Weatherglass Novella Prize 2025

Submissions open from Sept 12th 2024 to March 1st 2025

The winner(s) will be Chosen By Ali Smith

The winning novella(s) will be published by Weatherglass Books in 2025/26

The three titles above were commissioned from a short list of five.

Ali Smith

On judging the first year: “The shortlist, in totality, was one of the most pleasurable and exciting things I've read in quite some time.  The ways in which its writers dealt with the short-but-long / long-but-short constraints of the form; the problems and the opportunities that this gave them; and the remarkable standard of the writing from entry to entry made me wish that Weatherglass could publish the whole shortlist to remind the reading world that the novella form is a kind of marvel and show everyone that these writers have caught the shine and the life of it.”

Rules and Dates

  • Length: 20k-40k words, and not more than 200 pages. A novella is a slim volume.

  • Format: double-spaced; 12 font size, sans-serif; 2.5cm margins north, south, east and west; and page numbers at the bottom.

  • Submission window is open between September 12th 2024 to March 1st 2025

  • A maximum of 3 submissions per person.

  • Entry fee is £20 per submitted manuscript. Click here to enter.

  • If you are a full time student or receiving Universal Credit, please click here.

  • Entries will be read by the Weatherglass Editorial team

  • The short-list will then go to Ali Smith

  • All entries will be read blind, including the short-list

  • Shortlist will be announced Summer 2025; winner(s) 3 months later.

  • An advance of £500 will be paid to the winning author(s) and the winning entry(ies) will be published within 12 months of announcement

  • We reserve the right to commission any of the shortlisted novellas within 12 weeks after announcement of winner(s), and hold World Rights for the same period.

  • Please submit manuscript with a title page but without author name; include title of manuscript in covering email

  • If you want to keep up with Prize news, please subscribe to: https://weatherglass.substack.com