We are celebrating our 25th anniversary by publishing a collection of stories!
Call for Entries:
We would love to receive your stories of fiction or non-fiction to be considered for inclusion.
We would especially like to hear from anyone with lived experience of forced displacement or those that work with and support refugees. Stories need to be in English, but English does not have to be your first language.
We welcome stories under the theme of our core values of “Compassion; Collaboration; and Courage”
Any writer included in the book will receive a free copy.
When we were founded in Bristol in 2002, Trauma Foundation South West was the first agency providing refugee trauma specialist support in the southwest of England. Copies of the published book will be sold to raise much needed funds, so that we can continue with our special work.
Please read our full guidelines for entry below before submitting your story.
If you have any questions, please reach out to us stories@tfsw.co.uk
Story Length: between 1500 and 5000 words. We’re not super strict on a few words either way, but please try to stay within these limits.
Format: doc, docx or Pages, 12-point Times New Roman or similar, A4 or Letter size, 1.5 or double spaced.
Entry fee: none.
Submission: via email attachment.
Language: Submissions in English, whatever English you write, even if English is not your first language or your story has been translated into English. We don’t like pornography, racism, sexism and a whole load of other prejudices but we do understand that sometimes a character may express unwelcome points of view.
Theme: “Compassion; Collaboration; and Courage”
Simultaneous submissions: yes, but let us know if your story is accepted elsewhere.
Previously published: no, not even on your own website, but something you’ve just shared with friends and family is fine.
What rights are you giving away? The authors retain all rights to their stories. By submitting a story authors grant a licence to Askance Publishing to publish their stories online and/or in print and to use all or part of a story to promote TFSW/Askance.
Please note that our publisher has stressed that if we do not receive sufficient entries of a high enough standard, then we may choose not to publish a book.
Entry Guidelines
Dates: You can submit your story from August 1st 2026 and we close for entries on October 1st 2026. If we are inundated, we reserve the right to close the selection early - so get your story to us early to avoid disappointment. Authors of selected stories will be notified by November 1st 2026.
What do we like?: We would especially like to hear from anyone with lived experience of forced displacement or those that work with and support refugees.
Ready to enter? Follow these simple rules.
1. Prepare your document containing only your story – no personal identifying information within the document, entry inclusion is judged blind.
2. Email TFSW email with the subject of your email as “Short Story Entry” followed by the title of your story. In the body of your email include your full name and address and attach your story document to the email (not in the body of the email please).
3.Please give your document the same name as the title of your story – it makes life a lot simpler!