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. 

THE SLICE POETRY CHAPBOOK CONTEST
https://forkapplepress.submittable.com/submit
$20 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2025. Poetry chapbook submissions should be up to 35 pages of poems, in a 12-point font. The contest winner will receive an award of $500, 10 author copies, and 25% profits on book sales.

HENSLEY PRESS SHORT STORY COMPETITION
https://www.henshawpress.co.uk/
£6 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 15, 2025. Henshaw is open to anyone over 16 years of age, short stories of 2,000 words, on any subject. 1st Prize £200, 2nd Prize £100, 3rd Prize £50.

WOLVES LIT FEST POETRY COMPETITION 2026
https://pandemonialists.co.uk/wolves-lit-fest-poetry-competition-2026
£4 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2025. The competition this year will once again be an ‘open’ one, so send us poems on whatever subject you like. 1st prize for this competition is £400. 2nd prize, £150. There are three 3rd prizes of £25. There is an additional prize of £50 for the best poem sent in by someone living in a WV (this is not West Virginia) postcode. What we look for is to be taken into poems which create their own world and surprise us with their imagination. Poems must be in English, and no more than 40 lines long.

THE WILLIAM CORY WICKWARE MEMORIAL PRIZE FOR FIRST POETRY CHAPBOOK
https://gnashingteethpublishing.com/submission-guidelines/the-william-cory-wickware-memorial-prize-for-first-poetry-chapbook/
The winner will receive $500 and publication with Gnashing Teeth Publishing, along with a certificate of award. There are no page constraints for manuscripts of full-length books. Chapbooks should be between 30-80 pages.

BOULEVARD SHORT FICTION CONTEST FOR EMERGING WRITERS
https://www.boulevardmagazine.org/short-fiction-contest
$18 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2025. $1,500 and publication in Boulevard awarded to the winning story by a writer who has not yet published a book of fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction with a nationally distributed press. We accept works up to 8,000 words.

BCALA SELF-PUBLISHING LITERARY AWARDS
https://bcala.librariesshare.com/bcala-ebook-contest/
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline February 28, 2026. These awards acknowledge outstanding achievement in the presentation of the cultural, historical and sociopolitical aspects of the Black Diaspora. Each genre prize winner shall receive: $2,500.00, formal recognition at the American Library Association conference, and a BCALA Literary Award Seal to use in their marketing. This contest is free and open to all self-published authors.

EDINBURGH SHORT STORY AWARDS
https://www.scottishartstrust.org/short-story
£11 ENTRY FEE. Deadline February 28, 2026. Open to writers worldwide, published and unpublished. For short stories on any topic up to 2,000 words. We welcome stories in all genres: literary, historic, crime, romance, realism, contemporary, humour and more. Entrants can be any age over 16 years. Stories should be suitable for an adult audience. First prize £3,000. Second prize £500. Third Prize £250. Five Commendations worth £100. Publication in The Edinburgh Anthology will be offered to all longlisted and shortlisted authors (15 stories). Various other cash awards for categories as well.

PORTER FLEMING LITERARY COMPETITION
https://www.themorris.org/porter-fleming-literary-competition/details/
$15 ENTRY FEE. Deadline March 1, 2026.
Fiction—Short stories only (2,500 words maximum)
Nonfiction—Article or essay (2,500 words maximum)
Poetry—(Up to three poems per entry, not to exceed five pages total per entry)
One-Act Play—(Professional format required; limited to fifteen pages, double-spaced)
Writers ages 18 and older who reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington D.C. can enter.

LASCAUX PRIZE IN SHORT FICTION
https://lascauxreview.com/contests/
$15 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2025. Length should not exceed 10,000 words. All genres and styles are welcome. Winner receives $1000.

LASCAUX PRIZE IN POETRY
https://lascauxreview.com/contests/
$15 ENTRY FEE. Deadline March 31, 2026. Poems may be previously published or unpublished, and simultaneous submissions are accepted. Winner receives $1,000, a bronze medallion, and publication in The Lascaux Review. All entries are considered for publication. There are no length restrictions. All genres and styles are welcome.

