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August 2025 Competitions

July 19, 2025

A selection of writing competitions that I might enter with deadlines in August.

  • The Robert Watson Literary Prize, worth $1,000 is from the Greensboro Review. The word limit is 7,500. Entry is only open to subscribers and a subscription is $15: deadline 1 August.
  • The Cream City Review (Milwaukee’s leading literary journal) does it the other way round: entry is $15 and comes with a year’s free subscription. The word limit is 9,000 and the top prize is $500. Enter by 1 August.
  • The Aurora Prize from Writing East Midlands takes up to 2,000 words and charges £9 for entry, with a prize of £500 and a year’s membership of the Society of Authors. The deadline is 6 August.
  • The H.G.Wells Prize looks for stories up to 5,000 words on the theme ‘The Middle Ground’. £10 entry, prize £1,000, deadline 8 August.
  • The Craft First Chapters competition wants your first 5,000 words: entry is $20 and the prize $2,000, closing on 10 August.
  • The Bournemouth Writing Prize looks for up to 3,000 words and will charge you £10, with a prize of £1,000, deadline 15 August.
  • The Black Warrior contest will accept stories up to 6,000 words and it’s $20 to enter. The winning story will be published and there is a cash prize, but I have been unable to find out how much it is, which sort of suggests they’re not proud of it. The deadline is 16 August.
  • Book Pipeline wants your first 5,000 words plus a synopsis. Entry is $45 and the category prize is $2,500. Enter by 20 August.
  • Pen and Quill’s competition is free to enter: you could win $200 plus books and a subscription. They look for 1,500 words on the theme Afterlight/Afterglow (which they explain further on their website). The deadline is 21 August.
  • The Scottish Association of Writers brings us the Westerwood Prize, with a word limit of 2,500 and a £10 entry fee. This year instead of £100 the top prize is dinner, bed and breakfast at the Westerwood Hotel, Cumbernauld’s classiest spa and golf resort. The contest closes on 24 August.
  • A bit of a departure now. Not Quite Write is known for its Flash Fiction contest: now there’s a Flesh Fiction one for erotic stories. Up to 1,500 words, free to enter, with a prize of $500 plus a trophy (not sure what form the trophy takes).
  • Those fine folk at the World History Encyclopaedia are back with their Ink of Ages prize, for stories about history or mythology. Up to 2,000 words, free to enter, and you could win $1,000. In addition one of their artists will do some nice work for your book or story. Enter by 29 August.

All the rest have a deadline of 31 August.

  • First I have to mention the Ajuda Foundation prize, which promotes the worthy cause of mental health support in Wales. Stories, which can be up to 2,000 words, must be related to themes of mental health and wellbeing. £10 to enter, a prize of £100.
  • The Oxford Flash Fiction competition takes pieces up to 1,000 words: it’s £7 to enter and the prize is £1,000.
  • Aesthetica is back yet again looking for 2,000 words and an entry fee of £18. Win £2,500 plus subscriptions and a course.
  • Publishing Lab, from New Orleans, wants a novel or collection and for a $28 fee offers a hefty $10,000 prize.
  • Saveas wants stories up to 3,500 words on the theme ‘Facing the Storm’, entry fee £5, first prize £200.
  • The Cisco Writers Club have a limit of 2,500 words, fee of $5 and prize of $100.
  • The LA Review has the same word limit but charges a little more, at $20: however, their prize is a full $1,000

If you get anywhere with any of these, do let me know.

April 2025 Contests

March 25, 2025

Another 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).

