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. 

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.

FFF COMPETITION THIRY
https://freeflashfiction.com/current-competition/
£4.40 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 23, 2025. Submit a flash fiction piece of between 100 and 300 words, on any theme. One winner will receive £165 and publication. Two highly commended will receive £77 and publication. Three shortlisted will receive £66 and publication.

WALKING IN THE DARK POETRY AND FLASH COMPETITION
https://write.walklistencreate.org/wr_instance/write-about-walking-in-the-dark/
€10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 20, 2025. We invite you to write a flash fiction story or poem of 250 words or under on the theme of “In the Dark”. We will publish an anthology of shortlisted submissions in an illustrated chapbook, as well as on this website and as an audio locative podcast. Prizes for the two winners will include a €125 cash prize (the more entry fees we receive the higher the cash prize will become) and artwork created by Alban Low in each category, and a copy of our limited illustrated edition WALKING In the Dark chapbook.

GALLEY BEGGAR PRESS SHORT STORY PRIZE
https://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/short-story-prize-tc
£11 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 8, 2025. An annual short story competition for both published and unpublished writers, writing original fiction in English, and from anywhere in the world. The award offers prize to the winner of £2500. Shortlisted writers each receive a cash prize of £200. Longlisted writers receive £50 in book vouchers, plus a 4-book subscription to Galley Beggar Press. Entries must not exceed 6,000 words.

GREGORY O’DONOGHUE INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION
https://munsterlit.ie/odonoghue-competition/
€7 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 30, 2025. The competition is open to original, unpublished and unbroadcast poems in the English language of 40 lines or fewer. The poem can be on any subject, in any style, by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. First Prize €2,000, featured reading at the Cork International Poetry Festival (with four-night hotel stay and full board), featured on the Southword Poetry Podcast, publication in Southword. Second Prize €500, publication in Southword. Third prize €250, publication in Southword. Ten Runners-Up €50 and publication in Southword.

CREPUSCULAR MAGAZINE
https://www.patreon.com/posts/submission-85137677
Crepuscular is interested in microfiction stories exploring places, characters, and questions buried in the gray areas between this and that, here and there, night and day, alive and dead, evil and good, feminine and masculine, up and down, real and unreal. While we lean toward speculative pieces, we have a love for those in-between-y pieces that blur genre. We accept horror (both spec and non), fantasy, science fiction, general/literary fiction, and everything in between. Maximum word length is 250 words. Pays ten cents/word.

COSMOS INSTITUTE
https://cosmosinst.typeform.com/pitches
Offering $1,000 each for essays around 2,000 words in length to be published on our Substack. If you’re interested, send us three short paragraphs summarising your article using the form. Our team is interested in writing about how AI can support human flourishing, organized around five core themes:

Truth-seeking: the ability to inquire openly and correct our errors
Human autonomy: the cultivated capacity for self-direction
Decentralization: systems that resist coercion, capture, and control
History: the intellectual origins of technology, especially AI
Philosophy and AI: applying philosophical ideas to AI development

WRITER’S DIGEST
https://www.writersdigest.com/resources/submission-guidelines
Writer’s Digest, the No. 1 magazine for writers, celebrates the writing life and what it means to be a writer in today’s publishing environment. We consider completed manuscripts on spec, as well as original pitches. A query should include a thorough outline that introduces your article proposal and highlights each of the points you intend to make. Your query should discuss how the article will benefit our readers, why the topic is timely and why you’re the appropriate writer to discuss the topic. For manuscripts, we pay 50 cents per word, on acceptance, for first world rights for one-time print use and perpetual electronic use. Should we want to reprint anything we’ve purchased from you in anything other than electronic format, we’ll pay you 25% of the original purchase price per use. Especially seeking March/April 2026 THEME: Achieve Perfect Pacing. Click here to submit your pitch for March/April 2026: https://forms.gle/aAe5GRpUKXAy79TW7

NEWSWEEK
https://www.newsweek.com/contact
Send pitches to Rheana Murray, Essays Editor at r.murray@newsweek.com. Looking for personal stories about parenting, health and relationships. See samples at https://www.newsweek.com/topic/parenting

THE MASTERS REVIEW NOVEL EXCERPT CONTEST
https://themastersreview.submittable.com/submit/334763/2025-novel-excerpt-contest-judged-by-nick-fuller-googins-3-000-prize
$20 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 9, 2025. The winning excerpt will be awarded $3,000; online publication; and an hour-long consultation with Marin Takikawa, a literary agent with The Friedrich Agency. Second- and third-place excerpts will be awarded online publication and $300 and $200 respectively, in addition to written feedback from Takikawa. Submitted excerpts must be under 6,000 words. Submitted work must be previously unpublished. This contest is for emerging writers only. Writers with single-author book-length work published or under contract with a major press are ineligible.

