Category: Competitions etc

Details of current short story and other competitions and other opportunities, events, etc

June 2023 Competitions

May 20, 2023

Here again is a look at writing competitions I might enter during the coming month (so no poetry or competitions not open to UK writers, for example – but competitions for old people are definitely in, and in fact I’ve got a couple this time…)

  • The Salamander Prize is for stories up to 30 pages. Entry is $15, top prize $1,000 and the deadline is 1 June.
  • Write by the Sea looks for up to 2,500 words, entry is €10 and the winner gets €500 plus an elegant trophy. You’ve got until 4 June.
  • The Writer’s Digest has a word limit of 4,000. Entry is $35 and the top prize is $1000 – awarded in several categories and lots of lesser prizes are awarded to good entries. The deadline is 5 June.
  • Grist is running the Imagine 2200 competition, in which they invite you to do just that, presenting a climate-fiction vision of how a greener world might be flourishing in that distant year. They want 3-5,000 words and the top prize is $3,000, but entry is free! (You can donate $50 if you want to support Grist, however). The deadline is 13 June.
  • Now one for the oldies: Stories Through the Ages, from Living Springs, is for baby boomers plus (people born in 1966 or earlier) They will accept up to 5,000 words, charge $20 and award a prize of $500 as well as publication. They are, in my experience, discerning judges. The deadline is 15 June.
  • Writefluence is back. Following competitions for stories about the imaginary character Mr Rosewood, and then Mrs Rosewood, they now want one which must be about a day in the life of both old folk, up to 3,000 words. You can imagine them however you want. No prize except publication, but then entry is only Rs. 150/-  ($2 approx). Readers of this blog have had some success with this one in the past. Enter by 15 June.
  • I don’t know much about Bardsy (any views?) but they have a first chapter competition for members. Up to 3,000 words of your novel, $20 for entry, with a prize of $1,000 and inclusion in an anthology. The deadline is 20 June.

All the rest have a deadline of 30 June.

  • WriteTime is another one for the oldies – over 60s, in this case. Only 1,500 words is required, £3 to enter and a £50 prize, so nothing for vulnerable pensioners to get over-stressed about.
  • The Wells Festival of Literature (which I really ought to visit one year) looks for up to 2,000 words: entry is £6 and the prize is £750.
  • A special tribute from me for Graham Jennings, the gent who ran the regular Henshaw competitions for many years with unfailing courtesy. It seems Graham has decided to take a well-earned rest: however the competitions continue as before under the management of Hobeck Books. Word count up to 2,000, entry £6 and top prize £200.
  • The Moth is back, looking for up to 3,000 words: entry is £15 and first prize £3,000.
  • Then we have the redoubtable Christopher Fielden’s competition To Hull and Back, for humorous pieces up to 2,500 words. Entry is £15, and besides winning £1,200 you could have your face added to the dramatic motorbike picture on the cover of the anthology, as well as your story being literally given an exciting ride to Hull (and back) on Chris’s Harley – if you haven’t read about this before, check it out. Chris’s site has useful info about other competitions and much else.
  • The Writers College generously runs a free competition for stories up to 2,000 words,  on the theme ‘Words Have Consequences’ in which you could win NZ$1,000.
  • You might also be interested in another competition from the same people, for a non-fiction essay on ‘My Writing Journey’: a maximum of 600 words in this case, and a prize of NZ$200.
  • Finally, the Katherine Ann Porter prize run by the University of North Texas looks for a collection of any kind of short fiction, from flash to novellas, that totals 100 to 200 pages or somewhere between 27,500 and 50,000 words. You can win $1,000 plus publication. The normal fee is $25, but they are running a fee-free window if you enter on 1 June (careful about time zones if you go for this). Many competitions offer free entry for people who are short of money; this is apparently intended as a different way to improve access.

I would love to hear about any successes you may have!

May 2023 Competitions

April 21, 2023

These are some writing competitions with deadlines during the coming month. This list is really for me (I’ll probably end up entering about half of them), so it is not comprehensive (I don’t bother with flash much, for example), but I hope it might be of interest.