  • Don’t forget the Alpine Fellowship Prize, deadline 1 April! The word count has been reduced this year, to 1,250, and the prize, at £3,000 is no longer quite as large as it once was: but this is still easily one of the best free competitions going.
  • The John Gardner Memorial Prize looks for up to 4,500 words, charges $19 and offers a prize of $500. Again the deadline is 1 April.
  • The Letter Review keeps going, offering a $600 prize for a maximum of 5,000 words: $20 to enter, by 1 April.
  • The Barry Hannah Prize from the Yalobusha Review takes up to 5,000 words, charges $3 and has a prize of $500: once again the deadline is 1 April.
  • A few more days for the Mairtín Crawford prize, with a deadline of 9 April. Up to 2,500 words, £10 to enter, £500 prize.
  • Desperate Literature is back wanting up to 2,000 words. €20 to enter and the prize is an attractive €2,000 plus a residency in Italy. Get your entry in by 13 April.
  • Fractured Lit wants ghost, fables or fairtales with a fresh approach, up to 1,000 words. $20 fee, $3,000 prize and the deadline is 13 April.
  • For the Perkoff Prize your story must relate to health or medicine, and it can be up to 8,500 words long. It costs $15 to enter and the prize is $1,000. The deadline is 15 April.
  • BOMB magazine takes up to 5,000 words for an entry fee of $30 and offers a prize of $1000. Deadline 15 April.
  • With the same deadline the New Ohio Review looks for 20 pages: $22 entry and $1,500 prize.
  • The Hemingway Shorts prize has a limit of 2,000 words, a fee of $15 and a prize of $1,000 and again the deadline is 15 April.
  • Also by 15 April, the Florida Review Editor’s Award takes stories up to 9,000 words, charges $25 and awards $1,000.
  • The Eyelands Contest has a theme of ‘2025’ (Did someone get the columns in their table transposed?) it wants stories up to 3,000 words, €10 to enter and a mere €500 prize. The deadline is 20 April.
  • The HoneyBee Prize from the Goodlife Review (how wholesome it all sounds) takes up to 5,000 words. $18 to enter, a relatively modest prize of $300, deadline 21 April.
  • Those excellent folk at FreeFall magazine have a word limit of 3,000. Entry is CA$25, and the prize is CA$500 plus publication. The deadline is 30 April, as it is for the next two.
  • The Plaza Prizes comp wants up to 5,000 words, and for £15 you  could win a very decent £4,000.
  • Finally the Gulf Coast Prize has a limit of 7,000 words, costs $26, and offers $1,500

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

February 2025 Competitions

January 24, 2025

Here is a look at writing competitions I might enter which have deadlines in February.

  • The Jim Baen Memorial prize is free to enter: the winner is published and paid commercial rates. Entries should be upbeat, realistic space stories up to 8,000 words – you need to get them in by 1 February.
  • The same tight deadline applies to the American Short Fiction competition (you need not be American, or short). Entries can be up to 1,500 and for the $18 fee you can have two. The prize is $1,000
  • The Masters Review once again looks for up to 6,000 words: $20 entry and a $3,000 prize. Enter by 2 February.
  • The Writers and Artists prize, from the handbook of the same name, is free and offers an Arvon course as its top prize: they want 2,000 words on the theme ‘Wonder’, and you have until 14 February.
  • The Mary McCarthy Prize is for a collection of stories of 150 to 250 pages. The fee this time is up from $29 to $34 (somebody there clearly thinks round numbers sound bigger). You can win $2,000 and publication and you have until 15 February.
  • The Elmbridge Literary Competition asks for 1,500 words on the theme ‘The River’. £8 to enter and a prize of £250. The deadline is 21 February.
  • The Next Generation award is for a story up to 5,000 words long. Entry is $25and you could win $500 plus a medal. Enter by 27 February.

All the rest have a deadline of 28 February.

  • The Brink prize is for hybrid or cross-genre writing up to 15 pages. $25 to enter, with a prize of $1000 and publication.
  • Bridge House is not actually running a competition as such but accepting submissions for its anthology. No fee, therefore, and your reward will be royalties if published. They are looking for up to 5,000 words on the subject of ‘Magi’, interpreted however you wish.
  • Exeter Writers want 3,000 words maximum: for £7 you get a chance at a prize of £700. Unusually, they don’t allow simultaneous submissions.
  • The Grace Paley award is for a collection of stories, between 150 and 300 pages. $30 to enter, $5,500 plus publication as the prize.
  • The NOWW competition from Ontario wants pieces between 2000 and 3,500 words. $CA10 to enter, and the prize is $CA125
  • The Edinburgh Short Story award has a maximum word count of 2,000: it’s £11 to enter and first prize is £3,000

If you get anywhere with any of these, please do let me know!

