information about creative writing contests, poetry contests, literary magazine theme issues, writing residencies, grants, fellowships etc. Now accepting creative writing contests news and announcements!
Guest Judge: Literary Agent Emily Williamson with Williamson Literary Agency
Seeking short fiction of any genre between 250 – 750 words. The mission of this contest is to inspire creativity, great writing, and provide well-rewarded recognition to contestants.
Electronic submissions via e-mail only; reprints/previously published are okay; simultaneous submissions are okay; multiple submissions are okay. Open internationally.
Limit: 300 entries.
Prizes (20 winners!): 1st Place: $400, publication, interview, and $25 Amazon Gift Certificate 2nd Place: $300, publication, interview, and $25 Amazon Gift Certificate 3rd Place: $200, publication, interview and $25 Amazon Gift Certificate 7 Runners Up receive $25 Amazon Gift Cards, publication and interview 10 Honorable mentions receive $20 Amazon Gift Card Top 10 stories are published in the WOW! Women On Writing e-zine, and contestants are interviewed on WOW’s blog, The Muffin.
Entry: $10 entry fee; critique option for an additional $10
Seeking creative nonfiction on any topic (1000 words or less) and in any style–from personal essay and memoir to lyric essay and hermit crab, and more! The mission of this contest is to reward bravery in real-life storytelling and create an understanding of our world through thoughtful, engaging narratives.
Electronic submissions via e-mail only; reprints/previously published are okay; simultaneous submissions are okay; multiple submissions are okay. Open internationally.
Limit: 300 entries.
Prizes (20 winners!): 1st Place: $500, publication, interview, and gift code good for one item from CreateWriteNow’s Store 2nd Place: $300, publication, interview, and gift code good for one item from CreateWriteNow’s Store 3rd Place: $200, publication, interview, and gift code good for one item from CreateWriteNow’s Store 7 Runners Up receive $25 Amazon Gift Cards, publication, interview, and gift code good for one item from CreateWriteNow’s Store 10 Honorable mentions receive a gift code good for one item from CreateWriteNow’s Store
Entry: $12 entry fee; critique option for an additional $13
Our 23rd Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest will award prizes of $2,000, $500, $250, and ten Honorable Mentions of $100 each. The winner will also enjoy a two-year gift certificate from our co-sponsor, Duotrope (a $100 value). The top 13 poems are published on our website. There’s no fee to enter.Entries close at 11:59pm Hawaii Time on April 1, 2024.
Whether your poem is published or unpublished, or even if it has won a prize in a different contest, you may submit it to our contest. Jendi Reiter will judge, assisted by Lauren Singer. This contest is recommended by Reedsy.
Most countries are eligible. One poem only, please. Submit online.
Deadline: April 30, 2024 Results: Announced September 9, 2024 Prizes: Win $2,100 in prizes! Guest Judges: Wole Talabi, Sherrie Flick, C. S. E. Cooney, and Marin Sardy
Categories Accepted
Short stories: 1,001 – 7,500 words
Flash fiction: up to 1,000 words per piece
Poetry: up to three pages per poem
Creative Nonfiction: up to 6,500 words
Please visit our guidelines page to properly format your work for submission. We won’t reject a submission flat out for not following guidelines, but we will frown the whole time we’re reading.
What We Look For in Submissions
Our editors have drafted up this fantastic page on our website to share what we look for in our creative submissions. We strongly recommend you read this and check out the examples before submitting to get an idea of our general publishing aesthetic.
We also highly recommend checking out a past issue of F(r)iction. We have several pieces available online, but there’s nothing like holding a glossy, full-color issue in your hands. You can check out all of our issues in our shop.
Our Submission Guidelines
The winner will be announced publicly on September 9, 2024. All participants will be notified about the contest results through their Submittable account so please do not contact us before this date asking about the results. Judges’ decisions are final.
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.
Writers over the age of thirteen are welcome to submit. Please note that if you are aged 13 – 16 and your work is selected for publication, we will require a signature from a parent or a guardian.
