Since its founding in 1732, The London Magazine has served as a vital organ for the short story in English, publishing early and established work by writers such as Jean Rhys, Raymond Carver, Virginia Woolf, and V. S. Pritchett. The annual Short Story Prize extends that lineage by seeking new voices whose fiction merits a place alongside this history. The prize is explicitly designed to support and celebrate emerging literary talent, offering writers from around the world a rare combination of publication and recognition within a magazine of longstanding critical authority. The 2026 edition will be judged by Camilla Grudova, Tim MacGabhann, and Ayşegül Savaş—three writers whose own work moves across speculative, reportorial, and philosophical registers. Their collective sensibility suggests a jury attentive to formal invention, emotional precision, and stories that resist easy categorization. Winning stories will be published in future issues of The London Magazine, and winners will receive cash prizes and be celebrated at a prize-giving ceremony at the end of the year. The prize is open to previously unpublished stories of no more than 4,000 words. There is no fee for the first entry for members; otherwise, the entry fee is £12 per story, with subsequent entries at £6, and a student/low-income rate of £6. This structure reflects the magazine’s commitment to access while sustaining the prize’s operations. For writers, the opportunity is not merely a contest but an introduction to a readership that has historically shaped the short story as a serious literary form.