January 2025 Competitions

December 19, 2024

Fourteen writing competitions I might enter with deadlines in January.

  • The Letter Review wants up to 5,000 words, and for an entry fee of $20 you can win $5,000 – but you’ll need to get your entry in by 1 January.
  • The Exeter Novel Prize is back, looking for your first 10,000 words plus a synopsis. £20 to enter with a prize of £1,000, but with the same deadline, you’ll need to have it ready quickly.
  • Disquiet offers a free place on its literary programme in Lisbon, with money for airfare and expenses. If you can’t get there, you can opt for $1,000 instead. They want up to 25 pages and will charge $15: you have until 6 January.
  • For the Page Is Printed competition, you only need one side of A4: however, you will be charged £5 for entry to a competition whose top prize is only £100. The deadline is 13 January.
  • The Georgia Review competition has categories for both fiction and non-fiction: the overall winner gets $1,500. I can’t see a specific word limit but in the past it has been 9,000, which should be enough for anyone. Deadline 15 January.
  • The Cai Emmons prize requires a minimum of 150 pages. $25 to enter and a decent $5,000 prize. Enter by 15 January.
  • Bournemouth is back, with a maximum word count of 3,000, an entry fee of £10 and an unexciting prize of £500. Deadline 15 January.
  • With the same deadline, Storybottle will take up to 10,000 words: the entry fee is $15 and the prize $1,000.
  • The Thomas Wolfe fiction prize costs $25 for non-members with a prize of $1,000. 3,000 words maximum. Deadline 30 January.

All the rest have a deadline of 31 January

  • Story Unlikely is free to enter. The word limit is 4,000 for non-members (members are allowed another thousand for some reason) and the first prize is $1,500.
  • The Parracombe Prize (I was shortlisted last year!) looks for a maximum of 2025 words. £5 entry, £150 prize.
  • Askew’s Word on the Lake has a word limit of 2,000, it’s $15 to enter and the prize is $200.
  • Swamp Pink (no idea) wants 25 pages and $20 entry gives you a shot at $2,000 (a bit more like it).
  • Finally the Fiction Factory first chapter competition needs your first 5,000 words plus a synopsis. It’s £18 to enter and the top prize is £500, but short-listed entries get a free appraisal.

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

December 2024 Competitions

November 20, 2024

Another list of competitions I might consider entering – so no flash, poetry or competitions I’m ineligible for.

  • The Breakwater Review contest has a deadline of 1 December, costs $10 to enter and offers a $1000 prize. Stories up to 4,000 words.
  • The Black Fox looks for up to 5,000 words on the topic ‘Fragments of Time. It costs $12 to enter and the prize is $325. Submit by 1 December.
  • The Leopold Bloom Prize for Innovative Narration, from L’Esprit magazine, wants up to 5,000 words of ‘risk adept narration’ by 2 December. You can pay $10 or $15 for a quick response (within three days)
  • The Witness Literary Awards want you to ‘contextualize the American experience, highlight issues of global concern, grapple with the relationship between the personal and the political (however defined), and/or keenly observe interior/exterior landscapes.’ You’ve got a maximum of 7,000 words to do it in, and it will cost you $8, for a possible $600 prize. You’ve got until 5 December.
  • JuxtaProse will also take up to 7,000 words, and though they charge $18 their prize is $1,000. The deadline is 6 December.
  • You could be recognised as an Anthony Veasna So Scholar in Fiction if your submission, by 11 December, pleases Adroit Journal. You can submit up to three pieces which should total no more than 9,000 words. It costs $15 and the prize is only $200, but still…
  • The Columbia Journal Winter Print looks for stories up to 7,000 words – $15 entry, $500 prize, deadline 12 December.
  • The Masters Review Chapbook contest wants 25-45 pages. It costs $25 to enter and you could win a decent $3000 plus 50 copies of your chapbook. Last year it was 75 copies, but perhaps they have realised that giving away that many is a bit of a challenge, even around Christmas. Enter by 15 December.
  • Fabuly’s competition is refreshingly free. They want 2,000 words on ‘An Unexpected Encounter’, and you could win $500 with online publication of illustrated and audio versions of your work.
  • Globe Soup, that splendidly supportive Facebook community for writers, is running its big competition again – 8,000 words max and £8 to enter (once you’ve paid to enter one of their contests you can join the esoteric community where there are regular free competitions and other good stuff) for a prize of £2,000. Get your entry in by 16 December.

