Welcome to the 2026 Frome Festival Short Story Competition.

We apologise for the short delay in opening while our early-bird entry offer was reinstated for this year. Stories may be submitted at the reduced fee of £6 per entry until March 31st and for £8 thereafter.

As in previous years, stories of 1000 – 2200 words can be submitted until the closing date of May 31st. Please see ‘Rules and Prize Details'(bottom right) for further information and use the ‘Enter Now’ button (top right) to submit.

Our judge for 2026 is the novelist Claire Fuller, who won the 2021 Costa Novel Award with ‘Unsettled Ground’.

You may read last year’s winning stories by following the clicking on the titles below:

First prize:  James Lowther for ‘Seventy-two’. 

Second prize: Daniel George for ‘Giles and the Alien at the Door’.

Third Prize: Janet Jones for ‘Mixed Messages’.

Local first prize: Sally Bramley for ‘Yesterday’s Newspapers’.