ENSFR

Event: Revisiting the 'Save Our Short Story' Campaign: A Retrospective Gathering
2025-12-09 18:00 - 19:30 (Europe/Paris) | Teams
The ENSFR invites you to a special event commemorating the legacy of the Save Our Short Story campaign — a landmark movement that rallied writers, scholars, and readers in defence of the short story form. Decades after its inception, this reunion brings together several of its original campaigners and literary advocates to reflect on its cultural impact and ongoing relevance.
The campaign was launched in 2002 by writer Margaret Wilkinson and rapidly attracted a broad coalition of advocates. With support from Arts Council England and the Scottish Arts Council, a research initiative was established to assess the condition of the short story in the UK. Book Marketing Limited (BML) undertook an analysis of publishing trends, sales data, and national patterns in reading and purchasing behaviour. Jenny Brown Associates led the following phase of research in 2003, conducting original studies including authors, literary agents, publishers, event organisers, and booksellers to explore prevailing attitudes toward the creation, representation, and commercialisation of short stories and collections.
Confirmed Speakers
Jenny Brown (Jenny Brown Associates, UK)
Moira Forsyth (former Director of Sandstone Press, Scotland)
Nicholas Royle (editor of Best British Short Stories)
And possibly more.
Join the Teams link here:
Revisiting the ‘Save Our Short Story’ Campaign: A Retrospective Gathering | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams

Event: Online Reading Group, 15th December 2025 at 5PM (UK time)
2025-12-15 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Paris) | Zoom
The last short fiction reading group meeting before Christmas will take place (via Zoom) on Monday 15th December at 5pm (UK time). During the meeting, we will be discussing Ines’ reading suggestion: the short story “Lost in the Louvre” by Lucia Berlin. You can access it from this link.
Our conversation will focus on the following key questions that Ines has selected:

In your opinion, what is this short story about?
Due to their restricted length, short stories often draw on intermedial and intertextual references to maximise their effect. Which authors, books and artworks are present as an influence in “Lost in the Louvre”?
What is the relationship between imagination and reality in this short story?
What is the role of death in this short story?
How is time represented in this short story?
What do we learn about the narrator-protagonist and her relationship to other characters?

Join Zoom meeting.

Competition Deadline: Globe Soup Open Short Story Competition
2025-12-16
From the competition website:

Our 2024 Open Short Story Competition is open to writers of all genres and styles. Whether you write sci-fi, historical, horror, or anything else, we want to read your story!
WORDS: 8,000 max (no minimum)
CLOSING DATE: 23:59 (UK time) 16th Dec, 2025
WINNER ANNOUNCED: 10th Feb, 2026

Enter here.

Competition Deadline: InterAct Stroke Support's Ruth Rendell Short Story Competition
2025-12-21
From the competition website:

Previously judged by the late thriller and murder mystery author, Ruth Rendell CBE – InterAct’s Short Story Competition is now named after her. The competition is more recently judged by Margaret Drabble DBE; biographer, novelist and short story writer.
The top 3 stories are shortlisted and performed by professional actors that work for InterAct. It is a biennial competition and the ceremony takes place at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond.
The winner of the competition will be commissioned to write four further stories for InterAct Stroke Support over the course of one year, and will receive £1,000 in payment.
The next winner will be chosen by Head Judge Dame Margaret Drabble in an Awards Ceremony in 2026.

Enter here.

Call for Papers: CFP due date December 31st, 2025 Microfiction & Intertextuality, Thessaloniki, 7-9 October 2026
2025-12-31
The School of Philology and the School of Italian Language and Literature, the Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) invite you to participate in the XIII International Conference on Microfiction, entitled “Microfiction and Intertextuality,” which they are co-organizing. The conference will be a joint in-person and remote event. The conference proceedings will focus on topics of interest to microfiction scholars around the world and will be held in Spanish and English.
The International XIII Conference on Microfiction will focus on various aspects, topics, techniques, and features of this genre, with particular emphasis on the phenomenon of intertextuality in literary discourse. Conference proposals are encouraged to address one or more of the following thematic axes, which reflect key intersections between microfiction and intertextuality, without, of course, being exhaustive:

Historical perspectives on the study of the relationship between microfiction and intertextuality.
Microfiction as an interdisciplinary field: current dynamics and critical perspectives.
Microfiction at the crossroads of genres: between poetry and prose.
National, transnational, comparative, synchronic, and diachronic approaches to microfiction.
Interartistic and intermedial studies in writing programs, interpretation, and the use of microfiction.
Intertextuality and digital technologies for writing, reading, and researching microfiction.
Microfiction and contemporary production: from intertextuality to hypertext? The future of microfiction.

Interested participants are kindly requested to send their proposals by December 31st, 2025, to the conference email address 13microfiction@gmail.com, filling out the attached form (in Spanish or English) with the following information: title, abstract of up to 300 words, thematic axis, brief CV. Presentations will be strictly limited to 15 minutes in order to maintain the schedule. Proposals may be individual and/or collaborative.
Please note the time difference, as the Conference will be held in the Europe/Athens UTC+2 EET time zone from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. (real-time sessions).
Notification regarding the acceptance or rejection of proposals will be sent within three months of the submission deadline (March 2026). Participation as a delegate and attendance at the conference are free of charge. The conference proceedings will be published digitally. The International Conferences on Microfiction have been held biennially since 1998, under the auspices of universities and other academic institutions, in various cities around the world.
To view the conference website, click here.

