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. 

QUILL PROSE AWARD
https://redhen.org/awards/quill-prose-award/
$10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 30, 2024. Submit 25,000-word minimum (approximately 150 pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman 12pt font); prose (fiction or nonfiction) by a queer writer only. Award is $1000 and book publication by Red Hen Press. Red Hen Press seeks to work against the negative politics of labeling while honoring and empowering authors who identify as queer.

ROBERT DEMOTT SHORT PROSE CONTEST
https://quarteraftereight.submittable.com/submit/307706/2024-robert-j-demott-short-prose-contest
ENTRY FEE $15 for three pieces. Deadline December 1, 2024. Submit up to three previously unpublished pieces. Each piece must be 500 words or fewer. Any genre is acceptable as long as the work is written in prose. Send us your best short-short stories, micro-essays, and prose poems (lineated poems will not be considered). Combine all pieces into one document. All entries will be considered for publication in Quarter After Eight. Prize: $1,008.15 + publication in the next edition of Quarter After Eight.

KARMA FICTION CONTEST
https://momentmag.com/karma-fiction-contest/
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 1, 2024. Contest encourages writers to submit stories related to Judaism or Jewish culture or history. Moment will award up to three prizes to outstanding works of unpublished short fiction with Jewish content, including $1,000 for first place. For each entry, submit an original short story—maximum length 5,000 words— with Jewish themes.

LASCAUX PRIZE IN SHORT FICTION
https://lascauxreview.com/contests/
$15 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2024. Stories may be previously published or unpublished, and simultaneous submissions are accepted. Winner receives $1,000, a bronze medallion, and publication in The Lascaux Review. Length should not exceed 10,000 words. All genres and styles are welcome.

ALPINE FELLOWSHIP POETRY PRIZE
https://alpinefellowship.com/poetry-prize
Deadline March 1, 2025. Awarded for the best poetic response on the 2025 theme, which will be announced in January. The winner and runners-up will receive cash prizes and will be invited to attend our annual symposium. First place: £3,000. Second place: £1,000. Third place: £1,000. Will also offer up to £500 travel expenses to help with travel to the event and meals and accommodation during the symposium dates are also covered. Open to all nationalities. You may submit one poem or a collection of poems as long as all the poems in the collection speak to the theme. There is a maximum of 500 words per entry.

GEMINI POETRY OPEN
https://gemini-magazine.com/poetry-open-2025/
$10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 2, 2025. First prize $1,000. Second Prize $100. Four Honorable Mentions $25. Any subject, style or length. Entry fee includes three poems.

MARLOWE AND CHRISTIE FLASH FICTION PRIZE
https://www.marloweandchristie.com/flashfictionprize
£9-11 ENTRY FEE. Early deadline December 5. Regular deadline December 15. Prize £250/$325​​. Entries must be inspired by Christmas and no longer than 250 words. Winners will be announced before Christmas.

MUDFISH POETRY PRIZE
https://mudfish.org/submissions/
$20 ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 15, 2025. A prize of $1,200 and publication in Mudfish is given annually for a single poem. Winning poem and two honorable mentions will be published in Mudfish 25. Entry fee entitles three poems to be submitted.

T PAULO ORCANSE PRIZE FOR LITERARY EXCELLENCE
https://highhorse.blog/t-paulo-urcanse-prize-for-literary-excellence/
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 30, 2024. 1st Place: $250, publication on the website, and an optional interview with the Editors. 2nd Place: $100, publication on the website. 3rd-5th Place: $50, publication on the website. Open to poets, writers, and essayists of all colors and stripes.

JF POWERS PRIZE FOR SHORT FICTION
https://dappledthings.submittable.com/submit/24212/j-f-powers-prize-for-short-fiction
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 30, 2024. The word limit is 8,000 words. Only one submission per author will be accepted. Winners of the J.F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction will be announced in April 2025 and published throughout the subsequent issues that year. 1st place: $700. 2nd place: $300. Up to 8 honorable mentions: publication in the journal and a one-year subscription.

