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Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we’ve published in the Grants & Awards section of Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it in the Writing Contests database, the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.

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Writing Contests, Grants & Awards

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The Writing Contests, Grants & Awards database includes details about the creative writing contests—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, and more—that we’ve published in Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it. Ours is the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.

Stony Brook Southampton 

Stony brook undergraduate short fiction prize.

A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a short story by a current undergraduate college student. The winner also receives a full scholarship to attend the Southampton Writers...

University of Canberra 


Vice-chancellor’s international poetry prize 
.

A first-place prize of $15,000 AUD (approximately $9,892) and a second-place prize of $5,000 AUD (approximately $3,297) are given annually for a single poem. The winners will...

Poetry Prize

A prize of $15,000 and publication in Rattle is given annually for a single poem. A Readers’ Choice Award of $5,000 is also given to one of ten finalists. Using only the...

Ghost Story

Screw turn flash fiction competition.

A prize of $1,000 and publication on the Ghost Story website is given biannually for a work of flash fiction with a supernatural or magical realist theme. The editors...

Cincinnati Review

Robert and adele schiff awards.

Three prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Cincinnati Review are given annually for a poem, a short story, and an essay. Erica Dawson will judge in poetry, Michael...

Pulitzer Prizes

Prizes in books.

Six prizes of $15,000 each are given annually for books of poetry, fiction, general nonfiction, U.S. history, biography, and memoir first published in the United States during...

Regal House Publishing

Petrichor prize for finely crafted fiction.

A prize of $1,000 and publication by Regal House Publishing is given annually for a novel. The editors will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript...

The Word Works

Tenth gate prize.

A prize of $1,000, publication by the Word Works, and 30 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection by a poet who has published at least two full-length books of...

Comstock Review

Muriel craft bailey memorial award.

A prize of $1,000 and publication in Comstock Review is given annually for a single poem. Charles Rafferty will judge. Submit up to five poems of no more than 60 lines...

New York State Council on the Arts

Support for artists grants.

Grants of $10,000 each will be given annually to poets, fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and translators who are residents of New York State and are sponsored by an...

Poetry Contest

A prize of $1,500 and publication in Narrative is given annually for a poem or group of poems. The poetry editors will judge. Using only the online submission system,...

Poetry and Short Story Awards

Two prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Sixfold are given quarterly for a group of poems and a short story. Using only the online submission system, submit up to...

Spring Story Contest

A prize of $2,500 and publication in Narrative is given annually for a work of flash fiction, a short story, a graphic story, an essay, a memoir, or an excerpt from a...

Red Wheelbarrow

A prize of $1,000 and publication in Red Wheelbarrow is given annually for a single poem. The winner also receives 20 copies of a letterpress broadside of the winning...

Award for Poetry

A prize of $1,000, publication by Press 53, and 53 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. Tom Lombardo will judge. Submit a manuscript of 50 to 120 pages with...

Connecticut Poetry Society

Experimental poetry contest.

A prize of $1,000 and publication in Connecticut River Review is given annually for an innovative poem. Claire Donato will judge. Using only the online submission system...

Anthology Magazine 

Short story competition.

A prize of €1,000 (approximately $1,088) and publication in Anthology Magazine is given annually for a short story. Using only the online submission system, submit a...

Sewanee Review

Fiction, poetry, and nonfiction contest.

Three prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Sewanee Review are given annually for a single poem or group of poems, a short story, and a creative nonfiction essay....

Granum Foundation

Granum foundation prizes.

A prize of $5,000 is given annually to a poet, fiction writer, or creative nonfiction writer to support the completion of a manuscript-in-progress. Up to three finalists will...

PEN America

Pen/heim translation fund grants.

Ten grants of $3,000 to $4,000 each are given annually to support the translation of book-length works of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction that have not previously...

Delaware Division of the Arts

Individual artist fellowships.

Established Professional Fellowships of $8,000 each and Emerging Artist Fellowships of $5,000 each are given annually to at least four poets, fiction writers, and creative...

PEN/Jean Stein Grants for Literary Oral History

Two grants of $15,000 are given annually for nonfiction works-in-progress that “use oral history to illuminate an event, individual, place, or movement.” Using only the online...

Prairie Schooner

Summer creative nonfiction contest.

A prize of $1,000 and publication in Prairie Schooner will be given annually for an essay. Submit an essay of up to 5,000 words with a $20 entry fee by August 1. Visit...

Radar Poetry

Coniston prize.

A prize of $1,000 and publication in Radar Poetry is given annually for a group of poems by a poet who identifies as a woman. Using only the online submission system,...

PEN/Bare Life Review Grants

Two grants of $5,000 each will be given annually for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction works-in-progress “by immigrant and refugee writers, recognizing that the literature of...

