Wolvercote Short Story Competition 2026
As part of Wolvercote Literary Festival, on the final day of the 2026 Wolvercote & Wytham Mid-Summer Festival, OxIA (Oxford Independent Authors) is launching the Wolvercote Short Story competition, to encourage creative engagement with reading and writing among aspiring writers across the area.
Theme
The theme of the 2026 Wolvercote and Wytham Mid-Summer Festival is ‘Threads’, and we encourage writers submitting short stories to engage with this theme. A few example titles are suggested below, to help in this, but writers may use any theme and any title they wish.
Suggested ‘Threads’-related titles:
- A Slender Thread
- Common Threads
- Threadbare
- Threads Between Generations
- Unravelling Threads
Age classes
- 11 or under: maximum word-count 250
- 12 to 17: maximum word-count 500
- 18 and over: maximum word-count 1000
Closing Date
The deadline for entries is 6pm on 5th June 2026. Early submissions welcome.
Judging
Entries in each age-group will be judged by a team of experienced writers and teachers with expertise relevant to that group, using predefined evaluation criteria.
The judging panel will be chaired by the deputy chair of OxIA, and will include specialists in children’s, teen/YA and adult fiction.
Full details of how to enter will be provided here soon. Meanwhile please direct enquiries to shortstory@oxia.org.uk.