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Scratch A4 Competition

Scratch A4 is a bi-annual Short Story competition for <1000 word stories. The six shortlisted writers are invited to read their stories at the amazing Scratch A4 final.

Submissions are opening in September for Scratch A4 Winter '26! The window runs from September 12 until midnight, 24th October.

The Judges are:

Leon Craig - Author of The Decadence (2025) and Parallel Hells (2022).

Mehar Anaokar - Editor at Serpent's Tail.

Tom Conaghan - Publisher at Scratch Books.

When it opens...

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

To enter our competition to read your story at Scratch A4, complete these two simple steps...

1) Buy this Contestant Entry ticket. You will receive a Confirmation email.

2) Forward this Confirmation email - attaching your <1000 word story - to ScratchA4entries@gmail.com

Please take your name off the document itself

Submissions close: Midnight Saturday 26th October

Scratch A4 Winter '26 will be held in London on the evening of Saturday 5th December.

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 Summer 2026 event we heard pieces from...

Lucy Kulwiec

David McGrath

Angélica Pina Lèbre

Jon Stapley

Daniel Key

Rosa Picard

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

Rebecca Klassen

Aoife O'Connell

Killian Faith-Kelly