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Historical Fiction Challenge
Globe Soup
Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult
For this short story challenge, all participants will be randomly assigned a period in history. As soon as you receive your assignment, you'll have until the closing time to research, write, and submit a short story of no more than 4,000 words, set during this historical period.
Top Prize:
$1,131
💰 Entry fee: $17
📅 Deadline: October 28, 2022 (Expired)
The Lascaux Prize in Short Fiction
The Lascaux Review
Genres: Fiction and Short Story
Stories may be previously published or unpublished, and simultaneous submissions are accepted. Winner receives $1,000 and a bronze medallion. Finalists receive $100. Winner and finalists are published in both the online and annual print editions of The Lascaux Review.
Top Prize:
$1,000
Additional prizes:
Publication in The Lascaux Review
💰 Entry fee: $15
📅 Deadline: December 31, 2021 (Expired)
Science Fiction Writing Contest
FanStory.com Inc
Genres: Fiction, Science Writing, and Science Fiction
Share a Science Fiction themed story to enter this writing contest with a cash prizes. Let your imagination fly and enjoy sharing your writing.
Top Prize:
$100
Additional prizes:
Winning entries will be features on the FanStory.com welcome page.
💰 Entry fee: $9
📅 Deadline: April 12, 2023 (Expired)
Kurt Vonnegut Speculative Fiction Prize
North American Review
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Science Fiction, and Suspense
The Vonnegut Prize is an annual fiction competition intended to recognize the finest speculative fiction, which can include, but is not limited to, work influenced by the postmodern science-fiction of Kurt Vonnegut. We love Vonnegut’s dark humor, but please avoid mere imitation. We are enthusiastic about all work painted with speculative fiction’s broad brush: fairy tale, magical realism, fabulism, the fantastic, horror, Afro-futurism, science fiction hard and soft, and everything in between. The winning entry will appear in the North American Review's annual summer issue, and all finalists will be considered for publication.
Top Prize:
$1,000
Additional prizes:
Publication
💰 Entry fee: $23
📅 Deadline: November 02, 2024
Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize
Desperate Literature
Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, and Short Story
The aim of the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize is both to celebrate the best of new, boundary-pushing short fiction and to give winners the most visibility possible for their writing. That’s why we’ve teamed up with fourteen different literary and artistic institutions to not only offer cash prizes and writing retreats but also to ensure that all our shortlisters have the opportunity to be published in multiple print and online journals, have their work put in front of literary agents, and present their stories in multiple countries.
Top Prize:
€2,000 + week's stay at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation artists' residency
Additional prizes:
2nd + 3rd: €1000 | All shortlisters: publication in our print collection Eleven Stories | All longlisters: One-year subscription to The Literary Consultancy's "Being a Writer" platform | One shortlister: two-week residency at Studio Faire, France
💰 Entry fee: $22
📅 Deadline: December 04, 2024
Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction
Letter Review
Genres: Flash Fiction, Short Story, and Fiction
This Prize is free to enter. 2-4 Winners are published. We Shortlist 10-20 writers. Seeking stories 0-5000 words. Judges’ feedback available. Open to writers from anywhere in the world, with no theme or genre restrictions. Judged blind. All entries considered for publication + submission to Pushcart.
Top Prize:
$500
Additional prizes:
Publication by The Letter Review
📅 Deadline: April 30, 2024 (Expired)
Hayden's Ferry Review Poetry & Fiction Contest
Hayden's Ferry Review
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.
Top Prize:
$1,500
Additional prizes:
Runners-up: $250
💰 Entry fee: $20
📅 Deadline: February 29, 2024 (Expired)
Science Fiction & Fantasy Writing 2023
Write the World
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, and Short Story
Fantasy and sci-fi stir our imaginations, inviting us to think outside the limits of the life we know. This month, you have the extraordinary and exciting task of reimagining the world. In a fantasy or sci-fi short story, take your readers on a journey into a world of your imagination.
Top Prize:
$100
Additional prizes:
Runner up: $50 | Best peer review: $50
💰 Entry fee: $0
📅 Deadline: October 23, 2023 (Expired)
Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors
Grist Magazine
Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult
Imagine 2200 is an invitation to writers from all over the globe to imagine a future in which solutions to the climate crisis flourish and help bring about radical improvements to our world. In 2,500 to 5,000 words, show us the world you dream of building. A great Imagine story is not afraid to explore the challenges ahead — the path to climate progress will involve struggle and adaptation, and we invite you to show that — but ultimately offers hope that we can work together to build a more sustainable and just world. We want to see stories that incorporate real world climate solutions and climate science, as well as cultural authenticity (a deep sense of place, customs, cuisine, and more) and characters with fully-fledged identities.
Top Prize:
$3,000
Additional prizes:
Publication in magazine
📅 Deadline: June 24, 2024
Fiction Potluck
The Writer's Workout
Genres: Fiction and Short Story
Fiction Potluck is free to enter and open to fiction writers of all ages around the world. One entry per person per challenge. Submissions are accepted six weeks at a time, starting in January, April, July, and October. The challenge and guest judge will change each open period. The guest judge picks the challenge—we never know what we'll get!
Top Prize:
Query package reviews to all finalists
📅 Deadline: May 20, 2024
National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award
First Coast Romance Writers
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.
Top Prize:
NERFA Winner web logo and trophy
💰 Entry fee: $40
📅 Deadline: March 31, 2024 (Expired)