LITMAG’S VIRGINIA WOOLF AWARD FOR SHORT FICTION
https://litmag.submittable.com/submit/331342/litmags-virginia-woolf-award-for-fiction-2025-first-prize-2-500-publicat
$20 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2025. First Prize: $2,500, publication in LitMag and agency review by Sarah Fuentes of UTA, Molly Glick of CAA, Lisa Bankoff of Bankoff Collaborative, Erin Harris and Sonali Chanchani of Folio Literary Management, Jenny Bent of The Bent Agency, David Forrer of Inkwell Management, Monika Woods of Triangle House, Emily Forland of Brandt & Hochman, and Nat Sobel of Sobel Weber Associates. Three finalists will receive $100 each. All finalists will be considered possible agency review and publication. Entries must be short stories between 3,000 and 8,000 words.

DISQUIET LITERARY PRIZE
https://disquietinternational.org/the-program/contests-scholarships/the-disquiet-prize/
$15 ENTRY FEE. Deadline: January 5, 2026. Entries are accepted in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. One winner in each category will be published in Granta.com (fiction), NinthLetter.com (non-fiction) or The Common (poetry). One grand prize winner will receive a full scholarship, accommodations, and travel stipend to attend the fourteenth annual DISQUIET International Literary Program in Lisbon, Portugal (June 28-July 10, 2026). Genre winners will receive a tuition waiver for DISQUIET 2026 in addition to publication. Winners who are unable to attend the program in Lisbon may elect to receive a $1000 cash prize in lieu of the tuition waiver.

RATTLE CHAPBOOK PRIZE
https://rattle.com/page/chapbookprize/
$30 ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 15, 2026. Three winners will receive $5,000, 500 copies, distribution to Rattle’s 8,000+ subscribers. At least one of the winners will be a poet who has never published a full-length collection of poetry (48 pages or more) prior to 2025. Open to writers, worldwide; poems must be written primarily in English (no translations, except by the author). Manuscripts may be 15 – 30 pages of poems.

STORY UNLIKELY SHORT STORY CONTEST
https://www.storyunlikely.com/#contest
Deadline January 14, 2026 nonmembers and January 31, 2026 for members. There are no restrictions on genre: fantasy, sci fi, memoir, fiction/nonfiction, etc – we don’t care as long as it’s written and told with quality and care. The story itself cannot exceed 7,000 words (except for WRITER level Members, who get a bonus 3,000 words added!). There are no restrictions on age or location of participant, and no need to ask us for permission to participate in the contest. $3,000 first place, $1,000 second place, $750 third place, and $250 for our new REPRINT CATEGORY. We tend to pick up a few of the finalists for publication in our monthly magazine! – per our standard guideline pay, as well.

VIII INTERNATIONAL MICROFICTION CONTEST
https://www.fundacioncesaregidoserrano.com/en/
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 31, 2026. Participation is open to all writers from any country in the world who are over 18 years of age. Writers aged 16 may also participate, provided they submit a duly notarized authorization from their parents and/or legal guardians. Entries, on a free subject matter, must be written in any of the following languages: Spanish, English, Arabic, or Hebrew. A maximum of three texts per author will be accepted, regardless of the languages chosen. A grand prize of € 20,000 will be awarded to the best story, in any of the contest languages. Additionally, three runner-up prizes of € 2,000 each will be awarded to the best stories in each of the other languages admitted to the contest, provided they are not the grand prize winner. Attendance at the award ceremony is an essential condition. Stories may not exceed 100 words (counted in Spanish; differences in other languages’ syntax will not alter this limit).

THE EUGENE AND MARILYN GLICK INDIANA AUTHORS AWARDS
https://indianaauthorsawards.org/awards/
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 9, 2026. Winners of the Indiana Authors Awards receive $5,000 and are invited to participate in a statewide speakers program. Additionally, winning authors have the opportunity to designate a $500 award to an Indiana library of their choice. The Indiana Authors Awards honor books in the following categories every two years: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Children’s, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Drama, Genre, Debut. Two additional awards recognize contributions to Indiana’s literary community.

