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DIRECTORY
Showing 356 contests that match your search.
Indignor House Publishing
Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, Short Story, Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Thriller, and Young Adult
Indignor House Publishing is proud to announce that our annual writing competition (INDIGNOR PLAYHOUSE Short Story Annual Competition) is officially open with expected publication in the fall of 2024. Up to 25 submissions will be accepted for inclusion in the annual anthology.
Top Prize:
$500
Additional prizes:
2nd: $250 | 3rd: $150
💰 Entry fee: $20
📅 Deadline: March 01, 2024 (Expired)
Lambda Literary
Genres: LGBTQ
The J. Michael Samuel Prize honors emerging LGBTQ writers over the age of 50. This award is made possible by writer and philanthropist Chuck Forester, who created it out of the firmly held belief that “Writers who start late are just as good as other writers, it just took the buggers more time.” The prize will go to an unpublished LGBTQ writer over 50 working in any genre.
Top Prize:
$5,000
📅 Deadline: February 16, 2024 (Expired)
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Stories may be previously published or unpublished, and simultaneous submissions are accepted.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)
Storytrade
Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Script Writing, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult
The Storytrade Book Awards recognizes excellence in small and independent publishing. Open to all indie authors and publishers including self-published authors, university presses, and small or independent presses, our annual awards program spotlights outstanding books in a number of fiction and nonfiction categories.
Top Prize:
$1,000
Additional prizes:
Medal, Book Stickers, Digital Seal
💰 Entry fee: $75
📅 Deadline: June 30, 2024
Globe Soup
Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult
For this short story challenge, all participants will be randomly assigned a genre pairing. As soon as you receive your ‘smashed’ genres you'll have until the closing time to write and submit a short story of any length up to 5,000 words, that perfectly and seamlessly combines both genres into one amazing short story.
Top Prize:
£1,000
Additional prizes:
Publication
💰 Entry fee: $11
📅 Deadline: October 23, 2023 (Expired)
Brink Literacy Project
Genres: Flash Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Short Story
For our contests, we seek writing that pushes boundaries and challenges us to think differently. We like work that features complex characters and strong narratives, and plays with genre, setting, voice, you name it. For Spring 2024, we have Wole Talabi judging Short Story, Sherrie Flick judging Flash Fiction, C. S. E. Cooney judging Poetry, and Marin Sardy judging Creative Nonfiction.
Top Prize:
$1,000
Additional prizes:
Publication
💰 Entry fee: $15
📅 Deadline: November 03, 2024
Gotham Writers Workshop
Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Short Story, and Thriller
Autumn is the season of rustling leaves, a chill in the air, and, of course, Halloween. In that spirit, we invite you to create the first line of a frightening story. But we want that first line to be so intriguing or chilling or scary that it makes our skin tingle and our nerves twitch.
Top Prize:
Free Gotham Writers class
💰 Entry fee: $0
📅 Deadline: November 30, 2023 (Expired)
Ann Arbor District Library
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.
Top Prize:
Publication on website
📅 Deadline: February 05, 2024 (Expired)
Twist in the Tale
Genres: Flash Fiction, Short Story, and Fiction
All entrants share a main genre but will be given a twisted subgenre (unusual) from a pool of ten. Entrants will also get either an event/character/object/subject (depending on the contest) that they must include. They can reroll subgenre and subject three times each. For example, if thriller is the main genre, you might get occult detective as your subgenre. Rerolling that might give you cyberpunk, environmental, etc.
Top Prize:
$1,200
💰 Entry fee: $25
📅 Deadline: May 19, 2024
Xulon Press
Genres: Christian
The Christian Author Awards recognizes preeminent new Christian authors who are independently published. Xulon Press, host and sponsor of the Christian Author Awards, is excited to once again extend the opportunity to Christian authors to have their work recognized and given due credit. The Christian Author Awards exists to honor exceptional books written by Christian authors like you that are published independently by nontraditional publishers.
Top Prize:
Xulon Press Elite Publishing Package valued at $8,780
📅 Deadline: September 21, 2021 (Expired)
The Independent Author Network
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 Independent Author Network presents the 10th Annual IAN Book of the Year Awards, an international contest open to all authors with 55 fiction and non-fiction categories. Winners are eligible to receive a share of cash prizes of $6,000 USD. Open to all English language print and eBooks available for sale, including small presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses, and self-published authors.
Top Prize:
$2,500
Additional prizes:
$6,000.00 USD in total cash prizes
💰 Entry fee: $49
📅 Deadline: August 16, 2024
FanStory.com Inc.
Genres: Poetry
The theme for this poetry contest is "faith". We are looking for poems that in some way pertain to this theme. It doesn't matter if it's spiritual, political, intellectual or emotional as long as faith is clearly represented.
