Welcome to the Bristol Short Story Prize – an annual international writing competition open to all published and unpublished, UK and non-UK based writers.

The 2021 Bristol Short Story Prize shortlist has been announced. Many congratulations to the writers who have been selected for the list. This year’s anthology, featuring all 20 shortlisted stories, will be published on October 9th at our annual awards ceremony. This year’s winning writer will also be announced at the event, plus the winner of The Sansom Award for Bristol writers.

To find out what some of our past winners and shortlisted writers have gone on to achieve, please visit the Success Stories section of the website.

The 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize was won by Stephen Narain (below) who is based in Orlando, Florida. To find out more about Stephen’s winning story, his writing and influences, please read our fascinating interview with him here.

Tehila Lieberman won second prize and Faiza Hasan was awarded third prize.

Joe Wedgbury won the 2020 Sansom Award for Bristol writers.

Stephen’s winning story and the other 19 on the shortlist are available now in our brilliant new anthology which can be ordered from our publisher, Tangent Books. It is also available to order from bookshops and the usual online outlets.

You can follow us on Twitter for very regular updates on the writing competition and links to the exciting and dynamic world of short stories, writing, reading and publishing.