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.

RALEIGH REVIEW FLASH FICTION CONTEST
https://raleighreview.org/rr-flash-fiction-prize
$7 ENTRY FEE (OPTIONAL). Deadline October 31, 2025. First Prize includes $300 USD and publication in the Spring 2026 issue. Finalists will receive our standard $15 payment along with publication. All Finalists will receive a 2-year subscription to Raleigh Review. Submit up to two unpublished works of flash per entry. Flash works should be no longer than 1000 words each, combine both stories in one file.

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.

DORIS BETTS FICTION PRIZE
https://www.ncwriters.org/programs/competitions/doris-betts-fiction-prize
$10-$20 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2025. The competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. North Carolina Literary Review subscribers with North Carolina connections (lives or has lived in NC) are also eligible. The competition is for previously unpublished* short stories up to 6,000 words. Awards the first-prize winner $250 and publication in the North Carolina Literary Review. Finalists will also be considered for publication in the NCLR, and authors will receive $50 to $150, depending on how many stories selected.

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.

COMMONWEALTH SHORT STORY PRIZE
https://commonwealthfoundation.com/short-story-prize/
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 1, 2025. Commonwealth citizens aged 18 and over can enter a short story of 2000-5000 words for a chance to win £5,000. One of the regional winners is then selected as the overall winner, who receives £5,000. The regional winners will receive £2,500. All five regional winning stories will be published on Granta.

BARDSY FALL FIRST CHAPTER ANTHOLOGY CONTEST
https://bardsy.com/contest 
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline December 5, 2025. A $1,000 cash prize for the Grand Prize Winner, $50 cash prizes for the Finalists. Both the winner/finalists receive publication in Bardsy’s Fall Anthology. Each entry receives directed feedback using our Publishability Index tool and the opportunity to resubmit revisions for their chapter before judging. Entries must be original, in English, and between 1,500 – 2,500 words.

WOW! CREATIVE NONFICTION ESSAY CONTEST
https://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/contest.php#EssayContest
$12 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2025. WOW! Women on Writing is seeking creative nonfiction on any topic (1000 words or less) and in any style–from personal essay and memoir to lyric essay and hermit crab, 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. Limit 300 entries. 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.

WOW! FALL 2025 FLASH FICTION CONTEST
https://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/contest.php
$10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 30, 2025. Seeking flash fiction of any genre 250 – 750 words. The mission of this contest is to inspire creativity, great writing, and provide well-rewarded recognition to contestants. Limit 300 entries. 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.

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.

VERN RUTSALA BOOK PRIZE
https://cloudbankbooks.com/vern-rutsala-book-contest/
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2025. A prize of $1,000 is awarded, plus publication of the manuscript and 50 free books. Submit 70 to 90 pages of poetry and/or flash fiction, including a Table of Contents and Acknowledgments page. Submissions are accepted from around the world with no citizenship limitations. The first 50 writers submitting to the contest receive a Cloudbank book or journal.

FREE FLASH FICTION THIRTY CONTEST
https://freeflashfiction.com/current-competition/
£4.40 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 23, 2025. Submit a flash fiction piece of between 100 and 300 words, on any theme. Winner will receive £165 and publication. Highly Commended will receive £77 and publication. Shortlisted will receive £66 and publication. The competition is open to writers worldwide but stories must be written in English.

CRAFT FLASH PROSE PRIZE
https://www.craftliterary.com/craft-flash-prose-prize-2025/
$20 ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 2, 2025. Three winners will receive $1,000 each. Three additional editors’ choice selections will receive $200 each. We’ll review both fiction and creative nonfiction for this prize. Please adhere to the 1,000 word count maximum per piece (you may send up to two flash prose pieces per submission). All entries will be considered for general publication in CRAFT.

