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. 

PLATFORM STORIES LITERARY CONTEST 2026
https://laultimaestacionfilm.com/concurso/
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline May 15, 2026. This international contest invites us to give voice to those who care without recognition: family members, friends, neighbors who dedicate their time, energy, and love to caring for others. Stories or tales based on your experience as an unpaid caregiver. Length 1000-1500 words. Texts in Spanish or English. Prizes range $100-$300. All finalists and honorable mentioned receive publication in the anthology + audiovisual capsule recording + certificate.

INKSPOT 500 FLASH FICTION PRIZE
https://inkspotpublishing.com/competition/500-for-500-flash-fiction-2026
£10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline May 17, 2026. Flash fiction short stories with a word count not exceeding 500 words. Short scripts are also welcome. Prize: £500.

BARDSY SPRING 1st CHAPTER ANTHOLOGY CONTEST
https://www.bardsy.com/contest
$30 ENTRY FEE. Deadline May 4, 2026. Every entrant receives comprehensive human feedback with specific recommendations for improving their work. Every entrant has one opportunity to revise their entry before judging. Candidate finalists work with a professional editor to polish their chapter for publication. You have one opportunity to revise before the final judging. Grand prize: $1000 and anthology publication. All finalists receive $50 and anthology publication. Between 1500 and 2500 words.

MONTREAL INTERNATIONAL POETRY PRIZE
https://www.montrealpoetryprize.com/2026-competition
$25 CAD ENTRY FEE. Deadline May 15, 2026. One prize of $20,000 CAD to a poet for a single poem of forty or fewer lines. The shortlist is published in The Montreal Poetry Prize Anthology. Entries may be submitted from anywhere in the world.

CLARA JOHNSON AWARD
https://janesstories.org/2026/03/08/open-for-nominations-the-2026-clara-johnson-award/
$10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline May 8, 2026. For a specific work of prose, or for a body of work of fiction or nonfiction prose–published within the year of 2025. Open to fiction, nonfiction, creative nonfiction, or memoir. Works in popular categories, e.g., romance, and mystery are acceptable if they rise to the level being literary. $500 cash prize. No self-published books.

THE ALPINE POETRY PRIZE
https://alpinefellowship.com/poetry-prize
£10 ENTRY FEE. Deadline May 1, 2026. Awarded for the best poetic response on the theme of JOY. First place: £3,000, Second place: £1,000, Third place: £1,000. You may submit only ONE poem per entry. There is a maximum of 500 words per entry.

THE SUPERNATURAL WRITING PRIZE – THE KIPLING SOCIETY
https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/news/the-supernatural-2026-writing-prize.htm
£8 ENTRY FEE. Deadline May 1, 2026. Subject Supernatural. First Prize £350. Second prize £100. Third Prize £50. Maximum of 2500 words excluding the title. No minimum length. Competitors give their permission for the winning entries to be published in the Kipling Journal, and subsequently on the Kipling Society’s website.

F(R)ICTION CONTEST
https://frictioncontests.submittable.com/submit
$10-$15 ENTRY FEE. Deadline: May 15, 2026. Short stories: 1,001 – 7,500 words. Poetry: up the three pages per poem. Creative Nonfiction: up to 6,500 words. Flash fiction: up to 1,000 words per piece. Accepts work written in English from anywhere in the world—regardless of genre, style, or origin—and welcome speculative writing and experimental literature. Short story first prize $1000. Flash fiction first prize $300. Poetry first prize $300. Creative nonfiction first prize $1000.

MOLLY KEANE CREATIVE WRITING PRIZE
https://waterford.submit.com/show/366
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline May 1, 2026. Prize of €500. An open competition for people resident on the island of Ireland for a short story. The limit for each piece is 2000 words.

LIGHT CONTEST
https://light4ph.org/contest/
https://light4ph.submittable.com/submit
$5 ENTRY FEE. Deadline May 1, 2026. Using art, letters, stories, and poetry, tell us: How might the roots of your joy sustain your wellbeing? It is recommended that letter submissions are between 250 to 500 words, short stories 2000 words. Poetry one page. Paid submissions will be considered for both publication and prize money. Free submissions will only be eligible for publication.