Top Prize:
$100
💰 Entry fee: $10
📅 Deadline: August 19, 2024
Kinsman Avenue Publishing, Inc
Genres: Essay and Non-fiction
Nonfiction stories of inspiration wanted (between 500 to 2,000 words). Submissions should highlight the struggle and resilience of the human spirit, especially related to cultures of BIPOC or marginalized communities. Stories must be original, unpublished works in English. One successful entry will be awarded each month from April 2024 and will be included within Kinsman Quarterly’s online journal and digital magazine. Successful authors receive $200 USD and publication in our digital magazine. No entry fee required.
Top Prize:
$200
Additional prizes:
Publication in Kinsman Quarterly's online magazine
📅 Deadline: December 31, 2024
Winning Writers
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.
Top Prize:
$3,000
Additional prizes:
$200 for 10 honorable mentions
💰 Entry fee: $20
📅 Deadline: October 01, 2024
Marsh Hawk Press
Genres: Poetry
Beginning December 1, 2023, Marsh Hawk Press is accepting submissions of poetry manuscripts to the annual Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prizes. Deadline is April 30, 2024. We welcome submissions from emerging as well as established poets. The winner of the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize receives $1,000.00, book publication and promotion. Winners of the Robert Creeley and Rochelle Ratner prizes, selected from finalists, receive $250.00 each.
Top Prize:
$1000 + publication
Additional prizes:
$250
💰 Entry fee: $25
📅 Deadline: April 30, 2024 (Expired)
Genres: Poetry
At around noon each Tuesday (GMT), from 12 April 2022 to 31 January 2023, five words are posted on the Ó Bhéal Five Words competition page. Entrants have one week to compose and submit poems that include all five words given for the week. The competition runs for 42 weeks, and a prize of 750 euro is awarded to one winner.
Top Prize:
€750
Additional prizes:
€500, €250
💰 Entry fee: $5
📅 Deadline: January 30, 2024 (Expired)
Write the World
Genres: Essay and Non-fiction
The writer and activist Bill McKibben describes Environmental Writing as "the collision between people and the rest of the world." This month, peer closely at that intersection: How do humans interact with their environment? Given your inheritance of this earth, the world needs your voices now more than ever.
Top Prize:
Best entry: $100
Additional prizes:
Runner up: $50 | Best peer review: $50
📅 Deadline: April 22, 2024 (Expired)
Fiction Factory
Genres: Poetry
This is a UK based competition but we welcome international entries. Poets are invited to enter poems (maximum 40 lines excluding title) on any theme. Discounts are offered on multiple entries. Besides the cash prize, our judge, poet and author and mentor, Helen Cox, will offer feedback on five of the winner's poems plus an hour-long mentorship zoom call about their poetry.
Top Prize:
£100
Additional prizes:
Feedback on poems, a Zoom mentorship call, and publication
💰 Entry fee: $6
📅 Deadline: June 30, 2024
Crime Writer's Association
Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Novel, Novella, Suspense, and Thriller
The Debut Dagger is a competition for the opening of a crime novel by a writer who isn’t represented by an agent by the time the competition closes, and who has never had a traditional contract for any novel of any length, or who has never self-published any novel of any length in the last 5 years. Writers submit their opening 3,000 words and a 1,500 word synopsis. Entries from shortlisted writers are sent to UK literary agents and publishers. Every year, authors find representation this way.
Top Prize:
$577
💰 Entry fee: $41
📅 Deadline: February 29, 2024 (Expired)
Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum
Genres: Essay and Non-fiction
For this year’s Essay Contest, we are asking students to think about why the story of the Oklahoma City bombing is important today.
Top Prize:
$1,000
📅 Deadline: March 04, 2024 (Expired)
FanStory.com Inc.
Genres: Poetry
For this contest you are challenged to write a Tanka poem. Tanka is a form of poetry that often follows a specific syllable count. That count is 5-7-5-7-7. So your first line has five syllables, second has seven, third has five and the last two lines each have seven syllables. Cash prize!
Top Prize:
$100
💰 Entry fee: $10
📅 Deadline: June 18, 2024
Minotaur Books & Malice Domestic
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.
Top Prize:
$10,000 advance
Additional prizes:
Contract with Minotaur Books
📅 Deadline: November 30, 2021 (Expired)
Killer Nashville
Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Novel, Science Fiction, and Thriller
Created in 2009, the Killer Nashville Claymore Award assists new and rebranding English-language fiction authors to get published, including possible agent representation, book advances, editor deals, and movie and television sales. The contest is limited to only the first 50 double-spaced pages of unpublished English-language manuscripts containing elements of thriller, mystery, crime, or suspense NOT currently under contract.
