Comma Press opens Dinesh Allirajah Prize 2027 Submissions
Comma Press and the University of Lancashire are delighted to announce that the Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction is once again open for submissions with the theme ‘Found Fiction’.
The Dinesh Prize was set up following the death of Comma’s much-loved director and founding board member, writer Dinesh Allirajah, in 2014. The prize aims to create a legacy out of Dinesh’s love for writing short story fiction during his lifetime.
Now in its tenth year, submissions will be open from August 13th, 2026 and will close on October 11th 2026. Following a rigorous longlisting and shortlisting process, the winner will be announced in May 2027.
This prize is open to both published and unpublished writers based in the UK, and aims to seek out the best established and up-and-coming voices in the form.
About the Theme
The theme for this year is Found Fiction. We are looking for work that uses found text as its format, mimicking real documents to tell a story. Found text is anything from letters to text messages, police reports to diary entries, newspaper articles to post-it notes. You can find a longer – but not exhaustive – list of possible forms here to inspire you.
Some examples of books written like this include: We Need to Talk About Kevin (told through letters), Bridget Jones' Diary (told through diary entries), Dracula (told through journal entries, letters, ship logs, telegrams, and various other media), Life on the Refrigerator Door (told through short notes).
These kinds of stories are also called ‘Hermit-crab’ stories, and you might find this description from Dan Brotzel useful when thinking about your story:
Hermit-crab stories are stories made from found verbal structures such as a shopping list, board game rules or FAQs or even a penalty charge notice [...] In writing these pieces, I tend to follow a similar process. Identify a verbal template that's easily recognisable from daily life, preferably something that's deeply non-literary (a user-manual, a recipe, a set of instructions, a product recall notification). Use it to tell an incongruous story, perhaps of grief or heartbreak or madness, while always respecting the constraints of the format' (Dan Brotzel)
Feel free to use obscure forms of found text, or to blend multiple in one story. The template doesn't necessarily have to be 'easily' recognisable to everyone, as long as the reader can work out what it is. Feel free to play with theme and genre - all we ask is that the entire story is told in an epistolary/found text format rather than traditional omniscient narration.
Submission Eligibility and Rules
The prize is open to anyone aged 18 years or over who is a resident of the UK, and the story submitted must not have been previously published anywhere else, online or in print.
The prize is free to enter. Please read the following rules carefully and ensure your document is correctly formatted before submitting:
Your story must be sent as a Word document. If your story is submitted as a pdf or in any other format it will not be submitted for judging
Your name must not be included on the document as entries are judged anonymously. The file name should be the title of your story. If Google Docs automatically adds your name to the file name please do not worry – this will be anonymised before submission to the judges. However, your name must NOT appear anywhere on the document itself.
Your story should be 1.5 spaced and include the word count somewhere on the document
Word count: 2,000 – 7,500 words
Your story should not contain any images, symbols or unconventional formatting
For legal reasons, your story should not contain any libellous, blasphemous or copyrighted material
Prize
The winning writer will receive £500 and all shortlisted authors will be featured in an eBook anthology which will be published by Comma Press and sold online.
NOTE ON AI USE FOR THE DINESH PRIZE
We will not accept any work that has been produced using generative AI. This includes but is not limited to: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft CoPilot and also Grammarly. To check your spelling and grammar please use Word. Comma Press and the University of Lancashire reserve the right to run entries through Turnitin and any stories that the system flags as having used generative AI will be examined by an Academic Integrity Lead from the University of Lancashire and may be excluded. This is in line with other writing awards and it is essential that we continue to champion writing by people that is uncontaminated by AI.
Once you have checked that your story is correctly formatted using the list above, please submit your entry via Google Form HERE. If you have any questions or issues with this, please get in touch on isabella.barber[at]commapress.co.uk
