information about creative writing contests, poetry contests, literary magazine theme issues, writing residencies, grants, fellowships etc. Now accepting creative writing contests news and announcements!
Your opportunity to enter our contest closes at the end of the day on September 30, 2021 11:59pm, Hawaii time. We’ll award $3,000 to the best poem in any style and $3,000 to the best poem that rhymes or has a traditional style. 10 honorable mentions will receive $200 each. The top two winners will also receive two-year gift certificates from our co-sponsor, Duotrope (a $100 value). Submit published or unpublished work. The top 12 poems will be published online.
$15 entry fee per submission (1-2 poems). Enter as many submissions as you like. Most countries eligible. Judge: S. Mei Sheng Frazier, assisted by Vernon Keeve III. This contest is sponsored by Winning Writers and recommended by Reedsy. Click to Submit
Prefer to Enter by Mail? Send your entry and fee to: Winning Writers, Attn: Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest, 351 Pleasant Street Suite B PMB 222, Northampton, MA 01060-3998, USA. Checks must be drawn on US banks in US funds, payable to Winning Writers. You may also send US currency. Please postmark your entry by September 30, 2021.
Questions? See past winners and more contest information at Winning Writers.
Seeking creative nonfiction essays on any topic (200 – 1000 words) and in any style–from personal essay and memoir to lyric essay and hybrid, and more! The mission of this contest is to reward bravery in real-life storytelling and create an understanding of our world through thoughtful, engaging narratives.
Electronic submissions via e-mail only; reprints are okay; simultaneous submissions okay; reprints/previously published are okay; multiple submissions are okay as long as they are submitted in their own individual e-mail. Open internationally.
Limit: 300 entries.
Prizes (20 winners!): 1st Place: $500, publication, interview, and gift code good for one item from CreateWriteNow’s Store 2nd Place: $300, publication, interview, and gift code good for one item from CreateWriteNow’s Store 3rd Place: $200, publication, interview, and gift code good for one item from CreateWriteNow’s Store 7 Runners Up receive $25 Amazon Gift Cards, publication, interview, and gift code good for one item from CreateWriteNow’s Store 10 Honorable mentions receive a gift code good for one item from CreateWriteNow’s Store
Entry fee: $12 entry fee; critique option for an additional $13
Guest Judge: Literary Agent Erin Clyburn with Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency
Seeking short fiction of any genre between 250 – 750 words. The mission of this contest is to inspire creativity, communication, and well-rewarded recognition to contestants.
Electronic submissions via e-mail only; reprints are okay; simultaneous submissions okay; reprints/previously published are okay; multiple submissions are okay as long as they are submitted in their own individual e-mail. Open internationally.
Limit: 300 entries.
Prizes (20 winners!): 1st Place: $400, publication, interview, and $25 Amazon Gift Certificate 2nd Place: $300, publication, interview, and $25 Amazon Gift Certificate 3rd Place: $200, publication, interview and $25 Amazon Gift Certificate 7 Runners Up receive $25 Amazon Gift Cards, publication and interview 10 Honorable mentions receive $20 Amazon Gift Card Top 10 stories are published in the WOW! Women On Writing e-zine, and contestants are interviewed on WOW’s blog, The Muffin.
Entry fee: $10 entry fee; critique option for an additional $10
£25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2021. The Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize awards £2,500 to the judges’ choice of the best first biography published each year. The author must be resident in the UK. Books must have a publication date between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021 (proofs are acceptable).
Submissions are now being accepted for the 10th William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Two prizes of $5,000 each are given for works of fiction and nonfiction. The awards, co-sponsored by Stanford Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation, are intended to encourage new or emerging writers and honor the Saroyan legacy of originality, vitality, and stylistic innovation.
Submit five copies of the work published between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021, with a $50 entry fee by January 31, 2022. Writers who have published four or more books are ineligible. Visit the Saroyan Prize website for complete eligibility and submission details.
Congratulations to our 2020 Fiction Winner Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenya for Friday Black, and our 2020 Nonfiction Winner Jennifer Croft for Homesick. View our complete list of 2020 winners and finalists.
