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Scratch A4 Competition

Scratch A4 is bi-annual event. Ostensibly a competition for <1000 word stories, it works as a front for readers and writers to whoop it up together.

Submissions are open for Scratch A4 Summer '26... until midnight, 25th April!

To enter your < 1000 word story for the Summer '26 edition submit your story here!

The Judges are:

Gurnaik Johal - Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award.

Emily Fish - Emily Fish began her publishing career as an Agent's Assistant at Aitken Alexander Associates. After three years she moved into editorial at Faber, and now works at Hutchinson Heinemann, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Tom Conaghan - Publisher at Scratch Books.

Scratch A4 Summer '26 will be held in Soho on the evening of Saturday 6th June.

If your story is chosen in the shortlist of six, you will need to be able to get to London that evening - even if you're not shortlisted, we really do recommend you come along anyway for a night of wonderment and good cheer.

To get a sense of the brilliant stories that we've heard in previous years, have a read of this amazing lot...!

In the Winter 2025 event we heard pieces from...

Rebecca Klassen

Aoife O'Connell

Killian Faith-Kelly

Lucy Townsend

Rory McCarthy

Jon Stapley

In the Summer 2025 event we heard pieces from...

Zahin Towhid

Laura Besley

Elizabeth Potter
Laura Martens