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• Tags: Essay , Novel , Poetry , Short Story , Writing Contests

If you have great ideas but struggle to pen them, don’t worry. Almost all poets and writers fail at writing consistently, and we have a solution. We’ve listed the best creative writing contests in 2024!

You can go through the list to find any writing competitions in 2024 that inspire you to write. If you aren’t confident in your draft, try looking for some free writing contests! Whether you’re looking for poetry contests, short story writing competitions, or essay contests, we’ve listed them all. So, which one will you enter?

Elevate your book, essay, short story, or poem with perfect editing! Learn more

Here are the best writing contests in 2024:

January 2024

The new year opens with plenty of poetry competitions but few essay contests and almost no free writing contests. With several mixed contests listed this month, however, we’re sure our poets and writers will be satisfied!

Poetry contests 2024

1. gemini poetry open contest 2024.

Gemini Magazine has organized this poetry contest 2024 to offer six finalists with publication in its March/April 2024 issue. The poems may have been uploaded on personal blogs, but previously published poems are ineligible.

Word count: 3 poems of any length

Prizes: $1,000, $100, four prizes of $25

Entry fee: $9

Closing date: 02 January 2024 

2. 2024 Poetry Competition

The organizers of this poetry contest seek to honor James Allen, the first person to breed Snowdrops from the wild. This is one of the free poetry contests for children and teens, who can participate through separate categories.

Theme: Nature unbound

Word count: 30 lines

Prize: £300

Entry fee: £4

Closing date: 07 January 2024

3. 2024 William Matthews Poetry Prize  

Asheville Poetry Review has organized this contest to offer three deserving poets with publication. Previously published poems and works of translations are not eligible. All entries will be considered for publication!

Prizes: $1,000 and $250

Entry fee: $20

Closing date: 16 January 2024

4. Magma 2023/24 Poetry Competition  

This poetry contest is held in two categories: The judge’s prize and the editor’s prize. Three winners from both categories will be published in Magma . The winners and ten commended poets will be invited to read their poems at a contest event.

Category 1: 11–50 lines

Category 2: Up to 10 lines

Prizes: £1000, £300, £150 per category

Entry fee: £5

Closing date: 31 January 2024

5. Kent and Sussex Poetry Society Open Poetry Competition 2024  

This is one of the poetry competitions that does not allow simultaneous submissions, at least for contests that announce results before 16 April 2024. Winning entries will be published online and included in an annual Folio publication.

Word count: 40 lines

Prizes: £1000, £300, £100, 4 prizes of £50

Short story writing contests 2024

6. the not quite write prize for flash fiction   .

Running between 19–21 January 2024, this unique flash fiction contest challenges authors to break a specific rule of writing. It’s called an anti-prompt, and you’ll have to pair this with two prompts to write your entry in 60 hours. Exciting, isn’t it? 

Word count: 500

Prizes: $1,000 AUD, $500 AUD, $200 AUD, $100 AUD, 4 prizes of $50 AUD

Entry fee: $25 AUD

Closing date: 21 January 2024

7. Story Unlikely Short Story Contest [Free writing Contest!]

This is one of the best short story competitions that welcome all genres: fantasy, sci-fi, memoir, and even nonfiction! All winning entries are published in the monthly issue of Story Unlikely and the winning entry may be published in the annual print issue.

Word count: 4,500

Prizes: $750, $500, $250

Entry: Free!

Essay contest 2024

8. the 2024 calibre essay prize   .

One of the best essay contests of 2024, this competition promotes nonfiction of all kinds: “personal or political, literary or speculative, traditional or experimental.” You may include illustrations in your essay, but the total file size should be below 3 MB.

Word count: 2,000–5,000

Prizes: $5,000 AUD, $3,000 AUD, $2,000 AUD

Entry fee: $30 AUD

Closing date: 22 January 2024

Book writing contests 2024

9. 2023 exeter novel prize.

This novel writing contest invites non-agented writers to submit a previously unpublished manuscript. Send the first 10,000 words of your novel and include a 500-word synopsis. Self-published writers are welcome to enter!

Word count: 10,000 

Prizes: £1000, five prizes of £100

Entry fee: £20

Closing date: 01 January 2024

10. Cai Emmons Fiction Award   

Red Hen Press has organized this novel writing contest 2024 to honor the late novelist Cai Emmons. All authors who haven’t published a full-length work with Red Hen Press are eligible to enter.

Word count: At least 150 pages

Prize: $5,000

Entry fee: $25

Closing date: 15 January 2024

11. Desert Writers Award  

The organizers of this award support one deserving writer of creative nonfiction while they work on their book. Make sure to highlight your interest in desert literature in your biographical statement and project description!