Competition Deadline: Henshaw Press January Short Story Competition
2025-12-31
From the competition website:

Deadline: 31 December 2025
Entry Fee: £6 per entry (additional fee of £14 for a critique)
Prizes: First prize: £200; second prize: £150; third prize: £50
Word Limit: 2,000 words

Enter here.

Event: Charles E. May’s Short Story Theories’ 50th Anniversary Roundtable
2026-01-12 18:00 - 19:00 (Europe/London) | Teams
Join us as we honour the enduring legacy of Charles E. May’s Short Story Theories (1976), a landmark work that reshaped how we read, teach, and think about short fiction. This special event marks the 50th anniversary of its publication; a moment to reflect on its impact and celebrate the vibrant community of short story scholars, writers, and readers it continues to inspire.

Speakers
Michael Basseler (Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany)
Michael Collins (King’s College London, UK)
Ailsa Cox (Edge Hill University, UK)
Andrea Marzocchi (University of Surrey, UK)
Join the Teams link here:
Charles E. May’s Short Story Theories’ 50th Anniversary Roundtable | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams

Michael Basseler is Academic Manager at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC), Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany. He has published widely on the (American) short story and short story theory, including his monograph An Organon of Life Knowledge: Genres and Functions of the Short Story in North America (2019), A History of the American Short Story (2011, ed. with Ansgar Nünning) as well as a book chapter on “Current Approaches to the American Short Story” (in Handbook of the American Short Story, 2022, eds. Erik Redling and Oliver Scheiding). Michael is a founding steering committee member of the European Network for Short Fiction Research.
Michael Collins is a Reader in American Studies at KCL and Chair of the British Association for American Studies. He is the author of two monographs, The Drama of the American Short Story and Exoteric Modernisms: Progressive Era Realism and the Aesthetics of Everyday Life and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to the American Short Story (with Gavin Jones). He has published numerous articles in a range of journals, specifically (though not exclusively) focused on short fiction. Most recently, he has been working on topics relating to intelligence testing, The Panama Canal, and the American Civil Service in literature and culture.
Ailsa Cox is the world’s first Professor of Short Fiction. Her books include Alice Munro ;Writing Short Stories ; The Mind’s Eye: Alice Munro’s Dance of the Happy Shades with Christine Lorre; and Reading Alice Munro’s Breakthrough Books, in collaboration with Tim Struthers, Corinne Bigot and Catherine Sheldrick Ross. She has written extensively on other writers including Katherine Mansfield, Helen Simpson, Daisy Johnson and Jon McGregor, and is principal editor of the peer-reviewed journal Short Fiction in Theory and Practice. Her own fiction has been widely published, most recently in the mini-collection Precipitation.
Andrea Marzocchi is a PhD candidate in the School of Literature and Languages at the University of Surrey. His research focuses on the aesthetic of the sublime and the functions it performs in realist American short fiction: from opening dimensions of expansiveness to encoding the affects and power dynamics that characterize the contemporary world. Since May 2024, Andrea has been running a podcast dedicated to short fiction. The podcast is entitled A Small, Good Thing after a short story by Raymond Carver and it features interviews with writers, academics, publishers, and short story enthusiasts.

Residency: Writer in the Park Ljubljana Residency 2026, Open Call
2026-01-19
Ljubljana, a UNESCO City of Literature since 2015, offers two one-month residencies for writers at the Švicarija/Swisshouse Creative Centre, which is part of the International Centre of Graphic Arts.
Each residency lasts one month per applicant. The residency periods are April 1–30, 2026, and November 1–30, 2026. The dates are non-negotiable, but a shorter stay is possible if required due to travel arrangements. Extra nights cannot be covered by the organizer, though organizational assistance can be provided.
About the Residency:
Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, was named World Book Capital in 2010. After being designated a UNESCO City of Literature in 2015 – the first in the country – it joined a growing global network of cities, committed to actively promoting literature and reading culture, while engaging in activities that strengthen collaboration in the fields of writing and publishing.
Ljubljana boasts a vibrant art scene and offers an array of diverse literary events, ranging from alternative performances to major international festivals. This highly regarded residency, established in 2018, provides peace and quiet for uninterrupted writing, while also offering opportunities to actively participate in the city’s literary life.
The deadline for applications is 19 January 2026. For full details about the residency, including how to apply, click here.

Event: Online Talk, Elizabeth Gaskell’s Short Stories – An Introduction
2026-01-21 19:00 - 20:00 (Europe/Paris) | Elizabeth Gaskell House
Join popular speaker Elizabeth Williams for this intriguing introduction to a different side of Elizabeth Gaskell’s story-telling.
Better known for her classic novels, Elizabeth Gaskell was a prolific writer of short stories. Charles Dickens knew this and encouraged her to write for his literary magazine.
Works like the much-loved Cranford started as short stories. Others, like Libbie Marsh’s Three Eras and Lizzie Leigh, drew on themes of female friendship, industrialism and class relations that would later feature in novels such as Mary Barton or North and South.
So, where did Elizabeth Gaskell get her ideas from? What inspired her to write in this format and why did she cover so many genres?