We are unable to offer refunds for contest submissions, so please read these guidelines and choose your submission category carefully.
Staff members are not eligible for participation.
We read all submissions anonymously. Please include your name and contact information in your cover letter only and remove any identifying information from both the submitted manuscript and the file name as well.
Any work previously submitted to F(r)iction for publication is not eligible.
Please also be aware that as we receive hundreds of submissions for each of our contest we are unable to offer personalized feedback. It’s not that we don’t want to, but there’s only so many volunteer staffers on our team.
We accept, and encourage, simultaneous submissions and only ask that you withdraw your piece(s) using Submittable upon acceptance elsewhere.
We do not accept work previously published elsewhere.
We edit every piece accepted for publication, including all our contest winners, whether you work is selected for publication through our online blog or in our print magazine. For this collaborative process we will pair you with one of our Senior Editors. All our editors have been trained to help guide the development of each piece to reach its fullest potential in keeping with the author’s vision. This does not mean we will take on a wild jumble of words and half-formed musings. But it does mean that we value your work and want to help each piece to be as unforgettable as possible.
No AI Submissions
We currently do not accept work from artificial intelligence (“AI”) generators or similar. By submitting your entry here, you are attesting that your work was not created, in whole or in part, with an AI generator or similar. Should any portion of your work be discovered to be the product of an AI generator or similar, by submitting here, you agree to indemnify Brink Literacy Project for all losses, fees, and damages it suffers relating to your submission and/or misrepresentation, including but not limited to, direct and indirect damages, loss of sale, reputational damages, attorney fees, and other expenses. You further agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Brink Literacy Project against any third-party claims relating to the work you submit.
NOTES:
F(r)iction (and its parent nonprofit organization, Brink Literacy Project) reserves the right to discuss contest entries, finalists, and winners in podcasts and marketing materials.
F(r)iction reserves the right to NOT award a winner in any categories if the submissions do not reach a publishable standard. In this case, reading fees will NOT be refunded and a winner will not be announced. Although this has rarely come to pass in our six-year publishing history, our top priority must remain with the quality of work we publish.
The 2024 Emerging Writer’s Contest will run from March 1 at noon EST to May 15, 2024, at noon EST.
The Emerging Writer’s Contest is open to writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry who have yet to publish or self-publish a book. Read past winners of the contest here.
We award publication, $2,000, review from Aevitas Creative Management, and a 1-year subscription for one winner in each of the three genres. Submit to the Emerging Writer’s Contest through our submission manager. You must be logged in to access our submission manager.
The 2024 contest judges are Dantiel W. Moniz (Fiction), Porsha Olayiwola (Poetry), and Augusten Burroughs (Nonfiction).
Publication
The winning story, essay, and poems from the 2024 contest will be published in the Winter 2024-25 issue ofPloughshares.
Eligibility
You are eligible if you:
Have yet to publish a book (including eBooks, translations, books in other languages/countries, self-published works, and poetry chapbooks with a print run of more than 300).
Have no book forthcoming before April 15, 2025.
Are not affiliated with Emerson College or with Ploughshares as a volunteer screener, intern, student, staff member, or faculty member.
Will not have a relationship with Emerson College before April 15, 2025 (example: if there is a chance you will attend the Emerson MFA program in the coming year or if your work has been accepted for publication for an upcoming issue).
Submitting
The contest is now open. We will announce the winners in mid-September of 2024.
Fiction and Nonfiction: Under 6,000 words Poetry: 3-5 pages
Submit one entry per year via our online submission manager.
Submit one entry per year via our online submission manager.
No entries via email or mail will be considered for the contest.
Submitted work must be original and previously unpublished in any form.
For poetry, we will be reading both for the strongest individual poem and the general level of work, and may choose to publish one, some, or all of the winner’s submitted poems.
International submissions are welcome, but we ask that you please be in touch via email for more information about this process.
We cannot accommodate revisions once a manuscript has been submitted.
If submitting work with images, please acquire permission beforehand and, if possible, ensure any images are high resolution (300 dpi).
