Edinburgh Flash Fiction Award
Full details
£2,000 prize for writers worldwide and stories on any topic up to 250 words.
We welcome stories in all genres: literary, historic, crime, romance, gritty realism, contemporary, humour and more. Anything that can be packed into 250 words that will transport us in an instant to weird, wonderful, tragic and dramatic moments in time.
Prizes:
First Prize: £2,000
Second Prize: £500
Third Prize: £250
Golden Hare Award: £500
Write Mango Flash Award: £300
5 Commendations £100 each
Publication is offered to authors of the top twenty stories (or more) in our next anthology.
Scottish Arts Club free membership for one year for 1st, 2nd, 3rd prize winners and the winner of the Golden Hare Award.
The Write Mango Flash Award is specialist award within the competition that celebrates those bizarre, quirky stories that can sometimes leave us laughing out loud. The Write Mango winner receives £300. Enter the Edinburgh Flash Fiction Award and tick the Write Mango box.
Golden Hare Award: We are especially thrilled with the success of the £500 Golden Hare Award, one of the specialist prizes in the competition, which every year brings Scottish talent to the fore. The award is presented to the top story entered in the competition by writer living in Scotland. Everyone living in Scotland will be considered for the Golden Hare as well as other awards.
Publication: The writers of at least twenty short-listed flash stories will be offered publication in our next anthology featuring a fabulous cover by Edinburgh-based artist Gordon Mitchell RSA. The top twenty includes the Golden Hare Award winner plus at least five of the top Write Mango stories. (Plus also the top 20 stories from the Edinburgh Short Story Award and all the short-listed True Flash stories.)
Flash Bash: All short-listed flash writers are invited to the Flash Bash, to be held at the Scottish Arts Club in Edinburgh on Saturday 21 February 2026 when the prize winners will be announced.
Entry Fee: The entry fee is £10.00 per story. The competition is managed by the Scottish Arts Trust, a registered charity that is primarily run by volunteers. All funds are used to support the arts in Scotland.
Flash Fiction Bursaries: Free entry is available for writers through our bursary scheme. Applications for Flash Fiction Bursaries are open from 1 May to 30 June 2025 . Apply Now
Judge Meg Pokrass will choose the prize-winners. Meg is a flash fiction mentor, early flash influencer and is the Flash Challenge Editor at Mslexia. Her flash fiction collections are widely taught and her stories have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines. Meg produces the popular Substack prompt newsletter, Pokrass Prompts, and a separate newsletter, Meg Pokrass Author & Teacher Newsletter, for flash writing discussions and ongoing writing-generative workshops. American born, she currently lives in Inverness, Scotland. Find Out More
Flash Fiction Rules
Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction Guidelines:
OPEN FOR ENTRIES: 1 May 2025
CLOSING DATE: 31 August 2025 at 23.59 UK Time
WORD LIMIT: 250 words (not including the title)
By 15 December 2025, all candidates will be contacted to let them know if they have made it to the short list.
2026 prizewinners will be announced during the Flash Bash held at the Scottish Arts Club in Edinburgh on Saturday 21 February 2026. The announcement of the winner will be announced on our website, via Facebook, Instagram, and through our newsletters Sign up for our newsletter here.
Prizes
FIRST PRIZE: £2,000 plus trophy and one year free membership of the Scottish Arts Club
SECOND PRIZE: £500
THIRD PRIZE: £250
THE GOLDEN HARE AWARD: £500 and one year free membership of the Scottish Arts Club
WRITE MANGO AWARD: £300 plus the mango trophy and one year free membership of the Scottish Arts Club.
Five Commendations awarded £100 each
Up to 20 shortlisted writers will be invited to participate in the annual Flash Bash at the Scottish Arts Club on Saturday 22 February 2025.
At least five flash mango stories will be shortlisted for the award, included in the overall shortlist for the international competition and offered publication in the anthology.
Scottish Arts Club free membership for one year for 1st, 2nd, 3rd prize winners and the winner of the Golden Hare Award.
Eligibility
The Edinburgh Flash Fiction Award is open to all writers worldwide, published and unpublished, who are over 16 years. Entries can be on any theme or subject but must be written in English. They must also be for adult readers.
Entries must not have been previously published in print or online, been broadcast or won a prize.
Simultaneous submission is permitted. Should your flash fiction story win a prize or be published elsewhere, please let us know so that we may remove your entry from the current award.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are not permitted in the creation of stories entered for the flash fiction awards. If a writer uses AI in the creation of a work that wins a prize, the writer will be liable to repay the prizemoney and to compensate the Scottish Arts Trust for time wasted and reputational damage.
