Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize returns for second year

The Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize has returned for a second year, newly expanded, with partners across the world and a new residency in Andalucia.

Launched last year by the Desperate Literature bookshop in Madrid, the prize for innovative and experimental fiction was created "with the aim of giving a platform and a truck-load of opportunities to writers at an early stage in their career”, leading to more than 450 entries from 36 countries.

A residency in Andalucia has been added this year and prize partners span across Spain, UK, Paris, New York and India. The judges include writers Sam Riviere, Eley Williams and Claire Louise-Bennett.

The winner will receive €1,000 (£890) and a stay in the Civitella Ranieri Artist's Residency in Umbria, Italy as well as a consultation with a US Literary Agent from Foundry Literary + Media, and their story will be published and distributed at the Rizoma Film Festival in Spain.

The two runners-up will get €250 (£222), funded by The de Groot Foundation, and all the shortlisted entrants will be published in a booklet by Desperate Literature, and invited to read at the shop as well as in Shakespeare & Company (Paris), Burley Fisher Books (London), and The Second Shelf (London). They will be published in the award's partner journals Structo, 3:am Magazine, The London Magazine, The Second Shelf (female writers only), and Helter Skelter (India) and one will win a stay in the Casa Ana literary retreat in Andalucia (the selected author will be chosen by the residency).

"We feel that what makes this prize so different is that offers opportunities for all of the shortlisted authors to be published internationally in a number of great journals, and read at events across Europe in amazing locations, while the winner gets to stay in one of the most prestigious artist residencies in Europe,” a prize organiser said.

For more information, visit the prize website.