Contests

Writing contests provide steps up for a writer – especially a struggling writer. A portfolio that contains contest wins means more than many clips. Can’t afford the entry fees? Consider entering one contest a quarter or something more amiable to your pocketbook. A few are free. Contests provide prizes, prestige and usually publication with many offering book contracts. Denouncing contests from your writing repertoire is like discounting an entire genre or refusing to eat yellow vegetables. You’re giving up something valuable that may serve you and your career well.

NOTE: To have your group’s contest posted, email hope@chopeclark.com with the link to the contest. It must pay a minimum of a $200 first prize, not take all rights for entering, and charge an entry fee of five percent or less. 

ANTON CHEKHOV AWARD FOR FLASH FICTION
https://litmag.submittable.com/submit/358354/litmags-anton-chekhov-award-for-flash-fiction-2026
$18 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 30, 2026. First Prize: $1,250 + publication in LitMag + agency review. Three finalists will receive $100 each. Entries must be short stories between 500 and 1,500 words.

JENNIFER A LURIE MEMORIAL PRIZE
https://outskirts.submittable.com/submit/363458/jennifer-a-lurie-memorial-poetry-prize
$15 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 14, 2026. While we aren’t defining a theme for this prize, we’re looking for poetry that celebrates the natural world, creates pockets of joy, and brings us together through language. First place wins $750, second $150, third $50. all other submissions will be considered for publication. Submit 1-5 poems (for a maximum of 10 pages).

THE BARBARA NEELY AWARDS
https://mysterywriters.org/about-mwa/barbara-neely-scholarship/
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 1, 2026. Applicant must identify as Black, be an American citizen, and be age 18 or older. Applicant’s membership in MWA is not required. Applicant for the published author award must have been published (traditionally or self-published) in the mystery/crime fiction genre but has NOT previously won a Barbara Neely Award. Each award carries a $2,000 cash prize to assist the winner with their writing craft and a one-year membership in MWA, which includes membership in the winner’s local chapter. The Barbara Neely Award for Published Black Writers will be awarded on the basis of writing ability, interest in the crime/mystery genre, and likely benefit from the award.

CREATIVE WRITING INK SHORT STORY COMPETITION
https://creativewritingink.co.uk/competitions/creative-writing-ink-short-story-competition-2026-2/
£12 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 21, 2026. Maximum word count is 3,000 words. Entries can be on any subject, theme or genre. First prize is £1,000, an online creative writing course with Creative Writing Ink, and publication on our website. Two runners-up will receive £200 each.

NEXT GENERATION SHORT STORY AWARDS
https://www.shortstoryawards.com/
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 28, 2027. Accepting original, unpublished short stories and poems in English (5,000 words or less) from authors worldwide across 30+ categories. Category winners receive $75 cash prizes, gold medals, digital stickers, social media coverage, literary exposure, and story inclusion in a digital Anthology of Winners available free to all. Three Grand Prize Winners will receive $500 plus a trophy (1st Place), $300 (2nd Place), and $200 (3rd Place), along with an invitation to the Next Generation Indie Book Awards gala ceremony. Finalists receive digital stickers, literary exposure, and inclusion of their name and story title in the Anthology.

NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARDS
https://www.indiebookawards.com/
$80 ENTRY FEE. Deadline February 12, 2027. Accepting books written in English by indie authors and independent publishers worldwide with a release/copyright date in 2025, 2026, or 2027 across 80+ categories. Category winners receive $100 cash prizes, gold medals, complimentary stickers, social media coverage, potential representation by a leading literary agent, and invitation to the awards gala ceremony. Grand Prize Winners receive cash prizes of $1,500 (1st Place), $750 (2nd Place), and $500 (3rd Place) and trophies. Finalists receive silver medals, complimentary stickers, social media coverage, and an invitation to attend the gala ceremony.

THE SPOKANE PRIZE FOR SHORT FICTION
https://wse.submittable.com/submit/355036/2026-spokane-prize-for-short-fiction
$30 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 1, 2026. Accepting submissions of short-story collections of at least three (3) pieces and a minimum of 100 pages. Collections may include no more than one novella when included with at least three short-story length pieces. All authors, regardless of publication history, are eligible. The prize for the winning manuscript is $1,500 and publication by Willow Springs Books. Submissions must be original, book-length fiction manuscripts written in English. There is no maximum page count. Translations are not accepted.

