International Writing Competition and you don’t have to be even a little bit Scottish…

The Highlands and Islands Short Story Association are running their annual competition again this year. Enties are welcome from all over the world and you or your entry don’t need to have any connection to Scotland. However, they do say:

We enjoy both conventional and unusual story lines, and positively encourage the latter

This is a competition for amateur writers, in other words people who don’t earn their living from writing and who are not professionally published in any major capacity.

There are two competitions running – one for short stories (maximum word count 2000) and one for flash fiction (maximum word count 500 words)

Both have a first prize of £250, second prize is £50 and third prize is £25. There also have the same entry fee: £5 per story, £12 for three entries.

You can enter online, by email or post, and send a mixture of Flash Fiction and Short Stories.

DEADLINE: July 31st 2017

You can read last year’s winning entries and the full set of rules online.

Good luck and don’t forget to obey all the terms and conditions – including the ones about the size of font, where you name should go and if you can staple the pages of a postal entry together. (Don’t.)