V. S. Pritchett Short Story Prize
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The annual prize of £1,000 goes to the best unpublished short story of the year.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 2021 Prize
We are now closed to entries for the 2021 Prize. The winner will be announced in December.
This year’s judges are Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, Paul McVeigh and Emma Jane Unsworth.
We are grateful to ALCS for supporting this year’s Prize and to Prospect magazine online for publishing the winning entry.
The 2020 Prize
Kate Lockwood Jefford won the 2020 V. S. Pritchett Short Story Prize with ‘Picasso’s Face’.
The 2020 judges were 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.
For questions about awards and prizes, please contact Martha Stenhouse, General Manager, [email protected].
Past recipients (click the links to read the story on Prospect Magazine)
| 2020 | Kate Lockwood Jefford | ‘Picasso’s Face‘ |
| 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’ |