Event: ENSFR reading group, January meeting
2026-01-26 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Paris) | Zoom
This year’s first short fiction reading group meeting will take place (via Zoom) on Monday 26th January at 5pm (UK time). Below, you can find information on how to join the online meeting room.
During the meeting, we will be discussing Paul’s reading suggestion: the short story “Butterflies” by Samanta Schweblin. It is a very short story at just a page long. You can access the short story, as well as a five-minute video of the reading of the story, from the links below:
Samanta Schweblin: Butterflies – Bookanista
Reading of Butterflies Video
Our conversation will focus on the following key questions that Paul has selected:
Q1) To what extent does the brevity of the story heighten the protagonist’s emotional intensity at the ending?
Q2) What symbolic role do the butterflies play within the narrative?
Q3) In what ways does the story construct or critique masculinity?
Q4) How is parenthood depicted, and what tensions or expectations surround it in the story?
Q5) How is Nature represented, and what thematic significance does it carry?
Q6) Does the story align more closely with gothic fiction, ecological writing, or family drama—or does it deliberately blend multiple genres? What might this hybridity suggest about the expressive power and intensity of the short story form?
Join the zoom here: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86043265746?pwd=[REDACTED]

Call for Papers: ENSFR Annual Conference, Artois 2026
2026-01-31 | University of Artois, Arras, France
In Different Shapes: The Short Story and Its Modes of Circulation in Magazines and Newspapers

10–12 June 2026 / 10-12 juin 2026/ 10–12 de junio de 2026
Laboratoire Textes et Cultures (UR4058), Université d’Artois
Invités d’honneur / Invited Speakers / Invitados de honor
Elizabeth Baines
Paul Delaney, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin
Numerous studies link the birth of the short story to the most primitive myths (see, among others, Delaney, May). As a literary genre, the first examples appeared in the 19th century, although it must be acknowledged that the first buds were already visible in Boccaccio’s Decameron (1353), Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1387), and Cervantes’s Exemplary Novels (1613). In the 19th century, it seems that practitioners of this emerging genre moved away from Voltaire-style philosophical tales and fables, turning their attention to inner worlds and characters. The ordinary they are interested in mainly has two faces: one realistic, the other darker, often associated with the fantastic, the gothic, even horror. As Jonathan Daniel Wells explains, magazines in the United States were “modeled . . . after European journals like Graham’s Magazine and the Edinburgh review” (3). They were often meant to reflect life in specific region and, when circulated largely, to promote tourism. Some publications, such as Le Chat noir in France or the illustrated Madrid-based magazine Blanco y Negro in Spain, were intended, like the New Yorker some years later, to advertise cultural events and venues while publishing renowned artists and offering a platform for those trying to make themselves known.
Following the ideas initiated at the Leuven conference in 2017 on the short story, its contexts and co-texts, the 2026 ENSFR conference will be devoted to short forms appearing in magazines and newspapers. We will consider any story printed in such media but also stories that were solely published in magazines and newspapers (as opposed to stories that were later collected in book form), adapted into film or into longer works of fiction (as is often the case with “stories” that appear in the fiction section of The New Yorker, in Granta or in academic journals such as TriQuarterly). Panelists may also work on any short form to be found in magazines (commercials, letters to the editor, notes…) as well as illustrated stories—the illustrations providing yet another story to explore, as Stuart Sillars demonstrates and as suggested by the success in Spain of publications such as La Ilustración Española y Americana or, later, El Cuento Semanal. Writers often admit that some of their stories were inspired from actual events that they read about in the press, heard about on the radio… How are such news items turned into fiction? Are they made more sensational, more topical? How do readers respond to them? In the Spanish context, contributors may also examine how writers managed to adapt under Francoism to a constrained context marked by strong ideological control, as the magazine Ínsula did. Certain magazines target a specific audience, and it could be stimulating to reflect upon writers’ ability to please (at least on the surface) literary editors. What role do academic journals or journals closely connected to academic circles play as laboratories of the genre? Such publications also examine the dynamics of consolidation or emancipation of the tropes of the genre, while posing the eternal question of the tumultuous relationship between short stories and the publishing industry that differs from their relationship with the press. In the nineteenth century, stories were often referred to as “articles,” “tales” or “sketches” (see Goyet, and, among others, Monfort)—how does this influence our understanding of the texts? What are the differences between stories printed in magazines and those printed in newspapers? The conference will give us an opportunity to discuss magazine publication with several authors and critics (Elizabeth Baines, and Paul Delaney have confirmed their presence) and see how magazine and newspaper publication has evolved since its earliest forms.
Deadline for submissions (200 words and a bio statement): January 31, 2026. Send your proposal to caroline.lyvet@univ-artois.fr and gerald.preher@univ-artois.fr
Languages: French, English, Spanish
Conference fees: 80 euros (60 for doctoral students).