No refunds are issued.
Format
Maximum length is 250 words. The title does not count as part of the 250 word limit.
Entries should be typed in a plain legible font.
Entries will be read and judged anonymously. Do not put your name, address, email, telephone number or any personal identifying information on any page of your document.
Acceptable file types are doc, docx, and pdf. No other format is accepted.
Submitting
We do not accept postal entries.
No corrections or alterations can be made after entries have been received. If you want to change the story you will have to submit a new entry.
Entry is open from 1 May to 31 August (11.59pm UK time)
You may submit as many entries as you wish.
All entries will be acknowledged through Submittable.
Payment and Free Entry
The entry fee is £10 per story.
The competition is administered through the Scottish Arts Trust, a registered charity in Scotland. All proceeds are used to support the arts in Scotland.
Applications for free entry through our bursary scheme are open from 1 May to 1 July 2025. Learn more here.
Copyright
The author will retain copyright to their story.
All authors will be asked for permission before any work is published on our website or in the anthology. We expect all prize-winning and commended authors to agree to publication.
All stories submitted must be entirely the author’s own work, and not infringe the copyright or any other rights of any third party and not be defamatory of any living person or corporate body.
Entries must be in the entrant’s own name/names, not pseudonymous (if successful, you can request use of an alternative name in the anthology and online).
We do not accept stories that have been created using AI.
General
Entry constitutes acceptance of all Edinburgh True Flash Award Rules, Terms and Conditions, and Privacy Policies.
Entries that fail to comply with rules, terms and conditions, privacy policies and requirements will be disqualified.
No correspondence can be entered into. Judges’ decisions are final.
“For me, the Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction is like the Oscar of the flash fiction world.”
Hannah Retallick, winner 2024 Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction
Bursary applications are open from 1 May to 30 June 2025.
Pokrass writes books you want on your nightstand to read not once, but again and again. Nin Andrews, author of Why God Is A Woman.
Write Mango Flash Award
Mango stories are fun, amusing, bizarre and as delicious as a mango. Stories can be up to 250 words. If your story is a ‘mango’ tick the box on the entry form. As well as being considered for the £300 Mango prize, your story will also be in the running for the £2,000 Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction. The Write Mango Flash Award is open to writers worldwide.
Golden Hare Award
The £500 Golden Hare Award is given to the top story entered in the Edinburgh Flash Fiction Awards by anyone over 16 years who is living or studying in Scotland. Stories can be on any topic up to 250 words. To apply for the Golden Hare Award simply enter your story in the Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction and on the entry form, tick the box that asks if you live in Scotland.
The Outlier by Allison Brisbane | Golden Hare Award Winner 2024
‘You’re sure this time?’
‘Reasonably sure, Captain.’
‘Listen up, Lieutenant Schnurgh, once I secrete our home coordinates there’s no returning to this utter butt-gusset of a planet for 117.2 light years. So, are you entirely sure you’ve definitively obtained a superior specimen of the highest life-form?’
‘Yes, Captain.’
‘Surer than when you obtained the previous specimens?’ the captain sneered, eyestalks swivelling towards a budgie, a coelacanth, and a Henry the Hoover.
‘Y…yes,’ stuttered Schnurgh, plasma glands leaching tendrils of mucus into orbit around his vestigial proboscis.
The captain raised a sceptical mandible. ‘Because…?’
’...having found the highest life-form, after anal probing of multiple samples to confirm the presence of brain-matter, I tested at global population level for superior processing ability.’
‘By…?’
‘...developing an algorithm to elicit the interest and participation of the most intelligent specimens.’
‘Then…?’
‘...ranking subjects who performed best to identify one whose cerebral acumen exceeded all others.’
‘And…?’
‘...beaming it aboard.’
‘Finally,’ muttered the captain, his carunculated sphincter puckering moistly above the navigation controls.
*****
Glasgow Evening Times: ‘Concern Grows for Missing Woman’
The distressed daughter of Mrs Thomasina McTurk (83) from Whifflet, told our reporter, ‘I rang Mum the night before but when I went round the next day, her glasses and the People’s Friend were lying on the chenille bedspread and she’d – disappeared. Hadn’t taken her teeth or slippers or anything. I’ll never forget the last thing she said, ‘Jeannie, guess what? That’s me, got the Wordle in two, again.’
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