Contests
- 1
- 3-Day Novel Contest
- Page http://www.3daynovel.com/
- Held annually on Labor Day weekend. Rules, survival guide, prizes, and past winners.
- 2
- A Woman's Write
- Page http://www.awomanswrite.com/
- Writing contest for women seeks a story, memoir or book chapter on a given theme. Deadline; December 31, thence monthly. Entry fee: $7. First prize: $70.
- 3
- Annual APEX Awards for Publication Excellence
- Page http://www.apexawards.com/
- An annual competition for writers, editors, publications staff, and both business and non-profit communicators.
- 4
- Arizona Authors Association Awards
- Page http://azauthors.com/
- AAA requires entries for unpublished poetry, short stories, essays/articles, and novels. Cash prizes of $100 in each category, plus publication, are offered. Deadline: July 1, annually. Entry fees vary from $10 (poetry) to $30 (novels).
- 5
- AwardWeb
- Page http://www.dpsinfo.com/awardweb/
- Information on major literary awards throughout the USA and other countries, particularly focusing on (though not limited to) science fiction and fantasy.
- 6
- Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
- Page http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/
- San Jose State University sponsors this yearly challenge "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels". No entry fee. Official deadline: April 15.
- 7
- Communicator Awards, The
- Page http://www.communicatorawards.com/
- Annual competitions honoring excellence in all areas of communication, with separate categories for print (177 sub-categories), video (216 sub-categories) and audio (140 sub-categories).
- 8
- Flyway
- Page http://flyway.org/
- 6th Annual Flyway Sweet Corn Prize. $150 and a book bag of Iowa sweet corn for top entries in each category: fiction, nonfiction (maximum: 4,000 words) and poetry. Reading fee: $18. Deadline March 1st.
- 9
- Mona Schreiber Prize for Humorous Fiction and Non-Fiction
- Page http://www.brashcyber.com/mona.htm
- Humorous stories and essays up to 750 words are required. Reading fee: $5. Deadline: December 1. Cash prizes total $850.
- 10
- Park Publications U.K.
- Page http://www.parkpublications.co.uk/
- Publishers of the magazines, "Scribble" and "Countryside Tales", holding quarterly competitions for original, unpublished short stories and poems, some open, some limited to specific themes.
- 11
- Peralta Press Writing Awards
- Page http://peraltapress.homestead.com/
- Annual contest seeks poetry (maximum: 30 lines), short stories and non-fiction (both maximum: 2,000 words). Minimum entry fee: $10. Cash prizes total: $750. All entries considered for publication. Deadline: August 15.
- 12
- Pomegranate Words Writing Contests
- Page http://www.pomegranatewords.com/
- Offers free monthly contests for poetry and fiction. Open worldwide, but to teenagers only.
- 13
- SAY Writing Contests
- Page http://say.com.au/index.htm
- Writing contests open to all types of entries including essays, short stories, and poetry. Maximum length: 700 words. Entries are published in a book and readers determine the winners.
- 14
- Santa Fe Writers Project
- Page http://www.sfwp.com/
- SFWP provides resources for authors and features online fiction as well as an annual writing contest for prose, both fiction and non-fiction, including short stories, essays and sample chapters of novels. $6,000 in cash prizes. Deadline: mid-January.
- 15
- Sarabande Books - Poetry & Short Fiction Contests
- Page http://www.sarabandebooks.org/
- Open to U.S. citizens only, Sarabande offers an annual $2,000 prize for both poetry (minimum 48 pages) and short fiction (minimum 150 pages).
- 16
- The New Writer Magazine Annual Prose and Poetry Prizes
- Page http://www.thenewwriter.com/
- Offers prize money totalling 2,500 pounds for essays (maximum 2,000 words), short stories (maximum 4,000 words), serials or novellas (up to 20,000 words), and poetry (maximum 100 lines). Closes November 30. Modest entry fees.
- 17
- Word Smitten Annual Literary Fiction Contest
- Page http://www.wordsmitten.com/fiction.html
- Offers a prize of $1,010 for the best on-line submission of literary (no genre) fiction totaling exactly 1,010 words. Reading fee: $15. Deadline: July 1.
- 18
- Ayn Rand Institute Annual Essay Contests
- Page http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=education_contests_index
- Annual cash awards for short, original, unpublished essays on the philosophic themes in Ayn Rand's novels, "Anthem", "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged", are open respectively to all US 9th and 10th graders, 11th and 12th graders and college students.
- 19
- Conversely Antidote Essay Contest
- Page http://www.conversely.com/Masth/conte.shtml
- Annual contest for essays about female-male romantic relationships. Word limits: 750 (minimum), 2,000 (maximum). Cash prizes total $375. Entry fee: $7.50. Deadline: June 30.
- 20
- Write-Way Writers' Essay Contest
- Page http://writenews.exactpages.com/
- Seeks short essays on the theme, "Cinema Hits and Movie Misses". This theme is open to a wide number of acceptable interpretations. Maximum length: 1,000 words. No entry fees. Cash prizes total: $225. Winning entries will be published in a "Film Index" book.