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Virago has launched the Furies short story competition as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations this year.
The competition offers one unpublished writer from an underrepresented background the chance to be published in an anthology alongside bestselling, award-winning writers including Margaret Atwood and Kamila Shamsie, as well as a cash prize of £1,500 and mentoring.
Virago kicked off its 50th anniversary celebrations with the publication of Furies, a short story collection from 15 award-winning and bestselling authors, each of whom has written an original story inspired by a synonym of "virago": Margaret Atwood’s "Siren", Kamila Shamsie’s "Churail", Chibundu Onuzo’s "Warrior", and many more.
The prize will be awarded to the best original short story by an eligible writer which fulfils the same brief set the Furies authors.
It is is open to entries from people of underrepresented genders and women who are from Black, Asian, mixed heritage, and multiple-ethnic groups; part of the LGBTQIA+ community; neurodiverse; have a disability; self-identify as working-class individuals or are from a working-class background.
Entrants must be aged 18 or over, resident in the UK and must not have an agent at the time of entering the competition nor have had any book or short story previously published by a publisher or self-published in whole or in part in any format or be under a contract to have their work published in any form or format.
The competition is not open to employees of the publisher or United Agents Limited, their families, or to anyone professionally connected to the competition or connected to the judges either themselves or through their families. The winner will have their story published in the paperback and e-book editions of Furies in spring 2024, as well as receive a cash prize and a mentoring session with a Virago editor.
The shortlisted stories will be judged by a panel of writers, agents and editors: Monica Ali, Claire Kohda, Kirsty Logan, Laura Macdougal (literary agent at United Agents), Sarah Savitt (Virago publisher) and Alexa Allen-Batifoulier (Virago assistant editor).
The competition launches on 28th April 2023 and the deadline is 1st July 2023. The shortlisted writers and the overall winner will be announced by 1st October 2023, and the prize-winning story will be published in the Furies paperback and e-book in spring 2024. The competition is supported by Hachette’s Future Bookshelf and Hachette’s Gender Balance Employee Network.
Sarah Savitt, publisher, and Alexa Allen-Batifoulier, assistant editor, said in a joint-statement: “The theme for Virago’s 50th anniversary is, with a nod to our iconic bitten-by-Eve apple logo, passing the apple – we are celebrating the past but also looking forward to the next 50 years of feminist writing, reading and publishing. This competition grew out of that theme and we hope and believe we’ll find a new writer with a bright future.”