A short story competition run by the Guardian and publisher 4th Estate is open for entries from unpublished writers of colour living in the UK.
The winner of the 4thWrite prize will receive £1,000, a one-day publishing workshop with 4th Estate and publication of their story on the Guardian website.
The prize, now in its seventh year, celebrates outstanding new fiction by Black, Asian and minority ethnic writers. Previous prize alumni include Guy Gunaratne, who later won the Dylan Thomas and Jhalak prizes for In Our Mad and Furious City, and Bolu Babalola, who went on to publish Love in Colour and Honey & Spice and is a judge for the 2023 award.
Babalola’s fellow judges include Cecile Pin, author of the Women’s prize-longlisted novel Wandering Souls; Kishani Widyaratna, editorial director at 4th Estate; Helena Lee, features director at Harper’s Bazaar; Justine Jordan, fiction editor at the Guardian; and Angelique Tran Van Sang, literary agent at Felicity Bryan Associates.
“I’m honoured to be taking part in the judging of the 4thWrite short story prize,” said Tran Van Sang. “I love the short story form, and have been so impressed by the calibre of writers that the competition has helped discover.”
“The prize offers a vital and important platform for the wealth of unsigned talent in writers of colour from across the UK and has become a firm fixture in the publishing calendar,” said Widyaratna.
Olivia Douglass won the 2022 prize for their short story, Ink, about a young woman encountering a childhood friend. “It’s an honour to be part of the lineage of writers that this fantastic prize has championed over the years,” they said. Other past winners include Gift Nyoni for his story The Ritual Seat of the King and Kandace Siobhan Walker for her story Deep Heart.
Entries for this year’s competition are open until 2 July 2023. The longlist will be announced on 9 August, with the shortlist announced on 26 September. The winner will be revealed in October at a prize ceremony in London. Submissions can be made at www.4thEstate.co.uk/prize, and full terms and conditions are available on the 4th Estate website. Any queries can be sent to 4thWritePrize@harpercollins.co.uk.
