to waste so get your entrie in now.

£9.00 GBP per entry choose quantity at checkout Entry is made here online via PayPal and email. To make your entry, pay using the PayPal button. Once you have your PayPal receipt, simply ‘For…

26/03/2026

Last night we held an online launch for our 2025 anthology and were thrilled that 13 of our authors were able to be with us to read extracts from their stories. In between the readings we held brief breakout groups so the authors could meet and chat about, among other things, how they worked and future projects. Authors present were: Cleo Haywood, Jay McKenzie, Zuzu Cole, Joanna Campbell, Steve Mellen, Gio Iozzi, Kathryn Inns, Lauren Collett, Rosaleen Lynch, Amy Stewart, Ella Plevin, Morwenna Lawson and, joining us from Brazil, Malina Douglas. Our 2026 award ends in 5 weeks on Monday, April 27th. We welcome stories from any genre and in any form/style of up to 2200 words. Prizes are £1200 (1st), £300 ( 2nd), £100 ( 3rd) with the Acorn Award for an Unpublished Writer of Fiction and a Local Prize sponsored by Mr B’s Emporium of Books. Our judge is literary agent Gordon Wise from Curtis Brown. Full details on our website. Time to get writing! https://www.bathshortstoryaward.org/enter/ Copies of the anthology are available from us (UK readers only) and from Amazon

09/03/2026

Only 7 weeks to go till the 2026 BSSA closes.

International Women’s Day (IWD) ,which celebrates the political, social, economic and cultural achievements of women, was 115 years old on March 8th, 2026. It began in the USA in 1909 as National …

29/07/2025

We’re very excited to announce the results of our 2025 award. Congratulations to all our long listed and shortlisted writers and m, of course, to our winners. Huge congratulations to Cleo Heywood who won 1st Prize. She said it was the first short story she’d written. What an achievement!

International Short Story Competition