Bibliographie sélective/ Select Bibliography/Bibliografía selectiva
Aji, Hélène ; Céline Mansanti and Benoît Tadié. Revues modernistes, revues engagées. Rennes: PU Rennes, 2011.
Baquero Goyanes, Mariano, El cuento español en el siglo XIX, Madrid, CSIC, Instituto Miguel de Cervantes, 1949
Boddy, Kasia. The American Short Story since 1950. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2010.
Casas, Ana, El cuento español en la posguerra. Presencia del relato breve en las revistas literarias (1948–1969), Madrid, Marenostrum, 2007.
Colin, Claire. L’Événement dans la nouvelle contemporaine. Paris : Garnier, 2018.
Corey, Mary F. The World Through a Monocle: The New Yorker at Midcentury. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1999.
Delaney, Paul, and Adrian Hunter, eds. Edinburgh Companion to the Short Story in English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2019. [chapter on ‘little magazines’]
D’hoker, Elke, and Chris Mourant, eds. The Modern Short Story and the Magazines, 1880-1950. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2022.
Dietz, Laura. “Online versus Print: The Reputation of Literary Fiction Magazine.” Short Fiction in Theory and Practice 4.1 (2014): 7-21.
Ezama Gil, Ángeles, El cuento de la prensa y otros cuentos. Aproximación al estudio del relato breve entre 1890 y 1900, Zaragoza, Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza, 1992.
Godenne, René. Études sur la nouvelle de langue française. 1985. Genève : Slatkine, 2005.
Godenne, René. La Nouvelle française. Paris : PUF, 1974.
Goyet, Florence. La Nouvelle, 1870-1925 : Description d’un genre et son apogée. Paris: PUF, 1993.
Green, Fiona, ed. Writing for The New Yorker. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2015.
Jacquelin, Evelyne, and Béatrice Ferrier, eds. Voix et voies du conte : Les mutations d’un genre. Arras: APU, 2019.
March-Russell, Paul. The Short Story: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2009.
May, Charles E. The Short Story: The Reality of Artifice. New York: Twayne, 1995.
May, Charles E., ed. The New Short Story Theories. Athens: Ohio UP, 1994.
Monfort, Bruno. “La nouvelle et son mode de publication: Le cas américain.” Poétique 90 (Avril 1992) : 153-71.
Morris, Ian; Joanne Diaz and Jeffrey Lependorf, eds. The Little Magazine in Contemporary America. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2015
Sillars, Stuart. “The Illustrated Short Story: Toward a Typology.” The Art of Brevity: Excursions in Short Fiction Theory and Analysis. Eds. Per Winther, Jakob Lothe, and Hans Skei. Columbia: U of South Carolina P, 2004. 70-80.
Reynès-Delobel, Anne; Cécile Cottenet and Benoît Tadié, eds. Investigating Big Magazines, 1860-1960. Spec. issue of Journal of Modernist Periodical Studies, 10-2, 2020.
Stein, Lorin and Sadie Stein, eds. Object Lessons: The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story. London: William Heinemann, 2012.
Tadié, Benoît, ed. Revues modernistes anglo-américaines : Lieux d’échanges, lieux d’exil. Paris: Ent’revues, 2006.
Valls, Fernando, Sombras del tiempo. Estudios sobre el cuento español contemporáneo (1944–2015), Madrid / Frankfurt, Iberoamericana – Vervuert, 2016.
Viegnes, Michel. L’Esthétique de la nouvelle française au XXe siècle. Berne : Peter Lang, 1989.
Viegnes, Michel. L’œuvre au bref, la nouvelle de langue française depuis 1900. Genève : Éditions La Baconnière, 2014.
Wells, Jonathan Daniel. Women Writers and Journalists in the Nineteenth-Century South. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011.
Whitehead, Sarah. “Reader as Consumer: The Magazine Short Story.” Short Fiction in Theory and Practice 1.1 (2011): 71-84.

Comité d’organisation/Organizing Committee
Caroline Lyvet, Université d’Artois
Gerald Preher, Université d’Artois

Comité scientifique/Scientific Commitee
Jochen Achilles, University of Würzburg
Charlotte Arnautou, Université d’Artois
Michael Basseler, Justus Liebig University Giessen
Colette Colligan, Université d’Angers
Ailsa Cox, Edge Hill University
Elke D’hoker, KU Leuven
Solveig Dunkel, Université de Lille
Xavier Escudero, Université d’Artois
Xavier Lachazette, Le Mans Université
Xavier Le Brun, Université d’Angers
Laura Ma Lojo-Rodríguez, University of Santiago de Compostela
Caroline Lyvet, Université d’Artois
Cécile Meynard, Université d’Angers
Céline Pegorari, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier
Virginie Roche Tiengo, Université d’Artois
Gerald Preher, Université d’Artois
Patricia Rochwert-Zuili, Université d’Artois
Michelle Ryan, Université d’Angers
Jorge Sacido-Romero, University of Santiago de Compostela
Oliver Scheiding, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Catherine Seltzer, Virginia Commonwealth University
Frédérique Spill, Université de Picardie Jules Verne
Peter Templeton, The Open University
Mikael Toulza, Université de Lille

Competition Deadline: Bristol Short Story Prize
2026-01-31
From the competition website:
We are delighted to announce that the Bristol Short Story Prize is once again open for submissions. We accept entries of up to 4000 words from any genre and from published and unpublished authors alike.
Enter by 31 January 2026 for the chance to win £1500 and publication in the Bristol Short Story anthology. All shortlisted entries will receive £50, be published in our print anthology and receive a free copy.
1st Prize: £1500
2nd Prize: £500
3rd Prize: £250
Deadline: 31 January
Enter here.

Competition Deadline: Ironclad Short Story Competition
2026-01-31
From the competition website:
The Ironclad Creative Short Story Competition is for both published and unpublished writers.
We aim to run four short story competitions each year.
Prize winning and shortlisted writers will be published in our April 2026 anthology.
We accept any length of story up to 6k words.
Deadline: 31 January
Enter here.

