A Short Story Competition Open to Scottish Writers Every Month, in English, Scots or Gaelic
Quick answer: Short story competition deadlines in Scotland mostly come once a year; Writory's comes every month. Entry is $8 for one story of 100 to 3,000 words in English, Scots or Gaelic. 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. The deadline is 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, early evening in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and every entrant receives a certificate and a five-part score out of 100 on 30 November 2026.
Scotland's short story calendar, and where a monthly one fits
Scotland takes the short story seriously. The Scottish Arts Club Short Story Competition in Edinburgh has run since 2014, Gutter in Glasgow has published new Scottish fiction since 2009, the Association for Scottish Literary Studies puts out New Writing Scotland every year, and the Highland Council's Neil Gunn Writing Competition has been a first credit for writers in the north for decades. The Scottish Book Trust's New Writers Awards have launched a good share of the names now on Edinburgh International Book Festival programmes each August.
Douglas Stuart won the Booker in 2020, James Kelman in 1994, and Kirsty Logan's first collection, The Rental Heart, took the Scott Prize; the tradition is not short of prestige. What it lacks is a frequent deadline that answers everyone. Writory's contest closes every month, reads each story blind against a published rubric, and sends every entrant a certificate and a score out of 100 on 30 November 2026, placed or not.
Scots, Gaelic, English: the terms
Stories run from 100 to 3,000 words, in any genre, entered online at /submit-story by anyone aged 13 or over. Write in English, in Scots, in Gaelic or in any other language; each story is read in the language it was written in and judged in one pool. A story in Doric or Glaswegian Scots is read as Scots, not marked down as English with errors. 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, and the certificate carries the total. 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, so a story entered here remains eligible for Gutter, New Writing Scotland or the Scottish Arts Club competition afterwards.
The deadline in Edinburgh time
The round closes at 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. IST here is Indian Standard Time, five and a half hours ahead of Greenwich. Scotland is on Greenwich Mean Time from late October to late March, so the 25 November deadline is 6:29 PM in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness. During British Summer Time the same deadline is 7:29 PM. In both cases the round closes in the early evening, on the 25th itself.
A story uploaded at eleven at night Edinburgh time on the 25th has missed the round by more than four hours and rolls into the next one. Treat six in the evening as the honest cutoff in winter and seven in summer, and confirm the entry shows in your account before you shut the laptop. 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 dollars from Scotland, 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. Your bank converts at the day's rate, which puts a single entry at roughly £6 at the time of writing; we do not print a sterling price because the rate would make it wrong within weeks. Some UK cards add a small non-sterling fee, pence on a charge this size.
The $100 prize is paid by PayPal, which works with Scottish bank accounts and pays out in pounds. 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 and worth an evening before you submit. Its lessons are short and built around the same five rubric parts the judges score.
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
Is the competition open to writers in Scotland?
Yes, from the Borders to Shetland, on the same terms as every other entrant. There is no Scottish category and no quota. Judging is blind, so the panel sees no name, town or nationality, and every story is read in its own language in one pool against the same published rubric.
What does entry cost in pounds?
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 £6 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. British spelling is read as correct, as are the other main conventions.
What time is the deadline in Scotland?
25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST is 6:29 PM in Edinburgh and Glasgow while the UK is on Greenwich Mean Time, which covers the late-November deadline, and 7:29 PM during British Summer Time. IST means Indian Standard Time, not anything Irish or British. Results and certificates follow on 30 November 2026.
Can I write in Scots or Gaelic?
Yes. A story in Scots, whether Doric, Lallans or Glaswegian, or in Gaelic, is read in that language 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, not on distance from standard English.
Does entering here affect the Scottish Arts Club competition or a Gutter submission?
Entering is not publication, so the story stays unpublished and you keep all rights; nothing is published without your permission. Gutter wants unpublished work, and the Scottish Arts Club competition has its own conditions on prior entry, so read the current rules before sending the same story to either.
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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.