Welcome to the New Writers Flash Fiction Competition 2025. Open to writers from around the world, we’re offering an increased top prize of £1,100. The deadline is Friday 31st January 2025 and £1.00 from each entry will be donated to First Story (see here for details of the charity’s work).
Read the details below, read our Frequently Asked Questions, or check out the fantastic winners of the 2022 Flash Fiction Competition and the 2024 Flash Fiction Competition. We also have a great Q&A with our head judge Shreya Sen-Handley.
Alternatively, head straight to the ENTRY FORM to submit your entry or entries.
New Writers Flash Fiction Competition 2025 – At A Glance:
- Deadline: 23.59 (UK time) on Friday 31st January 2025
- Entry Fee: £10 (one entry), £19 (two entries), £27 (three entries)
- Prizes: 1st Place: £1,100; 2nd Place: £300; 3rd Place: £200
- Head Judge: Shreya Sen-Handley (Author, Columnist, Playwright and Illustrator)
- Publication: The three winning entries will be published on the NewWriters.org.uk website and in a future New Writers Anthology
- Word Limit: 300 (excluding title and line spaces)
- Charity: £1 from each entry will be donated to First Story (England’s leading creative writing charity for young people)
- Please read the full Flash Fiction Competition Terms & Conditions before entering.
- Low Income Entries: We want to make the competition accessible to as many writers as possible. We have therefore funded a limited number of free entries for low-income writers. These are available on a first-come, first-served basis (though no later than 15th January 2025, one entry per person). Please see the terms and conditions for details.
- Winners and authors who have made the shortlist will be notified by email no later than Friday 28th March 2025. The announcement of winners and shortlisted entries will also be made no later than this date.
Head Judge: Shreya Sen-Handley
Shreya Sen-Handley is an accomplished and versatile author, illustrator, playwright, and journalist. Currently working on her fourth book (to be published by Penguin in 2026), her previous works include three books with HarperCollins: the award-winning Memoirs of My Body* (2017), the acclaimed short story collection Strange* (2019), and the bestselling travelogue Handle With Care* (2022). Her books have received notable recognition, with Handle With Care being presented to The Queen by the National Literacy Trust in 2024 and Memoirs of My Body being named a UNESCO Cities of Literature Best Read in 2017.
Shreya was the first South Asian woman to write for an international opera, co-writing the Welsh National Opera’s Migrations (2022), which was lauded by The Times and The Guardian as one of the best shows of the year. Her play Quiet premiered in London in 2021, alongside work by Hanif Kureishi. In addition to her books, Shreya’s short fiction, poetry, and essays have been published widely and have been integral to British social justice campaigns.
Her varied career has spanned television journalism for CNBC and MTV, music video production for MTV, and writing for prominent international publications such as National Geographic, The Guardian, and Times of India. She has also taught creative writing at the Universities of Cambridge, Nottingham, Calcutta and Punjab and is a writer-in-residence for First Story, the UK’s leading creative writing charity (to whom New Writers donate a proportion of competition entry fees). Shreya lives in Sherwood Forest, England, with her family, and continues to engage audiences through her books, columns, and media appearances, while illustrating for major publishers and participating in international literary festivals.
Website: shreyasenhandley.com | Twitter/X: @shreyasenhan | Instagram: @shreyasenhan
*Please note, if you click through the book links on this page and make a purchase, NewWriters.org.uk will receive a small (very small!) payment, and at no cost to the purchaser. Of course, if you’d prefer to find a copy in your local independent bookshop instead, we’d certainly support that. Thank you.