Competition Deadline: Parracombe Prize
2026-01-31
From the competition website:
Welcome to Parracombe Prize 2026. It’s the short story competition that started small and went global, now in its sixth year. With the Parracombe Prize, no writer gets overlooked. Every submitted story is read by a panel of judges, which includes published writers. Long listed entries are re-read twice more and those in line for publication are debated, dissected and discussed at length. A cash prize of £150 goes to the winning author, with a second prize of £50 and two £25 prizes also up for grabs. There’s a prize for local writers, too. Anyone living in the postcodes EX31 to EX39 is eligible for the £50 award.
Entry is open from 1 November 2025 to 31 January 2026. At just £5, we’ve kept the entry fee the same because we don’t want anyone deterred by cost. As far as content goes, it’s free choice. We’re not looking for themes or special subjects, only stories that come in at or below 2026 words. All profits are funnelled towards good causes in our small corner of Exmoor. The anthology of our 35 favourite stories will be launched at Parracombe’s annual arts and literary festival in May and will be available from this website, in our community shop and on Amazon.
Deadline: 31 January
Enter here.

Competition Deadline: Claret Press Short Story Competition
2026-02-01
From the competition website:

We’re looking for stories that reflect today’s politics. The deadline for entries is 1st February, 2026.

Deadline: 1 February
Enter here.

Competition Deadline: Writers' & Artists' Short Story Competition
2026-02-13
From the competition website:

Enter our free annual short story competition and be in with a chance of winning a place on an Arvon Residential Writing Week (worth £985) as well as seeing your story published on our site.
To enter, all you have to do is submit a short story (for adults) of no more than 2,000 words on the theme of play via our online competition form, and ensure that you have a (free!) account on our website. You can attach your entry in either txt, pdf, doc, or docx format, while you can add your contact details and a little bit of information about yourself and your writing experience in the ‘Covering letter’ field if you’d like.
The closing date for entries is midnight 13th February 2026, and the winner – along with two runners-up – will be announced on the blog pages of this site in March 2026.

Enter here.

Event: Materiality in the Short Fiction of Alice Munro: Special Issue Launch
2026-02-16 18:00 - 19:00 (Europe/Paris) | Teams
This launch event celebrates the publication of a new Short Fiction in Theory and Practice special issue which critically examines materiality in the short fiction of Alice Munro (1931-2024). Throughout her fourteen collections of short stories, Munro has shown a clear interest in how her characters’ inner life and perception of the world are defined by the material things most immediate to them, as exemplified in the epigraph, a well-known quotation from Lives of Girls and Women. In Munro’s work, materiality is central to an understanding of social, gendered and individual existence, as the two are interconnected. Material things nurture the imagination, where they stick and develop as significant, unfathomable images. They physically anchor characters in the here and now, but they also speak to mind and spirit. Whether they are kept or discarded, over time, they haunt the protagonist and lead on to chains of memories, repeatedly re-membered, and with variations. They may become symbols of something larger than themselves, but more often than not they remain images stored up in memory, as so many active links to the past that transform the perception of the present.
Link to join and watch the event:
Materiality in the Short Fiction of Alice Munro: Special Issue Launch | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams

The speakers
Corinne Bigot is Senior Lecturer in Postcolonial and British Literatures at the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France. Her research interests include postcolonial (particularly Canadian) literature and the genre of the short story. She is the author of Alice Munro: Les silences de la nouvelle (2014) and the co-author, with Catherine Lanone, of Sunlight and Shadows: Alice Munro’s Dance of the Happy Shades (2014). She guest-edited a special issue of Commonwealth Essays and Studies called Alice Munro: Writing for Dear Life in 2015. She is the co-author, with J.R. (Tim) Struthers, Ailsa Cox and Catherine Sheldrick Ross of Reading Alice Munro’s Breakthrough Books (2024).
Ailsa Cox is the world’s first Professor of Short Fiction. Her books include Alice Munro (Northcote House 2003), Writing Short Stories (Routledge, 3 rd edition 2025); The Mind’s Eye: Alice Munro’s Dance of the Happy Shades with Christine Lorre (Fahrenheit 2015); and Reading Alice Munro’s Breakthrough Books, in collaboration with Tim Struthers, Corinne Bigot and Catherine Sheldrick Ross (EUP, 2024). She has written extensively on other writers including Katherine Mansfield, Helen Simpson, Daisy Johnson and Jon McGregor, and is principal editor of the peer-reviewed journal Short Fiction in Theory and Practice. Her own fiction has been widely published, most recently in the mini-collection Precipitation (Confingo 2025).
Christine Lorre is Professor of English at the University of Caen Normandy, France. She did her doctoral work on Canadian literature at the Sorbonne Nouvelle. Her research since then has focused on postcolonial literature and arts and is located in various areas where gender, the postcolonial, globalisation, cross-cultural transfers, and environmental humanities converge. Among other publications, she is the co-author, with Ailsa Cox, of The Mind’s Eye: Alice Munro’s Dance of the Happy Shades (Fahrenheit, 2015) and the co-editor with Eleonora Rao, of Space and Place in Alice Munro’s Fiction: A Book with Maps in It (Camden House, 2018). She is currently the President of the Société des Études Postcoloniales (SPEC; the French Society for Postcolonial Studies) and of the European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (EACLALS).

