Discover the finest writing contests of 2018 for fiction and non-fiction authors of short stories, poetry, essays and more. Updated weekly, these contests are vetted by Reedsy to weed out the scammers and time-wasters. Manage a contest? Submit it here
We found 311 contests that match your search 🔦
Respond to one of Reedsy's weekly writing prompt newsletters with a short story for the chance to win $50 and get featured on the Reedsy Medium Blog!
Deadline: December 31st, 2018 • Entry fee 💰: FREE
Genre: Fiction, Short Story,
$50
Publication on Reedsy Blog
We are aiming to publish and represent at least three novelists in the horror space. We’re modeling this contest after one we did in collaboration with the Horror Writers Association of America last October, which bubbled up some incredible debut authors that we are currently in the midst of publishing.
Deadline: December 14th, 2018 • Entry fee 💰: FREE
Genre: Horror,
Publication and representation through Inkshares
Welcome to the 2018 Inkshares Mystery & Thriller Contest. Books published in our previous contests have gone on to garner starred reviews in every publishing magazine, features in major book reviews including USA Today, and awards from organizations including the American Library Association. Some are in development for television and film at top networks and studios. So prospective mystery author, prospective thriller author—or both—we’re thrilled to have you participate and can’t wait to find out who we will be publishing and representing.
Deadline: December 14th, 2018 • Entry fee 💰: FREE
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller,
Publication and representation through Inkshares
The On Teaching Poem Prize is a $1,000 prize, given to honor the best unpublished poem written about K–12 teaching and/or teachers. The winning poem is published in the Academy of American Poets popular Poem-a-Day series during May and published on Poets.org. A finalist will also be chosen and awarded $500.
Deadline: January 1st, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: FREE
Genre: Poetry,
$1,000
Publication in "Poem-a-Day" series
Word count: 12,000 words, any shorter length stories are more than welcome. Open to all writers.
Deadline: November 30th, 2018 • Entry fee 💰: $2
Genre: Fiction, Short Story,
$700
Publication in Glimmer Train Stories
The Raymond Carver Short Story Contest is one of the most renowned fiction contests in the world. Featuring prominent guest judges and offering $2500 across five prizes, the contest delivers exciting new fiction from writers all over the world. The contest opens each year April 1 - May 15 and prizewinners are published in their annual fall issue in October.
Deadline: May 15th, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: $17
Genre: Short Story,
$1,500
Consideration from literary agents
The Narrative Prize is awarded annually for the best short story, novel excerpt, poem, one-act play, graphic story, or work of literary nonfiction published by a new or emerging writer in Narrative.
Deadline: June 15th, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: FREE
Genre: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, Short Story,
$4,000
The Snowbound Chapbook Award includes a cash reward in addition to publication by Tupelo Press, 25 copies of the winning title, a book launch, and national distribution with energetic publicity and promotion. Submissions should be a previously unpublished, chapbook-length poetry manuscript (20-36 pages) with a table of contents.
Deadline: February 28th, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: $25
Genre: Poetry,
$1,000
Publication by Tupelo Press
One grand prize winner will receive $3,000, a marketing analysis, a $300 credit at BookBaby, and 3 free ads in the Winning Writers newsletter (a $450 value). Length limit: 150,000 words. You may submit a collection of short stories or essays as a single entry. Please submit during February 15-June 30, 2019.
Deadline: June 30th, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: $60
Genre: Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, Poetry,
$3,000
Offered since 1954, the James Laughlin Award is given to recognize and support a second book of poetry forthcoming in the next calendar year. Along with $5,000, the winner receives an all-expenses-paid weeklong residency in Miami Beach, Florida, and distribution of the winning book to approximately one thousand Academy of American Poets members. Submissions are accepted January 1 through May 15 each year.
Deadline: May 15th, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: FREE
Genre: Poetry,
$5,000
Distribution of book to Academy of American Poets members
Named for the late David Nathan Meyerson (1967-1998), a therapist and talented writer who died before he was able to show to the greater world the full fruits of his literary potential, the prize consists of $1,000 and publication in the Southwest Review. Open to any writer who has not published a book of fiction (either a novel or collection of stories). Stories can be up to 8000 words in length.
Deadline: May 1st, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: $25
Genre: Fiction, Short Story,
$1,000
Publication in the Southwest Review
Every year, the Killer Nashville Claymore Award assists new and rebranding English-language fiction authors get published, including possible agent representation, book advances, editor deals, and movie and television sales. Over $3,000 worth of prizes are given away each year, but to us, the publishing and movie deals—and the careers they build—are the end game.
Deadline: April 1st, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: $40
Genre: Fiction, Novel,
Publishing contract
The Black Caucus of ALA (BCALA) honors the best self-published ebooks by an African American author in the U.S. in the following genres: Fiction and Poetry.
Deadline: February 28th, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: FREE
Genre: Fiction, Novel, Poetry,
$500
For every single entry received, we plant a tree in Boré, Kenya. We’ll email you the GPS coordinates of it once the contest has closed and we’ve received confirmation of them from our Word Forest Coordinator. Short stories should be no more than 4,000 words and poetry should be no more than 50 lines.
Deadline: December 31st, 2018 • Entry fee 💰: £5
Genre: Fiction, Poetry, Short Story,
£1,000
We are looking for stories about families of all configurations. It's fine to draw heavily on real-life experiences, but the work must read like fiction and all stories accepted for publication will be presented as fiction.
Deadline: January 2nd, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: $18
Genre: Fiction, Short Story,
$2,500
Publication in Glimmer Train Stories
Nimrold International Journal of Prose and Poetry
The Awards are among the most distinguished literary prizes in the country. Past judges include Karen Russell, Stanley Kunitz, Marvin Bell, Mark Doty, Olga Broumas, W. S. Merwin, Denise Levertov, William Stafford, Ron Carlson, Linda Pastan, and John Edgar Wideman.
Deadline: April 30th, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: $20
Genre: Fiction, Poetry, Short Story,
$2,000
Publication
$1,000 and publication in Hidden River Review of Arts & Letters is offered to the best unpublished short story or novel excerpt. The next round of submissions will open on February 1, 2019 and deadline on June 30, 2019.
Deadline: June 30th, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: $17
Genre: Fiction, Novel, Short Story,
$1,000
Publication in Hidden River Review of Arts & Letters
A prize of $1,000 will be given annually to the winners in each category of our Hidden River Review Trilogy Award: poetry, non-fiction and very short fiction. Please indicated which category you are submitting in.
Deadline: December 15th, 2018 • Entry fee 💰: $17
Genre: Non-fiction, Poetry, Short Story,
$1,000
Each chapbook manuscript entered should consist of 20-30 pages of poems in a standard 12-point font. No more than one poem may appear on a page. You may enter more than one chapbook manuscript (as long as you include a $20 reading fee with each manuscript). A manuscript need not be thematically coherent or connected through narrative.
Deadline: April 1st, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: $20
Genre: Poetry,
$1,000
Publication in The Tusculum Review
The aim of this program is to select a poet who is at an artistic and personal crossroads, comparable to that faced by Robert Frost when he moved to Franconia in 1915, when he was not yet known to a broad public.
Deadline: January 5th, 2019 • Entry fee 💰: $28
Genre: Poetry,
$2,000
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