Writing Competitions in Northern Ireland: A Monthly Short Story Contest From Belfast to Derry
Quick answer: Writing competitions in Northern Ireland tend to be annual; Writory's short story contest closes every month. 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, Irish, Ulster Scots or any other language. The deadline is 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, early evening in Belfast, and every entrant receives a certificate and a five-part score out of 100 on 30 November 2026.
Belfast's short story decade, and where this fits
Northern Ireland has had a remarkable run in short fiction. Lucy Caldwell won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2021, Jan Carson took the EU Prize for Literature in 2019, Wendy Erskine's Sweet Home made a reputation on stories alone, and Anna Burns became the first writer from Northern Ireland to win the Booker Prize, in 2018, with Milkman. The Linen Hall Library's Michael McLaverty Short Story Award keeps the name of the region's great story writer in circulation, and the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's teaches the craft a few streets away.
The Belfast Book Festival at the Crescent Arts Centre each June, Irish Pages and The Tangerine give writers here places to be read. What the region has not had is a regular deadline with a reply attached for every entrant. Writory's contest closes monthly, reads every story blind against a published rubric, and sends every entrant a certificate and a score out of 100 on 30 November 2026. Keep your best story for the McLaverty; send this month's draft here and find out how it reads.
The terms, north of the border
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, Irish or Ulster Scots; each story is read in the language it was written in and judged in one pool. 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, and nothing is published without your permission, so a story entered here is still eligible for the BBC National Short Story Award, Irish Pages or the Seán Ó Faoláin prize across the border. 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 deadline in Belfast 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. Northern Ireland is on Greenwich Mean Time from late October to late March, so the 25 November deadline is 6:29 PM in Belfast, Derry, Newry and Enniskillen. During British Summer Time the same deadline is 7:29 PM. Either way the round closes in the early evening, on the 25th itself.
That timing suits most working writers. The story goes in after tea, with the evening still ahead. A file uploaded at eleven o'clock Belfast time on the 25th has missed the round by more than four hours and rolls into the next one, so treat six o'clock as the honest cutoff in winter and seven in summer. Every entrant hears back on 30 November 2026, winners and non-winners alike, with the full five-part score.
Paying in dollars from Northern Ireland, 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 debit cards add a small non-sterling fee, usually pence on a charge this size.
The $100 prize is paid by PayPal, which works with Northern Irish 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. 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 in Northern Ireland enter?
Yes, from any of the six counties, on the same terms as everyone else. There is no regional category and no quota. Judging is blind, so the panel sees no name, town or nationality. Writory's sister poetry contest has already named a winner from Ireland, so entrants from the island are not new to the platform.
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 and Irish spelling are both read as correct.
What time is the deadline in Belfast?
25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST is 6:29 PM in Belfast 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 throughout. Results and certificates follow on 30 November 2026.
Can I write in Irish or Ulster Scots?
Yes. A story in Irish or in Ulster Scots 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, not on which language it is.
Does entering affect the Michael McLaverty Short Story Award or the BBC award?
Entering here is not publication, so your story stays unpublished and you keep all rights. Both of those awards ask for unpublished work, and each has its own rule on simultaneous submission, so check the current conditions before sending the same story. Nothing at Writory is published without your permission.
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.