This issue’s theme: Beginnings
Every story starts somewhere — the first day, the first step, the moment before anyone knows how things will turn out. That’s what we want this issue: beginnings in all their shapes. The nervous ones. The accidental ones. The ones nobody notices at the time, and only make sense looking back.
Write about a new start, a fresh chapter, a door opening onto something unknown — in your own life, a character’s, or somewhere entirely imagined. Perhaps it begins with a match struck in the dark, or an old matchbox turning up at exactly the right moment, its contents rattling with possibility.
Prompt: a matchbox
Categories
- Short story — up to 1,000 words
- Micro-fiction — up to 250 words
- Poetry — up to 40 lines
Choose one category, one entry each. All genres welcome, but please keep language and content suitable for a family readership.
Entries must be based on the published theme and include the prompt in some form to be valid.
Send entries to: submissions@lanchesterlit.co.uk
Deadline: 22nd November 2026
