Mslexia

Mslexia, the magazine for women who write | www.mslexia.co.uk

Short Story Competition

MSLEXIA 2013 WOMEN'S SHORT STORY COMPETITION

The competition is for unpublished stories of up to 2,200 words by women writers.

1st Prize: £2,000 plus two optional extras: a week's writing retreat at Chawton House Library* and a day with a Virago editor**
2nd Prize: £500
3rd Prize: £250

Three other finalists win £100 each. All winning stories will be published in issue 58, the Jun/Jul/Aug 2013 edition of Mslexia.

Judge: Janice Galloway

Closing date: 18 March 2013

Entry fee: £10 per story

Please make sure you have read the rules before submitting your entry.

If you would like to receive reminders about the competition, click here sign up to the Mslexia Updates mailing list.

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED! Good luck to everyone who entered.

* The CHL retreat is accommodation only, dates to be agreed between CHL and the competition winner.
** The day with a Virago editor must be taken at a time that is suitable to both Virago and the competition winner.
The winner is responsible for any other expenses involved with attending the CHL retreat and the day with a Virago editor, i.e travel, food, etc. The prizes are optional additions to the £2,000 first prize. The prizes must be taken by 31 May 2014.

The Judge

"I am really delighted to be reading the stories entered for Mslexia's competition, because it will give me a chance to hear people I've never heard before. 

What I look for in a short story is that intangible, almost mystical sense of seeing the world through someone else's eyes.

"What I look for in a short story is that intangible, almost mystical sense of seeing the world through someone else's eyes. There's a sort of magic that happens when someone makes a series of marks on the paper – and I hear someone speaking to me. Far more than anything else, that speaking quality – whether it's a character in first or third person, an authorial voice, an onlooker – makes the story connect."

JANICE GALLOWAY read Music and English at Glasgow University, then worked as a school teacher for 10 years before turning to writing. She has published three collections of short stories – Blood (Vintage, 1992), Where You Find It (Simon and Schuster, 2007), Collected Stories (Vintage, 2009)) – as well as three novels, a volume of poetry and two memoirs, the most recent of which, All Made Up (Granta), came out in July 2012.
She has written and presented three radio series for BBC Scotland (Life as a Man, Imagined Lives and Chopin's Scottish Swansong), has written for theatre, opera, museum and other exhibitions, and works extensively with musicians, visual artists. 
Her awards include the MIND/Allan Lane Award (for her novel The Trick is to Keep Breathing, 1989), the McVitie's Prize (for her novel Foreign Parts, 1994), the EM Forster Award, a Creative Scotland Award, Saltire Book of the Year (for her novel Clara, 2002, based on the life of Clara Schumann) and the SMIT non-fiction Book of the Year for her memoir This Is Not About Me (2009).

NEW! Short Story Writing Exercises

Whether you're starting from scratch or editing a story for entry into the competition, take a look at these practical and advice-stuffed writing workshops, devised by tutor and writer Katy Darby, for inspiration.

• Workshop One: Beginnings
• Workshop Two: Character
• Workshop Three: Place

LISTEN TO THE 2012 WINNING STORY

"My baby’s mine, come out of me. I can’t see her face but her hair! There’s so much of it, sticks up like a hedgehog. I see nurse give it a stroke. Feels lovely I bet. They never let me touch her."

The beautiful and haunting story 'What goes around' by Tamsin Cottis is now available to listen to for free at Short Story Radio! The story is narrated by Lisa Armytage.

>> Click here to listen

On Winning...

"...as time has gone on I’ve found the experience of rejection and lack of recognition for my work increasingly dispiriting. I have allowed the demands of the day job to displace the time and emotional energy I previously made available for writing. Then I saw the Mslexia competition details and the deadline became – as it has before – a great spur to get a new short story done. " – Tamsin Cottis

Meet the 2012 winners, and read what they say about their experience of the Mslexia Short Story Competition

How to win a short story competition

We have taken the advice from a range of past judges of short stories and compiled it into a selection of top tips that give you some insider information into what short story judges are looking for when they're reading through all those submissions – and what to do to stand out. Click here to find out more.

FOUR YEARS OF THE MSLEXIA SHORT STORY COMPETITION

• What goes around by Tamsin Cottis (Tessa Hadley – 2012) (Listen to this story on Short Story Radio)
• Concessions by Cate Bailey (Jackie Kay – 2011)
• Love: A Painting by Sarah Klenbort (Tracy Chevalier – 2010)
• Wiggy by Beda Higgins (Helen Simpson – 2009)