Event: A look at Ireland’s Basic Income for the Arts
2026-02-22 12:00 - 14:00 (Europe/Paris) | online
In this session, we’ll explore the Irish Income for the Arts programme, which has supported artists’ incomes and helped retain talent in the sector since 2022. The scheme has awarded a weekly payment of €325 for 2,000 artists selected at random. With the pilot scheme ending in February 2026, this will be an opportunity to explore how it works, the impact it’s had on artist and the cultural scene in Ireland, and to discuss what a similar scheme would look like in Wales.

The panel will include a representative from the Basic Income for the Arts Research Team at the Irish Government; an Irish writer, Elaine Garvey, who is a recipient of the scheme; and a changemaker from Wales. More details to be announced soon.
Language: Welsh and English, with simultaneous translation service

Event: Next Generation Short Story Awards
2026-02-26
The Next Generation Short Story Awards is a not-for-profit awards program open to authors writing original unpublished short stories (5,000 words or less per story) in English. Brought to you by the Next Generation Indie Book Awards (NGIBA) and Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group (IBPPG), the 2026 Next Generation Short Story Awards offers 30+ categories, and is open to all authors, even first-time authors, in the U.S., Canada or internationally.
The top short stories will be considered for a cash prize, gold medal, complimentary invitation to attend the annual NGIBA awards gala where you will be recognized if your story is a Grand Prize Winner, literary exposure, inclusion in an annual anthology, and recognition as one of the top short stories written this year!
The Next Generation Short Story Awards will honor and award 1 Winner and 3 Finalists in each of the 30+ categories and 3 Grand Prize Winners from all entries submitted this year. Winners and Finalists will receive the following:
Grand Prize Winners: $500 cash prize for 1st plus a trophy; $300 cash prize for 2nd; $200 cash prize for 3rd. Plus all Grand Prize Winners will receive a gold medal, complimentary invitation to attend the NGIBA awards gala, story and author bio published in the Anthology of Winners along with a complimentary copy of the Anthology of Winners.
Winners in each of 30+ Categories: $75 cash prize, gold medal, story and author bio published in the Anthology of Winners along with a complimentary copy of the Anthology of Winners.
Finalists: Story title and author name mentioned in the Anthology of Winners along with the Anthology of Winners available to purchase at half price. Beginning with the 2026 awards year, Finalists will be able to order medals.
Other Benefits: Exposure for a full year as a Winner or Finalist on the Next Generation Short Story Awards website, social media coverage, complimentary Winner or Finalist gold award sticker image to display on writers’ social media, potential literary acknowledgements and accolades.
The entry deadline date for the 2026 awards program is Thursday, February 26, 2026.

Competition Deadline: Edinburgh Short Story Award 2026
2026-02-28
From the competition website:

Open to writers worldwide, published and unpublished
For short stories on any topic up to 2,000 words
We welcome stories in all genres: literary, historic, crime, romance, realism, contemporary, humour and more.
Entrants can be any age over 16 years. Stories should be suitable for an adult audience.

Enter here.

Competition Deadline: Brick Lane Short Story Prize 2026
2026-03-02
From the competition website:

The Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize 2026 is now open for submissions to writers from the UK and Ireland!
Submissions close at 5pm on Monday 2nd March
We are looking for original short fiction, between 1,000-3,500 words, from writers that have not been previously published.
Entry to the competition is £10.00 per story.
There are a limited amount of free spaces for writers on a low income, please email enquiries@bricklanebookshop.org to request one of these – they will be granted on a first come basis. We also ask that you let us know if you are a UK or Irish resident.
First Prize is £1,000, 2nd Prize is £500, and 3rd Prize is £250.
The twelve shortlisted stories will feature in the Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize 2026 anthology, which will be released in October.
Prizes will also be awarded to some of our shortlisted writers, selected by our prize partners.

Enter here.

Event: Aldeburgh Literary Festival
2026-03-05 08:00 - 2026-03-08 17:00 (Europe/Paris) | Jubilee Hall, Crabbe Street, Aldeburgh, Ipswich, IP15 5BN, United Kingdom
The Aldeburgh Literary Festival was started in 2002 by John and Mary James of The Aldeburgh Bookshop. It has featured an extraordinary variety of talks, from the local to the global, the serious to the hilarious, the scientific to the philosophical. The Festival is proud to be located in Aldeburgh at the Jubilee Hall and we are delighted that our audience fills the streets of Aldeburgh with visitors and conversation in a winter weekend.

Residency: Korean–English translation residency (Norwich, 2026)
2026-03-09 | The National Centre for Writing
The National Centre for Writing, Norwich, is partnering with the Literature Translation Institute of Korea to offer a translation residency for one experienced literary translator working from Korean to English. The residency will take place at Dragon Hall in Norwich UNESCO City of Literature from Monday 6 July to Saturday 1 August 2026. The selected translator will have dedicated time and space to focus on their work in the inspiring and tranquil surroundings of Norwich.
The translator in residence will stay in the Dragon Hall cottage, located on our city-centre campus. The cottage includes a sitting room, study, kitchen and bathroom on the ground floor, with two bedrooms upstairs. A small terrace opens onto the Dragon Hall garden.
During the residency, the Korean translator will share the cottage with a literary translator from Singapore, offering an additional opportunity for informal exchange and connection.
What the residency offers
The translator in residence will spend their time developing the translation project proposed in their application. In addition, they will benefit from:
Mentorship: We will appoint a UK-based mentor — an experienced literary translator, possibly working in a different language combination — to provide peer feedback and advice on their work and career.
Networking: The resident will be introduced to local writers and translators through the Dragon Hall Social, our monthly literary networking event.
Professional development: The resident will have the opportunity to attend plenary sessions of the BCLT Summer School (online in 2026).
Writing opportunity: The resident will be invited to contribute a reflective piece to World, Meet Norwich.
We believe that this combination of focused time, mentoring and community is invaluable for literary translators.

