September 2025 Competitions

This month I’m trying the experiment of just putting the competition information into a table. It’s slightly simpler for me and it’s probably easier for readers?  Let me know if this causes problems. If you’re looking at this on a phone, I suggest holding it sideways.

Full disclosure: I am running Croydon Writers’ Michael Round Prize, which is listed below – not as a judge but as the administrator.

ContestMax WordsFeePrizeDeadlineComments
River Styx             3,000$20$100001/09/2025 
American Literary Review             8,000$15$1,00001/09/2025 
Terrain             5,000$20$1,00002/09/2025 
Masters Review summer             6,000$20$300007/09/2025 
Aesthetica             2,000£18.00£2500 +course etc08/09/2025 
Santa Fe Writers Project Award No limit$30$1,50015/09/2025 
Paul Cave Prize             1,000£15.00£75.0030/09/2025 
Write Time             1,501£5.00£50.0030/09/2025Only writers over 60
NAWG 500-2k£5.00£200.0030/09/2025 
Hammond House 1-5k£10.00£1,000.0030/09/2025Theme: Secrets
Henshaw (Hobeck)             2,000£6.00£200.0030/09/2025 
Juniper 55-75k$30$100030/09/2025 
Michael Round Prize             2,000Free£100.0030/09/2025Theme: Far and Wide
Writer’s College             2,000$15$100030/09/2025Theme: All the things we didn’t learn
The Ghost Story          10,000$20$1,50030/09/2025 
Creative Writing Ink             3,000£12.00£1,000.0030/09/2025 
Pudding Press Detritus 20p£10.00Publishing contract30/09/2025For stories rejected elsewhere
Letter Review Short Story             5,000$20$33330/09/2025 
Crowvus ghost Story             4,000£3.00£100.0030/09/2025 
George Garrett Prize 100k$28$200030/09/2025 

And a quick mention for the good people at Chaotic Creators, who have a poetry competition going. Up to 40 lines, deadline 12th September, £10 entry, £50 prize plus publication and a printed copy of the magazine. Theme: autumnal, gothic, horror vibes.

August 2025 Competitions

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.

July 2025 Competitions

Here’s another look at writing competitions I might enter during the coming month.

  • The Goldenberg Prize from Bellevue Literary Review is for stories up to 5,000 words, the entry fee is $20 and first prize $1,000. Enter by 1 July.
  • The Slice from Forkapple Press wants a collection of at least 5 stories amounting to 150-200 pages. It’s $20 to enter: the winner gets $500, some copies, and 25% of profits on publication. Like the sound of that. Again the deadline is 1 July.
  • For Hastings Book Festival you need a story up to 2,500 words. It’s a strangely precise £8.25 to enter with a prize of £250 and the deadline is 8 July.
  • The H.G.Wells prize is back, looking for 1,500 to 5,000 words on the theme ‘The Middle Ground’. £10 entry, prize £500. Again the deadline is 8 July.
  • The Doris Gooderson prize from Wrekin Writers looks for 1,200 words: £5 and a £200 prize. You have until 14 July to enter.
  • For the New American Fiction competition you need a full work of at least 100 pages, but it can be a collection of short stories or even flash fiction. It costs $25 to enter and you can win $1,500. The deadline is 15 July.
  • The Adrift short story competition from Driftwood Press has the same deadline and a word limit of 6,000. The prize is $500 which perhaps doesn’t look the best value given the entry fee of $30.
  • The Petrichor prize (for finely crafted fiction), from Regal House Publishing looks for somewhere between 100 and 375 pages. $25 to enter for a prize of $1,000. Again the deadline is 15 July.
  • The Lazuli Literary Group want up to 150 pages of thoughtful, intelligent and beautiful writing of any kind. $15 to enter and the winner gets $500 – there may be multiple winners if the entries are good enough. Once more the deadline is 15 July.

All the rest have a deadline of 31 July.

