Arabic Short Story Competition: مسابقة القصة القصيرة العربية
Quick answer: Arabic short story competition entries are open at Writory from September 2026: an original قصة قصيرة of 100 to 3,000 words in Arabic script, entered online for $8. Stories are read in Arabic and judged blind against a published five-part rubric; the top prize is $100, and every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100.
اكتب قصتك القصيرة بالعربية وأرسلها عبر الإنترنت. Every story is read in Arabic against the published rubric, right-to-left text is accepted as written, entries close on 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, and every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100.
A قصة read in Arabic, right to left
The Arabic short story has its own canon and its own prizes. Yusuf Idris made the form Egypt's most read genre in the 1950s; Zakaria Tamer's compressed fables from Damascus are translated worldwide; Ghassan Kanafani's stories are still taught across the region; Naguib Mahfouz, the only Arab Nobel laureate in literature, wrote short stories through six decades of work. Since 2015 the Almultaqa Prize in Kuwait has been given specifically to Arabic short story collections. Yet most international contests accept English only. Here a قصة stays in Arabic: read in Arabic by readers who know the language, and scored on the same published rubric as every other entry.
Right-to-left text is accepted exactly as written; the entry form holds Arabic script correctly, and no romanisation is required. Fusha narration with dialogue in Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf or Maghrebi speech is a normal choice in Arabic fiction and is read as one. The rubric has five parts: Storytelling & Structure 25, Character & Emotional Impact 25, Language & Craft 20, Originality & Voice 20, Impact & Resonance 10. Judging is blind; names, cities and earlier entries are removed before reading. There is no Arabic category or prize: every story, in every language, sits in one pool and one scored list.
The deadline across the region, from Casablanca to Muscat
Entries close on 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. The deadline falls in the evening of 25 November across the region: 10:29 PM in Dubai and Muscat, 9:29 PM in Riyadh, Doha, Kuwait, Baghdad and Amman, 8:29 PM in Cairo, Beirut and Khartoum, 7:29 PM in Tunis, Algiers and Casablanca. Results and certificates follow on 30 November 2026. The first contest runs from 1 September to 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, with results and certificates on 30 November 2026. From December the contest is monthly: entries close on the 25th, results on the 30th, and the next round opens the moment they land.
The Gulf, Iraq, Jordan and the Maghreb do not change their clocks, so those figures hold in every monthly round from December on. Egypt and Lebanon move an hour forward in the summer months, which pushes the deadline there to 9:29 PM until the clocks go back in October. Arabic writers in Europe and North America have their own sums: 7:29 PM in Paris and Berlin, 6:29 PM in London, 1:29 PM in New York and Montreal. A story finished after the deadline becomes the first entry in the round that follows.
Entering and paying from the region
The story goes in at /submit-story, typed or pasted in Unicode Arabic, and the form keeps the right-to-left direction. Stories run from 100 to 3,000 words in any genre, the writer must be 13 or older, and the work must be original and yours. Entry is $8 for one story, $14 for two and $25 for five, paid in dollars by card or PayPal; the card converts the charge to dirhams, riyals, dinars or pounds at its own rate, and there is no other payment step.
The top prize is $100, paid to the winner wherever they live; no country is excluded from payment. The winner enters the next round free, and that earned pass is the only free entry there is. Whatever the placing, every entrant receives a certificate with a verification link and the full five-part score out of 100. The big regional prizes, from the International Prize for Arabic Fiction to Almultaqa, reward a handful of books a year and say nothing to everyone else; this contest returns a written score to every writer. You keep every right to the story.
قبل الإرسال
Writory Academy's Story Craft course at /academy/story-craft is free and in English; its lessons on scene, cause and ending apply to an Arabic story without alteration. Read the rubric once, then read your own story asking the five questions the judges will ask. Optional written feedback on an entry is available, and for an Arabic story it is written in Arabic, so the notes are about your sentences rather than a translation of them.
The first story results arrive on 30 November 2026, so there is no Arabic winner to name yet. The sister poetry contest has published winners from India, the United States, Ireland, Kenya and Slovenia on dated pages, and the story contest keeps its record the same way. A قصة that a university magazine returned, or a newspaper's cultural page never answered, will be read here in full and scored in writing.
