Best Writing Contests in 2024

Genres: Poetry and LGBTQ

The Hastings Book Festival Poetry contest invites poets to submit their original works. The competition is judged anonymously, with a focus on innovative and courageous writing. Winners will be announced during the festival in September 2024.

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

The Great American Fiction Contest aims to discover and promote new American writers, continuing the legacy of notable authors published by The Saturday Evening Post. The winning story will be published in the magazine's January/February 2025 issue.

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

Gail Honeyman was shortlisted in our competition and went on to write Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, winning the Costa debut novel award. All the winning and highly commended pieces are entered into the Sunday Times Audible competition, top prize £30,000. UK based writers are entered into the BBC short story competition. That's not all, literary agent A.M. Heath reads all the shortlist and considers representation. Long story short? You are 5,000 words away from success.

Genres: Poetry

The top ten poems of the annual Fish Poetry Contest will be published in Fish Anthology. First prize winner will receive €1000 and the second prize winner will receive a week in residence at Anam Cara Writers ' Reatreat. 3rd: €300

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Poetry, and Science Fiction

The Iridescence Award is a contest for short stories and poetry by BIPOC authors, focusing on themes of the supernatural, extraterrestrial, or paranormal. The contest aims to promote underrepresented voices in literature and provides cash prizes along with publication opportunities.

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, and Poetry

The Emerging Writer's Contest, held by Ploughshares since 1971, recognizes outstanding work by emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Winners are announced in the fall and their works are published in the Winter 2024-25 issue of Ploughshares.

Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, and Short Story

This competition is open to writers globally offering a total prize fund of £1,500, with prizes of £1,000 for first place, £300 for second, and £200 for third. The competition encourages diverse storytelling without specific themes.

Genres: Children's

Founded by Black women with a vision for change, the mission of the National Youth Foundation is to promote diversity, inclusion and gender equality through innovative literary programs. To honor the vast accomplishments of women in the United States, the National Youth Foundation is pleased to announce the Amazing Women’s Edition (AWE) competition. This writing contest is open to students in grades K to 8 residing in the United States.

Genres: Flash Fiction

We seek work that actively pushes boundaries, that forces us to question traditions and tastes. If your work takes risks, we want to read it. We like strong narratives that make us feel something and stories we haven’t seen before. We accept work, written in English, from anywhere in the world—regardless of genre, style, or origin—and welcome speculative writing and experimental literature. Strange is good. Strange with a strong character arc is even better. Keep it weird, folks.

Genres: Christian and Poetry

For over fourteen years, the Poetry of the Sacred contest encourages poets to explore spiritual themes. It focuses on literary excellence, authenticity, and spiritual tenor in submissions.

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, and Young Adult

An international contest to find original short stories focused on the human impact of climate change. Emphasis on emotional narratives rather than scientific theories. Open to writers aged 18 and above.

Genres: Essay, Memoir, and Non-fiction

This month, dear writers, ahead of COP27, help us raise the voices of young people in this urgent fight. In a piece of personal narrative, tell the world’s leaders gathering in how climate change impacts you. How has this crisis changed your environment, your community, your sense of the future? Storytelling, after all, plays a critical role in helping us grasp the emergency through which we are all living, igniting empathy in readers and listeners—itself a precursor to action.

Genres: Poetry

This $1,000 award recognizes a poetry collection translated from any language into English and published in the previous calendar year. Established in 1976, it is given annually. A noted translator chooses the winning book.

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

Write a short story, 5 pages maximum length, on any subject or theme, fiction, non-fiction, creative nonfiction (including essay compositions, diary, journal entries, short stage plays, screenplays, and screenwriting). All entries must be either typed or legibly hand printed. Multiple and simultaneous poetry and short story entries are accepted.

Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, Memoir, and Poetry

The contest invites entries across four categories: Fiction Short Story, Flash Fiction, Poetry, and Memoir/Personal Essay. Each winning piece will be read at the festival and published in The Waxed Lemon Literary Journal.

Genres: Romance

The Carla Crown Jewel of Books contest is for traditionally or self-published authors with an original copyright date of 2022. Finalists are announced in late October and the winner on or about November 30, 2024.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Science Fiction, Short Story, Crime, Horror, Mystery, Romance, and Thriller

The Writing Peers Summer Short Story Prize is designed to celebrate and promote the art of storytelling. Details about the contest, including submission guidelines, themes, and criteria, are crucial for participants.

