It’s been a bumper year for excellent stories and choosing the long-list hasn’t been easy. However, decisions had to be made and the titles of the long-listed entries are below, The short-list will be posted here as soon as it is available and the winners will be announced at the Prizegiving in July.

If you requested a critique of your story, please note that these are carried out after the competition is judged and you will receive your feedback in late July/August.

Long-list 2026 (in alphabetical order):

8.22

A Sudden and Unexpected Reversal of Fortune

Another Cookie

Caravan

Crab Village

Crack

Dancing to our own Tune

Eight Half Turns

Father

Fireworks

Flower Child

Fragile

Ghangzou

Gravity

Gut Health

He Had Cancer

Holding up the Sky

How we say Goodbye

I’ll See

Let Me Get What I Want

Long Cripple

Madame Maigret Makes her Case*

Marden

Mayday

Midsummer

Moderate Bulge

Nice Poem, Shame about the Place

Not Quite Brown Bread

Not Watching the Whale

Pesky

Rose Garden

Second Time Around

That’s What I’m Here For

The Black Water of the River Suir

The Fade Out

The Gentleman

The Last Walk Above Glas cwm

The Map of Hurt

The Mysteries

The Secret Life of Laurence Flaherty

The Veil

The White Place

Triptych

Two Across

Vanessa Atalanta

What Happens at the Festival Stays at the Festival