The Frazzled Lit Short Story Award 2026 Gold Star Program Gold Star

The Frazzled Lit Short Story Award 2026 will be judged by Donal Ryan, and is open for entries from June 1st until June 30th 2026.

Donal Ryan has published seven number-one bestsellers, plus a short story collection. He has won many awards for his work, including the European Union Prize for Literature, the Guardian First Book Award and six Irish Book Awards, and has been shortlisted for many more, including the Costa Book Award and the Dublin International Literary Award.

He was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2013 for his debut novel, The Spinning Heart, and in 2018, for his fourth novel, From A Low and Quiet Sea. The Spinning Heart was voted Irish Book of the Decade in 2016.

In 2021 Donal became the first Irish writer to be awarded the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature. His most recent novel, Heart Be at Peace, won both Novel of the Year and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, and was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Nero Book Awards. His work has been adapted for stage and screen and translated into over twenty languages.

Donal is an Associate Professor in the Creative Writing programme at the University of Limerick.

RULES AND TERMS & CONDITIONS

The competition

1. The Frazzled Lit Short Story Award will be judged by international award-winning author Donal Ryan, who will pick the winners from the final six stories selected by our editors and peer reading team.

2. Prizes are as follows:

1st prize: € 1,000

2nd prize: € 500

3rd prize: € 300

3. The final six stories will be published in a special edition of Frazzled Lit (Issue 5), and will be eligible for future Pushcart and Best Of The Net nominations. Shortlisted and highly commended stories will have the option of being published in the same issue.

4. The competition opens at 00:01 hrs GMT on June 1st 2026.

5. The competition closes at 23:59 hrs GMT on June 30th 2026.

6. All stories submitted to the competition will be blind-read.

1. This is an international competition, and is open to writers in every part of the world, but please note that all entries must be in English. Note that you may use non-English words or phrases in your story, provided that English is the primary language used.

2. Writers submitting to this competition must be 18 years of age or over at the time of submission.

3. The entry fee must be paid for each single story (€12 fee) or group of stories (€21 for two stories, €31 for three stories) submitted, unless you have been awarded free entry to the competition (see above).

4. Entries must not have been previously published or broadcast in any form, and must not have won any previous competitions.

5. This is an unthemed competition, and we are happy to read work on any theme and subject, provided it is not racist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, ableist, or hateful towards any person or group. Further, we do not wish to read anything that is gratuitously violent or erotic, or contains excessive gore. Animal cruelty of any sort is not acceptable to us.

6. Stories generated using AI or for which AI has been used to help in their creation will be disqualified, and no refund of the entry fee will be given.

7. It is a condition of the competition that the six finalists agree to allow publication of their competition entries in Issue 5 of Frazzled Lit. Failure to comply with this condition will exclude your story/stories from the list of competition finalists.

8. Shortlistees, and writers of stories that are highly commended in the competition, will be given the option to have their story published in Issue 5 of Frazzled Lit.

1. All submissions must be made via Duosuma. We will not accept entries sent to us via email.

2. You may enter as many stories as you like, provided the entry fee is paid for each story or group of stories submitted. There is an entry fee of €12 for one story, €21 for two stories, and €31 for three stories. If, for example, you wish to submit five stories, use the option to submit two stories, then the option to submit three stories.

3. All stories submitted to the competition must be in English.

4. Stories must be between 750 and 2,000 words, excluding title.

5. Stories should be in Times New Roman 12 pt, and one-and-a-half or double spaced.

6. The file name must be the name of your story, or if the story is untitled, the first five words from the opening line of the story. DO NOT include your name in either the story document or the document file name.

7. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please let us know as soon as possible if your story is accepted or shortlisted elsewhere.

8. You may provide a brief bio (up to 50 words) with your submission if you wish, but we won’t read it until winners have been selected.

9. Entry to the competition will implicitly indicate your acceptance of all Rules and Terms & Conditions for the Frazzled Lit Short Story Award 2026.

1. Frazzled Lit holds first serial publication rights for three months after publication. This means that by accepting publication, writers agree not to publish, authorise or permit the publication of any part of the material for three months following first publication by Frazzled Lit.

2. For reprints, we ask only that you credit us as the first publication.

1. Depending on the number of submissions we receive, we hope to announce the longlist by the end of July 2026 or earlier, with the shortlist two weeks later, and the final six stories shortly thereafter.

2. Winners will be announced by the end of August, with prize money being sent out to the winners via PayPal within two weeks of the announcement.

1. We are committed to protecting your data privacy, and won’t ask you to provide private information unless we absolutely need it for the operation of the competition.

2. We won’t share your private information with anyone, unless we are required to do so by law.

3. We won’t store your information for longer than is necessary for us to carry out operations connected with the Frazzled Lit Short Story Award 2026.

1. While we hope it won’t be necessary, Frazzled Lit reserves the right to extend the deadline or cancel the competition in the event that we do not receive enough entries to make up the prize fund plus costs. If we cancel the competition, we will refund entry fees for all eligible stories.

2. Frazzled Lit reserves the right to alter the Rules and Terms & Conditions of the competition without prior notice, as the editors of Frazzled Lit deem necessary for fairness, and the smooth running of the competition.

3. Errors and omissions in the Rules and Terms & Conditions for the competition are excepted.