4thWrite

A short story competition run by the Guardian and publisher 4th Estate is open for entries from unpublished writers of colour living in the UK.The winner of the 4thWrite prize will receive £1,000, a one-day publishing workshop with 4th Estate and publication of their story on the Guardian website.The prize, now in its seventh year, celebrates outstanding new fiction by Black, Asian and minority ethnic writers. Previous prize alumni include Guy Gunaratne, who later won the Dylan Thomas and Jhalak prizes for In Our Mad and…

A story about a young woman encountering a childhood friend has won the 4thWrite short story prize for unpublished writers of colour.Olivia Douglass’s Ink concerns the reunion of the two friends that results in shared secrets unravelling. The author and judge Sara Collins said the story had her “in its grip from beginning to end and for a long while afterwards”, and was “exactly” what she looked for in a short story. A special commendation was awarded to End of the World by Dionne McCulloch, about a woman who, distressed…

Six “hugely compelling and vividly realised global stories” have been shortlisted for the 4thWrite prize.The prize, which is run by the Guardian and publisher 4th Estate, is a short story competition for unpublished writers of colour.This year’s shortlisted stories explore a mother-daughter relationship, a domestic child worker in Pakistan and a physics professor whose psyche splits in two.Kishani Widyaratna, editorial director at publisher 4th Estate, and a judge on this year’s prize, said the stories “are hugely…

The Guardian and publisher 4th Estate’s short story competition for unpublished writers of colour is open for entries for its sixth year.Previous winners of the 4thWrite prize, which was renamed in 2021, include Gift Nyoni, with his 2021 winner The Ritual Seat of the King, a story about a boy meeting his father for the first time, and Kandace Siobhan Walker, who won in 2019 for her story Deep Heart, a poignant exploration of kinship and community.The prize has an impressive list of alumni, with longlisted and shortlisted…