Word count: 10 pages

Entry fee: $15

12. North American Poetry Book Award  

The Poetry Society of Virginia has organized this poetry competition to award one full-length book of poetry. Self-published and audiovisual works are ineligible, but books that have won other pre-publishing awards are allowed. 

Word count: At least 64 pages

Prize: $1,000

Entry fee: $36

13. Bardsy Winter Anthology Contest  

This unique fiction writing contest invites authors to send the first chapters of their in-progress novel or memoir. The best thing is, that you receive feedback on your entry and you can revise it accordingly before judging begins!

Word count: 2,500–3,000

Prizes: $1000, some prizes of $50

Mixed writing contests 2024

14. mississippi review writing contest 2024.

Mississippi Review has organized this poetry, short story, and essay contest 2024 to award publication to three winners. You can submit online or via post, and the postal entry fee is $15. All the best!

Categories: Poetry, fiction, and nonfiction

Word count: 3–5 poems (10 pages) for poetry; 1,000–8,000 words for prose

Prizes: 3 prizes of $1,000

Entry fee: $16

15. The DISQUIET Prize   

The organizers of this writing competition offer one winner a fully paid trip to attend the DISQUIET International Literary Program in Lisbon. Three additional winners receive fee waivers for the program and they can opt for a cash prize of $1,000 in its stead.

Word count: 10 pages for poetry; 25 pages for prose

Prizes: A paid trip to Lisbon and other prizes

Closing date: 05 January 2024

16. The Winter Anthology Contest  

This unique writing competition 2024 welcomes poets and writers to submit any published or unpublished piece of any length! The winner will be published in Volume 14 of The Winter Anthology and finalists will be considered for publication.

Categories: Poetry and prose

Entry fee: $11

Closing date: 10 January 2024 

February 2024

February features a good balance of poetry and short story competitions, but essay contests are, as always, quite rare. What’s more, we’ve managed to find six free writing contests, perhaps the highest this number has been in a single month!

Poetry competitions 2024

1. yeats poetry prize   .

WB Yeats Society of NY has organized this poetry competition to honor the “valuable contributions poets and poetry make to human consciousness”. The judge may recognize some honorable mentions aside from the top two prizes.

Word count: 60 lines

Prizes: $1,000, $500

Entry fee: $15 per poem

Closing date: 01 February 2024 

2. Claire Keyes Poetry Award

Soundings East , the literary journal of Salem State University has organized this poetry competition 2024. The final judge, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, will select a group of poems that will be awarded with publication in the journal.

Word count: 1 page per poem

Entry fee: $10 (8–10 poems)

Closing date: 01 February 2024  

3. Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards  

This poetry contest awards three poets with publication in Paterson Literary Review . Entries to this contest must be submitted via mail. Although the competition honors Ginsberg, the organizers urge you not to emulate his style in your entry.

Word count: 2 pages per poem

Prizes: $2,000, $1,000, $500

Entry fee: $18 (3–5 poems)

4. West Chester University Poetry Awards  

These free poetry competitions are open to undergraduate poets enrolled in a US college or university. You can submit up to three poems for each award with the contact information of a referring professor.

Word count: Various

Prizes: 2 prizes of $1,500, 3 prizes of $1,000, 2 prizes of $500

Closing date: 16 February 2024 

5. Heroica Poetry Prize for Women and Non-Binary Authors and Poets  

Heroica has organized this poetry competition in 2024 for women and non-binary poets. The prize-winning and longlisted entries will be published in print in the first Heroica Poetry Anthology.

Word count: —

Prizes: £125, £50, £25

Entry fee: £2 for 1 poem, £5 for 3 poems; £10 for unlimited series

Closing date: 29 February 2024 

Short story contests 2024

6. american short(er) fiction prize  .

American Short Fiction has organized this flash fiction contest to award one writer with a cash prize and publication. Dantiel W. Moniz—writer of the story collection Milk, Blood, Heat —will judge the competition. All entries will be considered for publication!

Word count: 1,000

Entry fee: $18

7. Short Short Story Contest

The organizers of this short story contest help immigrants achieve their dreams by teaching them various courses. Alongside one overall winner and four winners for each topic, one prize will be awarded to a teen writer. 

Themes: bicycle(s), eclipse, fire, suitcase(s)

Word count: 100

Prizes: $300, 5 prizes of $100

8. WOW! Winter 2024 Flash Fiction Contest  

This women-centric flash fiction contest 2024 offers 17 prizes aside from the top three entries. You can opt for a critique of your work with an entry fee of $20. The entries are limited, so make sure to submit your entry soon!

