A Short Story Competition Open to Writers in the Netherlands Every Month, in English or Dutch
Quick answer: Short story competition entries from the Netherlands are welcome at Writory every month, in English or Dutch. Entry is $8 for one story of 100 to 3,000 words in any genre. 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 English, Dutch, Frisian or any other language. The deadline is 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, evening in Amsterdam, and every entrant receives a certificate and a five-part score out of 100 on 30 November 2026.
Dutch letters, English-language Amsterdam, and where this fits
The Netherlands reads more than it lets on. Boekenweek has run every March since 1932, with a free Boekenweekgeschenk handed out in bookshops across the country, and the Libris Literatuur Prijs each May and the P.C. Hooft-prijs for a lifetime's work are the two awards writers watch. De Gids, founded in 1837, is the oldest literary magazine in the country and still publishing. Nescio's Titaantjes remains the model of the Dutch short story a century on, and Marieke Lucas Rijneveld's International Booker in 2020, shared with translator Michele Hutchison, put Dutch fiction back in English hands.
English-language writers in the Netherlands have Crossing Border in The Hague each November, the International Literature Festival Utrecht, the American Book Center in Amsterdam and The Hague, and a growing number of workshops in English. What neither the Dutch nor the English scene offers is a monthly deadline that answers every entrant. Writory's contest closes every month and sends everyone a certificate and a five-part score out of 100 on 30 November 2026, in whichever language the story was written.
Entering in Dutch or English: the terms
A story in Dutch is read in Dutch, not translated, and scored against the same five-part rubric as an English entry in the same pool. Frisian, Papiamento, Turkish, Arabic or any other language written in the Netherlands is read the same way. Stories run from 100 to 3,000 words, in any genre, entered online at /submit-story by anyone aged 13 or over. Your name is removed before the panel reads.
The rubric is public: Storytelling & Structure 25, Character & Emotional Impact 25, Language & Craft 20, Originality & Voice 20, Impact & Resonance 10. The top prize each round is $100, the winner enters 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 a Dutch tijdschrift or a schrijfwedstrijd afterwards.
The deadline in Amsterdam time
The round closes at 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. Indian Standard Time is five and a half hours ahead of Greenwich; the Netherlands is on Central European Time, one hour ahead, from late October to late March. So the 25 November deadline is 7:29 PM in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Groningen. During summer time the same deadline is 8:29 PM. Either way the round closes in the evening, on the 25th itself.
Writers in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, four hours behind Greenwich, face 2:29 PM on the 25th instead. A story filed at midnight Amsterdam time has missed the round by four and a half hours and rolls into the next one, so treat seven in the evening as the honest cutoff in winter and eight in summer. 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.
Paying in US dollars from the Netherlands, 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 card or PayPal at /submit-story. iDEAL only works with Dutch merchants, so it will not appear; use a Visa or Mastercard credit card, one of the Debit Mastercard or Visa Debit cards Dutch banks now issue in place of Maestro, or PayPal. Your bank converts at the day's rate, roughly €7 for a single entry at the time of writing.
The $100 prize is paid by PayPal, which works with Dutch bank accounts and pays out in euro. Written feedback on a story is an optional extra at entry, priced separately; the certificate and score come with every entry. The Story Craft course at /academy/story-craft is free, in English, and takes an evening. The lessons follow the five rubric parts in order, so the course doubles as a reading of the scorecard.
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 living in the Netherlands enter?
Yes, whatever your citizenship, from the European Netherlands or the Caribbean islands, on the same terms as every other entrant. There is no Dutch category and no quota. Judging is blind, so the panel sees no name, city or nationality, and every story is read in its own language in one pool.
What does entry cost in euro?
Entry is charged in US dollars: $8 for one story, $14 for two, $25 for five. Your card or PayPal account converts at the day's rate, roughly €7 for a single entry at the time of writing. Winning a round makes the next entry free, and entering three rounds in a row earns a free entry.
What does every entrant receive?
A certificate in your name and a score out of 100 across the five rubric parts, delivered on 30 November 2026, the same day the winners are announced. You are not told your rank or the size of the field; the score describes how your own story was read against the rubric.
What time is the deadline in the Netherlands?
25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST is 7:29 PM in Amsterdam during Central European Time, which covers the late-November deadline, and 8:29 PM during summer time. In Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten it is 2:29 PM. IST means Indian Standard Time. Results and certificates follow on 30 November 2026.
Can I write in Dutch or Frisian?
Yes. A story in Dutch or in Frisian is read in that language, not translated, and scored on the same five-part rubric as every English entry in the same pool. Language & Craft is marked on precision and rhythm within the language you chose. Flemish spelling and idiom are read as correct.
Can I pay with iDEAL?
No. iDEAL only connects Dutch bank accounts to Dutch merchants. Pay with a Visa or Mastercard credit card, with the Debit Mastercard or Visa Debit card your bank issued to replace Maestro, or through PayPal, at /submit-story. The charge is in US dollars and your bank converts it to euro at the day's rate.
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.