Write a poem, thirty lines or fewer on any subject, style, or form, typed or neatly hand printed. And/or write a short story, five pages maximum length, on any subject or theme; fiction, nonfiction, or creative nonfiction (including essay compositions, diary, journal entries, and screenwriting). Writing First Prize is $500. Second Prize: $250. Third Prize: $100. Poetry First Prize is $250. Second Prize: $125. Third Prize: $50. Enter Now!
plus winners read with judges at troubadour international poetry prize 2021 prize-night celebration on mon 6 dec
Submit via email by Monday, 27 September 2021
(Check out winners, winning poems & judges’ reports, 2020 & prior, on our previous-winners’-poems page.)
judges
Linda Gregerson studied at Oberlin, Northwestern, Iowa Writers Workshop & Stanford, is Professor of English at University of Michigan, a Renaissance scholar, a classically trained actor & a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets: her poetry collections range from The Woman Who Died in Her Sleep (Houghton Mifflin, 1996) to Prodigal: New and Selected Poems (Mariner, 2015)
John McAuliffe (b. Listowel) has published five collections with Gallery Press including The Kabul Olympics (2020), is Professor of Poetry at Manchester University, where he directs the Centre for New Writing & Literature Live, founder & co-editor of Manchester Review, assoc. editor at Carcanet Press, & was chief poetry critic at the Irish Times (2013-2020) where he founded & chaired the Irish Times Poetry Now Award.
judges read all poems submitted
rules
Poems: Poems may be submitted from any country & must be in English, must each be no longer than 45 lines, must show title & poem only, must not show poet’s name, must be the original work of the entrant (no translations) & must not have been previously published; no text alterations accepted after submission; no limit on number of poems or number of subsequent submissions.
Submission: Email only, no postal entries: email your poems as attachments (.doc, .docx, .pdf, .rtf only) to poems@coffeehousepoetry.org; include in email: Poet’s Name & Address, Phone Number, List of Titles, Number of Poems, Total Fees, & PayPal Receipt Number.
Fees: £5/€6/$7 per poem (Sterling/Euro/US-Dollars only); payment via PayPal (see below, PayPal account not required).
Timeline: Submit by midnight (your local time) on Mon 27 Sep 2021; prize-winners will be contacted in week commencing Mon 22 Nov 2021.
Acknowledgement/Results: Submissions acknowledged within 14 days of receipt; results posted on website after our Mon 6 Dec 2021 prize-night event; judges’ decision is final; no correspondence entered into.
Email Address: By including email address you agree to receiving emails regarding annual Troubadour International Poetry Prize.
The contest is now open to Black authors who at the time of entry are at least 18 years of age and residing in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, or Wisconsin. Eligible entries will include original fiction or nonfiction board books for ages 0–4 (50–125 words) and picture books for ages 4–8 (300–800 words) featuring contemporary, realistic Black characters and culture and focusing on one or more of the following topics: character development, self-esteem, diversity, getting along with others, engaging with family and community, or other topics related to positive childhood development. History and fantasy themes will not be considered. First Place: $1,000 cash prize, a T-shirt from Strive, a tote bag from Free Spirit, and a meeting with Mary Taris, founder of Strive, and an editor from Free Spirit to discuss the winner’s project. The winning submission will be seriously considered for publication by Free Spirit, cobranded with Strive; however, publication is not guaranteed. Second Place: $500 cash prize, a T-shirt from Strive, and a tote bag from Free Spirit. Third Place: $250 cash prize, a T-shirt from Strive, and a tote bag from Free Spirit.
Our short story competition is now open for completed short fiction of up to 3,000 words. The first prize is £3,000 plus mentoring by a specialist literary agent. Three additional finalists each receive £100, and all four winning entries are published in Mslexia. Winning entries plus eight more shortlisted entries will be published in Mslexia’s inaugural ebook anthology Best Women’s Short Fiction 2021.