We strongly encourage typed, double-spaced (poetry may be single-spaced), and numbered pages.
Cover letters are not necessary. Please remove all identifying information from your submission as they will be read anonymously.
Simultaneous vs. Multiple Submissions We only consider one submission per author for the duration of the contest, regardless of genre. Simultaneous submissions to other journals are fine as long as we are notified immediately upon acceptance elsewhere via email (pshares@pshares.org) or our online contact form.
Entry Fee
If you are a current subscriber through our Winter 2024-2025 issue, your contest entry is free of charge. You will still be prompted to “checkout” but you will not be required to enter payment information and will not be charged. If you’re not sure when your subscription expires, feel free to email us at pshares@pshares.org.
If you are not a subscriber, or your subscription expires before our Winter 2024-2025 issue, the submission manager will prompt you to pay the $30 fee at checkout. The fee includes a 1-year subscription to Ploughshares (beginning with the Spring 2024 issue and ending with the Winter 2024-2025 issue) and free submissions to the 2024 regular reading period.
If you are an international submitter, please be in touch via email for more information about this process.
1ST Place: Your choice of 3 workshops or 35 pages line-edited and revised by our editorial staff
2nd Place: Two free workshops; or 20 pages line-edited
3rd Place: One free workshop, or 15 pages line-edited
10 Honorable Mentions
Guidelines:
Write about a difficult experience in your life, how you overcame this obstacle, and how you were changed by it. Winning stories will be chosen for originality and creative writing style. Stories should not exceed 5,000 words (double-spaced, 12-point font).
All work must be unpublished and in Word Doc format. Multiple entries are accepted. Your name, address, phone, email, and title of work should appear on the first page. The entry fee is $25 for every story. All entries receive comments from the judges.
Enclose self-sealing SASE for comments and winners’ list, and mail to:
The Writers’ Workshop Hard Times Contest
807 West Lynn St., #220
Austin, TX 78703
Emailed submissions may be sent to writersw@gmail.com with “Hard Times Contest” in the subject. Entry fee is payable online at www.twwoa.org
The Writers’ Workshop of Asheville, NC, is sponsoring our Annual Poetry Contest, open to any writer regardless of residence. The awards are:
1ST Place: Your choice of 3 workshops or 25 poems (or pages) line-edited and revised by our editorial staff
2nd Place: Two free workshops; or 20 poems (or pages) line-edited
3rd Place: One free workshop, or 10 pages line-edited
10 Honorable Mentions
Guidelines:
All work must be unpublished and in Word Doc format. Each poem should not exceed two pages. Multiple entries are accepted. Your name, address, phone email and title of work should appear on the first page. The entry fee is $25 for every 3 poems. All entries receive comments from the judges.
Enclose self-sealing SASE for comments and winners’ list, and mail to:
The Writers’ Workshop Poetry Contest
807 West Lynn St., #220
Austin, TX 78703
Emailed submissions may be sent to writersw@gmail.com with “Poetry Contest” in the subject. Entry fee is payable online at www.twwoa.org
The Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest is open to anyone who enjoys expressing their innermost thoughts and feelings in the beautiful literary art of poetry or writing a story worth telling everyone! Welcome to all, having the ability to dream… Write a poem or short story to win cash prizes totaling $1275.00! All works must be original.
Write a poem, 30 lines or fewer on any subject, style, or form, typed or neatly hand-printed.
And/or write a short story, 5 pages maximum length, on any subject or theme, fiction, non-fiction, and creative nonfiction (including essay compositions, diary, journal entries, short screenplays, stageplays, and screenwriting). Also, all entries must be either typed or legibly hand-printed.
Multiple and simultaneous poetry and short story entries are accepted.
Deadline: March 31, 2024
All contest winners will be published on May 26, 2024
Prizes(USD):
Writing First Prize is $500. Second: $250. Third: $100.
Poetry First Prize is $250. Second: $125. Third: $50.