  • The Bloom prize requires up to 2,500 words on ‘Beauty’: it’s £3 to enter and the prize is £500. The deadline is close, on 1 May.
  • With that same tight deadline, Pigeon Pages will take up to 3,000 words: entry is $15 and the prize $250.
  • There’s an extra week for the Leapfrog contest, which has a deadline of 8 May, but they are looking for a full length piece. It can be a novel, novella, or collection of short stories, but must be at least 22,000 words long. It’s $35 to enter: you could win $150 plus publication.
  • Ploughshares will take up to 6,000 words, and offer a $2,000 prize for a $24 entry fee. The deadline is 15 May.
  • Even better value is Philadelphia Stories’ Marguerite McClinn prize, where you can spread yourself to 8,000 words, entry is $15 and the top prize $2,500.
  • subTerrain offers their Lush Triumphant Literary Award: up to 3,000 words, entry $30 and prize $1,000. I’m guessing they don’t want spare, minimalist prose? The deadline is 15 May.
  •  The Raymond Carver prize is back: up to 10,000 words, entry $18, prize $2,000 and the deadline is 17 May.
  • Folly Journal has launched its inaugural competition with a prize of $NZ1,000: entry is $NZ6. The word limit is 2,000 and the deadline is 30 May.

All the rest have a deadline of 31 May.

  • MTP wants a maximum 3,000 words: the top prize is £2,000 and they print a number of commended entries in a nice thick anthology (they also help people publish their manuscripts, but I’ve entered previously and didn’t get any kind of sales pitch for their services). Entry is £8.
  • The lively Frome Festival wants between 1,000 and 2,200 words: it’s £8 to enter and the top prize is £400.
  • You do not want to miss the prestigious Bridport competition. £5,000 for 5,000 words, with entry £14.
  • Autumn House Press are looking for larger works, of between 37,500 and 75,000 words. You could win $2,500 and publication, for an entry fee of $30.
  • Black Lawrence will also publish your winning entry, as a chapbook of 16-36 pages (a format which is perhaps more familiar for poetry). There is also a prize of $500. Entry is $17.

If you enter any of these and get anywhere, do let me know!

April ’23 Competitions

March 18, 2023

Here is a look at writing competitions I might enter during the coming month (so no poetry or competitions that are not open to UK writers, for example).

  • The Grindstone Novel Competition looks for the first 5,000 words of your novel, plus a synopsis. Entry is £16, and you could win £1,000 plus introductions to some people who might be helpful. The deadline is 1 April.
  • Nimrod is running the Katherine Ann Porter competition. Up to 7,500 words, $20 to enter, and a top prize of $2,000. Again, the deadline is 1 April.
  • The Missouri Review’s Perkoff Prize will take up to a sprawling 8,500 words on the theme of health or medicine. Entry is $15, first prize £1,000, and the deadline is 2 April.
  • The Masters Review is back, seeking manuscripts of up to 7,000 words for another anthology: entry is $20 and you can win $500 plus publication. Enter by 2 April.
  • The Brick Lane Bookshop has a word limit of 1,000 to 5,000 words. Entry is £10, first prize £1,000, and you have until 3 April.
  • The Evening Standard is running a free competition – and you only have to produce 1,000 words, on the theme of ‘belonging’. The downside is that there’s no money prize, but you get mentoring, publication in the Standard and participation in various events. The deadline is 12 April.
  • For the John Gardner Memorial Prize you need up to 4,500 words. Entry is $19 and the top prize is $500. The deadline is 15 April.
  • Desperate Literature is back, looking for up to 2,000 words. Entry is €20 and you can win €1,500 plus a week’s literary residence in a splendid Italian castle. The deadline is 16 April.
  • The First Pages competition requires the first 1,250 words of your book: it’s $20 to enter, with a prize of $2000, and you must get your entry in by 24 April.
  • The Australian Book Review’s Elizabeth Jolley Prize requires up to 5,000 words. Entry is A$30, the top prize is A$6,000, and the deadline is 24 April.
  • With the same deadline, we have the Bath Short Story Award with entry fee of £9 (I’d round it up if it were me). The word count must be under 2,200 and the prize is £1,200.
  • The we have the Bristol Short Story Prize, which accepts up to 4,000 words. The entry fee is… £9 (is this a thing?), and the top prize £1,000. The deadline is 26 April.
  • The Ghost Story’s Supernatural Fiction Award is not restricted to actual ghost stories. The word count can be as high as 10,000, it costs $20 to enter, and you can win $1,500 plus of course publication. The deadline is 30 April.
  • With the same deadline, the Letter Review Short Story competition accepts stories up to 3,000 words. Again it’s $20 to enter and the prize is $600.
  • Mirk Fantasy magazine is new and wants stories up to 2,500 words on the theme ‘Outsiders’. It’s £5 to enter and the prize is £100. Any kind of fantasy is acceptable, but their favourite is apparently epic or high fantasy. Deadline 30 April.
  • Finally, you can get the ‘early bird’ entry fee of €12 if your entry for the Anthology short story prize is in by 30 April. If you’re prepared to pay €18, you can have until the end of August. Maximum 1,500 words and the top prize is €1,000 plus publication and a year’s subscription.