Word count: 250–750

Prizes: $400, $300, $200

Entry fee: $10

Closing date: 28 February 2024  

9. Edinburgh Short Story Award

In its tenth year, this short story competition offers five top prizes and publication to the top 20 (or more) entries. The contest offers free entries to Scottish writers who receive some form of income support. 

Word count: 2,000

Prizes: £3,000, £500, £250, special prizes of £750 and £300

Entry fee: £10

Closing date: 28 February 2024 

10. Imagine Little Tokyo 2024 Short Story Contest [Free Writing Contest!]

The Little Tokyo Historical Society has organized this free short story contest in two categories: English and Japanese. These short stories should be set in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles and reflect the neighborhood’s culture. Now here’s a worldbuilding challenge like no other!

Word count: 2,500

Prizes: 2 prizes of $500

Essay contests 2024

11. the sarabande prize in essay.

One of the rarer essay writing competitions, the winner gets a collection of essays with a publishing contract. You may edit your entry within a week of submission, but not after that. The selected work will undergo the complete book editing process before publication with Sarabande Books.   

Word count: 100–250 pages

Prize: $3,000

Entry fee: $29

Closing date: 15 February 2024

12. Paterson Poetry Prize

This writing contest awards publication to one poet with the strongest collection of poems. The winner can claim the prize only if they’re available for an in-person or virtual reading at the Poetry Center in Paterson. 

Word count: At least 48 pages

Prize: $2,000

Entry fee: $18 per story

13. Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry

This poetry competition awards one poet with a cash prize and publication with a standard royalty contract. Translations and previously published manuscripts are not eligible. Sarabande Books will consider all finalists for publication!

14. Ambroggio Prize [Free Writing Contest!]

This one-of-a-kind free poetry contest awards a manuscript “originally written in Spanish and with an English translation”. Make sure to exclude the “Acknowledgements” page from your entry while submitting! The contest is open to US citizens only.

Word count: 48–100 pages

15. Center for African American Poetry and Poetics Book Prize [Free Writing Contest!]

Autumn House Press has organized this free writing competition to honor one poet-writer of African descent. The book may be of any genre that “intersects with … poetry, hybrid work, speculative prose, and/or translation.”

Word count: 48–168 pages

16. Harold Morton Landon Translation Award [Free Writing Contest!]

This free poetry contest 2024 honors a manuscript translated into English from any other language. Collaborations of up to two translators are eligible but self-published works will not be considered. The contest is open to US citizens only.

17. Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction  

The organizers of this short fiction contest welcome you to submit a collection of short stories, one or more novellas, or a short novel. The manuscript must be unpublished, but individual works may have appeared in magazines or anthologies.

Word count: 150–250 pages

Closing date: 15 February 2024 

Mixed writing competitions 2024

18. slippery elm prize for poetry and prose  .

Slippery Elm has organized this writing contest to offer publication to poets and writers in their online and print issues. All entrants will receive a copy of the winning issue and be considered for publication!

Word count: None for poetry; 5,000 words for prose

Prizes: $500 per category

Entry fee: $15 (3 poems; 1 prose entry)

19. Elmbridge Literary Competition 2023–24  

This contest features four categories for children and teens and only the adult category has an entry fee. Sampson Low will publish the winning entries from all categories together in a chapbook.

Categories: Poetry and short story

Theme: Fame

Word count: 30 lines for poetry; 1,500 words for a short story

Prizes:   £250,  £150, £100 per category

Closing date: 23 February 2024

20. 2024 Writing Competition

This writing contest is part of the Bournemouth Writing Festival and offers anthology publication to 40 poets and writers. All winners will be invited to the launch party, receive a free copy of the anthology, and get two tickets to a BWF event.

Categories: Poetry and flash fiction

Theme: Lines in the sand

Word count: 30 lines for poetry; 400 words for prose

Prize: Anthology publication

21. The Canterbury Tales Writing Competition 2023/24 [Free Writing Contest!]

This free writing competition offers young poets and writers prize not only for themselves but also for their school library! There are three age groups and the top three prizes in each group for both, students and their libraries. Exciting, right?!

Theme: Being part of a group

Prizes: £300, £150, £100 (to the student); 1000, £500, £250 (to the school library)

March is overloaded with poetry competitions, perhaps in anticipation of April, the poetry writing month. Short story contests were hard to come by, but we did manage to find some free poetry contests!

Poetry contests

1. bsfs poetry contest 2024 [free writing contest].

Baltimore Science Fiction Society has organized this poetry competition. You may submit up to three poems exploring themes of science fiction/fantasy/horror/science. The winners also receive convention membership.