Entry fees(USD): $5 per poem, $10 per story
To send entries: Include title(s) with your story (ies) or poem(s), along with your name, mailing address, phone#, email, and brief biographical info. (Tell us a little about yourself), on the coversheet. Add a self-addressed stamped envelope for entry confirmation. Fees payable to: “DREAMQUESTONE.COM”
No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude. “And remember, in whatever you do, it’s okay to dream, for dreams do come true.” –Dream Quest One
32nd annual contest sponsored by Winning Writers and Duotrope. $10,000 in cash prizes, including $3,500 for the best story and $3,500 for the best essay. The top 12 entries will be published online. Both published and unpublished works are welcome. Fee: $22 per entry. Final judge: Mina Manchester. Deadline: May 1, 2024.
The mission of the Poetry Super Highway is to expose as many people to as many other people’s poetry as possible.
What?
Send a book – Get a book. A free exchange of poetry books amongst poets worldwide. It’s not a contest. There are no judges, entry fees, winners, or losers.
Last year, 101 poets participated, sending and receiving a poetry book to and from another randomly selected participant.
By agreeing to participate, someone will be exposed to your poetry, and you will be exposed to someone else’s poetry.
How?
To participate you’ll agree to mail a physical copy of one poetry book that you have written (or a collection you’ve edited) to one other participant. Just one book. In exchange, you will receive in the mail one copy of one poetry book written or edited by another participant.
It’s a circular exchange. You will (probably) be sending your book to a different poet than you will be receiving one from.
E-books are not eligible for the Great Poetry Exchange. (Save those for our annual e-Book Free-For-All in November!) Your book must be a physical entity. Self-published and chapbooks are welcome…but please, no e-books.
In early March, we will randomly assign the books to each participant and email you the name and address of the person you are supposed to send your book to.
We will also list your book and description on this page along with the link to your website for all to see.
Please note, that the Great Poetry Exchange is open to everyone on planet Earth. You may be required to send your book to someone outside of your own country which will, of course, cost you more in postage than it would to send it domestically.
Also as our readership our primarily English speakers, included books must be written in English or at least include an English translation.
Also. we’ll ask that you send us an e-mail in March once your book has actually been sent so we can keep track and make sure that all participants who send a book also get one.
You also must agree to send out your book within 2 weeks of being notified of who to send your book to.
An independent panel of judges will select the winners and each category winner will be invited to read their work at a public event as part of the festival.
Prizes The winner of each category will receive a cash prize of €500 and a free weekend pass to Write By The Sea festival 2024. All four winning pieces will be published on the Write By The Sea website.
The runners-up in each category will receive €300 and third place will receive €200.
Entries must be submitted via the Online Entry Form on the Competition Page of the WBTS website, writebythesea.ie where entrants will upload their names and contact details. All entries must be in English. Entrants can submit as many entries as they wish at €10 per entry, or enter 3 pieces, in the same or different genres, for €25. Should your entry win a prize or be published elsewhere, please let us know so that we can remove it from the WBTS 2023 Writing Competition. The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence/contact will be entered into and no feedback will be given to individual entrants. Entrants should retain copies of their work as entries will NOT be returned. Committee members and relatives of committee members of the Write By The Sea festival, its agents, contributors or sponsors are not eligible to enter the competition. All non-winning entries will be deleted from our records after three months from the date of the announcement of the competition results. Note A: It breaks our hearts when we have to disqualify entrants who break the rules. Sadly, each year we have to disqualify a significant number of the entries for disregarding simple rules such as not submitting text in double-spacing or including their names and addresses in the text of their submissions. Please remember to spell-check and proofread your work. We look forward to receiving your entries and we wish you every success in the 2024 competition. Timeline Saturday 6th March 2024 – submissions open through writebythesea.ie Deadline: Friday 21st June 2024, competition closes at 11.59pm Friday 2nd August 2024– shortlist of the winning entry titles will be posted on the WBTS website, writebythesea.ie Sunday 1st September 2024 – winners will be notified by WBTS Each category winner will be invited to read their work at a public event as part of the festival. October 2024 – the winning pieces will be published on the WBTS website
I have $12,000 on offer to talk about how to change our worldview to where we care about each other as much as we care about ourselves. I worked with the prestigious Scientific and Medical Network to formulate it and they are promoting it as a member’s project, urging other organizations to let their members know.