Joffe Books, with judges bestselling crime writer Dorothy Koomson and literary agent Susan Yearwood, is seeking to discover a new crime fiction writer to join our bestselling list. We are launching a new writing prize for unagented crime fiction writers of colour to turn their fantastic manuscripts into bestsellers. The winner will receive a two-book publishing contract with Joffe Books. This promotion is open to all UK residents and British Citizens (including those residing abroad) without a literary agent.
The Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop is offering two emerging humor writers the opportunity to compete for an all-expenses-paid trip to Dayton, Ohio, where two winners will be “robed” in plush bathrobes and given free registration to the March 24-26, 2022, workshop. As part of the biennial A Hotel Room of One’s Own: The Erma Bombeck | Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence Program, the winners will spend two more blissful weeks at the University of Dayton Marriott to work on their writing projects — and order free room service. It’s the ultimate gift for any writer — the luxury of time to write. Cash prizes for finalists and honorable mentions. For more information, visit humorist-in-residence.com or read the FAQs. Applications accepted Sept. 7-28, 2021.
Submit one piece of fiction or nonfiction up to 8,500 words or any number of poems up to 10 pages. Please double-space fiction and nonfiction entries.
Multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions are welcome, but you must pay a separate fee for each entry and withdraw the piece immediately if accepted elsewhere.
Entries must be previously unpublished.
Standard Entry fee: $25. Each entrant receives a one-year subscription to the Missouri Review in digital format (normal price $24) and a digital copy of the fifth title in our imprint, TMR Books, Private Lives, a short story anthology by former Editors’ Prize-winners and contributors (normal price $7.95).
“All Access” Entry fee: $30. In addition to the one-year digital subscription to the Missouri Review and Private Lives, the “All Access” entry fee grants access to the last 10 years of digital issues and the audio recordings of each digital issue.
Eligibility
Previous winners of the Editors’ Prize and current University of Missouri students and faculty are ineligible.
Previous Editors’ Prize finalists are welcome to enter again.
About: Organised every three months since July 2009, this competition is for original, previously unpublished poems in English language, on any subject, in any style, up to 50 lines long. Poets of of all ages, gender, and nationality living in any part of the world are eligible to enter.
Prizes: £250 (First), £125 (Second), £75 (Third), £30 x 3 (High Commendation), £20 x 3 (Commendation), £10 x 3 (Special Mentions).
Could your next book be a prizewinning poetry collection?
Judge: Mandy Pannett – author of All the Invisibles and The Daedalus Files. Closing Date: 30th September 2021 About: Organised every year since 2015, this competition is for poetry collections by single adult authors, in English language, on any subject, in any style. Poets living in any part of the world are eligible to enter. The prize winners will have their poetry collections published by SPM Publications and will each receive 20 copies of their books.
Prizes: £300 (First), £200 (Second), and £100 (Third), plus a standard publishing contract.
Our annual beach retreat is informal, friendly, and supportive. It is safe, with vaccinated people and wearing masks etc. We’ll stay at a nice beach house with plenty of space and have our writing sessions outside on the porch. We usually limit to a small group of people of various writing backgrounds, and will meet twice a day to talk about writing fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, and self-editing. The all-inclusive rate, excepting meals, is $525 private room/$475 shared. The commuter rate is $55 per day.
For more information and to register, please see our website, twwoa.org, at our Events page. or email writersw@gmail.com.
1st Place: Your choice of a 2 night stay at our Mountain Muse B&B; or 2 free workshops (in person or on-line); or 50 pages line-edited and revised by our editorial staff.
2nd Place: Two free workshops, in person or on-line; or 35 pages line-edited.
3rd Place: One free workshop; or 25 pages line-edited.
10 Honorable Mentions
Deadline: Postmarked (or emailed) by Sept. 30, 2021
Guidelines:
Submit a short story or chapter of a novel of 5,000 words or less.
Pages should be paper clipped, with your name, address, phone and title of work on the first page. Double-space, and use 12 point font. The entry fee is $25 per story. Multiple entries are accepted. Enclose self-sealing SASE for critique and list of winners. Make check or money order payable to The Writers’ Workshop, and mail to: Fiction Contest, 387 Beaucatcher Road, Asheville, NC 28805.