If you enter any of these and win (or get anywhere), do let me know!

March ’23 Competitions

February 20, 2023

Here is a look at writing competitions I might enter which have deadlines in the coming month (so no poetry or flash, for example).

  • Not to be missed, the Alpine Fellowship seeks stories of up to 2,500 words on the theme of ‘Flourishing’. They interpret this word in a particular way, so I recommend reading what they say about it. It’s free to enter: first prize is £3,000, down from the massive £10,000 of previous years, but still generous, and it comes with  an invitation to their August symposium in Fjällnäs, Sweden. The deadline is 1 March.
  • Not actually a competition, but with the same deadline, Guts Publishing is open for submissions of works at least 30,000 words long.
  • Is March 1 Guts Day? Because with the same deadline again we have the Gutsy Great Novelist competition, looking for Chapter One of your novel. This one costs $20 to enter, with a prize of $1,000.
  • The Fowey Festival competition has a deadline of 5 March, and seeks up to 1,500 words. It’s £10 to enter, with a £250 prize and the melancholy theme is ‘I’ll Never Be Young Again’.
  • Entries to the Tennessee Williams Short Story contest should have some link to the great author and be between 1,500 and 4,000 words. $10 to enter, a prize of $200, and the deadline is 11 March.
  • The BBC National Short Story Award is a big one, with a prize of £15,000 and your work published and broadcast. Entrants need a record of prior publication and self-publishing does not count. It’s free, however, and there’s a generous word count limit of 8,000. The deadline is 13 March.
  • The Perkoff Prize, from the Missouri Review, wants up to 8,500 words on health or medicine. It costs $15, the prize is $1,000, and the deadline is 15 March.
  • With the same deadline, Lorian Hemingway (granddaughter of Ernest and a notable writer herself) looks for up to 3,500 words. Entry is $15 if you’re quick or $20 later, and the prize is $1,500.
  • Also with a deadline of 15 March, Phoebe wants up to 5,000 words. Entry is $7 and top prize $500. The link goes to the Submittable page, scroll down for the relevant details.

All the rest have a deadline of 31 March.

  • The Deborah Rogers Foundation offers a big prize of £10,000 for a promising work in progress. Send 15 to 20,000 words of your manuscript so far. It’s free: the intention is to help give someone who is struggling the support they need to get their writing project delivered. You must reside in Britain, the Commonwealth, or Eire. As a comfortably retired person with plenty of opportunity to write, I probably won’t enter, but I hope they find a worthy winner.
  • The Clay Reynolds Prize from the Texas Review is a relatively rare opportunity for works in the novella form (20 to 50,000 words). Entry is $20, and you could win $500 plus publication.
  • The Crazy Cats are back with an Easter competition in which you must include swearing and/or insults: however, you are to use the names of pastries or chocolate as the offensive terms, you bunch of glazed croissants. Up to 2,500 words, £7.50 to enter and a prize of £70 (not huge but it would buy you a few pains au choc).
  • The focus is on experiences for the Long Covid anthology, which is free to enter. There will be no single winner, but selected accounts of the continued impact of the disease (up to 1,500 words) will be published and the authors will receive an honorarium.
  • That old warhorse the Henshaw prize is still plugging away, with the latest competition offering the usual £200 prize for stories up to 2,000 words: it’s £6 to enter and for a modest extra fee you can get feedback.
  • Finally, Pinch Literary Awards, from Memphis, wants up to 5,000 words. Entry is $20 and the prize is a nice $2,000.

Good luck if you enter any of these; if you get anywhere, please do let me know.

February 2023 Competitions

January 24, 2023

Here are the writing competitions I might enter with deadlines in February.