No entry fee. Due February 14, 2024. No word count but, “Be as concise as you can so as not to lose readers while giving details that demonstrate the workability of your ideas.”
The ploy is that it’s 2050 and the world is working. From the mess we’re in in 2024, starting with something you did, how did that come about?
To pass along:
ESSAY CONTEST with Cash Prizes! Due February 14, 2024.
Prizes: Three Winners are announced who share in the $1000 USD total prize pool. Winners may choose to have an extract published, and receive a letter of recommendation from our Judges. Twenty writers are Shortlisted. Feedback available.
Entry Fee: $20.
Words: Please submit the first 5000 words of your prose manuscript or 15 pages of poetry.
Details: Open to anyone in the world. The entry must not have been traditionally published. We are seeking all varieties of novels, short story collections, nonfiction, and poetry collections. We will accept manuscripts that are unpublished, self-published, and some that are indie-published. Review full entry guidelines for further details.
Guest Judge: Literary Agent Hannah Andrade with Bradford Literary Agency
Seeking short fiction of any genre between 250 – 750 words. The mission of this contest is to inspire creativity, great writing, and provide well-rewarded recognition to contestants.
Electronic submissions via e-mail only; reprints/previously published are okay; simultaneous submissions are okay; multiple submissions are okay. Open internationally.
Limit: 300 entries.
Prizes (20 winners!): 1st Place: $400, publication, interview, and $25 Amazon Gift Certificate 2nd Place: $300, publication, interview, and $25 Amazon Gift Certificate 3rd Place: $200, publication, interview and $25 Amazon Gift Certificate 7 Runners Up receive $25 Amazon Gift Cards, publication and interview 10 Honorable mentions receive $20 Amazon Gift Card Top 10 stories are published in the WOW! Women On Writing e-zine, and contestants are interviewed on WOW’s blog, The Muffin.
Entry: $10 entry fee; critique option for an additional $10
GOOD HART ARTIST RESIDENCY https://goodhartartistresidency.org/apply-now/ Deadline: January 8, 2024. We offer flexibility in scheduling the length of a residency stay. New for 2024, we are adding Lakeshore Writer Friends. This residency welcomes two writer friends to the same property. Dates for Lakeshore Writer Friends: June 13-27, 2024. Residency includes a 10-21 day residency stay in a private, 1,150 sq. ft. home (selected residents are provided a window of time within which they have the flexibility to schedule a stay between 10-21 days in length); residencies between May – October have use of a detached, private studio space and basic art supplies. All food provided, including a fully-stocked and well-equipped kitchen, homemade baked goods, and locally sourced ingredients, and a $500 stipend. Solitary time in a scenic environment, to work, reflect, and recharge, as well as the opportunity for community engagement. For parent artists, we are offering a childcare grant of $1,000 to one selected resident to help with the cost of dependent childcare at their home base while they attend a residency in Good Hart.
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QUAY WORDS WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE https://literatureworks.org.uk/quay-words-are-seeking-a-writer-in-residence-for-march-2024/ Deadline: December 3, 2023. We are seeking to appoint a writer, storyteller, spoken word artist or other wordsmith to be in residence for the calendar month of March 2024 for the equivalent of at least one day per week during that time. The selected writer will be engaged by Literature Works on a contractor/freelance basis as writer-in-residence for the term. The theme for Quay Words Spring 2024 is ‘Heritage’ – and for this season we’re particularly interested in uncovering the hidden voices of the Quayside’s heritage. The theme is open to interpretation, and we’re keen to explore the different ways that words can be used to tell the stories of place. How can we use creative writing as a tool to welcome communities in and make people’s voices heard – both the voices of the past and the present day? We offer an inclusive fee for the Residency of £1,000 to include the delivery of the public-facing events. We will encourage our writer to find time to develop their own work at the Custom House and we invite them to spend as much time on site as they wish. We will provide a private writing space in the building for the duration of the residency. Location Literature Works, Courtenay House, Pynes Hill, Exeter, Devon, EX2 5AZ
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TENNESSEE INDIVIDUAL ARTIST FELLOWSHIP https://tnartscommission.org/grants/individual/ Deadline: January 22, 2024. Literary Arts (three categories): Fiction, Children’s Literature/Young Adult Literature, Poetry. Amount $5,000. Fellowships provide those individuals who by education, experience, or natural talent engage in a particular art form or discipline, and live and work in Tennessee. To qualify, an artist must be financially compensated for his or her work, and this compensation must be a significant source of support for their livelihood.