Emailed submissions may be sent to writersw@gmail.com, with “Fiction Contest” in the subject. Send your work as a Word Doc attachment. The entry fee is payable online at www.twwoa.org, or by mailing a check. No sase is required.
Closing date: Monday 20 September 2021, 23:00 BST/22:00 GMT
Contest description: Judged by award-winning poet Will Harris, the competition is open to all poets aged 18 and over from across the globe and has two categories: Open category (open to all poets aged 18 years and over) and English as an Additional Language (EAL) category (open to all poets aged 18 and over who write in English as an Additional Language).
The winners of each category will receive £1000 and both runners up £200. The competition entrance fee is £5 for each of your first three entries and then £4 for every subsequent poem. Entrants may submit a maximum of ten poems, following the instructions in the Oxford Brookes Online Shop. All entries must be unpublished work and no longer than 50 lines.
If you have any questions that aren’t addressed in our FAQs on our site, please contact us: poetrycomp@brookes.ac.uk
You can follow the Poetry Centre on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and sign up for our Weekly Poem to receive a contemporary poem in your inbox for free every Monday. You can also find out about the pamphlets from our ignitionpress here.
And if you’re interested in Creative Writing or English Literature, why not take a look at Oxford Brookes’ exciting MA programmes in Creative Writing and in English Literature.
We’re delighted to offer the inaugural Love & Eros Prize for 2021: $3000 and publication! Love engulfs us, desire rules us. We encourage love poems beyond the confines of what’s traditionally “romantic.” Rather, we’re seeking unflinching examinations of our sharpest human sensations—those of desire, longing, devotion, and intimacy. All iterations of love are welcome—send us your bitter and your sweet, your queer, platonic, reverent, and devotional.
Palette’s editors will choose the ten finalists and any honorable mentions that warrant extra attention. Our judge will then select the winner and runner-ups. Second and third place winners will receive $300 and $200, respectively.
The winner will be selected by this year’s guest judge, Kaveh Akbar, author of Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf, 2021).
about our judge
Kaveh Akbar’s poems appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Paris Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. His second full-length volume of poetry, Pilgrim Bell, was recently published by Graywolf in August 2021. His debut, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, is out with Alice James in the US and Penguin in the UK. He is also the author of the chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic, published in 2016 by Sibling Rivalry Press. In 2022, Penguin Classics will publish a new anthology edited by Kaveh: The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine.
In 2020 Kaveh was named Poetry Editor of The Nation. The recipient of honors including multiple Pushcart Prizes, a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, and the Levis Reading Prize, Kaveh was born in Tehran, Iran, and teaches at Purdue University and in the low-residency MFA programs at Randolph College and Warren Wilson. In 2014, Kaveh founded Divedapper, a home for dialogues with the most vital voices in American poetry. With Sarah Kay and Claire Schwartz, he wrote a weekly column for the Paris Review called “Poetry RX.”
submission guidelines
Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing in English—other languages are okay to include, as long as the majority of the poem is in English.
We accept simultaneous submissions—just please send us a note if your work is picked up elsewhere (we want to say congrats!)
There is no page requirement, but submission must be no more than 3 poems. Please submit all your poems in ONE document.
We do accept multiple submissions, but each submission will include the $20 reading fee.
Please include a brief cover letter with any publication history.
The deadline to enter this year’s Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest is September 30, 2021.We will award the Tom Howard Prize of $3,000 for a poem in any style or genre and the Margaret Reid Prize of $3,000 for a poem that rhymes or has a traditional style. This contest is recommended by Reedsy.
Ten Honorable Mentions will receive $200 each (any style). The top 12 entries will be published online. The top two winners will also receive two-year gift certificates from our co-sponsor, Duotrope. Submit published or unpublished work online via Submittable. Most countries eligible. Length limit per poem: 250 lines. Read the past winning entries.