  • The Jim Baen prize is for positive 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
  • Chiplitfest is back: entry is £8 for stories up to 2,500 words, or you can go as high as 5000 words if you pay £10. Enter by 5 February.
  • Stringybark needs stories with a link to Australia (but it could be as little as a jar of Vegemite on the counter). Up to 1.500 words: A$15 to enter and a prize of A$500. The deadline is 12 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. Stories must be on the theme ‘Love’ Enter by 14 February (see where the theme comes from?).
  • Brink literary journal wants hybrid (or cross-genre) stories – but not avant garde experimental writing. Check the site for more explanation. It’s $22 to enter and the winner will be published in October. The deadline is 15 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. Again, the deadline is 15 February.
  • The Elmbridge Literary Competition has a theme of ‘The Road’ and a word limit of a mere 1.000. £5 to enter, with a £250 prize.
  • NOWW (the Northern Ontario Writers’ Workshop) wants 2,000-3,500 words. It’s CA$10 to enter and top prize is CA$150. The deadline is 28 February.
  • Bridge House want up to 5,000 words on the theme ‘Gifted’: it’s free to enter, and the winner will be published and paid royalties. The deadline is 28 February.
  • The AWP awards cover competitions for four different forms: for me the most interesting are the short story collection and novel ones. Entries need to be book length, which for short stories means 150-300 pages and for novels at least 60,000 words. It costs $30 to enter each contest ($20 for members): the top prize appears to be $5,500 for short stories but a mere $2,500 for novels (?). The deadline is 28 February.
  • Finally with the same deadline Letter Review is looking for 1.000 to 3.000 words for a top prize of $600 ($20 entry fee)

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

January 2023 Competitions

December 21, 2022

A selection of writing competitions I might enter during the coming month, with no pretence of being a comprehensive list.

  • The Exeter Novel Prize requires your first 10,000 words and a synopsis: £20 to enter, with a prize of £1,000. The deadline is 1 January (though I’d be surprised if anyone is reading your excerpt on 2 January).
  • The European Society of Literature is running the European Writing Prize. Brits can still enter in spite of Brexit (in fact anyone  from anywhere). Entry is free, and the prize is €50 plus life membership (and think of the prestige!) They want between 1,500 and 3,500 words on the theme of ‘Anxiety’. To help with getting into the mood, the deadline is 1 January. They say results will be out by the end of the month, which is a bit hard to believe.
  • If you’ve got an excess of anxiety after that, you could try the Disquiet Literary Prize. 25 pages max, entry $15, prize $1,000, and for this one you’ve got until 2 January.
  • Cheering up, we have the regular Henshaw competition: as ever, it’s for 2,000 words, entry £6, prize £200. The deadline is 6 January.
  • What about trying non-fiction? The Nine Dots prize is for an essay on ‘Why the Rule of Law has become so fragile’. Really they are looking for something that will be developed into a full-length book. You need to provide 3,000 words, a structure, and a justification statement, but you’ve got until 23 January. Entry is free. Why are you thinking of non-fiction all of a sudden, you ask: well, it just seems attractive. The prize is $100,000.
  • 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 27 January.
  • The Face Project only wants 1,000 words and entry is free, but the only prize is publication, albeit in a unique new production. Your story must be inspired by one of the 28 pictures of faces on their site. Deadline is 29th (not 28th?)
  • The Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize has a limit of 3000 words: entry is $25, top prize $1,000 and the deadline is 30 January.

The rest all have a deadline of 31 January.

  • The Masters Review is back with its winter award. Up to 6,000 words, $20 to enter, and top prize is $3,000.
  • .The Parracombe prize has come back with a higher word limit – 2023 instead of last year’s 2022 (yes, I see what you did, Parracombe!) Entry is £5, the prize £150.
  • Askew’s Word on the Lake festival offers a prize of $200 (Canadian) for stories up to 1,500 words: entry is $15.
  • Finally the swamp pink prize from Crazy Horse wants up to 25 pages: entry is $20 and the prize $2,000.

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

December 2022 Competitions

November 19, 2022

Here are the writing competitions I might enter with deadlines in December. I haven’t found all that many this month, especially British competitions. Most of these are American ones, but I believe they are all open to international entries.