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MARSHSONG RESIDENCY – LOWCOUNTRY SC https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Conroy-Center-Writer-s-Residency–Feb-28—March-6-.html Deadline: December 2, 2023. Coinciding with the annual March Forth collaboration with historic Penn Center, the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will offer our eighth Conroy Center Writer’s Residency this coming spring, available to writers of all prose genres. Located on a salt marsh, the residency at MarshSong Cottage provides an inspirational, creative space in the heart of Pat Conroy’s beloved lowcountry. The residency location is a guest cottage on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, approximately 15 minutes from downtown Beaufort and 15 minutes from the beach at Hunting Island State Park. The residency dates will be February 28 to March 6, 2024, overlapping with March Forth, which the selected writer will be invited to attend.
For this contest, a story is any short work of fiction, and an essay is any short work of nonfiction. Final judge: Mina Manchester, assisted by Sarah Halper. Please submit as many entries as you like. All themes accepted. Entries may be published or unpublished. Length limit: 6,000 words maximum. No restriction on age of author. All countries eligible except Syria, Iran, North Korea, Crimea, Russia, or Belarus (due to US government restrictions). Fee: $22 per entry. Read the winning entries from the 31st contest.
First time entering? We prepared this brief video to guide you. See also our short entry checklist, then click the button below to submit. The results of our 32nd contest will be announced on October 15, 2024.
The Letter Review Prize is now open in five categories: Short Fiction (up to 5000 words), Nonfiction (up to 5000 words), Poetry (up to 70 lines), Unpublished Books (including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry), and Reprints (previously published works which are not avail. online). The total yearly Prize pool is $30,000 USD. Entry fee: $20 USD (Poetry $15). Winners are published online and in our printed Winners Anthology. 10-20 per category are shortlisted. All entries are considered for publication, and submission to prestigious anthologies such as The Pushcart Prize. Judges’ feedback is available for all entries. See our Previous Winners Page here, and our Comments / Testimonials Page here.
Narratively is currently accepting submissions for their annual 2023 Memoir Prize. They are looking for revealing and emotional first-person nonfiction narratives from unique and overlooked points of view. The Grand Prize Winner will receive $3,000, and the two Finalists will receive $1,000 each. The guest judge is New York Times bestselling memoirist Stephanie Land. For more information and to submit a story, use their pitch form. There is a $20 entry fee — which is waived for subscribers! — and the deadline to submit is November 30, 2023.
Narratively is U.S. based but will accept submissions from anywhere. Your piece should be in the 2,000 to 7,000-word range. Work from the winners will be published on Narratively.com and included in a special Memoir Prize Digital Collection, in addition to the top three writers being awarded cash prizes. They expect to announce their final decision on or around February 5, 2024.
ANNUAL MEMOIRS COMPETITION Deadline: Postmarked or emailed by Dec. 30, 2023
Guidelines: Submit a memoir of 5,000 words or less. Pages should be paper-clipped, with your name, address, email, phone, and title of work on the first page. Double-space, and use 12-point font. The entry fee is $30/$25 Members per memoir. Multiple entries are accepted. Emailed submissions may be sent in Word Doc to writersw@gmail.com, with “Memoirs Contest” in the subject. Entry fee is payable at our Registration Page. Please make check or money order payable to The Writers’ Workshop, and mail to: Memoirs Contest, 807 W. Lynn St., #220, Austin TX 78703. The entry fee is also payable at Paypal or our Venmo account: @writers-workshop.
