BBC National Short Story Award is a British literary award for short stories. It was founded in 2005 by the NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) with support from BBC Radio 4 and Prospect magazine. The winner receives £15,000 for a single short-story. The award was originally known as 'National Short Story Award' and renamed to 'BBC' starting in 2008 to reflect the current sponsor.
The award has been called the richest prize in the world for a single short story, however the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award is greater at £30,000.
Normally the award is open to British authors only, in 2012 the award was opened to a global audience for one year only in honour of the 2012 Summer Olympics which were hosted in London.