Prizes: $100, $75, $50 

Closing date: 01 March 2024 

2. The Alpine Fellowship Poetry Prize 2024 [Free Writing Contest!]

This free poetry contest welcomes you to submit a single poem or a collection, as long as all the poems relate to the theme. Prize winners will be invited to attend The Alpine Fellowship’s annual symposium, offering up to £500 as travel expenses.

Theme: Language

Prizes: £3,000, £1,000, £1,000 

Closing date: 01 March 2024

3. The Desmond O’Grady International Poetry Competition 2024

The Limerick Writers’ Centre has organized this international poetry contest and invites entries in Irish or English. Poet Arthur Broomfield will judge the English poems while Tomás Ó Coileáin will judge the Irish ones.

Prizes: €200, €50

Entry fee: €3.5

Closing date: 16 March 2024

4. The London Magazine Poetry Prize 2024

The London Magazine offers cash prizes and publication to three poets through this poetry competition. Students and poets with a low income can submit entries at an entry fee of £5!

Prizes: £500, £300, £200

Closing date: 31 March 2024

5. The E.H.P. Barnard Poetry Prize

This poetry contest, organized by the artist Tom Niell, is open only to UK-based poets. Along with the cash prize, the winner also gets a poem video, performed, produced, and promoted. Exciting, right?

Location: UK

Theme: Travel

Word count: 400

Prizes: £100, £75, £50

Entry fee: £2

Closing date: 31 March 2024 

6. The Caterpillar Poetry Prize 2024  

The Caterpillar has organized this poetry competition with Joseph Coelho as the judge. The winning entries will be published in the Irish Times online and the first prize winner also gets a week at Circle of Misse in France.

Prizes: €1,000, €500, €250

Entry fee: €15

7. The Plough Prize 2024  

In its twenty-first year, this renowned poetry contest will be judged by Roger McGough. There is no restriction on the subject. You may send your entry via post, but make sure it reaches the organizers before the deadline.

Prizes: £1,000, £500, £250

8. The Plaza Prose Poetry Prize  

The Plaza Writers has organized this poetry competition to highlight prose poetry. The top ten entries will be selected for anthology publication. Contest judge Carrie Etter is looking for “thrilling experiments with the prose poem form”.

Word count: 450

Prizes: £750, £200, £50

Entry fee: £11

9. Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize  

This short story competition has been organized by Symphony Space and sponsored by Selected Shorts. The winning entry will be performed by an actor and published in Electric Literature . 

Word count: 750

Prize: $1,000 and a 10-week course with Gotham Writers

10. Peter Carey Short Story Awards 2024

This short story contest awards two Australian authors with cash prizes, digital publication in Meanjin , as well as the magazine’s standard contributor fee. An additional prize of 500 AUD will be awarded to a writer who lives, works, or studies in Moorabool Shire.

Location: Australia

Word count: 2,000–3,000

Prizes: 2,000 AUD, 1,000 AUD

Entry fee: 15 AUD

Closing date: 14 March 2024

11. Indignor House Writing Competition 2024  

Indignor House Publishing has organized this short story writing contest to support emerging voices in fiction. 25 entries will be selected for publication in an anthology, of which winners will receive a hardcover copy.

Theme: Fear

Word count: 5,000

Prizes: $500, $250, $150

12. Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest

This essay contest welcomes you to submit outstanding personal essays. All entries will be considered for publication in The New Quarterly and the organizers will pay an honorarium of $250 upon publication.

Location: Canada

Entry fee: $40

Closing date: 28 March 2024 

13. PFD Queer Fiction Prize back for 2024

Peters Fraser + Dunlop, a London-based literary agency, has organized this book writing contest to support emerging queer writers. The submissions do not have to be on LGBTQIA+ experiences as long as the author identifies as such.

Categories: Adult and YA/children’s fiction

Word count: Three chapters and a synopsis

Prize: Agency representation

14. 2024 Airlie Prize  

Airlie Press has organized this poetry contest to award one book of poetry with publication. The editors at Airlie Press, previous winners, and guest readers will form the panel of judges. Translated works are not eligible.

Word count: 48–90 pages

15. The 2024 Chapter One Prize for Novelists  

Gutsy Great Novelist has organized this novel writing competition to award three novelists writing in any genre. They have some strict submission guidelines, so make sure you go through them before submitting your entry!

Word count: The first chapter

Prizes: $1,000, $500, $250

16. The Hazel Rowley Prize

This contest awards the best book proposal by a first-time biographer. Along with the cash prize, the winner receives agent exposure and publicity for the project through the Biographers International Organization website and newsletter.

Word count: 20 pages

17. Raz-Shumaker Book Prize  

This book writing contest awards one poetry and one short story collection with publication by the University of Nebraska Press. Poets and writers are free to enter both contests. Self-published books are not eligible for this contest.