SHEPTON SNOWDROPS COMPETITION
https://www.sheptonsnowdrops.org.uk/competitions/2026-poetry-competition/
£4 ENTRY FEE PER POEM. Deadline January 4, 2026. There are three age categories – under 12s, 12 to 17 and 18 plus, and prizes for 1st place for poetry in each age group. Prizes are: 18 & Over – £300, 12 to 17 – £100, and 11 & Under – £50. Your poem(s) must be no more than 30 lines long. Over 18s can submit up to five poems, under 18s one poem. You can write your poems in any format – haiku, sonnet, blank verse etc., but they must be relevant to the theme. THEME: IN THE GARDEN.

JOHN UPDIKE REVIEW EMERGING WRITERS PRIZE
https://updikereview.com/
NO DEADLINE. NO ENTRY FEE. A $1000 prize plus publication in The John Updike Review, awarded annually to writers 40 years of age or younger. Depending upon the quality of submissions, one or more winners will be announced annually. The review is looking for an essay by a young writer or critic that deepens our understanding of the work of John Updike. The writing may be scholarly or belletristic in nature. Academics, critics, graduate students, assistant professors, novelists, poets, and short story writers are encouraged to submit 10-30 page essays. There is no deadline; submissions are open and rolling. Send submissions via attachment to:  Prof. James Schiff, Editor, The John Updike Review, james.schiff@uc.edu.

DO WHA(TS) WRITE PRIZE
https://www.dowhatswrite.com/rules
$5 CAD ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2025. The goal of Do Wha(TS) Write is to fundraise for Tourette Canada, a national charity that provides support for individuals with TS. Contest entries should be flash fiction or short stories, with an absolute word limit of 1000 words. There is no required prompt or topic. Poetry is not permitted. This contest is international – you do not have to reside in Canada to participate. The winner will receive a prize of $200 CAD and published.

BOUJLEVARD SHORT FICTION CONTEST
https://www.boulevardmagazine.org/short-fiction-contest
$18 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2025. $1,500 and publication in Boulevard awarded to the winning story by a writer who has not yet published a book of fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction with a nationally distributed press. We accept works up to 8,000 words.

MSLEXIA WOMEN’S SINGLE POEM COMPETITION
https://mslexia.co.uk/competitions/single-poem-poetry/womens-poetry-competition-2025/
£10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 8, 2025. This competition is open to unpublished poems of any length, on any subject. Your £10 entry fee allows you to submit up to three poems. 1st: £2,000; 2nd: £500; 3rd: £250. Unpublished Poet Prize is an additional award for the best unpublished poem by an unpublished poet: £250. The four winners, plus sixteen additional finalists will have their poems published in the March 2026 issue of Mslexia.

STORY UNLIKELY SHORT STORY CONTEST
https://www.storyunlikely.com/#contest
Deadline January 14, 2026 nonmembers and January 31, 2026 for members. There are no restrictions on genre: fantasy, sci fi, memoir, fiction/nonfiction, etc – we don’t care as long as it’s written and told with quality and care. The story itself cannot exceed 7,000 words (except for WRITER level Members, who get a bonus 3,000 words added!). There are no restrictions on age or location of participant, and no need to ask us for permission to participate in the contest. $3,000 first place, $1,000 second place, $750 third place, and $250 for our new REPRINT CATEGORY. We tend to pick up a few of the finalists for publication in our monthly magazine! – per our standard guideline pay, as well.

MICHAEL CURTIS SHORT STORY BOOK PRIZE
https://www.hubcity.org/cmc-short-story-prize
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2025. Open to emerging writers in thirteen Southern states. Submitters must currently reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia or West Virginia, and must have no more than one previously published book. $5,000 and book publication for a debut book of short fiction. The manuscript must be between 140 and 220 pages (double spaced, 12 point, Times New Roman or similar typeface) and include no fewer than six stories. Works that have previously appeared in magazines or in anthologies may be included. No story should be over 15,000 words in length. There is no minimum story word count.

NATURE CHRONICLES PRIZE
https://naturechroniclesprize.com/
£15 ENTRY FEE. Deadline January 31, 2026. We are a biennial, international, English-language literary award proud to have established itself as a generator of stimulating, contemporary essay-length non-fiction on nature. The winner will receive £10,000 and five runners up £1,000 each. All six winning entries will be published in our third anthology. The competition is open to any work of non-fiction prose between 2,000 and 8,000 words long on a topic the writer considers to be contemporary nature writing. It is for work originating in the English language.