MCNALLY ROBINSON BOOKSELLERS POETRY, SHORT FICTION, AND CREATIVE NONFICTION CONTESTS
https://www.prairiefire.ca/contests/
$34 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 30, 2024. One prize of $1250 is awarded in each of the three categories. Winning pieces are published in Prairie Fire’s summer issue. An invitation to THIN AIR either in-person or virtually (produced by the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, subject to festival funding). One fiction entry consists of one story, maximum 5,000 words. One poetry entry consists of up to three poems, maximum length of your poetry submission should not exceed 150 lines, regardless of whether you are sending 1, 2 or 3 poems. One creative non-fiction entry consists of one piece, maximum 5,000 words. International submissions accepted.

JACOBS/JONES AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERARY PRIZE
https://www.ncwriters.org/programs/competitions/jacobs-jones-african-american-literary-prize/
$10-20 ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 2, 2025. The winner receives $1,000 and possible publication of the winning entry in The Carolina Quarterly. The competition is open to any African-American/Black writer whose primary residence is in North Carolina. Entries may be fiction or creative nonfiction, but must be unpublished, no more than 3,000 words, and concerned with the lives and experiences of African-American/Black North Carolinians.

ARC POETRY CONTEST
https://arcpoetry.ca/contest/poem-of-the-year/
$40 CDN ENTRY FEE. Deadline February 1, 2025. Arc’s annual poetry contest is among the richest in the country, offering $5,000 for the winning poem, a $500 award for the poem selected as Honourable Mention, and a $250 prize for the Readers’ Choice selection. In addition, all 10 to 12 shortlisted poems receive paid publication in Arc and online. The length of each poem must not exceed 100 lines.

DREAMERS: STORIES OF MIGRATION, SENSE OF PLACE AND HOME
https://www.dreamerswriting.com/submit/
$20 ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 31, 2025. Prize: $250 to the first place winner. Submit your stories of migration and/or your sense of place, of home or lack of, and your empathy to the plight of migrants around the world. Interpret the theme of this contest in any way that is fitting for you, keeping in mind the theme of Dreamers Creative Writing – that of heartfelt stories. You do not need to be a migrant to enter this contest.

JOHN UPDIKE REVIEW EMERGING WRITERS PRIZE
https://blogs.iwu.edu/johnupdikesociety/the-jur-emerging-writers-prize/
NO ENTRY FEE. Rolling deadline. A $1000 prize plus publication in The John Updike Review, awarded annually to writers 40 years of age or younger. The writing may be scholarly or bellestristic in nature. Academics, critics, graduate students, assistant professors, novelists, poets, and short story writers are encouraged to submit 10-30 page essays. Submissions are open and rolling.

SERVICESCAPE SHORT STORY AWARD
https://www.servicescape.com/short-story-award
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 30, 2024 EST. For this award, any genre or theme of short story is accepted. All applicants should submit their original unpublished work of short fiction or nonfiction, 5,000 words or fewer, to be considered. Along with receiving an award for $1,000.00 USD, the winner will have his or her short story featured within our blog, which reaches thousands of readers per month.

MINOTAUR/MALICE DOMESTIVE PRIZE FOR TRADITIONAL FICTION
https://us.macmillan.com/minotaurbooks/submitmalicedomesticmanuscript/
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 30, 2024. The Competition is open to any writer, regardless of nationality, aged 18 or older, who has never been the author of any Published Mystery Novel (including self-published works and ebooks). All Manuscripts submitted: a) must be original works of book length (no less than approximately 65,000 words) written in the English language.

GEIST SHORT LONG-DISTANCE WRITING CONTEST
https://www.geist.com/contests/the-2024-short-long-distance-writing-contest
$25 ENTRY FEE Deadline November 12, 2024. Send us a story, 500 words or less, fiction or non-fiction, that spans two or more Canadian time zones. This could mean a physical transition across time zones (like a road trip), or an implied transition between them (like a phone call). First Prize: $500. Second Prize: $250. Third Prize: $150. All winning entries will be published in Geist and on geist.com.

