V. S. Pritchett Short Story Prize
We are currently closed for entries for this Prize, please sign up to our monthly newsletter to be informed of when we are taking submissions for the next round.
This prize was founded by the RSL at the beginning of the new millennium to commemorate the centenary of an author widely regarded as the finest English short-story writer of the 20th century, and to preserve a tradition encompassing Pritchett’s mastery of narrative.
The annual prize of £1,000 goes to the best unpublished short story of the year. The winning entry is also published in Prospect magazine and the RSL Review.
The 2020 Prize
The V. S. Pritchett Short Story Prize 2020, for best unpublished short story, is now closed for submissions. The winner will be announced in December.
The winner will receive £1,000 and the winning entry will be published in Prospect online and in the RSL Review. This year’s judges are Kate Clanchy, Barbara Jenkins and Derek Owusu.
We are grateful to to Prospect Magazine for publishing the winning entry online.
If you have any media enquiries, please contact Annette Brook, Communications Manager: annette.brook@rsliterature.org.
For questions about awards and prizes, please contact Martha Stenhouse, General Manager, martha.stenhouse@rsliterature.org.
Past recipients (click the links to read the story on Prospect Magazine)
| 2019 | Ursula Brunetti | ‘Beetleboy‘ |
| 2018 | Emily Ruth Ford | ‘Please Be Good to Me‘ |
| 2017 | Emily Ruth Ford | ‘The Hikers‘ |
| 2016 | Fiona Marshall | ‘The Street of Baths‘ |
| 2015 | Jonathan Tel | ‘The Seduction of a Provincial Accountant‘ |
| 2014 | Alice Jolly | ‘Ray the Rottweiler‘ |
| 2013 | Peter Adamson | ‘Sahel‘ |
| 2012 | Martina Devlin | ‘Singing Dumb‘ |
| 2011 | Carys Davies | ‘The Redemption of Galen Pike‘ |
| 2010 | Michael Newton | ‘The Premises‘ |
| 2009 | Kate Clanchy | ‘The Not-Dead and the Saved‘ |
| 2008 | Cynthia Rogerson | ‘A Dangerous Place’ |
| 2007 | Gabriela Blandy | ‘The Buck’ |
| 2006 | Henry Peplow | ‘Master Sunny’ |
| 2005 | Jonathan Haylett | ‘Bendera Beach’ |
| 2004 | Ed Siegle | ‘Nine Lives, One Life’ |
| 2003 | Cherise Saywell | ‘Beef Queen’ |
| 2001 | Simon Korner | ‘Falling’ |
| 2000 | Emma Barklamb | ‘No and Yes’ |
| 1999 | John Arden | ‘The Stealing Steps’ |
