It’s the last day to enter our 9th Award today, 19th April, 2021. You might have a story of up to 2200 words to dust off. It can be much shorter than that.
You have until midnight to enter. Any themes and subject matters are welcome from international writers. And we don’t have a lower word limit.

So what happens next? The stories are sent in files to be read anonymously by our large and diverse team of initial readers, all fans of the short story. Each story gets read by two people at least. And more if it reaches the longlist stage. Team BSSA then has the always enjoyable job of selecting the final longlist and the shortlist to send to our judge. This time Norah Perkins from the Curtis Brown Literary Agency. Final results are out in late July or early August. And the anthology of shortlisted and winning pieces is published by Ad Hoc Fiction and launched in November or early December.All authors receive a free copy and discounted further copies. And you can buy the books from Ad Hoc Fiction or Amazon in paperback and digital versions in many different currencies. The Award re-opens for entries in November or December for the next year.

The picture above shows some of the BSSA anthologies which have the same cover design in different colours, showing Acorn finials on a building in Bath. The design is from a collage painting created by our 2014 first prize winner, Ele Nash, who is also an artist. The acorns on the cover are a reference to our Acorn Award. In addition to the first, second, third and local prize, the Acorn Award, of £100 is given to an unpublished writer of fiction.

Best wishes to all. We look forward to reading your stories!