Telugu Short Story Competition: తెలుగు కథల పోటీ
Quick answer: Telugu short story competition entries are open at Writory from September 2026: an original కథ of 100 to 3,000 words, written in Telugu script, entered online for ₹199. Stories are judged blind in Telugu against a published five-part rubric, the top prize is ₹5,000, and every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100.
Write your కథ in Telugu and enter it online. Every story is read in Telugu against the published rubric, entry is paid in rupees, the deadline is 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, and every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100.
A కథ read in Telugu, not through a translation
The Telugu short story is older than most people assume. Gurajada Apparao's Diddubatu appeared in 1910, and the century that followed gave the language Chalam, Kodavatiganti Kutumba Rao, Chaso and Palagummi Padmaraju, whose Galivana placed second in the world short story contest run by the New York Herald Tribune in 1952. A competition that asks Telugu writers to submit in English throws that whole inheritance away. Here the story stays in Telugu. It is read in Telugu, by readers who know the difference between a Godavari idiom and a Rayalaseema one, and scored against the same published rubric as every other entry.
The rubric has five parts: Storytelling & Structure 25, Character & Emotional Impact 25, Language & Craft 20, Originality & Voice 20, Impact & Resonance 10. Language & Craft is marked on Telugu prose as Telugu prose, so a sentence that lands hard in vachana rhythm earns its marks without needing an English equivalent. Judging is blind. Names, towns and previous entries are removed before reading, and there is no separate Telugu category or Telugu prize: all stories, in every language, sit in one pool and one scored list.
The deadline keeps Indian time, wherever you write from
Entries close at 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. That is Indian Standard Time, the clock in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati, so a writer in Andhra Pradesh or Telangana has no conversion to do; 11:59 at night means 11:59 on your own wall. Results and certificates follow on 30 November 2026, published on a dated page anyone can open. 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.
Telugu families are spread well beyond the two states. For a writer in the United States, 11:59 PM IST on 25 November is 1:29 PM in New Jersey and 10:29 AM in California on the same afternoon. In London it is 6:29 PM, in Dubai 10:29 PM, in Singapore 2:29 AM on the 26th. The safe habit is to submit a day early. A story finished on the 26th is not lost; it simply becomes an early entry for the round that follows.
Entering and paying from India
The story is entered online at /submit-story. Type or paste the కథ in Telugu Unicode; a file typed in an older Anu or Shree Lipi font must be converted to Unicode first, or the letters will arrive as broken glyphs. Stories run from 100 to 3,000 words, any genre, the work must be original and yours, and the writer must be 13 or older. Entry is ₹199 for one story, ₹349 for two and ₹699 for five, paid in rupees by UPI, card or netbanking. No foreign card is involved at any step.
The top prize is ₹5,000, paid in rupees, and the winner also enters the next round free. Free entry is earned that way, never handed out at the door. Whatever the result, every entrant receives a certificate with a verification link and the full five-part score, which is more than most Telugu story contests run by magazines or sahitya sanghams return to writers who do not place. You keep every right to the story and may publish it in Andhra Jyothi, a college annual or your own blog afterwards.
Before you send it
Writory Academy's Story Craft course at /academy/story-craft is free and in English, but its lessons on scene, cause and ending apply to a Telugu కథ exactly as they do to an English one. Read the rubric once, then read your story asking the same five questions the judges will. Optional written feedback on an entry is available and is written in Telugu for a Telugu story, so the notes speak about your sentences, not about a translation of them.
The first story contest results land on 30 November 2026, so there is no Telugu winner to name yet; the sister poetry contest has published winners from India, the United States, Ireland, Kenya and Slovenia on dated pages, which is the kind of record the story contest will keep too. If you have a కథ sitting in a notebook since a college magazine passed on it, this is a place where it will be read properly 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
Can I write the story in Telugu script?
Yes. Telugu in Telugu script is exactly what this page is for. Type or paste the story in Unicode Telugu at /submit-story. Stories in Roman transliteration are accepted too, but a story written in its own script reads as it was written, and both are scored on the same published rubric.
What is the entry fee for Telugu writers in India?
₹199 for one story, ₹349 for two, ₹699 for five, paid in rupees through UPI, card or netbanking. Winners enter the next round free. There is no separate fee for Telugu, and no discount either; every language pays the same and is read on the same terms.
Will I get a certificate even if I do not win?
Every entrant does. The certificate 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 college applications; working writers quote the score, because a number says more than the word participated.
Is there a separate prize for the best Telugu story?
No. All entries, in every language, compete in one pool for the same top prize of ₹5,000. A Telugu కథ is read in Telugu and marked against the same rubric as an English or Hindi one, so it competes on equal terms in the same field rather than in a side room.
Can I use Telangana Telugu, coastal idiom or a Telugu-English mix?
Yes. Telangana Telugu, coastal Telugu, Rayalaseema idiom and the ordinary Hyderabadi habit of folding English into a sentence are all legitimate choices for fiction. What Language & Craft weighs is whether the choice is deliberate and handled consistently, not whether it matches a textbook or a newsreader.
When are the results?
On 30 November 2026 for the first round, on a dated public page, with certificates and scores delivered the same day. 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.
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.