PEN PARENTIS WRITING FELLOWSHIP FOR NEW PARENTS
https://penparentis.org/fellowship/
$20 ENTRY FEE. Deadline April 17, 2026. One talented writer who is the parent of at least one child under 10 years old will receive $2000 to further their writing career, a year of mentorship, and will be offered the opportunity to read their winning story online at a Pen Parentis Literary Salon in Fall 2026. The second prize and third prize will receive $500 and $250. Submit a new, never-published fiction story-any genre, on any subject-of up to 440 words.

DEAR ALIENS
https://www.dearaliens.net/
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline May 14, 2026. The aliens are coming. They asked us for just one item: a written document from humanity to read before they arrive. Should we share a history of humanity? An introduction to your family? A science fiction story? A description of a sunset? A narrative from your life? A joke? Giving $2,000 USD to the best submission. Second and third place get $250 each. Physically mail in your writing to be received by the due date (before May 15). (NOTE: This is a first time contest so no track record.)

FLORIDA REVIEW EDITOR’S PRIZE
https://cah.ucf.edu/floridareview/2026/02/05/2026-editors-prizes-open-for-submission/
$25 ENTRY FEE. Deadline April 15, 2026. Editor’s Prizes in Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry. Each winner receives publication in The Florida Review and $1,000 upon publication. Entry fee includes subscription to The Florida Review. Prose limited to 9000 words. Poetry limited to five poems.

CLAIRE HARRIS POETRY PRIZE
https://gooselane.com/pages/claire-harris-poetry-prize-submissions
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline March 31, 2026. Eligible writers include Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada who are writers from Black, Indigenous, or other racialized communities and who have not previously published a book-length collection of poetry. (Poets who have published a chapbook, but not yet a book-length collection, are eligible to apply). Manuscripts should be book-length works of poetry, i.e., approximately 48-100 pages. The prize includes a cash award of $1,000, a contract for the publication of the collection under the icehouse poetry imprint in the following year (2027), and public readings in at least three Canadian cities.

RIVER HERON REVIEW POETRY PRIZE
https://www.riverheronreview.com/the-rhr-poetry-contest
$15 ENTRY FEE. Deadline July 31, 2026. The River Heron Poetry Prize awards the winning poet $500 and four finalists $100 each, a Zoom reading, plus publication. Poets may submit up to 3 poems.

WILD LOT PRESS
https://wildlotpress.com/submissions
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline May 31 2026. Wild Lot Press, with the assistance of the Pennsylvania Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Program (CEAP), is publishing an illustrated nonfiction anthology book about night, with the working title Nightness: Ruminations on the Darker Side of Day. We’re looking for essays/creative nonfiction of any length, from snippets and passing anecdotes to longform opuses, that take keen interest in what happens between dusk and dawn in the wild spaces of our world, or better still, in the liminal spaces that bridge the human-centric, built world and the extra-human margins that encircle us. The winning essay will receive a prize of $250; all selected contributors will receive free copies.

THE DESPERATE LITERATURE PRIZE FOR SHORT FICTION
https://degrootfoundation.org/competitions/desperate-literature-short-fiction-prize/
€20 ENTRY FEE. Deadline April 19 2026. First Prize €2000, a week’s residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, a consultation with Literary Agent Charlotte Seymour from Johnson & Alcock,  manuscript assessment with The Literary Consultancy. Runner-up Prizes €1000 (two prizes available). Shortlisted will be published in a limited edition book and launched at the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize Salon, Madrid. Limit 2000 words of fiction.

WRITERS ONLINE FICTION PRIZE
https://www.writers-online.co.uk/writing-competitions/writing-grand-prize-2026-win-1-000-cash
£17.50 ENTRY FEE. Deadline June 30, 2026. Win a whopping £1,000 for short fiction in any style and on any theme, up to 2,000 words.

SHADY GROVE LITERARY CONTEST
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.

THE GRATEFUL AMERICAN BOOK PRIZE
https://www.davidbrucesmith.com/2026-grateful-american-book-prize-call-for-submissions
NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline July 31, 2026. Accepting submissions for outstanding historical fiction, non-fiction, and biographies for readers, ages 11 to 15. Eligible books must be published between August 1, 2025, and July 31, 2026. The winner will receive a $13,000 award, a lifetime membership to The New York Historical, and a medallion designed by artist Clarice Smith. Two Honorable Mention recipients will receive $500, each, and the medallion. Self-published books do not qualify.

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.