  • Southlands Arts has a maximum of 2,000 words, a fee of £3 and a prize of £100.
  • Leicester Writes takes up to 3,500 words and charges £7 for a prize of £200.
  • The Anthology Short Story competition is for a mere 1,500 words, and it will cost you €18, but for a prize of €1,000.
  • The Olga Sinclair competition from Norwich is for stories up to 2,000 words on the theme ‘Weave’. £5 entry and a prize of £200.
  • The Plaza Prizes First Chapters looks for 5,000 words from the beginning of your ms + a 300-word synopsis. Entry costs £20 and the prize is £1,500.
  • Over in Munster they are again honouring Séan Ó Faoláin, master of the form, with a short story contest. Up to 3,000 words, €10 entry and besides a nice €2,000 prize you’ll be invited to do a reading in Cork.
  • By far the biggest prize on offer comes from The Novelry with their unusual offer, The Next Big Story Prize. They want your first 1,500 words: the novel need not be finished. If you’re from the UK it’s £15 to enter and the top prize is £75,000. If you’re from the USA, Canada, or Australia it’s US$15 to enter and the prize is US$100,000. In effect, this is two parallel competitions. If you’re from anywhere else, you can’t enter at all. Eight people from the shortlist get free entry to a course to polish up their offerings, with the final winner walking off with the prize. I assume this is intended to promote the Novelry’s courses, but it does seem a lot of money.
  • Finally, Wild Atlantic Words wants up to 3,000 words, it’s €10 to enter and the prize is €500.

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

May 2025 Competitions

Here again are some writing competitions with deadlines during the coming month. The list is not comprehensive (I don’t bother with flash much, for example), but I hope it might be of interest.

  • Folly Journal takes stories between 800 and 2,500 words: NZ$10 to enter and first prize is NZ$1,000 – but the deadline is 1 May, so you need to be quick.
  • F(r)iction is looking for 1,000 to 7,500 words and it’s $10 to enter with a $1,000 prize. The good news is, you’ve got until 2 May. Incidentally, the same publisher is running Dually Noted, where people submit short (500 word) self-contained episodes which can continue the main story arc or be incidental episodes fitting the overall theme, a new addition every week. At the moment the overall theme, which continues until December, is A Night Club for the Newly Departed. No prize except online publication, but it’s free.
  • The Australian Book Review’s Elizabeth Jolley prize looks for up to 5,000 words. AU$30 to enter, a nice $5,000 prize, and the deadline is 5 May.
  • Old stalwart Writer’s Digest is back with a word limit of 4,000, a fee of $30 and a $5,000 prize. Enter by 5 May.
  • Ironclad want stories on the theme ‘Planted’. Up to 6,000 words, it’ll cost you £9 and you can win a comparatively unexciting £100. The deadline is 10 May.
  • Lush Triumphant offers a prize of $1,000 for stories up to 3,000 for a fee of $30 – deadline 15 May. I entered one of these a couple of years ago and could never seem to find out who won.
  • Ploughshares wants up to 6,000. The competition is free to subscribers, or you can pay $30 to enter (for which you also get a year’s subscription – see what they did there?). Enterr by 15 May.
  • The Ghost Story wants – well, have a wild guess – of up to 10,000 words. $20 entry gets you a chance at a $1,500 prize. Deadline 30 May.

All the rest have a deadline of 31 May.

  • The lively Frome Festival wants between 1,200 and 2,000 words: it’s £8 to enter and the top prize is £625.
  • You do not want to miss the prestigious Bridport competition. £5,000 for 5,000 words, with entry £14. This year a new Never Too Late prize will be awarded to the best entrant across all categories who is over 60 (discreet cough).
  • The Goldfinch Novel competition wants your first 3,000 words, plus a synopsis. £10 entry, and the winner gets £500.
  • Yeovil’s short story competition is for stories up to 2,000 words, entry £10.50 and the prize £625. It seems they don’t believe in round figures.
  • The Blue Pencil Agency First Novel competition asks for your first 5,000 words plus a 300-word synopsis. It’s £25 to enter and the prize is £1,000, but if you place you also get an introduction to one of their literary agents: I suppose you finally get to use that elevator pitch.
  • Finally I really have to mention the Robert Traver Fly Fishing Writing Award. (J.R. Hartley! Thou shouldst be living at this hour.) The word limit is 3,000, the fee $25 and the prize $2,500. Judges will look for three key things in the writing: the joy of fly-fishing (personal and philosophic experience); ecology (knowledge and protection of the natural world); and humour (piscatorial friendships and fun on the water). Apparently this has been going on since 2019, and long may it continue.

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

February 2025 Competitions

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

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!

August 2024 Competitions

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!

February 2024 Competitions

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!

August 2023 competitions

Here’s my regular look at writing competitions I might enter during the coming month.. 