Top Prize:
Possible contract with Mystery Writers of America
💰 Entry fee: $40
📅 Deadline: April 01, 2025
Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop (NOWW)
Genres: Essay, Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Short Story
Open to all writers in four categories: poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and critical writing.
Top Prize:
$150
Additional prizes:
2nd: $100 | 3rd: $50
💰 Entry fee: $7
📅 Deadline: February 29, 2024 (Expired)
Narrative Magazine
Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Short Story
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. The submission system is open all year.
Top Prize:
$4,000
💰 Entry fee: $27
📅 Deadline: June 15, 2024
Trio House Press
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.
Top Prize:
$1,000
Additional prizes:
Publication
💰 Entry fee: $25
📅 Deadline: March 15, 2024 (Expired)
Arizona Mystery Writers
Genres: Fiction, Mystery, and Short Story
Every year the Arizona Mystery Writers hosts the Jim Martin Memorial Story Contest. Naturally, since we’re the Arizona Mystery Writers, we want a mystery story, but we’re flexible about the boundaries of that category, and we also accept thrillers and suspense stories. It doesn’t matter if your story’s characters are in outer space, riding horses, or living underground. Costumes and settings don’t matter as long as the story is a mystery, thriller, or suspense tale as described.
Top Prize:
$200
Additional prizes:
2nd: $100 | 3rd: $75
💰 Entry fee: $15
📅 Deadline: August 01, 2024
Fanstory.com Inc.
Genres: Poetry
Write a poem that has a syllable count of either 5-7-5 or 5-7-7. It does not rhyme. But the poem must address a loved one.
Top Prize:
$100
💰 Entry fee: $10
📅 Deadline: August 30, 2024
Writers of the Future
Genres: Fiction, Short Story, Fantasy, and Science Fiction
L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest is an opportunity for new writers of science fiction and fantasy to have their work judged by some of the masters in the field and discovered by a wide audience. Prizes of $1000, $750 and $500 are awarded every three months. From the four 1st Place winners each year, one story is selected as the grand prize winner and the author receives an additional $5000 cash prize.
Top Prize:
$1,000
Additional prizes:
$750 for 2nd place, $500 for 3rd, £5000 annual grand prize
📅 Deadline: June 30, 2024
Fiction Factory
Genres: Fiction and Novel
Why not enter the Fiction Factory First Chapter Competition? Send us your first chapter + a 1 page synopsis (if your first chapter is more than 5000 words, send it with the 5000 word point clearly marked). First Prize: £500 + an appraisal and a reading by a top London Literary Agent. All short-listed entrants will receive a free appraisal. Appraisals: For an extra fee, £20, we will write a comprehensive appraisal of your chapter. Results will be published in July, 2024
Top Prize:
£500
Additional prizes:
A reading by a top London Literary Agent plus publication
💰 Entry fee: $22
📅 Deadline: February 29, 2024 (Expired)
Third Wednesday
Genres: Fiction and Flash Fiction
The editors of Third Wednesday wish to honor the memory of George Dila, friend of Third Wednesday and the editor who originally brought fiction to 3W. To this end, we proudly announce the opening of The George Dila Memorial Flash Fiction Contest. We accept entries of previously unpublished stories of under 1000 words in length (including title).
Top Prize:
100 x3 Winning Stories
Additional prizes:
Publication in Third Wednesday magazine
💰 Entry fee: $6
📅 Deadline: August 15, 2024
Stringybark Publishing
Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Short Story, Crime, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Science Fiction, Thriller, and Young Adult
Our annual flagship competition, the Stringybark Stories Open Short Story Award 2023, is now bigger than ever! Thanks to Graeme Simpson and Anne Buist, a record prize pool of over $1300 is on offer. The theme is open, the only constraint is that there must be a reference to Australia somewhere in the story. It doesn't matter how small a link there is (it could be a jar of vegemite on the counter), there just needs to be one!
Top Prize:
$560
Additional prizes:
2nd: $360 | 3rd: $210 | 4th: $110
💰 Entry fee: $15
📅 Deadline: February 25, 2024 (Expired)
Black Lawrence Press
Genres: Essay, Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Short Story
Each year Black Lawrence Press will award The Hudson Prize for an unpublished collection of poems or prose. The prize is open to new, emerging, and established writers.
Top Prize:
$1,000
Additional prizes:
Publication
💰 Entry fee: $28
📅 Deadline: March 31, 2024 (Expired)
FanStory.com Inc.
Genres: Poetry
Write an ABC Poem. That's a poem with five lines that follows the alphabet. Cash prize!
Top Prize:
$100
💰 Entry fee: $10
📅 Deadline: July 25, 2024
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)
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