KINSMAN AVENUE PUBLISHING SLAM 2027
https://kinsmanquarterly.submittable.com/submit/362492/slam-2027
$10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 30, 2026. Winners receive $500, $200, $100, $25 (6) and publication in next year’s collection: SLAM 2027. Poets may submit up to 3 poems (no more than 6 single-spaced pages). We seek poetry with captivating rhythm and form that explores vulnerable or hard-hitting themes of culture, resilience, love, and justice.

ANTON CHEKHOV AWARD FOR FLASH FICTION
https://litmag.submittable.com/submit/358354/litmags-anton-chekhov-award-for-flash-fiction-2026
$18 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 30, 2026. First Prize: $1,250 + publication in LitMag + agency review. Three finalists will receive $100 each. All finalists will be considered for possible agency review and publication. Entries must be short stories between 500 and 1,500 words.

PREMIER STAGES
https://premierestagesatkean.com/play-festival/guidelines/
Deadline November 1, 2026. Playwrights must have strong affiliations with the greater metropolitan area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware). Plays must be full-length and have a cast size of no more than eight. One play is selected for an Equity production in Premiere Stages’ 2028 season and receives a $10,000 award. The runner-up receives a 29-hour staged reading and $3,000. The other finalists will each be awarded $1,000.

LARRY BROWN SHORT STORY AWARD
https://pitheadchapel.submittable.com/submit/63647/the-larry-brown-short-story-award
$10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2026. Limit 4000 words. The winners will receive the following prizes: 1st $500 USD, 2nd $50 USD, 3rd $50 USD, and 4th and 5th will receive a copy of the book Tiny Love: The Complete Stories by Larry Brown. Each prize winner will be published in the January 2025 issue of Pithead Chapel.

THE STERN PRIZE
https://americanpoetryreview.submittable.com/submit/306584/the-stern-prize
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 1, 2027. The prize of $2,000 will be awarded in 2027, with publication by The American Poetry Review in partnership with Copper Canyon Press in 2028. The author will receive a standard book contract, with royalties paid in subsequent years. The prize is open to all poets age 50 and over, regardless of previous publication history. Submit a manuscript of 48 pages or more.

CAI EMMONS FICTION AWARD
https://redhenpress.submittable.com/submit/41779/cai-emmons-fiction-award
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 15, 2027. We are looking for a fresh and original story of fiction with a minimum of 150 pages. Award is $5000 and book publication by Red Hen Press. 25,000-word minimum.

RAVEN CHRONICLES PRESS KEEPERS OF THE FIRE CONTEST
https://www.ravenchronicles.org/submissions
$10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2026. The contest honors daring and forward-thinking literary arts across cultures. Chosen authors will receive an advance of $1,000, September 2027 publication of their book, and 50% of net revenues on sales. Each year we will publish two books, one fiction (speculative, utopian, historical, etc.), and one nonfiction (creative nonfiction, memoir, scientific, historical, etc.). Theme: deportation, deported, deportee, immigrant, without a country or legal status, to be a stateless person, to have no nationality, to be undocumented. We want book- or novella-length original work between 20,000 and 50,000 words.

ANTHOLOGY POETRY COMPETITION
https://anthology-magazine.com/awards/poetry-competition/
€18 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2026. FIRST: The winner will receive a €1,000 cash prize and the chance to see their work published in a future issue of Anthology. SECOND: €250. THIRD: €150. All payments must be in EUR (Euro) to avoid conversion fees. Open to all ages; no restrictions on theme or style. Submit an original, unpublished poem, written in English with a maximum of 40 lines.

ALUMINUM CROWN CONTEST
https://www.aluminiumcrown.com/about
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2026. First place: Minimum AUD$300 and publication on the website. Judge’s Prize: Publication on the website. Open to Australian and international writers. Word length between 500-4000 words. The Aluminium Crown Contest Collective are looking for stories based around a speculative event in the future of Australia, that is described in detail on the website.

LONGLEAF PRESS BOOK PRIZE
https://longleafpress.submittable.com/submit/363166/longleaf-press-book-prize-2026-2027
$27 ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 15, 2027. The winning manuscript will be published by Longleaf Press in early 2028. Along with publication, the author will receive a $1200 prize, 25 author copies, and a virtual reading. Please submit an original manuscript in English of at least 50 pages.