Word count: At least 50 pages for poetry; at least 150 pages for fiction

Prizes: $3,000 per category

Closing date: 15 March 2024

18. Rubery Book Awards  

This book writing competition is for indie writers, self-published authors, and writers who have published with independent presses. The categories for the contest are decided after all submissions have been collected.

Prizes: £2,000, some prizes of £200

Entry fee: £45 

Mixed writing contests

19. wild women contest  .

Open to poets and writers of all gender identities, this writing competition only requires entries to celebrate the “wild woman spirit”. All submissions will be considered for publication in TulipTree Review and all collaborators will be paid $50. 

Word count: 5 pages for poetry; 10,000 words for prose

Prizes: $1,000

Closing date: 08 March 2024

20. The Screenwriting Challenge

One of the more interesting writing competitions in 2024, this contest randomly assigns you a genre for round one. The top five from each genre group move on to round two, from which the top three move on to round three. Go check it out!

Word count: 12 pages for round 1

Prizes: $4,500, $1,750, $1,000, $500, $350, $250, $225, $200, $175, $150

Entry fee: $55

Contest duration: 15–23 March 2024 

21. The 2024 Perkoff Prize  

The Missouri Review has organized this poetry, short story, and essay contest to recognize emerging poets and writers. You may submit your entry online or via post. The entry fee includes a one-year subscription to the magazine.

Categories: Poetry, short story, and essay

Word count: 10 pages for poetry; 8,500 words for a short story and an essay

Prizes: $1,000 per category

22. The Hope Prize

This short story and essay contest offers anthology publication to the winners and some shortlisted writers. The royalties from the anthology will be donated to Beyond Blue, an Australian mental health charity.

Categories: Short story and essay

Theme: Hope

Prize: 10,000 AUD, 2,000 AUD, 1,000 AUD

Entry fee: 22 AUD

Closing date: 22 March 2024 

23. Seasons Writing Competition 2024  

This writing contest awards the best pieces of poetry and fiction from the submitted entries and no category prizes are awarded. All shortlisted poets and writers will be published in a contest anthology!

Categories: Poetry, short story, flash fiction, script

Theme: Light and Shadow

Word count: 2,500 words for a short story; 1,000 words for flash fiction

Prizes: 500 AUD, 400 AUD, 300 AUD, 200 AUD, some prizes of 100 AUD

Entry fee: 5 AUD

As if to make up for March, April features a ton of short story writing contests but only two poetry competitions. As always, essay writing contests are few and far between. Don’t worry though, we’ll keep adding to this list every month!

1. Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest [Free Writing Contest!]

Unique among free poetry contests, this competition invites you to submit one humorous poem. The winner will receive a Duotrope gift certificate and the top 13 entries will be published online. Both unpublished and previously published works are eligible!

Word count: 250 lines

Prizes: $2,000, $500, $250, 10 prizes of $100

Closing date: 01 April 2024

2. Nature and Place Poetry Competition 2024  

The Rialto has organized this poetry contest, inviting poets to dwell on any aspect of nature and place. While judging, Zaffar Kunial will interpret these terms widely. All longlisted entries will be published on The Rialto website.

Entry fee: £7

3. Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize 2024  

The grand prize winner of this short story competition gets a week’s residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, literary feedback, and agent consultation. The contest offers 40 free entries and 60 half-priced entries!

Prizes: €2,000, 2 prizes of €1,000

Entry fee: €20

Closing date: 14 April 2024

4. Purorrelato 2024 Micro-Story Contest [Free Writing Contest!]

Casa África has organized this micro story writing contest to encourage writers to write about Africa in newer ways. The micro story must relate to Africa in some way and may be written in Spanish, English, French, or Portuguese.

Word count: 1,500 characters

Prizes: €750, €375, €225

Closing date: 16 April 2024 

5. 2024 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize

One of the world’s leading short story contests, the Jolley Prize is in its fifteenth year. The three winning stories will be published in the August or September 2024 issue of the Australian Book Review .

Prizes: 6,000 AUD, 4,000 AUD, 2,500 AUD

Entry fee: 30 AUD

Closing date: 22 April 2024 

6. SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction

This flash fiction contest has been running twice yearly since 2018. The grand prize winner is automatically nominated for The Best Small Fiction, The Pushcart, Best of the Net, and other contests.

Prizes: 2,500, $1,000, $500, some prizes of $100.

Closing date: 30 April 2024 

7. Tadpole Press 100-Word Writing Contest

This short story competition challenges you to pack a punch in 100 words. The second runner-up wins a writing coaching package valued at $450 and the third, a developmental and diversity editing package valued at $250.

