BBC National Short Story Award

Deadline – 15th June 2009
Not just for the professionals, this is one of the most prestigious competitions around and the largest award for a single short story in the world.
Prizes:
£15,000 for the winning story
£3,000 for the runner-up
£500 for the three other shortlisted stories.

Free to enter

Maximum length of 8000 words

8 copies of the story must be submitted

Go to: http://www.theshortstory.org.uk/nssp/2009.php4

How to enter:
Download the entry form from the above website;
Complete the entry form and submit it with:
Eight copies of one short story (maximum length 8,000 words);
A list of the author’s most recently published work including the publisher, date of publication and ISBN or ISSN;
Please note that incomplete entry forms will not be eligible for consideration.

Send your entry to:
BBC National Short Story Award 2009
c/o Booktrust
Book House
45 East Hill
London
SW18 2QZ

Some of the rules – check the website for all of the rules:
The Award is open to British nationals and UK residents, aged 18 years or over only. Proof of nationality and/or residency may be requested.
The story must not contain more than eight thousand words.
No more than one story per author may be submitted. It is the responsibility of the author to make sure that that there is not more than one of his/her stories submitted in total.
The story entered must either; a) be unpublished; or b) be first published or scheduled for publication after 1 January 2008.

The author must have a prior record of publication in creative writing. This means the author must previously have had works of prose fiction, drama or poetry published by a UK publisher (excluding self-publishing) or established printed magazine in the UK or broadcast by a UK national radio station. “Established” here means a periodical that is published regularly (monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly), that has been in circulation for at least the past 12 months, has an ISBN or ISSN number and is not self published. For avoidance of doubt online publishing is also excluded.