How to apply:

If you are interested in this opportunity, please fill out the application form and return it to us with your resume. Please send your application to residencies@nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk with the subject title LTI Korea residency.
The deadline for applications is Monday 9 March 2026. We aim to notify the successful applicant by the end of March 2026.

Competition Deadline: Deepings Literary Festival Short Story Festival 2026
2026-03-09
From the competition website:

Theme – Hidden Treasures
Please give your story a title, which can be different from Hidden Treasures as long as that is clearly the theme.
Submissions
All entries will be read by members of the DLF committee and the top stories put forward to category judges:
Children’s category judge: Barbara Henderson (award-winning author of children’s novels and adult non-fiction; she also works as a drama teacher and visits schools as an author and storyteller).
Adult’s category judge: Vaseem Khan (author of two award-winning crime series and books in a series featuring Q from the James Bond franchise; he was the Chair of the UK Crime Writers’ Association in 2023–25).
Closing date
Monday 9th March 2026. Entries received after this date will not be considered. Please aim to send your entry in as soon as you can rather than wait for the closing date.
Prizes
Winners will each receive a £30 book token and the opportunity to have their story published in I’d Rather be in Deeping magazine.

Enter here.

Event: ENSFR reading group, March meeting
2026-03-09 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Paris) | Zoom
The next short fiction reading group meeting will take place (via Zoom) on Monday 9th March at 5pm (UK time). Below, you can find information on how to join the online meeting room. I have attached an iCalendar file that you can add to your calendar.
During the meeting, we will be discussing Paul’s reading suggestion: the short story “The Pain Cave” by Lauren Groff. It is a very short story at just two pages long. You can access the short story from this link: https://granta.com/the-pain-cave/
Our conversation will focus on the following key questions that Paul has selected:

How does the story portray family relationships, and what ideas about family life emerge through the narrator’s reflections?
What picture of childhood does the story create, and how does the narrator’s view of children shape the emotional tone of the narrative?
In what ways does the story use nature—its beauty, harshness, or indifference—to deepen its themes or challenge the narrator?
What meanings do you think Groff intended by choosing the title “The Pain Cave,” and how does it resonate with both the physical and emotional journey in the story?
Does the narrator strike you as someone who understands herself clearly, or do you sense blind spots or contradictions in her self‑perception? What moments in the story shaped your view?

Join the Zoom here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83325132386?pwd=[REDACTED]

Event: Magic and Mechanics, Crafting the Perfect Short Story
2026-03-12 19:00 - 20:00 (Europe/Paris) | The London Library
Magic and Mechanics is the innovative new publication from groundbreaking short story publisher Scratch Books, which, like previous publications Reverse Engineering I & II, brings together contemporary stories by some of the very best writers working in the form today, alongside interviews with those writers about how their stories were written.
Contributors to the book, Camilla Grudova, Mark Haddon and Amber Medland join fellow short story writer Irenosen Okojie to disassemble their work and reveal the processes, inspirations, instincts and ideas behind the construction of their perfect short stories.
This anthology will inject writers with creative adrenaline and provide short story readers with a new slant of light into the craft. – The Irish Times
Camilla Grudova is Canadian writer who lives in Edinburgh. She has published two short story collections, The Doll’s Alphabet and The Coiled Serpent and a novel, Children of Paradise. Her fiction has appeared in The White Review and Granta. She holds a degree in Art History and German from McGill University, Montreal. She was named as one of Granta’s Best British Novelists 2023.
Mark Haddon is a writer and artist. His bestselling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) won seventeen literary prizes, was translated into 36 languages and went on to become an award-winning stage adaptation by Simon Stephens. His most recent works of fiction include a novel, The Porpoise (2019) and a collection of fables and stories, Dogs and Monsters (2024). His most recent book, Leaving Home: A Memoir in Full Colour, will be published in February 2026.
Amber Medland’s debut novel, Wild Pets, was published by Faber in 2021 and her most recent book Attention Seeker: The Truth About ADHD was published by Dialogue Books in 2025. She has been published in The New Yorker, the London Review of Books, The Paris Review, the TLS, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the FT, the Irish Times and the Drift. She was part of the inaugural cohort of The London Library Emerging Writers Programme.
Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian British author whose work pushes the boundaries of form, language and ideas. Her novel, Butterfly Fish and short story collections, Speak Gigantular and Nudibranch, have won and been nominated for multiple awards. Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, she was awarded an MBE For Services to Literature in 2021. She is the director and founder of Black to the Future festival and her latest novel, Curandera, is published by Dialogue Books.
Scratch Books are a publishing house dedicated to the craft of short stories. Previous collections have included Reverse Engineering I & II and Duets.
Magic and Mechanics will be available to buy at the event and online from Scratch Books.
This event will take place in person at The London Library. Doors (and the bar) will open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Please see our Event Access Guidelines before you arrive.

