The Scottish Arts Trust manages annual short story and flash fiction competitions. All our readers are volunteers. We are seeking applications from anyone who loves reading and who would like to join our readers register. We are especially interested in increasing the diversity of our readers. The primary qualifications are a love of short fiction and a willingness to debate, listen, learn, and promote the stories you love. 

It takes 5/6 months (January to July) to get through all the short stories, and about 4 months for flash fiction (September to December). Stories go through about five rounds of readings…in the final meeting the readers review the remaining stories and decide which should be shortlisted and sent to the chief judge who chooses the winner.

Ian Rankin is the chief judge for the short story competition. The flash fiction competition is judged by Zoe Strachan and Louise Welsh.

Readers can live anywhere. The discussions often happen via zoom but if you can get to a face to face meeting in Edinburgh that is great.

For further information, please visit our website

Deadline: Tuesday 31 May 2022 at 23:55