Prizes: $2,000 and others

8. The Creative Writing NZ Short Story Prize 2024  

This short story contest accepts only online entries. Lucie Brownlee is the guest judge this year. The winner and runners-up receive a free online course and publication on the Creative Writing NZ website.

Location: New Zealand

Word count: 3,000

Prizes: $1,000, 2 prizes of $200

9. Short Story Competition  

Organized by Cranked Anvil Press, this quarterly short story competition welcomes all genres and themes. The winning entries will be published online, and all longlisted entries will be considered for eventual anthology publication.

Word count: 1,500

Prizes: £100, £50

Closing date: 30 April 2024  

10. Los Angeles NaNo Anthology

This free short story contest is a golden opportunity for writers worldwide. Writers must submit a story revolving around the theme “Utopia- or is it?” and the prompt “You must include something/someone that gets stuck”.  The winning entries will be published in the Los Angeles NaNo Anthology’s 10th edition “Trouble in Paradise”.

Wordcount: 4,000

Closing date: 30 April 2024

11. Terry Tempest Williams Creative Nonfiction Prize

North American Review has organized this essay contest to offer publication to the winners and honorable mentions. The organizers welcome “the lyric essay, the hermit crab essay, the braided essay, the memoir, the personal essay, literary journalism, and everything in between.” 

Word count: 500–10,000

Entry fee: $23

Closing date: 02 April 2024

Book writing competitions 2024

12. self-published book awards  .

This book writing contest only accepts self-published books that are printed and bound. If you’ve published an eBook, there’s still time enough to print your book through self-publishing services ! The contest accepts entries in seven categories.

Prizes: $10,000, 7 prizes of $1,000

Entry fee: $100

13. First Pages Prize   

This book writing contest seeks to support un-agented writers. The top three winners in both categories receive a developmental mentorship and agent consultation via Zoom. Edwidge Danticat will judge both categories. 

Categories: Fiction and creative nonfiction

Word count: 1,250 (First five pages of your book)

Prizes: $2,000, $1,500, $1000 per category

Closing date: 10 April 2024

14. Jonathan Holden Poetry Chapbook Contest

This poetry competition is open to poets who haven’t yet published a full-length work of poetry. Self-published books are not eligible. All participants receive an eBook copy of the winning chapbook.

Word count: 25 to 40 pages

Prize: $250 and 10 copies of the printed chapbook

Closing date: 10 April 2024 

15. Nimrod Literary Awards  

All shortlisted poets and writers for this writing competition will be published and offered a standard publishing rate of $10/page. Poets may submit one long poem or a few short poems within the page limit.

Categories: Poetry and fiction (short story or self-contained novel excerpt)

Word count: 3–10 pages of poetry; 7,500 words for fiction

Prizes: $2,000 and $1,000 per category

Entry fee: $20 

16. Mairtin Crawford Award 

This writing contest is for poets and writers “working towards their first full collection of poetry, short stories, or a novel.” Both published and unpublished writers are welcome to enter, but they must not have published full-length works.

Word count: 3–5 poems for poetry; 2,500 for short story

Prizes: £500, 2 prizes of £250 per category

17. F(r)iction Contests

This is essentially four writing competitions rolled into one. Wole Talabi, Sherrie Flick, C. S. E. Cooney, and Marin Sardy form the panel of judges. All submissions are considered for publication!

Categories: Poetry, short story, flash fiction, and essay

Word count: 3 pages for poetry, 1,001–7,500 for short story; 1,000 for flash fiction; 6,500 for essay

Prizes: $300 for poetry, $1,000 for short story, $300 for flash fiction, $500 for essay 

Entry fee: $10 for poetry and flash fiction, $15 for a short story and essay

As is the trend now, May has made up for the dearth of poetry competitions in April. While there are few short story contests this month, we did find two essay contests. Surprisingly, May features a wealth of book writing competitions!

1. International Poetry Contest

Atlanta Review invites you to submit five poems of any length in your entry. Aside from the grand prize winner, 20 poets will be published in the contest issue and 30 more will receive honorable mentions. All 50 poets will receive awards and a free copy of the contest issue.

Entry fee: $15 (for five poems)

Closing date: 01 May 2024 

2. The Letter Review Prize for Poetry [Free Contest!]

The organizers of this poetry competition welcome poems of all kinds, with no restrictions on subject or style. Two to four winners are announced, among whom the cash prize is equally distributed. 

Word count: 70 lines

Prize: $1,000 (total prize pool)

Closing date: 03 May 2024

3. Montreal International Poetry Prize  

One of the most well-known poetry contests, the Montreal Prize awards one poet each year. The judges will shortlist 60 poems, all of which will be published in The Montreal Poetry Prize Anthology . Translations aren’t allowed unless a poet translates their own work.

