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The annual prize of £1,000 goes to the best unpublished short story of the year.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

Congratulations Kate Lockwood Jefford wins the £1,000 V. S. Pritchett Short Story Prize 2020 with ‘Picasso’s Face’.

The 2020 judges of the Prize, which is awarded for the year’s best unpublished short story, are Kate Clanchy, Barbara Jenkins and Derek Owusu.

Please read the press release for full details.

The RSL is grateful to Prospect for publishing the winning entry online.

The 2020 shortlist:

• Susan Clegg ‘Dogwood’
• Charlotte Derrick ‘Christmastime, Paracetamol, and Wine’
• Ciarán Folan ‘Spell’
• Ed Hogan ‘A Guide to Household Infestations’
• Sarah Zimmerman ‘Lexi’

Please read the press release for more information.

The 2020 longlist:

• Sheila Armstrong ‘Harlow’
• Terri Armstrong ‘Going Back’
• Eddie Bruce-Jones ‘The Last Cicadas’
• David Fisher ‘Grace’
• Habon Jama ‘The Smell of Rain’
• Rose McDonagh ‘Nightjar’
• Conor Montague ‘Distilling’
• Tope Owolabi ‘Luggage’
• Olivia Seligman ‘The Gap’
• Marion Valentine ‘Messages to Chip’
• Dolores Walshe ‘This Hamlet’

The winner will be announced on Tuesday 15 December.

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: [email protected].

For questions about awards and prizes, please contact Martha Stenhouse, General Manager, [email protected].

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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’