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

The Spring Microfiction Battle is part of the Writing Battle series, where participants write stories based on prompts. Participants receive feedback from peers and industry judges.

Genres: Poetry

Each year Third Wednesday awards 3 $100 prizes in its annual poetry contest. For this year's contest, entries will be accepted from November 1, 2020 through February 15, 2021. We will accept contest entries of up to 3 previously unpublished poems of any style and subject matter. There is no limit on length.

Genres: Flash Fiction

The Flash Fiction Competition challenges participants to submit a story of no more than 100 words. This year's theme requires the inclusion of specific terms related to 'tip'.

Genres: Poetry

The Jane Martin Poetry Prize is a national poetry competition established in 2010 in memory of Girton alumna Jane Elizabeth Martin. It aims to support young poets and promote literary excellence, judged by experts in the literary field.

Genres: Essay and Non-fiction

Creative nonfiction may include memoirs, chronicles, personal essays, humorous perspectives, literary journalism—anything the author has witnessed, experienced, or discovered. Pieces may be previously published or unpublished, and simultaneous submissions are accepted. Winner receives $1,000, a bronze medallion, and publication in The Lascaux Review.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, and Young Adult

The Writing MAGIC contest invites authors to write a short story under 500 words about anything magical. Open to all age groups, stories can be fiction or non-fiction. The contest aims to celebrate creativity and share magical experiences.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Novel, Romance, Science Fiction, and Young Adult

Have you completed the first draft of your novel? Are you ready to pass it on to a fresh pair of eyes, to see if you are on the right track? Is your all-important first chapter ready for submission to an agent? Whatever your plans, your first chapter must shine – it must grab your readers or quickly lose their interest.

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Short Story

The 26th Annual Writing Contest is currently closed. The next contest will open on January 1, 2025. Categories and further details will be announced later.

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

The Short Story Competition 2024 invites young writers aged 13-19 to submit original works. This competition is designed to encourage creativity and promote writing skills among teenagers.

Genres: Fiction and Novel

Novel Fair is an annual competition for unpublished novelists, allowing winners to pitch their novels to publishers and agents. It includes a two-day event with workshops and meetings with industry professionals.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Thriller, Young Adult, Crime, and Short Story

The 11th Annual IAN Book of the Year Awards is an international contest open to all authors, featuring 75 categories across fiction and non-fiction. Winners receive cash prizes and recognition.

Genres: Poetry

The Ambroggio Prize is a $1,000 publication prize given for a book-length poetry manuscript originally written in Spanish and with an English translation. The winning manuscript is published by Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe, publisher of literary works, scholarship, and art books by or about U.S. Hispanics.

Genres: Fiction, Novel, Novella, Romance, and Short Story

The 2024 Passionate Plume celebrates the best in erotic fiction, both long and short, and features a special category for emerging authors.

Genres: Poetry

The Plough Prize is an international poetry competition open for poems in English, limited to 40 lines on any subject. The contest emphasizes anonymity in judging, with a focus on quality.

Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, and Poetry

HFR will accept contest submissions in poetry and fiction between Feb 1-29, 2024. This year’s poetry judge is Diana Khoi Nguyen, author of Ghost Of and Root Fractures. This year’s fiction judge is Venita Blackburn, author of How to Wrestle a Girl and Dead in Long Beach, California. There will be two prizes of $1,500 each and publication in Hayden’s Ferry Review (online in summer 2024 and in the fall/winter 2024 print issue) for a poem or a group of poems and a work of fiction. A runner-up in each category will receive $250 and publication. All entries are considered for publication.

Genres: Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Memoir, Non-fiction, Poetry, Science Writing, and Short Story

The Brink Literary Journal Award for Hybrid Writing will be administered to the winner of a literary contest designed to champion innovative hybrid and cross-genre work.

Genres: Novella and Short Story

The Drue Heinz Literature Prize recognizes and supports writers of short fiction, awarding a cash prize of $15,000 and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press. It is open to authors with a book-length collection of fiction or at least three short stories/novellas published in reputable magazines. Manuscripts are judged anonymously by noted writers.

Genres: Children's and Short Story

The annual "Write On!" Short Story Contest for Grades 3-5 accepts story entries each winter. All writers, their friends, and families are invited to a Story Celebration and awards ceremony on Saturday, April 23, 2022, featuring a published children's author and the top three writers in each grade will receive an award.