ANNUAL POETRY COMPETITION Deadline: Postmarked or emailed by March 30, 2024
Guidelines: Submit up to 3 poems of two pages or less, emailed or regular post. Pages should be paper-clipped, with your name, address, email, phone, and title of work on the first page. Double-space, and use 12-point font. The entry fee is $25 for every three poems. Multiple entries are accepted. Please make check or money order payable to The Writers’ Workshop, and mail to: Memoirs Contest, 187 W. Lynn St, #220, Austin TX 78703. The entry fee is also payable at our Registration Page. Emailed submissions may be sent in Word Doc to writersw@gmail.com, with “Poetry Contest” in the subject. The entry fee is also payable at our Venmo account: @writers-workshop
Guidelines: Write about a difficult experience in your life, how you overcame this obstacle, and how you were changed by it. Winning stories will be chosen for originality and creative writing style. Stories should not exceed 5,000 words (double-spaced, 12-point font). Your name, address, email, phone, and title of work should appear on the first page. Enclose the reading fee of $25/$20 Workshop members per entry. Multiple entries are accepted. Please make check or money order payable to Writers’ Workshop, and send to: Hard Times Contest, 187 W. Lynn St., #220, Austin TX 78703. Emailed submissions in MS Word Documents may be sent to writersw@gmail.com, with “Hard Times Contest” in the subject. Entry fee is payable online via Paypal, or to our Venmo address: @www.twwoa.org
Email a Microsoft Word document of your entry to writersw@gmail.com with “Name of contest” in the subject line.
Pay entry fee online at your Venmo account: @writers-workshop, or your Paypal account. Include your name, title of work, address, email, and name of contest. The judges’ comments will be emailed to you.
By mail:
Enclose your submission, and a SASE (self-sealing self-addressed stamped envelope) for judges’ critique.
Make check or money order payable to The Writers’ Workshop, and mail to: [Name of contest], The Writers’ Workshop, 807 W. Lynn St., #220, Austin TX 78703.
You can also pay the entry fee online at your Paypal or our Venmo account: @writers-workshop.
Whether you’re an established or emerging writer, the Askew’s Word on the Lake Writing Contest has a place for you. Part of the Word on the Lake Writers’ Festival in Salmon Arm, BC, the contest is open to submissions in short fiction (up to 2,000 words), nonfiction (up to 2,000 words), and poetry (up to three one-page poems).
Entry fee: $15 Canadian, which goes directly to supporting the Word on the Lake Writers’ Festival
Prizes: First Place: $200. Second Place: $125. Honourable Mention: $100. Additionally, all winners will be published in the annual Askew’s Word on the Lake Anthology, and will receive copies of the anthology in print and ebook.
Open to anyone who loves expressing their innermost thoughts and feelings in the beautiful literary art of poetry and/or writing a story that is worth telling everyone! Guidelines: (1) Write a poem, 30 lines or fewer on any subject, form, or style. And/or (2) Write a short story, 5 pages maximum length, single or double line spacing, on any subject or theme, fiction, nonfiction, or creative nonfiction. Multiple and simultaneous entries are accepted Prizes: Poetry First Prize: $250; Second: $125; Third: $50. Writing First Prize is $500; Second: $250; Third: $100. Entry fees: $5 per poem, $10 per story. Postmark deadline: March 31, 2024. Visit https://www.dreamquestone.com/ for details on how to enter!
“The mission of the Poetry Super Highway is to expose as many people to as many other people’s poetry as possible.”
What?
A project in which your poetry e-books will be freely available to all interested humans on Earth for a 24 hour period.
Throughout November 2023 we will collect e-books from poets and writers interested in participating.
Then on December 1st, for a 24 hour period, links to all of the e-books will go live. For 24 hours anyone can download, for free, as many of these e-books as they like…a poetry e-book free-for-all.