Competition Deadline: The BBC National Short Story Award 2026
2026-03-16
From the competition website:

The BBC National Short Story Award 2026
with Cambridge University
The British Broadcasting Corporation with Cambridge University
Award of £15,000 for the winner
£600 for four (4) further shortlisted stories

Enter here.

Event: The Subtle Art of Short Fiction with David Hartley, Sarah Schofield and Jonathan Taylor
2026-03-24 19:00 - 20:00 (Europe/Paris) | Teams
Tuesday 24 March 2026, 19:00-20:00 GMT (20:00-21:00 CET)
Join us to celebrate the launch of The Subtle Art of Short Fiction with a craft-oriented online discussion with acclaimed authors David Hartley, Sarah Schofield and Jonathan Taylor. Expanding on their essays from the new anthology, each will be sharing valuable insights on the complexities of short fiction writing, from voice to structure, humour to subtext. Whether you’ve published short stories widely or are just beginning to experiment with the form, this free event should provide a fascinating glimpse into what makes short stories tick.

The Subtle Art of Short Fiction (Fly on the Wall Press, 2025), edited by Isabelle Kenyon, explores the power of short fiction in today’s fragmented world. Renowned authors and critics offer advanced techniques for crafting nuanced, impactful stories. Learn to master short story structure, subtext, micro-tension, and sensory minimalism. Ideal for experienced writers seeking to refine their skills in this sophisticated art form, or those who love short fiction, and want to learn about the craft behind it.
“A revelatory and engaging read.” – Irenosen Okojie

David Hartley is a writer, performer, artist, editor and tutor whose short fiction has been published widely. He is the author of two short story collections, Incorcisms (Arachne Press, 2021) and Fauna (Fly on the Wall Press, 2021), which was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize, and is the editor of Obscura: New Uncanny Tales (Comma Press, 2023). He gained a PhD in Creative Writing from The University of Manchester in 2021. He lives on the edge of the Peak District and can be found online at davidhartleywriter.com.
Sarah Schofield’s stories have been published in Lemistry, Bio-Punk, Thought X, Beta Life, Spindles, Conradology and The New Abject (all Comma Press), Wall: Nine Stories from Edge Hill Writers (EHUP), Best of British Short Stories 2020 (Salt), Spilling Ink Flash Fiction Anthology, Back and Beyond Arts Publication, Litfest’s The Language of Footprints, Synaesthesia Magazine, Lakeview International Journal, Woman’s Weekly and others. She has been shortlisted for The Bridport Prize and the Guardian Travel Writing Competition and has won the Orange New Voices Prize, Writer’s Inc and The Calderdale Fiction Prize. Sarah is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Edge Hill University and runs writing courses and workshops in a variety of community settings. Her debut short story collection, Safely Gathered In, is published by Comma Press.
Jonathan Taylor is the author of two short story collections, Kontakte and Other Stories (Roman, 2013 and 2014) and Scablands and Other Stories (Salt, 2023). Scablands and Other Stories won the Arnold Bennett Prize 2025. He is also the co-editor of the anthology High Spirits: A Round of Drinking Stories (Valley Press, 2018), with author Karen Stevens, which won the Saboteur Award 2019 for Best Anthology. He is Associate Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester in the UK, where he directs the M.A. in Creative Writing.
This event will be chaired by ENSFR member Joe Bedford. Joe’s short stories have been published widely, including in 3:AM, Evening Standard and Litro, and have won numerous awards including the Bridport Prize 2024. His debut novel A Bad Decade for Good People was published by Parthian Books in 2023.

Teams link below.
Subtle Art of Short Fiction

Competition Deadline: The Julia & Martin Wilson Short Story Prize 2026
2026-03-27
From the competition website:

Broadway Arts Festival launched a short story prize in order to encourage creativity during the lockdown. The prize is generously sponsored and judged by festival Benefactors Julia & Martin Wilson who read every entry received, from across the world. The competition now takes place every other year.
Entries need to be a maximum of 2,000 words with no theme to adhere to.
Prizes:

Main prize (adults): £800
Ages 11-16yrs: £100
Age 10 and under: £100

The deadline for entries is 6pm on 27th March 2026.
Please Note:

Do not enter any previously submitted entries as they will not qualify for consideration.
Entries will be assessed using a plagiarism and AI checker
For those age 16 and under, a maximum of 2 stories per entrant permitted.

Winners will be announced towards the second week of May. Winning stories will be published on the festival website for all to read & enjoy.
There is a fee of £12 per entry for the main prize of £800 for adults, but the competition is free to enter for those age 16 and under.

Enter here.

Submission Deadline: The EDGE Journal
2026-03-31
From the journal’s website:

From the EDGE of Alton is a print publication celebrating local talent and creativity. The ‘EDGE’ represents the importance of inclusivity in the arts. We champion all creative voices, and especially encourage those from the edge of the mainstream, from those who may not feel that their work is worthy or fits the mould. Your voice may be from: geographic edges: rural/urban fringes, coastal towns, commuter belts; social edges: class, race, disability, migration, queerness; economic edges: gig work, high streets in decline, housing insecurity, etc.
We want to hear from all ages, all sectors of the community, beginners and seasoned artists alike, published and unpublished authors and poets, no restrictions. You don’t have to be from Alton, but your work should feel like it belongs at the edge. We plan to reserve a number of slots per issue specifically for people with a clear Alton/East Hants link.

Enter here.
