Contests
- 1
- 3-Day Novel Contest
- Held annually on Labor Day weekend. Rules, survival guide, prizes, and past winners.
- 2
- A Woman's Write
- 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
- An annual competition for writers, editors, publications staff, and both business and non-profit communicators.
- 4
- AwardWeb
- Information on major literary awards throughout the USA and other countries, particularly focusing on (though not limited to) science fiction and fantasy.
- 5
- Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
- 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.
- 6
- Communicator Awards, The
- 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).
- 7
- Flyway
- 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.
- 8
- Mona Schreiber Prize for Humorous Fiction and Non-Fiction
- Humorous stories and essays up to 750 words are required. Reading fee: $5. Deadline: December 1. Cash prizes total $850.
- 9
- Park Publications U.K.
- Publishers of the magazines, "Scribble" and "Countryside Tales", holding quarterly competitions for original, unpublished short stories and poems, some open, some limited to specific themes.
- 10
- Peralta Press Writing Awards
- 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.
- 11
- SAY Writing Contests
- 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.
- 12
- Santa Fe Writers Project
- 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.
- 13
- Sarabande Books - Poetry & Short Fiction Contests
- 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).
- 14
- The New Writer Magazine Annual Prose and Poetry Prizes
- 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.
- 15
- Word Smitten Annual Literary Fiction Contest
- 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.
- 16
- Write-Way Writers' Essay Contest
- 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.
- 17
- Bridport Prize
- An international creative writing competition for poetry (under 42 lines) and short stories (under 5,000 words). Prize money totals ten thousand pounds. Entry fee: Six pounds. Deadline: June 30, each year.
- 18
- Cutthroat Poetry Award
- Annual poetry contest, submit three poems of up to 100 lines each. 1st prize $1,250, entry fee $15. Deadline: 10th October.
- 19
- Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prizes
- Poetry prizes from $1,000 to $25,000 will be awarded for heartfelt lyric poems celebrating the spirit of life. Deadline: November 6. Entry fee: $10. Open to any writer under the age of 40.
- 20
- First Writer Poetry Competition
- Annual contest offers first prize of £500 (over $750), with $150 for the best runner-up from the United States and £100 for the best runner-up from the United Kingdom for a poem in any style and on any subject. Length: under 30 lines. Minimum entry fee: 3 pounds. Deadline: October 1.