Author: Peter

I'm a retired civil servant in Surrey, UK. and long-time blogger at Conscious Entities. These days I'm spending more time writing stories and doing other creative stuff

February 2024 Competitions

January 22, 2024

Here once again is a selection of writing competitions I might enter with deadlines in February.

  • The Jim Baen Memorial prize is for positive, realistic  stories about space exploration in the near future. Up to 8,000 words are required, it’s free and the winner gets an award, publication, and 8 cents per word on publication. The deadline is 1 February
  • The Prototype Prize, for UK or Ireland entrants only, seeks a book-length work, especially one at the intersection of literary or artistic forms. It’s free to enter, the deadline is 1 February and you could win £3,000
  • The Porterhouse Review wants stories up to 8,000 words. They should be ‘emotionally affecting, haunting, bizarre, and in firm control of the machinations of storytelling’.$10 to enter, a prize of $750, and again the deadline is 1 February.
  • The Writers and Artists Yearbook want up to 2.000 words and it’s free to enter. You could win a place on an Arvon course and online publication. Stories must be on the theme ‘Risk’ Enter by 12 February
  • The Mary McCarthy prize from Sarabande Press wants 150-200 pages. The entry fee is $29, with the top prize being $2,000 plus publication. The deadline is 15 February.
  • Brink literary journal wants hybrid (or cross-genre) stories – but not avant garde experimental writing. It’s $22 to enter and the deadline is again15 February.
  • The Elmbridge Literary Competition has a theme of ‘Fame’ and a word limit of 1,500. £5 to enter (by 23 February), with a £250 prize.
  • Stringybark needs stories with a link to Australia (but it could be as little as a Vegemite sandwich). Up to 1,500 words: A$15 to enter and a prize of A$500. The deadline is 25 February.

All the rest have a deadline of 29 February.

  • Exeter Writers are back, looking for up to 3,000 words: a £7 entry fee might get you a £700 prize.
  • The Grace Paley competition from AWP looks for 150-300 pages, with an entry fee of $30. The top prize is $5,500, plus publication.
  • Bridge House want up to 5,000 words on the theme ‘Good News’: not really a competition as such but an invitation to submit; still, the selected work will be published and paid royalties.
  • Letter Review is looking for up to 5,000 words for a top prize of $600 ($20 entry fee).
  • NOWW (the Northern Ontario Writers’ Workshop) wants 2,000-3,500 words. It’s $CA10 to enter and top prize is $CA150.
  • The Edinburgh Short Story Award from the Scottish Arts Trust accepts up to 2,000 words: £10 entry and the prize is £3,000.

Good luck – if you get anywhere with these, do let me know!

January 2024 Competitions

December 21, 2023

Some writing competitions I might enter with deadlines in January. No pretence of being a comprehensive list..

  • If you’re quick you can still enter the Exeter Novel Prize – deadline 1 January. They require your first 10,000 words and a synopsis: £20 to enter, with a prize of £1,000.
  • Then there’s the Disquiet Literary Prize. 25 pages max, entry $15, prize $1,000, and for this one you’ve got until 5 January.
  • If 25 pages is too much, The Page Is Printed wants just one side of A4. £5 to enter, prize £100 and the deadline is 14 January.
  • The Georgia Review will accept up to 9,000 words, and for an entry fee of $30 offers a top prize of $1,500. The deadline is 15 January.
  • The Cai Emmons prize from Redhen needs a minimum of 150 pages. $25 entry for a big $5,000 prize: enter by 15th.
  • Driftwood look for up to 5,000 words, charging $30 to enter. The prize is $400, but you also get publication in the magazine wth an interview and 5 copies of the relevant issue.
  • The Bournemouth (Fresher) Writing Prize wants 3,000 words. It’s £7 to enter and you could win £500 plus feedback and a professional recording of your work. The deadline is 22 January.
  • The Masters Review is running its winter competition: up to 6,000 words, $20 entry and a prize of $3000. Enter by 28 January

The rest all have a deadline of 31 January.

  • Story Unlikely is back – free to enter and a prize of $750. Maximum wordcount is 4,500.
  • The Screw Turn competition from Ghost Story wants 250-1000 words: $15 entry and a prize of $1,000.
  • .The Parracombe prize returns 2024 words max. Entry is £5, the prize £150.
  • Finally, Askew’s Word on the Lake festival offers a prize of $200 (Canadian) for stories up to 2,000 words: entry is $15.

If you get somewhere with one of these, do let me know!

December 2023 Competitions

November 21, 2023

Rather slim pickings this month for competitions – December always seems to be quiet, especially in the UK. Perhaps everyone is saving their creative energy for really great Christmas cards? Anyway, here we are.