The rest all have deadlines of 31 December, possibly so you can use that nice pen/notebook you got for Christmas.

  • The Lascaux Review will take up to 10,000 words: entry is $15, top prize $1,000
  • Boulevard magazine will take up to 8,000 and charge $18, offering a prize of $1,500.
  • The Danahy Fiction Prize from the Tampa Review costs $20 to enter with a prize of $1,000. Stories up to 5,000 words.
  • Write Time is for the over-sixties only. Only 1,500 words, in recognition of our tired old fingers, and it’s £5 for one story or £10 for three, winning £100 so you can get a little gift for your grandchildren.
  • If you write horror, Killer Shorts want a story up to 6,000 words. It’s $30 to enter and you could win a package of benefits including publication and a mentoring call: but the real draw is a trophy in the form of a skull typewriter – whatever that is.

I hope you find something useful in the list, but please choose your competitions carefully and don’t just enter randomly, as I’m constantly doing. This year I submitted to about half as many as in previous years, but it still amounted to about one entry a week (I don’t write that fast – some stories were entered for multiple contests). Seven of those entries achieved some kind of recognition – one longlisting, four shortlists, one third place and one win. That’s a hit rate of 15%, marginally up on the surprisingly consistent 13% I’ve had in past years.

But the year’s not over yet! Merry Christmas!

November 2024 Competitions

October 21, 2024

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

  • Reed Magazine’s John Steinbeck Award looks for up to 5,000 words. $20 to enter, first prize $1,000. The deadline is 1 November. Entries need not relate to Steinbeck.
  • F(r)iction wants 1,001 to 7,500 words: entry is $15 and first prize $1,000. Again, the deadline is 1 November.
  • 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. And the deadline is 2 November.
  • Curious Curls want stories that embrace curiosity. $2.50 entry for a $250 prize: word limit 10,000. Enter by 15 November.
  • Creative Writing Ink looks for pieces up to 3,000 word: entry is £9, through Duosuma. The top prize is £1,000 and the deadline is 15 November.
  • Ironclad asks for stories up to 6,000 words on the theme ‘The 14th Day’ – to be published on Valentine’s Day.. £8.99 to enter, with a rather unexciting prize of £100 plus publication. Deadline 18 November
  • The Neilma Sidney prize, from Overland, is for stories about about travel. $20 to enter and the prize is $5,000: send up to 3,000 words by 22 November
  • Narrative Magazine will take stories of up to 15,000 words, for an entry fee of $27. The prize is $2,500 and the deadline is 26 November.
  • The prestigious Fish Prize is with us again: up to 5,000 words, €22 entry and a €3,000 prize. The deadline is 30 November.
  • Prairie Fire, from Canada, look for a maximum of 5,000 words. It costs $34 and first prize is $,1250, with a deadline of 30 November.
  • I don’t normally do microfiction, but I’ll make an exception for  Tadpole Press, who want a mere 100 words: it’s $15 to enter and a more generous $2,000 as top prize. Get your entry in by 30 November.

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

August 2024 Competitions

July 22, 2024

A selection of writing competitions with deadlines in August that I might enter.

