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DIRECTORY

Best Writing Contests in 2024

Showing 428 contests that match your search.

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, Novel, and Novella

We are seeking fiction and creative nonfiction of every genre. The contest is open to authors who have not been published by a major press. We publish in English, but the contest is open to writers from anywhere in the world. The early-bird entry fee (December 15th-February 15th) will be $25.

Top Prize:

$1,500

Additional prizes:

Two runner ups will be selected, each receiving $700.

💰 Entry fee: $30

📅 Deadline: July 15, 2022 (Expired)

Sonnet Poetry Contest

FanStory.com Inc

Genres: Poetry

A sonnet is a poem with a specific structure. It has 14 lines and a specific rhyme scheme. The topic is open! Write about anything for this poetry contest. Just follow the rules on how to write a sonnet. To read the rules and for an example view the contest announcement. Cash prize for the winner of this contest.

Top Prize:

$100

💰 Entry fee: $10

📅 Deadline: November 06, 2022 (Expired)

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

The Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Prize celebrates imaginative and inventive writing in book-length collections. The winning submission will receive a $2,500 advance and publication. The contest is open to all writers, and all submitted works must be previously unpublished collections.

Top Prize:

$2,500

Additional prizes:

Publication

💰 Entry fee: $25

📅 Deadline: September 30, 2024 (Expired)

Nonet Poetry Contest

FanStory.com Inc

Genres: Poetry

A nonet is a poem with only 9 lines. The first line has nine syllables, the second line has eight, the third has seven and so on until line 9 which has one syllable. It's a fun and challenging poem to write. Enter this contest for a chance at the cash prize.

Top Prize:

$100

Additional prizes:

Winning poems will be featured on the FanStory.com welcome page.

💰 Entry fee: $9

📅 Deadline: November 26, 2024

Black Orchid Novella Award

Wolfe Pack & Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine

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 Each entry must be an original, unpublished work of fiction that conforms to the literary tradition of the Nero Wolfe series.

Top Prize:

$1,000

Additional prizes:

Publication in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine

📅 Deadline: May 31, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Flash Fiction

This contest encourages creativity across all styles and genres of flash fiction, with a word count between 250 and 750. The contest offers substantial cash prizes and publication opportunities.

Top Prize:

$400

Additional prizes:

2nd: $300 | 3rd: $200 | 7 runner-ups: $25 Amazon Gift Cards

💰 Entry fee: $10

📅 Deadline: February 28, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Poetry

The competition invites poets to submit works based on five given words each week over a 42-week period. It aims to encourage creativity and showcases poets' works in an anthology.

Top Prize:

$750

Additional prizes:

Second place: 500 euros Third place: 250 euros Travel fee and accommodation for winners attending the event. Physical award crafted by Michael Ray, plus opportunities for winners to read at events.

💰 Entry fee: $5

📅 Deadline: January 28, 2025

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

The Atom Learning Young Author Award encourages children aged 7-11 to express their creativity through writing. The contest invites submissions of up to 500 words based on a specific theme, fostering young authors' storytelling skills.

Top Prize:

$250

Additional prizes:

A trip to Disneyland Paris, a Chromebook, and a subscription to Atom Home. £50 book voucher or one month subscription to Atom Home for 10 runners-up.

💰 Entry fee: $0

📅 Deadline: June 17, 2024 (Expired)

Journalism Competition 2024

Write the World

Genres: Essay and Non-fiction

The Journalism Competition 2024 invites teenagers aged 13-19 to showcase their writing skills. Participants can explore various topics and submit their entries for a chance to win cash prizes and recognition from esteemed judges.

Top Prize:

$100

Additional prizes:

Runner up: $50 | Best peer review: $50 Recognition from notable judges and publication opportunities.

📅 Deadline: December 31, 2024

Genres: Poetry

Poetry.com offers monthly contests for poets worldwide to gain motivation, inspiration and exposure, while building passion and enjoyment for the written creative process! How are winners chosen? Our contest boasts a clever twist: poems remain anonymous whilst applicants vote on what they believe should be the winning entry.

Top Prize:

$500

Additional prizes:

Poem of the year: 1000 USD | 2nd place: 300 USD | 3rd place: 200 USD | Runner up personalized Poetry.com mug

💰 Entry fee: $25

📅 Deadline: December 31, 2024

Ambroggio Prize

Academy of American Poets

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.