  • The St Louis Writer’s Guild is again offering the stingiest prize: $15 to enter, but the top prize is $50. Maximum 3,000 words and the deadline is 1 December.
  • The Breakwater Review contest, with the same deadline, costs only $10 to enter and offers a decent $1000 prize. You can go up to 4,000 words.
  • The Skobeloff competition is free, but your only prize is publication. They want stories of love and romance up to 5,000 words long, and you’ve got until 10 December.
  • The Masters Review is looking for chapbooks, between 25 and 45 pages. It’s $25 to enter but you could win $3,000 plus 75 copies of your chapbook to give to friends and relatives. (Or use as a sort of taster with novel submissions? Maybe not.) The deadline is 17 December.
  • For the Jacob Zilber prize from Prism magazine you need up to 4,000 words and an entry fee of $35: top prize $1,500, and the deadline is 21 December.

The rest all have deadlines of 31 December, possibly something to fill those empty days between Christmas and New Year.

  • The Letter Review has an entry fee of $20 and a top prize of $5,000: stories up to 5,000 words.
  • Boulevard magazine will take up to 8,000 and charge $18, offering a prize of $1,500.
  • Finally, the Danahy Fiction Prize from the Tampa Review costs $20 to enter with a prize of $1,000. Stories up to 5,000 words.

So ends another year of authorial competition. Merry Christmas!

Out of the Ordinary

November 9, 2023

My Woking friend Heather Cook is having a Zoom launch for her first poetry pamphlet ‘Out of the Ordinary’ on 2 December, hosted by Wildfire Words. There are some 2 minute open mic slots for anyone who’d like to read a short poem or two and I’ll be doing a couple of sonnets (he said negligently, as though he wrote sonnets all the time). Free tickets to attend or read (all online) can be booked here https://wildfire-words.com/heather-cook/#book-launch

Hals at the NG

October 25, 2023

We went to see the National Gallery’s blockbuster exhibition of the work of Frans Hals, a good follow-up to our visit to his museum in Haarlem (and in fact we met a few old friends again).

Hals is notable for the lively characterisation of his portraits. A note in the exhibition rightly says that nobody painted nonchalance like Hals, but his people are also completely believable and full of energy.

He’s also known for the loose style he adopted, especially in his later years, when a few slashing diagonal strokes of the brush would skilfully suggest lace or fabric. It was this trait that endeared him to Van Gogh and other later painters. Look at how the details of this gent, convincing at a distance, are just rough and sketchy brushstrokes close up.

November 2023 Competitions

October 22, 2023

A selection of writing competitions I might enter during the coming month.

First, a few with deadlines on 1 November.

  • Scribble’s annual competition is for stories up to 3,000 words that must begin with the words ‘’He had an uneasy feeling as he inserted the key…’ £5 to enter, top prize £100.
  • The Caledonia Novel Award is for completed works of at least 50,000;words, but initially you are required to submit the first 20 pages with a synopsis. It’s £25 to enter and the first prize is £1,500 plus a residential course.
  • Reed Magazine’s John Steinbeck Award looks for up to 5,000 words. $20 to enter, first prize $1,000. Entries need not relate to Steinbeck.
  • The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is free to enter for people living in Commonwealth countries. There is a prize of £2,500 for the winner in each region plus £5,000 for the overall winner. Stories must be between 2,000 and 5,000 words.
  • F(r)iction wants 1,001 to 7,500 words: entry is $15 and first prize $1,000. You have until 3 November.
  • Liars League has a pub-based contest, free to enter. Winning works are read in the pub (in London) where the author is awarded a night of free beer. They’re looking for 800 to 2,000 words on the theme ‘Hearth and Home’ and you’ve got until 5th November.
  • The Neilma Sidney prize, from Overland (‘Australia’s only radical literary magazine’), is about travel. $20 to enter and the prize is $5,000: send up to 3,000 words by 10th November. If you’re writing about marginalised communities/identities you are asked to say whether you are a member of those groups.
  • The Wonderland competition looks for 1,000 to 2,500 words. It’s £5 to enter but the only prize is publication:and it seems you have to email them asking to enter, all of which will probably put me off bothering. The deadline is 12th November.
  • Curious Curls want stories about curiosity. $2.50 entry for a $250 prize: word limit 10,000. Enter by 15thNovember.
  • Ironclad asks for stories up to 6,000 words on the theme ‘dusk’. £6 to enter, prize £100 plus publication. Deadline 16 November

The rest have a deadline of 30th November.

  • The prestigious Fish contest has an entry fee of €20, a prize of €3000, and a word limit of 6000.
  • Doug Weller is again running his contest for six-word stories: free to enter and a prize of $100. Six words is really not quite…
  • Plaza Prizes want up to 8,000 words: £15 entry with £1,000 as top prize.
  • Prairie Fire, from Canada, look for a maximum of 5,000 words. It costs $34 and first prize is $750.
  • Finally those nice people at Tadpole Press want a mere 100 words: it’s $15 to enter and a generous $2,000 as top prize.

If you get somewhere with one of these, please let me know!