The Republic of Letters Short Story Competition 2026

The Republic of Letters Short Story Competition 2026 is currently open for submission. According to the organisers, there will be three winning pieces

About The Republic of Letters Short Story Competition 2026

The Republic of Letters Short Story Competition 2026 is currently open for submission. According to the organisers, there will be three winning pieces.

Also Read: Writing Competitions in 2026 (Open to writers worldwide)

The first winner will receive a $500 cash prize. The piece will be published on The Republic of Letters and read aloud at The Republic of Letters’ launch party.

The final deadline for story submissions is March 1. 

Submission Guidelines 

We’ll likely cap submissions at 100 stories so let that be extra incentive to get the stories in earlier. Please send all submissions to republic.of.letters.substack@gmail.com with “Short Story” in the subject line. Please send as a Word or Pages document or similar and without your name in the attached file.

Short stories are defined as any work of fiction or imagination. There’s no word limit, but just keep it together guys. ~5,000 words is a reasonable target. 10,000 words is pushing things. Use of AI in submissions is grounds for disqualification.

The official information page.