THE BEDFORD COMPETITION
https://bedfordwritingcompetition.co.uk/
£8.50 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2025. Short story and poetry prizes, each category – £2000, £300, £200. Also, National Cygnature Competition Prizes are open to young writers worldwide aged 17-25 yrs. Bedford short story and poetry prizes open to those residing in the Bedford, UK area. (see competition rules for eligible postcodes). All submissions are entered in the Main Prize. Stories maximum 3000 words. Poems maximum 40 lines. Stories must be no more than 3000 words. Entries can be from anywhere in the world.

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.

GREGORY O’DONOGHUE INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION
https://munsterlit.ie/odonoghue-competition/
ENTRY FEE €7 EUR per poem (or €30 EUR for a batch of five), $7 USD per poem (or $30 USD for a batch of five), or £6 GBP per poem (or £25 GBP for a batch of five). Deadline November 30, 2025. The competition is open to original, unpublished and unbroadcasted poems in the English language of 40 lines or fewer. The poem can be on any subject, in any style, by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. 1st Prize €2,000; Featured reading at the Cork International Poetry Festival (with four-night hotel stay and full board); Featured on the Southword Poetry Podcast; Publication in Southword. 2nd Prize €500; Publication in Southword. 3rd prize €250; Publication in Southword. Ten Runners-Up €50; Publication in Southword. In a social justice initiative, the Munster Literature Centre is offering free entries of two poems each for thirty poets currently residing in a developing country (Africa, Central and South America, South East Asia, the Philippines, in the main) who do not have the financial means to pay the entrance fee.

ALUMINUM CROWN SHORT STORY CONTEST
https://www.chokeandstroke.com/
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2025. In the year 2101, due to environmental changes, the Melbourne CBD will be enclosed in a cube: the Central Business Cube, the CBC. We are looking for stories based around this speculative event in the future of Australia. We are asking you to think inside the box. Open to Australian and international writers. Word length between 1000-5000 words. Stories cannot be published elsewhere (including blogs/Facebook etc). 1st place: $300 (AU), 2nd place: $150 (AU), 3rd place: $50 (AU). (NOTE: $300 Australian is $200 USD)

THE PG WODEHOUSE SOCIETY (UK) ESSAY PRIZE
https://www.pgwodehousesociety.org.uk/essayprize
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 17, 2025. A prize of £750 will be awarded to the winner of the competition. Word count of 3,000 to 6,000 words, excluding footnotes and bibliography. Comparative essays are acceptable, but the focus of the essay must be on Wodehouse. Entrants from all walks of life are encouraged to provide new and interesting perspectives on Wodehouse’s works.

THE BEDFORD SHORT STORY COMPETITION
https://bedfordwritingcompetition.co.uk/short-story-rules
£8.50 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2025. Open internationally. Stories must not have been published, self-published, published on a website, broadcast, been placed first, second or third, or been awarded a prize in any other competition. Stories must be no more than 3000 words. English only. First prize £2000, second prize £300 and third prize £200.

THE BEDFORD POETRY COMPETITION
https://bedfordwritingcompetition.co.uk//poetry-rules/
£8.50 ENTRY FEE. Deadline October 31, 2025. Open internationally. Poems must not have been published, self-published, published on a website, broadcast, been placed first, second or third, or been awarded a prize in any other competition. English only. Poems must be no more than 40 lines. The Poetry Competition winners will receive, first prize £2000, second prize £300 and third prize £200.

THE HOPE PRIZE
https://www.thehopeprize.com/
EARLY BIRD ENTRY FEE $20 AUD (approx. $13 USD / €12 EUR / £10 GBP etc.). Deadline October 31, 2025. (Opens, May 1, 2025.) The Hope Prize is an international writing competition open to writers worldwide aged 18 and over. We’re seeking powerful, original stories of hope, fiction or non-fiction, from both emerging and established voices. The winner will receive $10,000 AUD, and shortlisted stories will be published in a Simon & Schuster anthology, with royalties supporting our charity partner. This year, we’re proud to partner with CAMFED, a global leader in girls’ education and women’s empowerment across Africa. We offer a limited number of fee-free places for writers experiencing financial hardship. A maximum of 5,000 words (no minimum). 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. Genre, style, and subject matter are open (and we encourage bold self expression and boundary pushing), though stories should align with the core themes of hope, courage, and resilience, as personally experienced or imagined by you, the writer.

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.

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.

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.