The published rubric, 100 points
- Storytelling & Structure (25 points): Does every scene cause the next, and does the ending pay off the opening?
- Character & Emotional Impact (25 points): Do we want something with your character, and does the story make us feel it?
- Language & Craft (20 points): Clean, deliberate prose: rhythm, precision, and nothing wasted.
- Originality & Voice (20 points): The angle only you could write, told in a voice that sounds like nobody else.
- Impact & Resonance (10 points): What the story leaves behind after the last line.
How it works
Submit an original story of 100 to 3,000 words by 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. Every story is judged blind against the rubric above, and results arrive on 30 November 2026: every entrant receives a certificate with their name and a score out of 100. Writers keep all rights. Monthly winners earn free entry to the next round. Enter at https://writoryofficial.com/submit-story.
Common questions
هل يمكنني إرسال القصة بالعربية؟
Yes. Arabic in Arabic script is what this page is for. Type or paste the story in Unicode Arabic at /submit-story; the form keeps the right-to-left direction, the story is read in Arabic, not through a translation, and it is scored on the same published five-part rubric as every other entry.
How much is the fee, and how do I pay from the region?
$8 for one story, $14 for two, $25 for five, paid in dollars by card or PayPal; the card converts the charge to dirhams, riyals, dinars or pounds at its own rate. Winners enter the next round free. There is no separate fee for Arabic and no discount.
هل أحصل على شهادة حتى لو لم أفز؟
Every entrant does. The شهادة carries your name, the contest round and a verification link on writoryofficial.com, and it arrives with your five-part score out of 100 on 30 November 2026. Students file it with university applications; working writers quote the score.
Is there a separate prize for the best Arabic story?
No. Every story, in every language, competes in one pool for the same top prize of $100. An Arabic قصة is read in Arabic and marked on the same rubric as an English entry, so it competes in the same field rather than in a side category.
Fusha or dialect?
Either, or both in one story. Fusha narration with Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf or Maghrebi dialogue is the ordinary practice of Arabic fiction and is read as such; a story entirely in dialect is also accepted. Language & Craft asks whether the choice is deliberate and consistently handled.
Can I enter from any Arab country?
Yes. There is no residency requirement and no excluded country; anyone aged 13 or over enters through the same online form from Rabat, Cairo, Amman, Baghdad, Riyadh or Muscat, or from the diaspora. Results and certificates are delivered digitally on 30 November 2026.
More story contest pages
- Urdu Short Story Competition: افسانہ Read in Urdu
- Concurso de Cuentos Cortos: se lee en español, se puntúa sobre 100
- Concours de Nouvelles : lu en français, noté sur 100
- Kurzgeschichten-Wettbewerb: auf Deutsch gelesen, mit 100 Punkten bewertet
- A Short Story Competition Open to Scottish Writers Every Month, in English, Scots or Gaelic
- A Short Story Competition Open to Welsh Writers Every Month, in English or Cymraeg
- A Short Story Competition Open to Writers in Germany Every Month, in English or German
- A Short Story Competition Open to Writers in France Every Month, in English or French
- A Microfiction Contest That Marks the Turn, Not the Mileage
- A Horror Short Story Contest That Judges Horror as Horror
- Short Story Competition Word Limit: 100 to 3,000 Words, and How to Use Them
- How to Write a Short Story for a Contest
- All short story contest pages
- Winning Stories
About Writory
Writory (writoryofficial.com) is an international monthly poetry contest founded in 2025 by Shivay Mehra. Poets from 31 countries have entered, readers come from over 150 countries, and every submitted poem is judged and scored out of 100 across five criteria: creativity, emotion, structure, language and impact and resonance. Every entrant receives a certificate; winners receive cash prizes and are published by name. Entries close on the 25th of each month and results are announced on the 30th. Writory is listed by Duotrope, Poetry Kit, Christopher Fielden's competition list and Creative Writing NZ, among other organisations. Past results are public at past winners and the leaderboard.