  • Black Warrior (from the University of Alabama) wants stories up to 6,000 words, by 2 August. Entry is $20 and they say there is a cash prize, but not how much. Let’s hope it’s more than $20.
  • Aurora (from the East Midlands) is back, looking for stories up to 2,000 words: entry is £9 and you can win £500 plus membership of the Society of Authors. Deadline 7 August.
  • Gival wants between 5,000 and 15,000 words: $25 to enter and top prize $1,000. Deadline 9 August.
  • Juxtaprose will take as few as 500 words or as many as 7,000: it’s $15 to enter, you could win $1,000 and the deadline is 11 August.
  • Book Pipeline’s standard deadline is 20 August (pay more for a later entry). They have ten different categories: for literary pieces the word count can be between 40,000 and 120,000. It’s $45 to enter and there’s a prize of $2,500 for each category.
  • The Westerwood competition from the Scottish Association of Writers looks for 2,000 to 3,000 words: £7 entry and a (rather modest?) £100 prize. Enter by 24 August.
  • The Masters Review summer competition is for stories up to 6,000 words long: $20 entry and $3,000 prize. Deadline 25 August.
  • OTP look for 1,000 to 5,000 words: entry is free and if successful you’ll be paid their standard fee. Stories must be on the theme ‘Expertise’ and be submitted by 30 August.

All the rest have that psychologically compelling end-of-the-month deadline (31 August)

  • Publishing Lab want full-length works, either novels or collections. $28 entry and they will give the winner a contract and $10,000 advance.
  • Aesthetica look for up to 2,000 words: £18 to enter and you could win £2,500, an Arvon course and other goodies.
  • NAWG want stories between 500 and 2,000 words: a £5 entry fee gets you the chance of a £200 prize.

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

July 2024 Competitions

June 23, 2024

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).

  • With a deadline of 1 July, New American Fiction looks for a full work of various kinds (novel, novella, collection) likely to be at least 100 pages.  Entry $25, top prize $1,500
  • It’s still not quite too late to enter the London Independent (LISP) contest if you are willing to pay the late fee of  £16.50 and get your entry in by 1 July. They want up to 3,000 words and the prize is a mere £100, so honestly not great value for money at this stage.
  • The Goldenberg Prize is offered by the Bellevue Literary Review – entries must be on the themes of health, healing, illness, mind and body, and run to no more than 5,000 words. Entry is $20, top prize $1000, and again you need to be quick because the deadline is 1 July.
  • The Hastings Book Festival wants up to 2,500 words: the entry fee is a weirdly precise £8.25 and top prize just £250. Deadline 7 July.
  • The HG Wells prize this year is for stories on the theme ‘The Fool’, of up to 2,500 words. Entry is £10 and the prize is £500. Deadline 8 July.
  • The Doris Gooderson Prize comes from Wrekin Writers, who say that at least half the profits from their comp will go to the Severn Hospice. They want stories up to 1,200 words, entry is £5 and the top prize is £200, with a deadline of 12 July.
  • Leicester Writes will accept stories up to 3,500 words: entry is £7 and the prize is £200. Enter by 15 July.
  • With the same deadline, the Adrift comp has a word limit of 6,000: entry is $30 and the top prize is $500.
  • Petrichor looks for 100 to 350 pages of finely crafted prose. Entry is $25 and the prize is $1,000.
  • Witcraft looks for short humour of 200-1000 words: $5 to enter with a prize of $250, and like all the rest the deadline is 31 July.
  • My good friends in Norwich are again running the Olga Sinclair Prize: up to 2,000 words on the theme ‘Nature’, £9 entry and £500 prize.
  • And in Munster the prestigious Séan Ó Faoláin prize is for stories up to 3,000 words. Entry is €19 and the first prize is €2,000 plus an invitation to read your piece in Cork, accommodation paid for.
  • Hawk Mountain wants a collection of stories: $20 entry and you could win $1,000 plus publication.
  • The Plaza Literary: First Chapters comp wants the first 5,000 words of your work: entry £20 and a prize of £1,500.