These are the Rules for the 9 November 2025 event on the theme of BEAUTY. Information about How to Submit your stories is below the Rules.
We are currently closed for submissions but open on 10 August 2025
Please note that our submissions process ensures that our judges select the ten stories to be read without knowing the names of the writers
Rules for the Sunday 9 November beauty-themed event
- Submissions will be considered from writers who were born in Gloucestershire or South Gloucestershire, or who currently live, or work, or study, or are a member of a writers' group in either county
- There is no charge for submissions
- Stories may be previously published or unpublished
- One or two stories per writer may be submitted
- Writers must be 16 or over at the time of the event
- Sorry, poetry, plays, non-fiction and children's fiction will not be accepted
- No AI-generated stories please
- Submissions must be received by 23.59 on Sunday 21 September 2025
- Stories must be between 500 and 1,500 words (excluding the title)
- IMPORTANT - Stories must only be submitted by email and only to submissions.sss@gmail.com
- You must ensure that you are available for the event at the Cotswold Playhouse in Stroud on the evening of Sunday 9 November. Please do not submit if you are uncertain.
- Writers cannot appear in consecutive events, so if you read at the last one (Keep on Movin' in May 2025) you may not submit to this one
- Please do not title your story 'Beauty', 'The Beauty', 'Beauties', 'It's a Beauty', 'Beautiful' or 'All this Useless Beauty', although you may use any of these words in a longer title
- Although submissions are judged 'blind', no relatives/family members of the SSS organiser, administrator or judges may submit
- The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into. We're sorry but because of the number of submissions we receive we are not able to provide feedback on individual stories.
- If your story makes the Final Ten, SSS may suggest editorial changes to your story
- By submitting a story or stories to Stroud Short Stories you agree to receive information from us about our events and other local writing events. It's easy to unsubscribe if you later wish to. This is our Privacy Policy.
- By submitting a story or stories to SSS, if successful, you agree to our use of images and/or recordings of you from the event on the SSS website, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Instagram, etc.
- Please read 'How to Submit Your Stories' (below) before submitting. Obvious, I know - you'd be amazed...
- Please read our Writing Tips for advice on the types of stories we are looking for
How to Submit Your Stories
- Please read the Rules above before submitting
- IMPORTANT - Email your stories to submissions.sss@gmail.com
- Attach your story in WORD doc or docx format, and not in pdf or other formats please
- Please do NOT include any details about yourself on your story. Include only the title of your story and the word count on your story attachment. (It's fine to attach two stories to one email)
- In your covering email please include 1.your name, 2.your email address, 3.your phone number, 4.the title of your story or stories (for cross referencing), and 5.the name of your village, town or city, or your connection with Gloucestershire/South Gloucestershire if it is other than where you live (see Rule 1 above)
- The closing date for submissions is Sunday 21 September at one minute to midnight (23.59)
- The receipt of your submissions will be acknowledged electronically. If there is a problem of any kind we will be in touch and work with you to resolve it.
- When you have submitted your story (or stories), if you are not already a SSS subscriber, please subscribe to SSS here so we can inform you by email of the Long Listed and Short Listed titles - and finally of the Ten Stories we select. The Final Ten stories should be announced on Wed 1 October and certainty no later than Thursday 2 October (It's easy to unsubscribe at any point).
