We’re thrilled to announce details of our annual crime writing short story competition. In it’s fourth year, the competition offers new and aspiring writers an opportunity to explore the darker sides of life for an opportunity to win a weekend pass to the Bloody Scotland Festival and £1,000, one of the largest prizes available in a short story competition of this kind.

As well as being a key feature of the Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival, the Bloody Scotland Short Story Competition is a fantastic opportunity for emerging writers with past shortlistees and winners of the award going on to acquire literary agents and publish novels.

Each year we set a theme for the competition to get those creative juices flowing and with this year being the 125th anniversary of Agatha Christie entries should have a nod to Christie’s work. We invite writers to interpret the theme in a variety of ways, but the story must be crime themed.

Submissions of up to 3,000 words of unpublished work are invited from new and unpublished writers from all over the world, but entries must be written in English. Writers are welcome to submit as many stories as they wish, but there is an entry fee of £10 for each story submitted. The deadline for submissions is midnight on Monday 27th July 2015.

Click here to visit the competition page with further details and an entry form.