Best Writing Contests in 2024

Genres: Short Story

The competition centered on the theme 'Myth', inviting entries in poetry and prose. The contest closed in August 2022, and it welcomed both national and international submissions.

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Suspense, and Thriller

The Story Unlikely Short Story Contest encourages submissions of all genres, with a focus on quality storytelling. The contest aims to revive the art of storytelling and embraces a variety of narratives without restrictions on age or location.

Genres: Poetry

The Louise Bogan Award for Artistic Merit and Excellence includes $1,000, publication, and twenty books. The Louise Bogan Award for Artistic Merit and Excellence is open to ALL poets, regardless of publication history.

Genres: Novel

Open to all poets over 18 years old writing in English. Collaborations, hybrid works, and simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please notify Diode Editions if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

Genres: Poetry

The Dream Quest One Poetry Contest is an international competition aimed at encouraging writers and poets to showcase their original works. The contest is open to all, regardless of experience, and accepts entries in various styles and themes. The mission is to inspire creativity and support literary talents.

Genres: Poetry

Each entrant for their €24 entry fee will receive a complementary postage-free, one-year subscription to Southword. Poems will be read and judged anonymously. Poems must be previously unpublished. The winning poet will have their three poems published in Southword.

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.

Genres: Fiction and Flash Fiction

In addition to winning cash prizes, entrants have the opportunity to appear in our print and digital anthology collections. Our books are published by the award-winning small press Ad Hoc Fiction, and are available to buy from their own independent bookshop as well as worldwide from Amazon. 300 word limit.

Genres: Non-fiction and Short Story

Share a true story about your life. Write about any event that happened in your life that you would like to share. Cash prize to the winner.

Genres: Essay

The Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest is open to all high school, college, and graduate students worldwide. Participants write essays based on prompts related to Ayn Rand's novel _Atlas Shrugged_. The contest has seasonal entry rounds with unique prompts, and essays must be between 800 and 1,600 words. The winning essays demonstrate a strong grasp of the book's themes.

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: Essay and Memoir

Write about an event in your life. Everyone has a memoir. Not an autobiography. Too much concern about fact and convention. A memoir gives us the ability to write about our life with the option to create and fabricate and to make sense of a life, or part of that life.

Genres: Fiction, Poetry, and Short Story

The Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers honor the work of writers at the beginning of their careers. $500 prizes will be awarded in both the fiction and poetry categories, and the winning manuscripts will appear in the spring issue of Nimrod. Winners will have the chance to work with the Nimrod board of editors to refine and edit their manuscripts before publication.

Genres: Fiction and Novella

Established in 2001, The Clay Reynolds Novella Prize highlights one book a year that excels in the novella format. Since 2019 the Prize comes with $500, a standard royalty contract, and 20 copies of the published book.

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

The annual Best Indie Book Award® (or BIBA®) is an international literary awards contest recognizing self-published and independently published authors from all over the world. Entries are limited to independently (indie) published books, including those from small presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors.

Genres: Poetry

Participants must write a 2-4-2 syllable poem consisting of three lines: the first line has 2 syllables, the second line has 4 syllables, and the last line has 2 syllables. The subject can be anything. All entries will receive feedback.

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

Exeter Writers runs an annual short story competition. The competition began in 2009 and is very popular, receiving entries from all over the world. The maximum word count is 3,000.

Genres: Essay, Non-fiction, and Travel

The Solas Awards honor excellence in travel writing, with cash prizes and publication opportunities. Entries must be original, true stories with specific word count guidelines. The contest runs annually, with winners announced on March 1 each year.

Genres: Poetry

Welcome to the 20th annual Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. Submit published or unpublished work. $3,000 for a poem in any style or genre. $3,000 for a poem that rhymes or has a traditional style.

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, Non-fiction, Short Story, Essay, Memoir, and Novel

Established in 2018, the Women’s Prose Prize is for previously unpublished, original work of prose. Novels, short story collections, memoirs, essay collections, and all other forms of prose writing are eligible for consideration. The awarded manuscript is selected through a biennial competition, held in even-numbered years, that is open to all writers who identify as women.

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

An international writing contest for original, unpublished short stories. Winners are selected anonymously by a judge.

Genres: Mystery and Novel

Welcome to the Tony Hillerman Prize for Best First Mystery Set in the Southwest Competition! The Competition is open to any writer, regardless of nationality, aged 18 or older, who has never been the author of any Published Mystery Novel (including self-published works and ebooks), as defined by the guidelines below, and is not under contract with a publisher for publication of a mystery novel.

Genres: Flash Fiction and Non-fiction

The 9th edition of the WAWA invites entries in flash fiction and creative nonfiction based on the theme of 'danger'. Stories should not exceed 500 words and must not include the word 'danger' in the title or text. Winners will be announced in September 2024.

Genres: Poetry

The Indiana Review Poetry Prize is part of an annual contest that awards a prize for excellent poetry submissions. The contest is open to submissions of poetry, and winners receive publication along with a monetary honorarium.

Genres: Crime, Mystery, and Novella

Novellas are an important part of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe's opus. To celebrate this format, the Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine have partnered to sponsor the Black Orchid Novella Award. Each entry must be an original, unpublished work of fiction that conforms to the literary tradition of the Nero Wolfe series.

Genres: Fiction and Romance

The National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award celebrates published romance novels and novellas and is judged by romance readers. All entries must have an original copyright date of 2021 and must have been available for purchase in the United States beginning in 2021.

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, and Poetry

The contest invites submissions under the theme '¡Hacia adelante!' focusing on resilience and cultural celebration. Categories include photography, poetry, and narrative/essay/academic investigation. Winning works will be published and recognized.

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

We are looking for stories (of any genre) ranging between 1,000 and 3,000 words, with strong characters, a well-crafted plot and realistic dialogue (where used). Make us laugh, make us cry, but most of all, make us feel!

Genres: Poetry

One Page Poetry is dedicated to the art of expressing a poetic theme on a single page, whether your poem is four lines or forty, whether yours is a love poem, inspirational poem, philosophical poem, or just one that is fun or whimsical. We welcome any and all poetic forms, as long as they fit on a single page.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Romance, and Short Story

The Booksie 2024 Short Story Contest invites writers to submit original short stories, with a maximum length of 5,000 words. The contest offers a grand prize of $500, along with badges for winners encoded on the blockchain. The contest aims to promote creativity and originality across all genres.

Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, Poetry, Script Writing, and Short Story

The Minds Shine Bright Confidence Writing Competition explores the theme of confidence in fiction. It includes categories for short stories, poetry, flash fiction, and scripts. The competition aims to support writers and promote creative writing.

Genres: Children's

The contest invites students aged 8-18 to participate, regardless of experience with IEW's writing methods. Each participant submits an essay based on specified prompts for different age levels.

Genres: Poetry

For the 2023 contest, the Autumn House staff as well as select outsider readers serve as the preliminary readers, and the final judge is Toi Derricotte. The winner receives publication of a full-length manuscript and $2,500.

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

The contest invites participants to explore the theme of freedom through crime, speculative, and fantasy fiction. Winning entries will be published in a special bumper issue of Tangled Web Magazine and Mirk Fantasy Magazine.