Top Prize:

$1,000

Additional prizes:

Publication by Bilingual Press

📅 Deadline: February 15, 2024 (Expired)

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

The contest is open quarterly, allowing submissions in categories including Short Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Unpublished Books. Winners receive a cash prize and publication.

Top Prize:

$1000 USD shared by 3 winners

Additional prizes:

Publication in Letter Review and consideration for the Pushcart Prize.

💰 Entry fee: $25

📅 Deadline: October 01, 2024 (Expired)

3 Line Poetry Contest

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 (Expired)

IEW Writing Contest

Institute for Excellence in 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.

Top Prize:

$200

Additional prizes:

1st place: $200 for the student winner and a $200 gift certificate for their parent or teacher Additional monetary prizes and gift certificates for 2nd and 3rd places. Participants receive a free IEW bookmark.

📅 Deadline: April 30, 2024 (Expired)

Valorious Awards

Hopper Creative Group LLC

Genres: Science Fiction

The Valorious Awards, sponsored by international best-selling author, Christopher Hopper, is an annual competition seeking to recognize and encourage emerging artists in two categories: best sci-fi novel, best sci-fi voice actor. The awards seek to recognize emerging independent authors and character actors and discover new and exciting talent within the world of science fiction.

Top Prize:

$500

Additional prizes:

2nd: $250 | 3rd: $150

💰 Entry fee: $35

📅 Deadline: December 31, 2023 (Expired)

Genres: Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

The Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize is a writing competition sponsored by the Selected Shorts series at Symphony Space, NYC. It celebrates short stories by having them read aloud by actors. The contest is judged by Carmen Maria Machado, and the winner's work will be performed live and published on Electric Literature.

Top Prize:

$1000 + free 10 week course with Gotham Writers

💰 Entry fee: $25

📅 Deadline: March 01, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Poetry

The contest seeks poetry submissions from writers aged 50 and older. The winner will receive a cash prize and publication. The submission window is from February 15 to April 15, and all poems must be original and not previously published.

Top Prize:

$1,000

Additional prizes:

Winner gets publication and a featured interview. All honorable mentions will be published.

💰 Entry fee: $20

📅 Deadline: April 15, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Flash Fiction and Humor

Send us your skillfully written stories that are brief, humorous and engaging, with the emphasis on wit, word play, absurdity and inspired nonsense. Whether your story is designed to raise a smile or a belly laugh, we want stories that are a refuge from the relentless barrage of negativity, angst, war and climate catastrophe that dominates the web.

Top Prize:

AUD $50

Additional prizes:

2nd: AUD $20 | 3rd: AUD $10

📅 Deadline: December 15, 2023 (Expired)

Black Voices in Children's Literature

Free Spirit Publishing

Genres: Children's

The Black Voices in Children’s Literature Writing Contest aims to celebrate and elevate black voices in children's literature. It encourages submissions that reflect diverse perspectives and experiences.

Top Prize:

$1,000

📅 Deadline: July 22, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Fiction and Novel

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. While we cannot guarantee that winners and finalists of this award will receive publication, dozens of winners & runners-up of the Claymore award have gone on to find great success in their careers and many of them attribute that success to this award.

Top Prize:

Publishing contract

Additional prizes:

Discounted admission to Killer Nashville, introductions to agents/editors

💰 Entry fee: $40

📅 Deadline: April 01, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Mystery, Suspense, Romance, and Thriller

The Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense is named for Daphne du Maurier, the author of Rebecca, a suspense novel with romantic and gothic overtones and a precursor to today’s romantic suspense. The writing contest is for unpublished authors of mystery, suspense, and thrillers with or without romantic subplots.

Top Prize:

Award

💰 Entry fee: $30

📅 Deadline: March 15, 2024 (Expired)

North Street Book Prize

Winning Writers

Genres: Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, Poetry, Children's, Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Thriller, and Young Adult

Submit a self-published or hybrid-published book, up to 200,000 words in length. One grand prize winner will receive $10,000, a marketing analysis and one-hour phone consultation with Carolyn Howard-Johnson, a $300 credit at BookBaby, three months of Plus service (a $207 value) and a $500 account credit from Book Award Pro, and 3 free ads in the Winning Writers newsletter (a $525 value)

Top Prize:

$10,000

Additional prizes:

$1,000 for top winner in each category | $300 for honorable mentions

💰 Entry fee: $75

📅 Deadline: May 01, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Fiction and Novel

We are looking for an opening chapter up to 3,000 words, plus a one page synopsis outlining the balance of your story of any genre, so long as it's unpublished.

