A Short Story Competition Open to Jamaican Writers Every Month
Quick answer: Short story competition entries from Jamaica are welcome at Writory every month. Entry is $8 for one story of 100 to 3,000 words written in English, Patwa or any other language. Judging is blind against a published rubric, every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100 on 30 November 2026, and writers keep all rights.
Entry is $8 for one story of 100 to 3,000 words, in standard English, Jamaican Patwa or any other language. The deadline is 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, 1:29 PM in Kingston, and every entrant receives a certificate and a five-part score out of 100 on 30 November 2026.
Jamaica's writing calendar, and where this fits
Jamaica punches far above its size in fiction. Marlon James won the Booker Prize in 2015 for A Brief History of Seven Killings, Olive Senior's Summer Lightning took the first Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 1987 with a book of short stories, and Kei Miller won the Forward Prize in 2014. Calabash, held on the beach at Treasure Beach in St Elizabeth since 2001, is one of the best-loved literary festivals anywhere, and the Kingston Book Festival brings the industry together each spring.
For a writer with a new story, though, the openings are few and slow. The JCDC Creative Writing Competition runs once a year, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize closes once a year, and both reply to most entrants with a list they are not on. Writory closes every month, reads every story blind against a published rubric, and sends every entrant a certificate and a score out of 100 on 30 November 2026. It is the monthly fixture between the annual ones.
Writing in Patwa, and the rest of the terms
Louise Bennett proved decades ago that Jamaican Patwa carries literature, and this contest takes that as settled. A story written in Patwa, in whatever spelling you use, is read as Patwa and scored on the same five-part rubric as an entry in standard English, in the same pool. Stories run from 100 to 3,000 words, in any genre, entered online at /submit-story by anyone aged 13 or over. The panel never sees your name.
The rubric gives 25 marks each to Storytelling & Structure and Character & Emotional Impact, 20 each to Language & Craft and Originality & Voice, and 10 to Impact & Resonance. The top prize each round is $100, winners enter the next round free, and free entry is otherwise earned, never open. You keep all rights, and nothing is published without your permission, so a story entered here can still go to the JCDC or to Peepal Tree afterwards.
The deadline in Kingston time
The round closes at 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. Indian Standard Time runs five and a half hours ahead of Greenwich, and Jamaica keeps Eastern Standard Time all year without daylight saving, five hours behind Greenwich. The gap is ten and a half hours, so the deadline is 1:29 PM in Kingston, Montego Bay and Mandeville, on the 25th itself, in every month of the year.
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. An early-afternoon cutoff means the story should be in before lunch on the 25th. A Jamaican writer who waits for the evening of the 25th has missed the round by several hours, and the entry simply carries into the next one.
Paying in US dollars from Jamaica, and how the prize is paid
Writory is based in India and charges entrants outside India in US dollars: $8 for one story, $14 for two, $25 for five. Pay by Visa or Mastercard debit or credit, or through PayPal, at /submit-story. A Jamaican card converts the charge to Jamaican dollars at your bank's rate on the day; we do not print a J$ price because the rate would make it wrong quickly.
The $100 prize is paid by PayPal. Before you enter with the prize in mind, check that a PayPal account in Jamaica can receive money and move it to your bank, since PayPal's terms for the Caribbean have changed over the years; the certificate and the score reach every entrant by email and do not depend on it. Optional written feedback is priced separately at entry. The Story Craft course at /academy/story-craft is free.
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
Can writers in Jamaica enter?
Yes, from any parish, on the same terms as writers anywhere else. There is no Caribbean category and no quota; judging is blind, so the panel sees no name, parish or nationality. Every story is read in its own language in one pool against the same published rubric.
How much does it cost from Jamaica?
Entry is charged in US dollars: $8 for one story, $14 for two, $25 for five, paid by card or PayPal. Your bank converts to Jamaican dollars at the day's rate. Winning a round makes the next entry free, and entering three rounds in a row earns a free entry as well.
What does every entrant receive?
A certificate in your name and a score out of 100, broken into the five rubric parts, on 30 November 2026, the same day the winners are announced. Nobody is told their rank or how many entered; the score describes how your story was read, not where it fell in the field.
What time is the deadline in Jamaica?
25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST is 1:29 PM in Kingston. Jamaica does not observe daylight saving, so the conversion is the same in every month: the round closes at 1:29 PM Jamaica time on the 25th, and results follow on 30 November 2026.
Can I write in Patwa?
Yes, and in your own spelling. A story in Jamaican Patwa is read as Patwa and scored on the same five-part rubric as every other entry, in the same pool. Language & Craft is marked on precision and rhythm within the language you chose, not on distance from standard English.
Can I still enter the same story in the JCDC competition?
Entering at Writory is not publication; you keep all rights and the story stays unpublished unless you win and agree to publication. The JCDC Creative Writing Competition sets its own rules on prior submission, so read the current entry conditions before sending the same story there.
More story contest pages
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.