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Rhys Davies Short Story Competition

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The Rhys Davies Short Story Competition is a distinguished national writing competition for writers born or living in Wales. Originally established in 1991, we are delighted to manage this prestigious award on behalf of The Rhys Davies Trust and in association with Parthian Books.

About Rhys Davies

Rhys Davies as a young man

Born in Blaenclydach, near Tonypandy in the Rhondda, in 1901, Rhys Davies was among the most dedicated, prolific, and accomplished of Welsh prose-writers in English. With unswerving devotion and scant regard for commercial success, he practised the writer’s craft for some fifty years, in both the short story and the novel form, publishing in his lifetime a substantial body of work on which his literary reputation now firmly rests. He wrote, in all, more than a hundred stories, twenty novels, three novellas, two topographical books about Wales, two plays, and an autobiography. 

Continued...

In 1967 he won the Edgar, a prize awarded by the Mystery Writers of America, for a collection of stories, The Chosen One (1967), and in 1968 he was admitted to the Order of the British Empire. In 1971 he was given the Welsh Arts Council’s principal prize for his distinguished contribution to the literature of Wales, but could not be persuaded to attend the reception in Cardiff. He died in a London hospital on 21 August 1978.

‘As Wales’ pre-eminent short story writer it’s appropriate that the name of Rhys Davies should be attached to the latest contest for works in this much neglected form. The competition, which began in 1991, has encouraged a whole range of new writers to test out how best to manage something that’s often more substantial than a poem but nowhere near the long distance of the novel. As culture moves ever towards the swifter and the more concise, we are delighted to support the relaunch of this national competition.’ - Peter Finch, Secretary, Rhys Davies Trust

Awards

  • 1st Prize - £1,000 sterling and publication in a short story anthology to be published by Parthian Books in 2025.

  • 11 x Runners-up/Finalist Prizes - £100 each and publication in a short story anthology to be published by Parthian Books in 2025.

How to enter

Open for entries: THURSDAY 28th NOVEMBER 2024
Deadline for receipt of entries: FRIDAY 14th FEBRUARY 2025 AT MIDNIGHT

How to enter:

  1. Read the Entry Rules, Terms and Conditions - 2025 Rhys Davies Short Story Competition
  2. Pay the entry fee and receive your unique reference number CLICK HERE. For details of eligibility for free entry, please consult the terms and conditions
  3. Please complete the entry form CLICK HERE.

 

Competition Guidelines FAQs

a photo of Cynan Jones from the chest up. He is wearing a dark sweater and is stood in front of a stone wall. Sunlight is casting a shadow across the right side of his face.

We are delighted to announce that Cynan Jones will be guest judge for the 2025 competition

Cynan Jones is from near Aberaeron, on the west coast of Wales. His acclaimed fiction, which includes five novels and numerous short stories, has appeared in over 20 countries, and in journals and magazines including Granta, Freeman’s and the New Yorker. He also writes for screen, has written a collection of tales for children, and a number of stories for BBC Radio, including the twelve-story collection Stillicide. He has been longlisted and shortlisted for numerous awards, and won, among other prizes, the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize, a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award, and the BBC National Short Story Award. His short story collection, Pulse, is forthcoming from Granta Books in November 2025.

Website: www.cynanjones.net

2024 Winner - Tanya Pengelly

Image of Tanya Pengelly - 2024 winner of the Rhys Davies Short Story Competition along with front cover of the award anthology 'A Dictionary of Light'

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'A Dictionary of Light' - Rhys Davies Short Story Award Anthology

Front cover image of 'A Dictionary of Light'