Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition

Open now for fiction.

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The Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition is an international competition for original unpublished mystery and crime short stories in English.

Submission calls

fictionMysteryEligibility requirementsCloses Jan 29, 2027Fee: £25 per storyPays: Winner: £500 and one year’s membership with the Crime Writers’ Association

Open to: Authors aged 18 or over on 1 January 2027; open to published and unpublished writers worldwide. Stories must be originally written in English, previously unpublished, not previously shortlisted for this competition or winners of another competition, and must not contain any AI-generated writing.

The 2027 competition is open from 1 September 2026 until 6pm GMT on Friday 29 January 2027. It seeks original, previously unpublished short stories in English of up to 3,500 words, especially mystery, crime fiction, detective fiction, and Golden Age-inspired stories. Entry fee is £25 per story. The…

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