Matt Kendrick
Writer | Editor | Teacher
The Welkin Genre Prize
The Welkin Genre Prize is a competition for microfiction up to 100 words that aims to celebrate writing around different genres and themes. For 2026, the categories are:
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The "Earth" Prize - writing about landscape and the environment, or about the human connection with the earth
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The "Joy" Prize - joyful or humorous writing
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The "Body" Prize - writing about the human body or writing that engages in the theme of illness or disability
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The "History" Prize - writing that takes us into the past, whether that be a real past or an alternate history
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The "Firefly" Prize - writing with a speculative bent (fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian, ghost stories, and horror)
Like the "general" prize, the "genre" prize is free to enter and aims to be a welcoming space for all writers. The competition is open to all forms of narrative prose (fiction and non-fiction), be that flash fiction, short-short, vignette, haibun, hermit crab, prose poem or work that sits outside such labels. There is a whole universe (or welkin) of possibilities.
The competition will open for entries on the 1st June 2026 with a deadline of 15:00 GMT on the 30th June 2026. Details and rules can be found below.
Judges
Each genre will be judged by a different superstar judge. For 2026, the judges are as follows.
CHRIS COTTOM
Judge for the "Joy" Prize
Chris Cottom lives near Macclesfield, UK. He’s packed Christmas hampers in a Harrods basement, sold airtime for Radio Luxembourg, and served a twelve-year stretch as an insurance copywriter. He liked the writing job best. Find him at chriscottom.wixsite.com/chriscottom
SUSMITA BHATTACHARYA
Judge for the "History" Prize
Bio coming soon
SUMITRA SINGAM
Judge for the "Body" Prize
Sumitra Singam is a queer, neurodiverse Malaysian-Indian-Australian coconut who writes in Naarm/Melbourne. Her work has been published widely, nominated for a number of Best Of anthologies, and was selected for BSF 2025. She works as a psychiatrist and trauma therapist and runs workshops on how to write trauma safely. Bluesky: @pleomorphic2 & sumitrasingam.squarespace.com
MYNA CHANG
Judge for the "Firefly" Prize
Myna Chang is the author of The Potential of Radio and Rain. Her writing has been selected for Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, and WW Norton’s Flash Fiction America. She hosts Electric Sheep SF and publishes MicroVerse Recommended Reading. Find her at MynaChang.com or on Bluesky at @MynaChang.
MATT KENDRICK
Judge of the "Earth" Prize
Matt Kendrick is a writer, editor and teacher based in the East Midlands, UK. His work has been featured in various journals and anthologies including Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, Craft Literary, Fractured Lit, and the Wigleaf Top 50. He lives with a chronic imagination as well as a chronic illness called Trevor.
Prizes
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Prize amounts will be announced in due course.
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Payment of prizes will be via Paypal. Where a winner is unable to accept payment via Paypal (because of geographic location or otherwise), payment in kind will be offered in the form of vouchers for my editorial services.
Entry Fee
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This competition is free to enter. Each writer may only submit one piece in each genre and a maximum of three pieces (total) across all genres.
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Writers who feel in a position to do so may opt to donate a “coffee” on my Ko-fi page. These donations will be used to fund website, email, administrative and editorial costs, as well as the competition prize pots.
Key Dates
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The competition is open for entries from 1st June 2026.
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The deadline for entries is 30th June 2026 at 15:00 GMT. Entries received after this date will not be eligible.
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The longlists will be announced on the 8th July 2026.
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The shortlists will be announced on 11th July 2026.
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Non-winning shortlisted pieces will be published from 12th July 2026 onwards.
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The winners will be announced from 27th July 2026 onwards.
Criteria
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Entries must be no more than 100 words. Titles are not included in the word count. There is no minimum requirement. Word count will be checked using Microsoft Word.
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Entries should be written in English. However, all variants and dialects of English are welcome.
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The competition is for micro fiction or creative non-fiction. Vignettes and genre fiction are welcome. Traditional poetry or essays are unlikely to be successful.
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Entries will be judged against their connection to the theme or genre. Writers are open to interpret these as they see fit.
Eligibility
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Entrants must be 18 years or over on the closing date.
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This is an international competition open to entrants from all countries.
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Entries must not have been previously published or accepted for publication, either online or in print, prior to the announcement of results. This includes blogs and personal websites.
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As the competition is being organised by Matt Kendrick, pieces written and shared on his Write Beyond the Lightbulb courses are not eligible; nor are pieces that have been sent to Matt for feedback or line edits.
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Entries which are deemed to be racist, sexist, homophobic, or ableist will be disqualified.
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Entries must be the sole work of the entrant. Any pieces that are deemed to have plagiarised existing work or breached copyright (e.g. by use of song lyrics) will be disqualified and will become ineligible for any prize monies.
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The use of AI in the writing of entries is strictly prohibited.
Format
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Entries must not include your name, address, email, telephone number or any other personal information.
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Entries should use Arial, 14pt font and should be single-spaced***.
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The filename of your entry should be the title, punctuation removed. If your title is longer than five words, please only use the first five words. If your entry is untitled, please use the first five words of the piece itself.
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***PLEASE NOTE: If you need to format your piece differently for accessibility reasons, please feel free to do so. This will not affect the judging of your piece.
Judging Process
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Entries will be judged on their individual merits.
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All entries will initially be judged by Matt Kendrick. The judges named above will then take over after the longlists have been selected.
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The longlist in each genre will consist of ten stories.
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The shortlist in each genre will consist of four stories.
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The judges' decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into.
Publication of Results
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The longlist, shortlist and winners’ announcements will be posted to this website on the above dates.
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Competition entrants will be notified in a BCC email at each of the above stages to let them know that a results update has been published. Please note that individual feedback on unsuccessful entries will not be possible.
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Winning authors will be contacted regarding their prizes as soon as practicable after the winners’ announcement.
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Payment of prizes will be via Paypal. Where a winner is unable to accept payment via Paypal (because of geographic location or otherwise), payment in kind will be offered in the form of vouchers for my editorial services.
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All shortlisted entries will be published on this website. By entering the competition, writers agree to publication. The competition organiser reserves the right to suggest edits prior to publication – the author will be consulted on any proposed changes.
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Authors will retain all rights and copyright to their works. The Welkin Writing Prize requests one-time, non-exclusive rights and non-exclusive electronic archival rights to show your work indefinitely on this site.
Enter
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Entry is via Google form. If you wish to enter but do not have a Google account, you may send your entry via email to welkinprize@gmail.com. However, if you do have a Google account, it would be appreciated if you could use the Google form to reduce admin time on behalf of the competition organiser.
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If entering by email, please make it clear which "genre" you are entering.
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If using the Google form, please carefully check your email address before submitting your entry.
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Please note that you will NOT receive a confirmation email.
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Each writer may only enter one piece at a time. If that piece is declined, you may then enter a new piece in its place.
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Simultaneous submissions are accepted. However, please notify the competition organiser if your piece is accepted elsewhere.
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No alterations post-entry will be accepted.
