Entries now open

For our second short story competition, we’re looking for great stories that link to a theme of ‘soul’. 

Open to all Australian writers, with a national prize pf $1,000 and a local Mansfield Shire prize of $500.

Winning stories and longlisted entries will be published in our short story anthology.

Download the form and conditions of entry in Word

Download the form and conditions of entry in PDF

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Important dates:

31 July 2023 – entries open at 9:00 am

Sunday 29 October 2023 – entries close at midnight. 

Friday 24 November 2023 – long list announcement

Friday 22 December 2023 – short list announcement

Saturday 10 February 2024 – Winner announcement and anthology launch

Conditions of entry 

  1. The MRW short story competition is open to all Australian residents. 
  2. The MRW short story competition local writer’s prize will be awarded to a writer living in Mansfield and surrounds.
  3. The theme is ‘soul’. You must tell us how your story relates to the theme.
  4. This is a fiction short story prize, so no poetry or non-fiction please!
  5. Maximum word length 5000 words.
  6. Submissions must be unpublished (including online) at the time of submission.
  7. If under consideration by a publisher please supply evidence that your publisher is aware you have submitted to the MRW Short Story competition.
  8. You must include an entry form and entry fee of $25 with your submission. One entry form per submission. Members of Mansfield Readers and Writers can submit one entry for free.
  9. Your name must not appear on the submission itself (including the header or footer), as all pieces will be judged ‘blind’ (without the judge knowing the author’s name)
  10. The judge’s decision will be final. No discussion will be entered into.
  11. The two winning stories will be published in our second anthology, ‘Soul’. Authors retain copyright.
  12. Short listed and long listed authors and authors will also be offered publication in the anthology. Authors retain copyright.
  13. The authors of the stories selected for the anthology will be required to work with an editor to prepare their story for publication.
  14. We’ll ask the authors of shortlisted and winning stories to help amplify the news of longlist, shortlist and winning stories on social media and other channels they use.
  15. Entries close at midnight, Sunday 29 October 2023. Stories must be emailed to mansfieldreadersandwriters@gmail.com or uploaded using our online form. If you do not have access to email, or internet contact us and we’ll figure something out together.
  16. Stories should be typed in 12 point font and 1.5 line spacing.
  17. Any submission that does not meet these criteria will be ineligible.

Online entry form

2023 Short story competition - Soul

Mansfield Readers and Writers national short story competition. A $1000 prize for a short story to the theme of 'soul'. There's also a local prize for writers in Mansfield Shire.

Please provide a sentence or two that describes how your story relates to the theme. The link can be as strong or as simple as you like.
This will tell us if you are eligible for the local writers prize!

Contact details

Your preferred contact(Required)
If we need to contact you about your entry, do you have a preference?
Newsletter subscription
Would you like us to add you to our newsletter mailing list? We'll share updates about the short story competition and the festival. We don't share your details with anybody else.

Upload your story

Before you upload... please check that your story is formatted in 12 point font, 1.5 line spacing AND does not have your name appearing on any of the pages. Thank you.
Accepted file types: pdf, docx, doc, rtf, Max. file size: 1 MB.
If you're unable to upload your story, please email it to us at mansfieldreadersandwriters@gmail.com Include your name and the name of your story in the body of your email.

Entry fee

Please make payment of your $25 entry fee by bank transfer

Account Name: Mansfield Readers and Writers Inc.
BSB: 633000
Account Number: 194524070
Reference/description: Include reference Soul and your first initial and family name.

Members of Mansfield Readers and Writers Inc can submit one entry for free. Interested in becoming a member? Visit the membership page on our website.

Conditions of entry

Accept conditions of entry(Required)
Check below to confirm you have read and understood the short story conditions of entry (above) and agree to abide by them.
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.