THE LONDON MAGAZINE SHORT STORY PRIZE
https://thelondonmagazine.submittable.com/submit/363643/the-london-magazine-short-story-prize-2026
£12 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 18, 2026. Open to writers from around the world. Looking for previously unpublished stories of no more than 4,000 words. First Prize: £1000. Second Prize: £600. Third Prize: £400.

THE HOPE PRIZE
https://www.thehopeprize.com/guidelines
$33 AUD ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2026. First place: $10,000 AUD – jointly funded by Readings Books and Simon & Schuster Australia. Second place: $2,000 AUD – funded by The Hope Prize. Third place: $1,000 AUD – funded by The Hope Prize. The winning entries and a selection of highly commended entries will be included in an anthology to be published by Simon & Schuster Australia. The Hope Prize is an international competition, open to writers from anywhere in the world. The Hope Prize is a short story competition and we accept prose short stories only; either fiction or narrative nonfiction (including memoir). We do not accept poetry, essays, or academic writing. Limit 5,000 words.

FLASH 500 NOVEL OPENING AND SYNOPSIS COMPETITION
https://flash500.com/novels/
£10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2026. First: £500. Second: £200. We welcome published, self-published and unpublished novelists. The only stipulation is that the entry must be unpublished. We are looking for a novel opening up to 3,000 words, plus a synopsis  of the story (max 750 words) to be submitted together in a single file.

THE BEDFORD COMPETITION
https://bedfordwritingcompetition.co.uk/
£8.50 per story or poem. Deadline October 31, 2026. Short story and poetry main prizes. Separate short story and poetry prize winning categories for those aged 17-25 and for local Bedford residents. See all competition categories and prize money online. Open to writers worldwide. 1st Prize £2000. 2nd Prize £400. 3rd Prize £300. Stories maximum 3000 words. Poems maximum 40 lines.

THE MORIARTY AWARD
https://www.bellcowproductions.com/award
$50 ENTRY FEE. Deadline April 30, 2027. An annual prize recognizing the literary villain or antagonist who slinks off the page and into our psyches, challenging our morals, testing our loyalties and reminding us why tension—real, nail-biting tension—is the beating heart of storytelling. Presented annually (beginning in 2027) to the author who gives us a villain or antagonist so complex, so cunning, so unnervingly human, that readers will think about him/her/it long after the book is closed. Eligibility: fiction published in the 2026 calendar year. Cash prize: $500. Moriarty Award Medal. Guest appearances at the Minnesota Mystery Night, Masters of Mystery, and Writers’ Corner.

https://shadygroveliterary.wixsite.com/shadygroveliterary/submissions
NO ENTRY FEE. Submissions are accepted from November 1st to October 31st for each year’s competition. 300 words maximum. One submission per competition. Any style, genre, tone, etc. of flash fiction. 1st place – $100. 2nd and 3rd places- publication online. Shady Grove Literary has readers in multiple countries, but its home is in Thousand Oaks, California.

NOTE: See more contests by joining our newsletters. We can keep you loaded with contests without you looking anywhere else!

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Please remember to read ALL guidelines for a contest. FundsforWriters tries to research contests to the best of our ability, but we cannot confirm the credibility of each and every one without entering them ourselves. Be informed and be alert as you would with any market, publisher, agent or competition.

Testimonials

Dear Hope, The Emerald Theatre Company’s 10-minute play fest is going into its second year. Without you, and FundsforWriters, the first year might not have been possible. Thanks to the publicity from your newsletter, our little Memphis, Tennessee event received scripts from Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, the UK and New Zealand.

This wealth of wonderful material yielded quality vignettes that made the best local actors and stage directors (including a popular local radio personality) eager to donate their time and talent – their presence, in turn, sold tickets. We played to packed houses and everyone had a great time. To our astonishment, Vermont Pride Theatre got wind of the show and asked to put it on in its entirety this coming July – meaning the playwrights who won prizes and recognition in our fest, will now receive additional recognition along with royalties.

The bottom line is, without you, we would have had something rinky dink – with you we had something substantial. The publicity you provided on the front end made all the difference in the world!  ~Caroline Sposto, www.whycaroline.com, (610) 597-9803

 

Hi Hope, we met at the SCWW conference in Myrtle Beach last October, and I was so impressed with your lecture that I subscribed to FFW as soon as I got home. I wanted to drop you a line to let you know that because of FFW, I submitted AND WON The 2008 William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers! My novel will be finished this week, and next weekend I’m going to Malice Domestic to accept the award. Thanks you, and keep up the great work.