Inclusive Voices

2026 Short Story Competition

Celebrating the power of empathy

Our short story competition came back once again for the National Year of Reading, celebrating creativity, accessibility and diverse storytelling.

This year, we teamed up with EmpathyLab to inspire the theme – stories that are based around empathy; exploring what it means to understand and share another person's feelings.

2026 winners

Prizes

There were prizes given for the top three places in each age category. See the Terms and Conditions for full details.

We were thrilled to have been able to offer some of these prizes courtesy of our partners.

Judges

Calibre Audio’s panel of judges include award-winning authors, accessibility advocates and Calibre Audio staff.

The judges assessed entries based on originality, creativity, use of theme and authentic representation.

Partners

Our partners have made our short story competition possible through their fantastic contributions.