STORY UNLIKELY SHORT STORY CONTEST
https://www.storyunlikely.com/#contest
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 31, 2025. There are no restrictions on genre: fantasy, sci-fi, memoir, fiction/nonfiction, etc. Limit 4,000 words (5,000 for members). There are no restrictions on age or location of participant. $1,500 first place, $1,000 second place, $500 third place. The winning story will be featured on Story Unlikely’s website, will be strongly considered for our annual (print) sample magazine, and may be sent out as the bonus story for signing up, which means a lot of exposure to the winner. All three placing stories will be published in the monthly issue, and all three will be illustrated. To be eligible for the contest, all writers must be signed up to Story Unlikely’s monthly issue. Did we mention it’s free?

NIGHTBOOK BOATS POETRY PRIZE
https://nightboat.org/poetry-prize/
$28 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 15, 2024. The winning poet(s) receives a $1,000 advance, a standard royalty contract, and 25 free copies of the published book. Any poet writing in English. Previous book publication is not a consideration for eligibility. Minimum of 48 pages, paginated, no more than one poem per page.

INEXPLICABLE STORIES CONTEST
https://www.silversailspress.com/storycontest
$10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 15, 2024. Did you experience a thing so strange, so odd, so unusual that it makes no sense? Enter to win cash and publication in our anthology. First prize is $500. Top entries may be invited for publication in Inexplicable Stories published by Silver Sails Press in an anthology publication, our website, or podcast. Stories are a minimum of 100 words and maximum of 500 words. Do not include a title or author name in the word count. (NOTE: This is a new contest.)

TADPOLE PRESS 100-WORD WRITING CONTEST
https://www.tadpolepress.com/100-word-writing-contest
$15 ENTRY FEE. Hosted twice a year with deadlines every April 30 and November 30. Word Limit: 100 words or less per entry. All ages. All genders. All nationalities. You may enter pieces that are brand-new or have been previously published elsewhere. Any genre. No theme. 1st place $2,000 USD. 2nd place publishing and marketing package with Compassiviste Publishing ($6,000 USD value). 3rd place manuscript assessment package with Compassiviste Publishing ($1,500-$3,000 USD value). 4th place editing package with Tadpole Press ($1,450 USD value). 5th place writing coaching package with Tadpole Press ($600 USD value). 6th-10th place $100 USD.

CREATIVE WRITING INK SHORT STORY CONTEST
https://creativewritingink.co.uk/creative-writing-ink-short-story-competition-2024/
£9 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 15, 2024. Entries can be on any subject, theme or genre. Maximum word count is 3,000 words. First prize: £1000, plus a free creative writing course of the winner’s choice and publication on the site. Two runners-up: £200 each.

BATH CHILDREN’S NOVEL CONTEST
https://bathnovelaward.co.uk/childrens-novel-award/
£29.99 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 30, 2024. A £5,000 international writing prize for unagented emerging writers who may be unpublished, self-published or independently published. Looking for novels for children or teens, chapter books and picture book texts. Initial submissions are the opening 5,000 words plus one page synopsis of children’s novels, chapter books, and YA novels, or up to three picture book texts with summaries. The author of 2024’s winning manuscript will receive £5,000. The winner will also receive our beautiful Minerva trophy, based on the world famous sculpture in Bath’s Roman Baths. All listees win feedback worth £180 on their opening pages from an editorial director at Cornerstones Literary Consultancy. Shortlisted writers also win a compilation of award readers’ comments on their full manuscript. One longlisted writer will also win a place worth £1,980 on the 18 week virtual course Edit Your Novel the Professional Way from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy and the Professional Writing Academy.

SERVICESCAPE SHORT STORY AWARD
https://www.servicescape.com/short-story-award
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 30, 2024. All applicants should submit their original unpublished work of short fiction or nonfiction, 5,000 words or fewer, to be considered. Along with receiving an award for $1,000 USD, the winner will have his or her short story featured within our blog, which reaches thousands of readers per month.

LASCAUX PRIZE IN SHORT FICTION
https://lascauxreview.com/contests/
$15 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2024. Stories may be previously published or unpublished, and simultaneous submissions are accepted. Winner receives $1,000, a bronze medallion, and publication in The Lascaux Review. Length should not exceed 10,000 words. All genres and styles are welcome.

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.