Please read below for information regarding our 2026 short story competitions
Theme: Open (eg. no restriction on topic) – 1st of May, 2026 – 30th of June, 2026
Theme: Future – 1st of September, 2026 – 31st of October, 2026.
Details for our open themed competition: This competition is open. There is no restriction on the topic. Your story can be autobiographical, based on fact or a work of pure fiction. All we are after is a story well told. Entertain us!
We are hoping to announce the winning stories by mid August, 2026.
Word limit: No more than 5000 words. Please note, this will be strictly applied. In fact, it would be fantastic if you could use less words! The 5000 words are there IF YOU NEED THEM, but the last thing we want are stories that have been padded out to meet the word limit. We honestly don’t mind if your story is only 200 words, as long as it is well told. The winning story in our music themed competition in 2024 ran to only 600 words. Edit, and edit hard!
Entry fee: The entry fee will be $10. Multiple entries are allowed but must be submitted separately and will also require a $10 fee. Members of our mailing list may submit multiple entries at the discounted rate of $5 per additional entry (first entry is still $10). Please note, all fees are listed in Australian dollars. While we are Australian based, we do welcome international entries. The payment portal for this competition will open on the 1st of May, 2026. You will find it here.
Prize money: 1st prize – $200 + publication, 2nd prize – $100 + publication, 3rd prize – $50 + publication. Highly commended (two only) – $20 + publication. Commended (unlimited number) – publication only. All prize-winning stories will be published in an end of competition anthology with the authors receiving a free copy of the ebook. Please note, payments are listed in Australian dollars.
How to submit: Submission is via email to shortstories.unlimited@gmail.com
To make it as easy for us as possible, please follow these instructions –
Submit entry fee via payment portal
- Write ‘Open Story’ in the subject line of your email
- In the body of the email please list your full name, your country of residence (complete address is not necessary), the name of your story, the number of words contained in your story, and a pen name if you don’t want to publish under your own name.
- Attach a separate file containing your story. IMPORTANT: The file name must contain your story’s title plus the date it was sent. For example – The Last Wave sept 19. As it is a blind reading process this will help us identify who wrote which story at the conclusion of the judging.
- An RTF, Word or Open Office file is preferred. Please no PDF files. We would also prefer your story to be double spaced, with 0.5cm paragraph indentation. As judging is done by a ‘blind’ reading process, your name or address should not appear anywhere in your story file.
- If you are submitting multiple entries repeat steps 1 to 4 for each submission. Each submission will cost an additional $10 ($5 for mailing list members).
Stories must be previously unpublished and be your own work. This would encompass any form of self-publication including personal blogs and webpages. If your story is selected for inclusion in the end of competition anthology (eg. prize winners and commended entries) we ask that you do not submit your story to any other competition or publication until after our anthology has been released.
Winners will be announced mid August, 2026 and prize money distributed soon after. Please note, in competitions of this nature the judging is subjective. Missing out on a prize is not an indication that your writing is poor so do not be disheartened. Keep writing!
The judge’s decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into. If insufficient entries are received to run a viable competition, all entry fees will be refunded in full.
Short Stories Unlimited 
Very exciting! But, which age range!?
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Hi Lauren, the age range is open. Anyone can enter.
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Hi, Do you allow experimental writing? If so, what is permitted?
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Hi Mic. Most of the entries we receive are fairly conventional, but not all. We accept any form or genre, but the rules are the same for all. The story or poem must relate to the theme. Judging is of course subjective, but if a story catches our eye, then it is in the running regardless of style.
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https://shortstoriesunlimited.com/poetry-competitions/ is a link with the same info but why are the dates different?
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This page lists the dates and info for our short story competitions. The other page lists the dates and info for our poetry competitions. The dates for the short story and poetry comps do overlap but have different starting and finishing dates. Hope this helps.
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I have two quick questions about the competition. Number one is would it count as having a ‘spring theme’ if it’s set in spring? And number two is my story is just a short one thats only 504 words is that ok?
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Hi Jackie. If your story is set in spring, then, yes that counts. With regards to the word count, many of our prize winning entries have had words counts between 400 – 750.
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Hi, Just wondering how we pay you if we want to enter?
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Hi, Just wondering how we pay you if we want to enter?
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Thanks for your interest in our competitions. Our payment portal has all the information you need about paying the entry fee. Just click on the menu link at the top of the page.
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can the story be about anything?
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Yes, the open short story can be about anything. Thanks for your interest in our competition.
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hey, when is the ‘urban story’ going to be announced?
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The results for the urban story competition will be announced late August/early September. We are currently reading through the entries.
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Is there any font or font size type?
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We prefer 12 point, Times New Roman.
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Will we need to provide any description of the work and it’s themes when we submit it?
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No descriptions required. All that is required is the name of the competition (eg Open short story or Open Poetry) in the subject line of the submission email and your name, story title and word count in the body of the email. The actual work should be attached to the email as a separate file. You can find all the submission information on the competition pages of the website. Thank you for your interest.
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Are we able to have the title of the story on the word doc itself, so like the title then underneath the story?
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Yes, that is fine. The title of the story can appear at the top of the page, followed by the story. Just not the name of the author. Thank you for your interest in our competition.
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Is it okay if the story has a brief erotic element?
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Yes, that is fine. Thank you for your interest in our competitions.
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Hi, I was just wondering if we submit a story, who gets the copyright?
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Copyright remains with the author (eg. you retain the copyright to your work).
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Hi, do you allow simultaneous submissions? I’ve got a story with a magazine that I think would be great for the music submission, but they will get back to me Sept. 1 and this closes August 31st. At least I’d be able to let you know pretty much straight away if I had to pull it out lol
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Yes, simultaneous submissions are ok, but if your piece is accepted somewhere else please let us know and we will remove your work from our competition.
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I was wondering if the competition accepted comics?
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Yes, we will accept comics. However, due to formatting limitations we may not be able to publish your work in the end of competition anthology. You will still be eligible for prizemoney.
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Greetings,
Thank you for the opportunity, I am quite excited. I am working on a short story in verse: should I participate with it on this category, or on the poem category?
Have a fine day!
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Thank you for your query. If your story is in verse, then enter the poetry category. We look forward to reading your work. Cheers.
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Low-income entry?
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Thank you for your interest in our competitions. As all of our entry fees go back into providing prize money for the competitions that we run, we are unable to offer discounted entries to individuals. We keep our fees as low as possible (they have not increased during the four years of our existence) and believe they are among the cheapest on offer for writing competitions of a similar nature.
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Would be great to know the names of the writers who run Short Stories Unlimited and the names of the judges. Thanks.
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Thank you for your interest. Sean Lee is the person behind Short Stories Unlimited. He dabbles in writing (nothing spectacular) and enjoys reading what people create. We have no set judges for our competitions. Instead, the stories are handed around a reading circle of whoever is available for each particular competition at the time. This usually consists of two or three people who love reading, plus Sean (who is the only one involved every time). Stories are selected based on their entertainment value or their ability to evoke an emotional response.
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