THE SOUTH CAROLINA YOUNG FILMMAKERS PROJECT
https://www.indiegrants.org/young-filmmakers
Deadline February 9, 2026.Participating students must create a short film (two minutes max) telling a cinematic story in any genre, following all rules and this year’s Creative Challenge -.- use a MEGAPHONE as a prop. Top Ten scorers will screen at a special program where winners will be announced. First Prize receives $750, Second Prize $500, and Third Prize $250. Each entrant must be a high school (grades 9-12) living in South Carolina during the 2025-26 school year.

BOULEVARD SHORT FICTION CONTEST FOR EMERGING WRITERS
https://www.boulevardmagazine.org/short-fiction-contest
$18 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2025. Entry fee includes subscription. Limit 8000 words. $1,500 and publication in Boulevard awarded to the winning story by a writer who has not yet published a book of fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction with a nationally distributed press.

NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARDS
https://www.indiebookawards.com/ 
$80 ENTRY FEE. Deadline February 13, 2026. Winners in each of the 80+ categories are given $100 cash prizes, gold medals, complimentary stickers, social media coverage, possible representation by a leading literary agent, and recognition as one of the top independently published books of the year. Three Grand Prize Winners will be selected from all entries received and will be awarded cash prizes of $1500, $750 and $500 based on their order of win. All Winners and Finalists are invited to attend the Indie Book Awards gala ceremony. All indie authors and independent publishers of all levels welcome. Submissions are open internationally, to any books written in English released in 2024, 2025, 2026 or with a 2024, 2025, or 2026 copyright date.

LILITH FICTION CONTEST
https://lilith.org/contact/writing-for-lilith/
NO ENTRY FEE, Deadline December 31, 2025. Lilith magazine—independent, Jewish & frankly feminist—seeks quality short stories with heart, soul, and chutzpah, 3,000 words or under, for our Annual Fiction Contest. First prize: $300 and publication. We especially like fresh fiction with feminist and Jewish nuance.

PRESS53 AWARD FOR SHORT FICTION
https://www.press53.com/award-for-short-fiction
$30 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 31, 2025. The winner of this contest will receive publication by Press 53, a $1,000 cash advance and 53 copies of the book; if a runner-up is named, publication, $500 advance, and 25 copies. All prizes will be awarded upon publication.  This competition is open to any writer age 18 or older, regardless of his or her publication history, provided the manuscript is written in English and the author lives in the United States or one of its territories. Manuscripts should contain a collection of short stories, which can include flash and micro fiction. Manuscript should be around 100 to no more than 250 pages in length.

NEXT GENERATION SHORT STORY AWARDS
https://shortstoryawards.com/guidelines.php
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline February 26, 2026. Select the category or categories you wish to enter based on which category most applies to your story. You may enter as many categories as you like. Stories must be no longer than 5,000 words. No stories that are sexual, political or include hate speech, offensive or vulgar language will be accepted. The Next Generation Short Story Awards (NGSSA) via Headline Books (Publisher) will publish a selection of Winning stories in an Anthology of Winners that appeals to the general population including school age students. All Grand Prize Winners receive a gold medal and get their story published in our Anthology of Winners + receive a complimentary copy of the Anthology, as well as a cash prize: 1st Place $500 Cash prize, 2nd Place $300 Cash prize, 3rd Place $200 Cash prize. Winner of each of the 30+ categories $75 cash prize and gold medal + story published in Anthology of Winners + a complimentary copy of the anthology + a complimentary Winner sticker image.

REEDSY WRITING PROMPT CONTEST
https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/
$5 ENTRY FEE. Deadline monthly. Reedsy challenges you to create a short story based on one of their prompts. The winner will be featured on Reedsy Prompts and receive $250 via PayPal. We’ll also consider your submission for a future print and digital issue of our lit mag, Prompted. Write a short story between 1,000 and 3,000 words, submit it from your Reedsy Prompts profile.

FURIOUS FICTION
https://www.writerscentre.com.au/furious-fiction/
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline first Friday of each month. A monthly short story challenge from the Australian Writers’ Centre. On the FIRST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH, we will unveil a new story challenge. You then have 55 hours and a maximum of 500 words to wow us with your storytelling skills. Prize is $500 AU.

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.

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.