  • Chimera are looking for fantasy novels (at least 50,000 words) submit the first 10,000 words with a one-page synopsis. Entry is £6 and the prize is a whacking £2,500 It’s.probably  too late to start writing, though: the deadline is 1 December
  • The St Louis Writers’ Guild has been running its annual competition for over a hundred years: previous winners include Tennessee Williams. However, first prize is a mere $50. Honourable Mentions get $10, which is actually less than the $15 entry fee. The word limit is 3,000 and again the deadline is 1 December.
  • Crazy Cats Theatre want a chaotic and/or violent story about the twelve days of Christmas, of up to 2,500 words. Entry is £10, the prize £100, and twelve stories will be published online. The deadline is 6 December. 
  • Omnidawn is back, again looking for fabulist stories between 7,500 and 17,500 words. $18 to enter, and a respectable prize of $1,000. Deadline 6 December.
  • Third Coast want stories up to 9,000 words long: entry is $15 and top prize is again $1,000. The deadline is 15 December.
  • Writers Digest has a ‘Short short story’ contest, for pieces up to 1,500 words (hey, I’ve read shorter). $35 entry, and a decent prize of $3,000. Get your entry in by 15 December.
  • Sunspot Lit are running a ‘Goldilocks Zone’ competition for stories that have the balance between fine literary writing and popular appeal just right. Up to 2,500 words, entry is $9.50 and the prize is $200. The deadline is 19 December..
  • The Kind Writers are looking for like-minded folk. They want stories up to 3,500 words (though they are open to a range of creative works), with an entry fee of $10 and a prize of $150. You must provide a short biography setting out the acts of kindness which qualify you to compete. The deadline is 30 December.

The last three all have a deadline of 31 December.

  • Write Time is for over-sixties (why yes, I really am that old). 1,500 words, entry £3, prize £50.
  • The Lascaux Review offers $1,000 for stories up to 10,000 words: entry is $15.
  • Boulevard magazine’s Emerging Writers competition allows up to 8,000 words and their entry fee is $16: the prize is $1,500

Let me know if you succeed with any of these, and Merry Christmas!

November 2022 Competitions

October 16, 2022

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

First, a few with deadlines on 1 November.

  • Globe Soup’s historical fiction challenge is interesting. £12 buys you a ticket, the colour of which determines the period in which the story (up to 4,000 words) must be set. Top prize is £1,000. Got my entry in already!
  • The Caledonia Novel Award is back. They want twenty pages of your novel plus a synopsis. Entry is £25 and you could win £1,500.
  • The. Commonwealth Short Story prize is free to enter, but offers £2,500 for regional winners and a grand prize of £5,000. You must be a citizen of a Commonwealth country: entries may be in English or in Bengali, Chinese, French, Greek, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Tamil or Turkish.
  •  F(r)iction magazine wants stories between 1,001 (not 1,000, please!) and 7,500 words: it costs $15 to enter and top prize is $1,000.
  • For the Nilsen First Novel prize, you need to send your complete ms. It’s $25 to enter and the prize is $2,000. Novellas and collections of linked short stories can also be entered.
  • The John Steinbeck Award from Reed magazine wants stories up to 5,000 words: for an entry fee of $20 you could win $1,000.

Then we have a number of competitions with later deadlines.

  • The current Liar’s League contest closes on 6 November and is free to enter. Winning stories will be read by an actor in the Phoenix pub, where the author will get free beer all night (this is the London event – I believe there are similar ones in other cities). Ken Towl, my esteemed colleague in a couple of writing groups, has won this three times, but is selflessly keen to encourage more competitors to have a go. This time round stories should be festive and on the theme of ‘hopes and fears’. 
  • The Writer magazine wants up to 2,000 words: entry is $30, top prize $1,000 and the closing date is 8 November.
  • The Neilma Sidney prize allows up to 3,000 words on the subject of travel. Entry is $12 and first prize $5,000 (Australian dollars, I presume). The deadline is 14 November.
  • A Smokelong is a story of 1,500 words, just a bit longer than flash: however, the Smokelong Quarterly currently wants flash stories (no more than 1,000 words). Entry fees are a bit complex, but it’s basically $14: top prize is $2,500 and the deadline is 15 November.
  • The Barry Hannah Prize, from the Yalobusha Review, has an entry fee of $5 and a prize of $500. Entries can be up to 4,000 words and must be on the theme ‘Departures and Arrivals’: they want fiction that pushes the boundaries or is experimental in content or form. The deadline is 18 November.
  • Those sturdy folk the Wenlock Olympians are running their event again. £5 to enter, a prize of £150,  up to 2,500 words, and a deadline of 23 November.

