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As the 麻豆约拍 National Short Story Award celebrates its 20th year, the 2025 Award with Cambridge University is now accepting submissions.

Entries close at 9am (GMT) on Monday 17 March, 2025. The 麻豆约拍 National Short Story Award is open to published writers who are British citizens and/or resident in the UK.

The entry form can be found here. Ensure you have read the entry instructions and Ts&Cs – available here – before submitting.

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Entries are now being accepted for the 2025 麻豆约拍 National Short Story Awards with Cambridge University. The Award, celebrating its 20th year, is worth £15,000 and will be given to one writer demonstrating exceptional skill and artistry in the short story form. The Award is for a single story of up to 8,000 words, written by an established author.

To mark the 20th anniversary, past judges from across the Award’s history have been invited to return and judge once again. Di Speirs, founder of the Award and a constant judging presence, will chair the panel, and will be joined by: last year’s winner and 2012 judge Ross Raisin, 2023 winner, three-time shortlistee and 2020 judge Lucy Caldwell, shortlistee and 2010 judge Kamila Shamsie, and inaugural chair in 2006, William Boyd.

On reaching the 20th anniversary, Chair Di Speirs says:

I'm absolutely delighted to be chairing the 20th 麻豆约拍 National Short Story Award with a panel of unbelievably expert writers who all know the form intimately. All of us have judged the award before and I'm looking forward to the perspectives that brings. As the returning judge over two decades I've seen how the short story has grown and flexed, found ways to reflect new characters and communities and to speak to younger and broader audiences. It remains always a challenging form, easily underestimated, but a great short story has the power to penetrate the heart. As ever I know I will be surprised and excited as I look for stories written with originality and freshness, with the power to move me and to linger.

You can listen to Ross Raisin’s winning entry for 2024 – Ghost Kitchen – on 麻豆约拍 Sounds, read by Ashley Margolis, alongside other shortlisted and winning entries from previous years.

Submissions for the 2025 麻豆约拍 National Short Story Award with Cambridge University are open from 9am (GMT), on Wednesday 11 December 2024, to 9am (GMT), Monday 17 March, 2025