Top Prize:

£500

Additional prizes:

2nd Place: £200

💰 Entry fee: $13

📅 Deadline: October 31, 2024 (Expired)

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.

Top Prize:

$300

Additional prizes:

Up to five finalists will also be considered for publication.

💰 Entry fee: $10

📅 Deadline: November 01, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Short Story, Fiction, Flash Fiction, and Non-fiction

Stories Through The Ages - Baby Boomers Plus 2023 is open to people born 1966 or earlier. The deadline for entries is June 15, 2023. There is no prompt for the contest. Authors may write about any topic. The entry fee is $20 ($15 if submitting more than one story). The word count for this contest is 900 - 5000 words. Cash prizes of $500, $200 and $100 will be awarded. There will be a minimum of 15 finalists whose story will appear in the book.

Top Prize:

$500

Additional prizes:

2nd: $200 | 3rd: $100

💰 Entry fee: $20

📅 Deadline: June 15, 2024 (Expired)

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

Register now for our next 7-day story writing challenge. A secret theme, a randomly assigned genre, and just 7 days to write a story of no more than 2,000 words. Our 7-day story writing challenges take place throughout the year. The challenges are free and you can even get feedback on your story. Take part in one challenge or take part in all of them!

Top Prize:

£500

Additional prizes:

Publication on website

💰 Entry fee: $0

📅 Deadline: April 22, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Poetry

In his groundbreaking course on ecopoetry, writer and professor Craig Santos Perez focuses on how to use poetry as a voice for the planet. This month, write a poem about what you know and love from the natural world. Your poem may focus on an element of the environment under threat, explore changes in nature, or honor the planet we call home.

Top Prize:

$100

Additional prizes:

Runner up: $50 | Best peer review: $50

💰 Entry fee: $0

📅 Deadline: September 25, 2023 (Expired)

Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, and Short Story

The challenge: write a story using 100 words on one of four topics. Open to all ages with a special prize for authors 14 years or younger. The contest supports nonprofit literacy programs.

Top Prize:

$200

Additional prizes:

6 cash prizes of $100 each; publication in digital magazine, inclusion in webcast

💰 Entry fee: $12

📅 Deadline: February 01, 2024 (Expired)

HOLT Medallion Contest

Virginia Romance Writers

Genres: Fiction and Romance

The Virginia Romance Writers Chapter of the Romance Writers of America® is pleased to announce the 27th Annual HOLT Medallion competition for the best romantic fiction. Entries must be a single work of romance fiction, with an original copyright date (not a release date) of January-December 2021 regardless of format (e-book or print).

Top Prize:

Certificate and a pewter HOLT medallion

💰 Entry fee: $30

📅 Deadline: January 15, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Fiction

The Salamander 2024 Fiction Prize offers writers the opportunity to submit their works for consideration. The contest includes a first prize of $1,000 and publication, and a second prize of $500 and publication. Entries will be judged anonymously, and all submissions are also considered for publication in the magazine.

Top Prize:

$1,000

Additional prizes:

2nd: $500 | Publication

💰 Entry fee: $15

📅 Deadline: June 01, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Poetry

The TCK Publishing Poetry Awards Contest is an international poetry contest established in 2021. Each year’s prizewinner receives a $1,000 honorarium and publication of his or her poem on the TCK Publishing website. This contest is open to writers from all countries, backgrounds, and walks of life. Each submission may include up to five poems totaling no more than 500 words.

Top Prize:

$1,000

Additional prizes:

Publication on TCK Website

💰 Entry fee: $5

📅 Deadline: June 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)

James Laughlin Award

Academy of American Poets

Genres: Poetry

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.

Top Prize:

$5,000

Additional prizes:

Distribution of book to Academy of American Poets members

📅 Deadline: May 15, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Poetry, Science Fiction, Script Writing, Short Story, and Thriller

The Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award is committed to discovering new writers, as well as superlative books by established authors and, upon discovery, sharing those writers and their works with new readers. There are a large number of both fiction and non-fiction categories you can enter.

Top Prize:

$250

💰 Entry fee: $79

📅 Deadline: June 15, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Christian, Fantasy, Novel, Novella, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, and Young Adult

The Christy Award® was established in 1999 to acknowledge the value and impact of the novel of faith in contemporary culture. Since that time, the Christys have been a focal point for the writers and publishers in our community.

Top Prize:

Award

💰 Entry fee: $175

📅 Deadline: March 31, 2024 (Expired)

Prompts | Many Hands | 2024-09

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