2025 WestWord Prize
For 2025, we have revamped the WestWord Prize. There is just one deadline and all the winning and shortlisted stories will be published in one anthology edition.
Deadline: 31st March 2025
Max word count: 1000
Entry fee: £10 submission only / £30 with feedback
Online anthology publication: June 2025
Theme: No theme
Prizes:
First prize: £400
Second prize: £250
Third prize: £100
Shortlisted: £25
Judge: Sara Hills is the author of The Evolution of Birds (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2021), winner of the 2022 Saboteur Award for best story collection. Her work has won the Bath Flash Fiction Award, SmokeLong Quarterly's Grand Micro Competition, Manchester Writing School’s QuietManDave flash non-fiction prize, National Flash Fiction Day’s microfiction competition, and the Retreat West quarterly prize. She’s on the editorial staff at NFFD’s FlashFlood Journaland The Write-In, and her stories have been selected for Wigleaf’s Top 50, The Best Small Fictions, The Welkin Prize, and elsewhere. Originally from the Sonoran Desert, Sara lives in Warwickshire, UK and tweets from @sarahillswrites.
PRIZE ENTRY RULES
Submit stories written in English through Submittable using the button above by 23.59 GMT on the deadline date (sorry late entries will not be included). Please use a clear font of at least size 12 so that we can read it easily!
Please use the name of your story as your Submission title and the document you upload.
Do not include your name on the story document or submission title but provide a short bio as requested in the submission form. All stories are read anonymously so any showing the author’s name will be disqualified.
Please include the word count at the start or end of the story document.
Stories must be your own original work and not have been published online or in print, or have won any other competitions (longlisted and shortlisted in other competitions is fine if the story remains unpublished).
Simultaneous submissions are allowed but if your story wins a prize or is published prior to the winner’s announcement your entry will become ineligible. No refunds of entry fees will be paid.
By entering the competition you agree to your story being published in the winners’ online anthology.
Stories can be in any genre apart from children’s fiction.
You can enter as many times as you like but all entries must be made separately and the entry fee paid each time.
The judge’s decision is final.
Cash prize payments will be made through PayPal or via BACS.
There are no alternative prizes.