The annual OutStanding Short Story competition provides a safe and supportive environment for both emerging and established writers to share their stories. Our Mission Statement • Hold an annual short story competition for the LGBTQIA+ community in Australia and New Zealand. • Provide a safe and supportive environment for both emerging and established writers to share our stories. • Increase the visibility of LGBTQIA+ writers in wider literary circles, and more broadly to enable LGBTQIA+ people to take our rightful place in the wider society. • Provide a space for the expression of LGBTQIA+ values, experiences, history and hopes. What We Do Our organisation contributes to building a resilient and strong LGBTQIA+ community by giving visibility to our stories, our creativity and our lives. We offer the opportunity for self-expression through fictional writing, the chance to share work with other writers, and the opportunity to reach a broad audience, particularly through our media partnerships and –ebook publishing projects. We also promote the development of excellent writing skills through our regular posts of quality materials on our Facebook page and our website. Our judges are well known in queer literary circles and they take their duties very seriously, looking for outstanding sparks of creative brilliance. Our History This competition has actually been around for quite some time. Originally curated by a small committee under the umbrella of Gay-ebooks, it then became Mardi Gras Short Story Competition for several years. In June 2013, with the blessing of Mardi Gras, we re-launched at Pride with a new name; OutStanding LGBTQIA+ Short Story Competition, and with Alex Greenwich (our local Member of Parliament) officiating at The Stonewall Bar and coming on board as our Patron.