  • The Scottish Association of Writers has the Westerwood competition for stories of 2-3,000 words. Entry is £7 with a parsimonious prize of £100. The deadline is 5 August.
  • Uncharted Magazine wants 1,001 to 5,000 words. Entry is $20 and the prize a more generous $2,000. Stories must be on the theme ‘The Aftermath’, and in one of the three genres they publish: SF/F, Thriller/Horror and Mystery/Crime. The deadline is 6 August.
  • Gival’s regular contest is with us again: 5-15,000 words, entry $25, top prize $1,000, enter by 8 August.
  • Periscope wants briefer stories, up to 1,500 words, on the theme ‘Identity’. £10 entry, first prize £1,000 and the deadline is 15 August.
  • Louise Walters is back with the competition based on page 100 of your novel. It’s £5 to enter: no money prize but a full editorial report and a box of books. Deadline 20 August.
  • The Summer version of the Masters Review competition is back – up to 6,000 words, $20 to enter and a prize of $3,000. The deadline is 27 August.

All the rest have a deadline of 31 August.

  • Creative Writing Ink wants up to 3,000 words, entry is £9 and the prize £1,000.
  • Bit of a fanfare for the University of New Orleans’s Publishing Laboratory, who are offering a prize of $10,000 plus publication. For that they want a full-length novel or collection (no word or page limit) and an entry fee of $28.
  • On a more modest scale, Anthology wants a maximum of 1,500 words, for an entry fee of £18 and a prize of £1,000.
  • Letter Review looks for up to 5,000 words. Your £20 entry fee gets you access to a £1,000 prize pot to be split three ways – so £333.33, I suppose.
  • Aesthetica Magazine puzzles me slightly, because it seems to be an avant-garde publication about art and design rather than a literary one. But the competition claims former winners have gone on to great success. It’s £18 to enter, with a prize of £2,500. Up to 2,000 words. 
  • The Kenneth Patchen award is for an innnovative, experimental novel of any length. $25 to enter, win $1,000 and publication.
  • St Lawrence look for a collection of 120-280 pages. $28 gets you a shot at $1,000.

Good luck if you enter any of these, and do let me know if you get anywhere!

July 2023 Competitions

Here’s my regular look at writing competitions I might enter during the coming month (so no poetry or competitions that arenot open to UK writers, for example).

  • Leicester Writes wants up to 3,500 words, with an entry fee of £7.00 and a prize of £175. The deadline is 2 July.
  • Liminisa offers a week’s writing holiday at their retreat in Greece: entry is free, but you must follow them on social media. The maximum word count  is 1,500 and the theme is ‘A Room of One’s Own’, Deadline 2 July.
  • Story Quarterly (from Rutgers) will take pieces up to 6,250 words: entry is $15 and the top prize £500. The deadline is 9 July.
  • The H.G.Wells competition is back, with a theme of ‘Motion’. Up to 5,000 words, with a deadline of 10 July. The top prize is £1,000, while entry is £10.
  • Wrekin Writers are again running the Doris Gooderson competition, with a deadline of 12 July. They want up to 1,200 words, entry is £5 and the top prize is £200: at least half the funds raised will go to the Severn Hospice.
  • Hastings Book Festival has a word limit of 2,500, and entry fee of £7.50 and a prize of £250: deadline 14 July.
  • LISP wants up to 3,000, with a deadline of 15 July.  Prizes have been shrinking recently, but I have to say this one does not look generous: £100 against an entry fee of £15.50. Earlier in the year, I must acknowledge, the fee would have been lower, but still – a prize that’s less than seven times the entry cost?
  • The Adrift competition from Driftwood magazine will take pieces of up to 6,000 words: entry is $11, the prize is $500 and the deadline is again 15 July.
  • With the same deadline, the Petrichor prize from Regal House looks for 100-350 pages of ‘finely crafted’ fiction. Entry is $25 and the prize $1,000.
  • Hawk Mountain looks for a book-length collection of short stories: entry is $20 and the prize $1,000 plus publication. Deadline 15 July.
  • One more with the same deadline: the Francine Ringold Award from Nimrod, open to pieces of up to 5,000 words, entry $12 and prize $500.
  • The Aurora Prize, from the writers of the East Midlands, seeks up to 2,000 words. Entry is £9 and the prize is £500 plus a year’s membership of the Society of Authors: enter by 19 July.
  • Munster Lit is back with the annual Séan Ó Faoláin competition. Entry is  €19 and the prize €2,000 plus a writing residency. The closing date is 31 July, as it is for all the remaining competitions.
  • Creative Writing Ink want 3,000 words max, with a fee of £9 and a prize of £1,000.
  • The Olga Sinclair prize, from Norwich, looks for up to 2,000 on the theme ‘The Sea’. Entry is £9 and the prize is £500.
  • The Global Novel Writing Competition is free to enter, but there is no cash prize. Instead, you get free entry on to a course at the Writers’ College. They want first chapters up to 6,000 words plus a synopsis

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