Advice from our judge, S. Mei Sheng Frazier: Being intimately familiar with the vast poetic terrain, a skilled traditional poet can adeptly navigate meter and structure—guiding readers unwaveringly toward the destination—in a singularly modern way. Thoughtful inclusion of today’s events, perspectives, vernacular or themes can render even the strictest villanelle contemporary. And a slight, strategic bending of the rules can make a sonnet feel utterly fresh. Shakespeare took occasional liberties. Poet, so can you.
The fee is just $15 for every two poems you submit. Click to submit online below or, to enter by mail, please send your poems and $15 entry fee to Winning Writers, Attn: Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest, 351 Pleasant Street Suite B PMB 222, Northampton, MA 01060-3998. You may include multiple entries in the same envelope. Checks must be drawn on US banks, payable to Winning Writers. US money orders and currency are also welcome. Please postmark your entry by September 30, 2021.
Calling all indie book authors and publishers – including small presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors who have a book written in English released in 2020, 2021 or 2022 or with a 2020, 2021 or 2022 copyright date to enter the most rewarding book awards program.
Offering +80 Categories – More than 80 Awards – with over 80 monetary prizes totaling more than $10,000 in cash, including $1,500 cash prizes plus trophies for best fiction book and best non-fiction book, $750 cash prizes plus trophies for second best fiction book and non-fiction book and $500 cash prizes plus trophies for third best fiction book and non-fiction book!
The Next Generation Indie Book Awards is the largest International awards program for indie authors and independent publishers and the only book awards program of its kind offering more monetary prizes, more awards, more recognition and more exposure including exposure to a leading Literary Agent for possible representation in areas such as distribution, foreign rights, film rights, and other rights!
Presented by Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group (IBPPG) in conjunction with Marilyn Allen of Allen O’Shea Literary Agency, the Next Generation Indie Book Awards was established to recognize and honor the top independently published books of the year. IBPPG was formed to provide support and recognition for the independent book publishing profession, and we encourage all independent authors and publishers to enter their books in the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards so that they too can earn recognition and receive other benefits from having an award-winning book!
Awards given to the Finalists and Winners of the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards are:
▪ $1,500 cash prize and trophy for the best Fiction Book
▪ $1,500 cash prize and trophy for the best Non-Fiction Book
▪ $750 cash prize and trophy for the second best Fiction Book
▪ $750 cash prize and trophy for the second best Non-Fiction Book
▪ $500 cash prize and trophy for the third best Fiction Book
▪ $500 cash prize and trophy for the third best Non-Fiction Book
▪ $100 Cash Prize & Gold Medal for all +80 category Winners
▪ Finalist Medals for each finalists in the +80 categories
Winners and Finalists will also receive:▪An invitation to the gala awards reception.▪Exposure for a full year atNext Generation Indie Book Awards as a Winner or Finalist.▪All Winners will be listed in the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Catalog which will be distributed to thousands of book buyers, media, and others!▪The opportunity to display Finalist or Winner gold award stickers on your book.▪Other benefits of an award-winning book (such as potential increased revenue).
PLUS, the top 80 books will be sent to be reviewed by New York literary agent Marilyn Allen of Allen O’Shea Literary Agency or one of Ms. Allen’s co-agents for possible representation in areas that could generate even more revenue for your book (unless an entrant prefers not to have their book forwarded to the agent). Ms. Allen has over 25 years of sales and marketing experience, including serving as Senior Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Director of Marketing for Harper Collins and directing sales and marketing teams for Simon & Schuster, Penguin Books and Avon Books. Ms. Allen has had the pleasure of working with many best-selling authors including Stephen King, Ken Follett, Barbara Kingsolver, John Gray, Mary Higgins Clark, and many more.”Independently-published books have become a major source for quality fiction and non-fiction, but often go unrecognized by the mainstream publishing industry,” notes Marilyn Allen. “Finally, an award program has been created to recognize talented authors from this important segment of our industry. Our agency represents over 100 authors and we’re always looking for new talent, so it is a great pleasure to be part of this program. We look forward to reviewing the works of the 70 best candidates and helping these authors gain the recognition they deserve.”
Final entry date for the 2022 awards program – February 11, 2022.
Creative Writing Contests 