Judging panel: Julian Barnes, Tom Gatti, Jan Carson, Ardashir Vakil

Open to writers of all ages and backgrounds.

A postcard is a simple thing: image on one side, writing on the other. But the relationship between image and text can be complex and teasing. Postcards always tell a story of some kind and are often glimpses into larger stories, inklings of whole lives...

We invite you to submit an imaginative short story, piece of text, or poem (up to 250 words) in response to a postcard image. The text need not necessarily correspond to the image on the postcard (it may even be more interesting if it doesn’t, as with many of the postcards we do send).

Select one of the postcards below when submitting your entry.

All entries will be read by Redstone's editorial team and a selection of submissions will be published on our Substack here.

The shortlisted entries will be judged by our panel and three winners will be chosen.

The three winners will each receive:

A cash prize of £300
Publication of their story in The Observer
A place on an Arvon Foundation online masterclass

Closing date: 1 September 2026
Winners announced: 13 September 2026

Submit your entry via this form