How?
To participate, read the guidelines below and then click on our Online Submission form. That’s it. It’s simple. By doing so, your e-book will be included.
The E-Book has to be written by you.
E-books should be in PDF Format for universal compatibility with anyone’s computer.
If you have an e-book in Microsoft Word or another format, please convert it to PDF. One way to do this (if you don’t know how) is to visit the website https://www.freepdfconvert.com/. From there you will be allowed to select the file on your computer which will uploaded and e-mailed back to you in PDF format.
When creating your e-book file, please keep it smaller than 2 megabytes.
Once you’ve created your e-book (not before), click on our Online Submission Form to join in!
Please do not fill out the form and then e-mail us your e-book later. Please fill out the form and use it to upload your e-book to us.
We are not accepting e-books or submissions by e-mail. The only way to join in is by clicking on the Online Submission Form below.
On December 1 at Midnight (the evening of November 30), people will be free to download any or all of the titles and your poetry will be freely, electronically, travelling all over the world. This web page will go offline 24 hours later at Midnight on December 2nd.
We will also list your e-book and description on this web page along with the link to your website for all to see.
Why are you doing this? To expose as many people to as many other people’s poetry as possible.
Why isn’t this a one-one exchange like the Great Poetry Exchange? The immediate accessibility of the internet, and zero costs for producing e-books makes this a much more attractive opportunity for an immediate larger audience for your books. We don’t want to limit your potential readers to other producers of e-books, nor to one other person.
Why does the e-book have to be written by me? Unlike the Great Poetry Exchange, were one can participate by pledging to send a book by someone else or an anthology they’ve edited, since e-books are not purchased physical entities, and because they will be available in unlimited quantities during the 24 hour period on December 1st, only you have the rights to your poetry. You can’t authorize the free distribution of someone else’s poetry, the rights of which you don’t own, to the world.
This sounds cool but I don’t have an e-book. That’s not really a question, but anyway, why not make one? Do some basic design and layout of your poems in your favorite word processing program. Make a title page. Design a nice cover. Use any pictures you want. Turn it into an PDF. You’ve got an e-book. There’s no time like the present. Maybe you’ll take it to print later?
I participated last year and I want to submit the same book, can you just use the file and info you have already? This creates more work for us and is a little more difficult to manage. It would really help out if you could click on the Online Submission Form so we can have everything in the same place, we’d appreciate it.
I’m concerned about my book being free for everyone on the planet. Also not a question but we understand. Maybe this isn’t for you. Maybe you sell e-books on your website and don’t want to give unlimited copies of one away over a 24 hour period. It’s cool.
Are these really frequently asked questions? Actually no, all these were written before we received any questions, imagining what some of the questions might be.
For more info: Visit Poetry Super Highway and click on “Great E-Book Free-For All” for updated details and for the list of participating authors/e-books.
PRIZES: Book of the Year £2000 Plus 4 category winners each winning £200
All winners receive a review and a glass plaque.
We accept books and ebooks.
We accept entry fees in different currencies. To select your currency you will need to go to the payment page. However, to give some idea of the cost in the UK it is £45 GBP or $70 USD. Please check here for other currencies.
There is no publication date restriction.
Weaccept fiction (all genres), young adults, children’s, biographies, non-fiction, self-help, cookery, poetry, photography, etc. There are no limits on the type.
We have a panel of carefully selected expert readers. When we receive your book we pair up the category of your book with our reader’s specialist interest.
Our readers observe strict criteria when reading each book. They are given Book Score Sheets to complete for every book received. In general terms, the most important aspects for you to keep in mind are: whether a book is well written (including structure and style), and whether a book is well presented (cover, pictures (if relevant), and layout).
We aim to announce in July of each year.
The award money will be paid in sterling via a cheque or PayPal.*
Email confirmation will be sent. This is not automated but sent once we have received everything we need to register your book.
Please see our FAQ for any other queries you may have.
Creative Writing Contests 