V.S. Pritchett Prize 2026
The RSL V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize seeks to find the best unpublished short story of the year.
This year’s judges are Kirsty Gunn, Anjali Joseph, and Tom Vowler.
Entries for low-income writers:
The RSL is committed to increasing accessibility and supporting writers of all incomes. As such, they are offering 50 free entries to low-income writers based in the UK.
Please note, if successful you can only submit one free entry into the competition. Additional stories will need to submitted via the general submission form (£8.00 per entry).
This Prize for the best unpublished short story of the year was founded by the RSL at the beginning of the new millennium to commemorate the centenary of an author widely regarded as the finest English short-story writer of the 20th century, and to preserve a tradition encompassing Pritchett’s warmth of feeling and mastery of narrative.
- The Prize
a) The author of the winning entry will be awarded a prize of £1,000 and have their story published in the RSL Review.
b) The judges will be responsible for selecting the winning entry, which will be announced in early 2026.
c) The Prize is administered in all respects by the Royal Society of Literature. - Eligible Entries
a) Entrants must be resident in the UK, Republic of Ireland or Commonwealth (see list of countries here).
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Enquiries about submissions should be directed to RSL. Please always refer to their website for complete details and information.
Please note, this call is run by RSL, not the Commonwealth Foundation