The rest all have a deadline of 30 November.

  • Banbury Writer’s Café want up to 1,500 words (a smokelong?): it’s free to enter and you could win £50. Entries must be inspired by one of the picture prompts they provide.
  • The Plaza Prizes actually specify that they want smokelongs. £14 for your first entry then £7 for extra goes: the prize is £1,000.
  • While we’re going short, let’s go really micro with Doug Weller’s Six Word Wonder contest. Free to enter, the form encourages multiple attempts, and you can win $100. Six words, no fee, win $100.
  • Finally, I’m dreaming of a green Christmas. The EcoSanta contest wants tales (1000 words) of St Nick going ecological. £5 to enter, win £100.

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

October 2022 contests

September 21, 2022

Here are the writing competitions I might enter with deadlines in October. 

  • The American Literary Review wants stories up to a generous 8,000 words. Entry is $15 and the top prize is $1,000. Deadline 1 October.
  • The Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival has a word limit which is only slightly lower at 7,000, and their deadline is the same.. Besides $1,500, the top prize includes a pass to the festival with accommodation and air fare within the USA. Entry is $25.
  • Dillydoun will also accept up to 8,000 words, and entry is again $25, but their top prize is a full $5,000. The contest closes on 2 October.
  • With Zoetrope we’re down to the still-generous limit of 5,000 words. Entry is $30, top prize $1,000 and the deadline is 11 October.
  • You have a bit more time to polish your entry for the Calvino prize, for stories in the magic realist spirit of Italo Calvino (and if you haven’t read him, you really should). Entries can be up to 25 pages long, it’s $25 to enter and you could win $3,000. Oh, and the deadline is 15 October.
  • At last a British competition, from Galley Beggar Press, with a maximum word count of 6,000, an entry fee of £10, and first prize of £2,500. Deadline 16 October.
  • Omnidawn want longer pieces: between 7,500 and 17,500 words: they must be fabulist in character. Entry is $18 and the top prize is $1,000: the deadline is 17 October.
  • The Eyelands prize has several categories, including collections of prose or poetry up to 250 pages long. Winners get a week in Athens and a specially-made ceramic. Entry is €22 and the deadline is 20 October.
  • Creative Mind is an organisation that has apparently been around since the seventies, but this is its first writing competition (its website still has some rough edges too, with posts labelled ‘example blog post’ and bits of lorem ipsum style boilerplate text). Stories of up to 1,500 words must be on the theme ‘travel’: entry is £3 and the prize £50. Deadline 26 October.
  • Writefluence offers only publication, but then the entry fee is only INR 150 (currently about £1.66). There’s a 3,000 word maximum and the deadline is 30 October.

The rest of the list have a deadline of 31 October (but see below).

  • The Bedford competition has a limit of 3,000 words, an entry fee of £7.50 and a prize of £1,000.
  • SaveAs (which always sounds like a discount store to me) wants stories on the theme ‘Myth’. Up to 3,500 words, entry £3, prize £200.
  • Letter Review wants up to 2,000 words: entry $20, prize $650.
  • Fiction Factory is back, asking for maximum 3,000 words, with a fee of £7 and a prize of £500.
  • Sheila-Na-Gig wants literary pieces (A Sheila Na Gig is an obscene carving of a woman, often found on early medieval churches. Probably not a clue to what you should write about, though.), up to 5,000 words, entry $3, prize $100
  • Southport Writer’s Circle want up to 2,000 words, entry £3, prize £200

Finally a special mention for Globe Soup’s Historical Fiction Challenge.. To enter you buy a ticket of your chosen colour – this determines the period in which your story must be set (it doesn’t need to be historical in any stronger sense). You can try more than one colour and some hardy souls have bought them all. 4,000 words, entry fee £12 (£2.50 or £15 if early or late): prize £1,000, deadline 28 October. I single it out because Globe Soup is constantly running writing challenges and contests, many free, on its two Facebook sites (one completely free, the other for those who have entered a paid competition). They have a lively and supportive community going where you can always get feedback and advice, and it’s well worth checking out.

If you get somewhere with any of the contests above, do let me know!