Prize: $20,000 CAD

Closing date: 15 May 2024

4. Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize  

This poetry competition awards one poem with publication in The American Poetry Review . All entrants receive a copy of the magazine. You may submit up to three poems, as long as the entire entry is no larger than 3 pages.

Word count: 3 pages

5. James Laughlin Award [Free Writing Contest!]

This poetry competition is for a second book of poetry, to be published in the coming year. Publishers that have previously published at least four books of poetry are welcome to enter. Translated books are not eligible.

Location: US

Prize: $5,000 

6. Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize

This contest awards a book of poetry published in a standard edition in the previous year (2023). Self-published and translated books are not eligible. Publishers may submit more than one title.

Prize: $25,000 

Entry fee: $75

7. Guy Owen Prize  

Southern Poetry Review has organized this poetry contest, inviting you to submit three to five poems. You may submit online or via post, and the entry fee includes a one-year subscription to the magazine.

Closing date: 31 May 2024

Short story competitions 2024

8. the letter review prize for short fiction [free contest].

This short story writing contest will shortlist 20 entries, of which 2–4 will be announced as the winners. All entries will be considered for publication, future anthologies, and submission to the Pushcart Prize!

9. Twist in the Tale Writing Competition  

This interesting short story contest will assign you a genre, a “twisted” subgenre, and an event/character/object/subject. The contest also features weekly challenges and monthly mini-contests. It’s a community experience like no other!

Prizes: $1,200, $400, $250, $150, $100, and others

Entry fee: $30

Closing date: 13–19 May 2024 (6-day contest)

10. WOW! Flash Fiction Contest  

One of the WOW! 2024 writing contests, this is an open-prompt competition, open to women worldwide. You can opt for a critique of your writing at a $20 entry fee. The contest features only 300 entries, so hurry up and submit yours!

Prizes: $400, $300, $200, and others

11. The Letter Review Prize for Nonfiction [Free essay writing contest!]

One of the few essay contests in May 2024, this competition is open to essayists worldwide. Entries are judged blind and all entrants receive judges’ feedback on their essays. If you’d like to enter more than one essay, the fee is $5 per additional entry.

12. James A. Winn Prize in Nonfiction  

Michigan Quarterly Review has organized this essay contest in memory of English Professor James A. Winn. Ten shortlisted entries will be presented to Judge Elizabeth Goodenough. All entries will be considered for publication.

Word count: 1,500–7,000

Prize: $1,500

13. Cheshire Novel Prize  

This international book writing competition invites un-agented authors to submit an excerpt and a 500-word synopsis of their novel. Shortlisted authors will be asked to submit their entire manuscript. Self-published writers are welcome to enter!

Word count: The first 5,000 words

Prize: £1500

Entry fee: £29

Closing date: 01 May 2024

14. The Backwaters Prize in Poetry   

This poetry book contest invites you to submit a collection of poems or a single long poem. The Backwaters Press will offer publication to both winning manuscripts. Only collections with 95% unpublished material are eligible to enter.

Word count: 60–85 pages

Prizes: $2,000, $1,000

Entry fee: $32

15. The Letter Review Prize for Unpublished Books [Free Contest!]

The Letter Review invites poets and writers to submit excerpts of their unpublished books. The organizers may request entire manuscripts only from the winners. Make sure to include a one-page synopsis/abstract and a 200-word bibliography!

Word count: The first 15 pages for poetry; the first 5,000 words for prose

16. Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize  

This international book writing contest is open to literary and mainstream fiction, including science fiction. Short story collections are allowed. Self-published books are allowed, as long as they haven’t sold more than 200 copies!

Word count: Minimum 22,000

Prize: Publication with Leapfrog Press and $150 for all finalists

Entry fee: $35

Closing date: 05 May 2024

17. The Fugere Book Prize for Finely Crafted Novellas

Regent House Publishing has organized this novella competition with its panel of editors as the judges. English translations of novellas written in other languages are allowed. Make sure not to send artwork or photographs, however!

Word count: 17,000–40,000

18. Goldfinch Novel Award 2024

This novel contest invites manuscripts written for adults or young adults. Submit an excerpt of your novel with a one-page synopsis. Along with the cash prize, the winner gets a free Goldfinch membership and a Creative Writing Course worth £150.

Location: UK and Ireland

19. Changing Light Prize for a Novel-in-Verse [Free Contest!]

This interesting book writing contest combines the forms of poetry and novel. Along with the cash prize, the winner receives 20 copies of their book and a standard royalty contract. The winning manuscript will be published in three formats: trade paper, eBook, and Kindle.

Word count: 90–160 pages

Prize: $500

Closing date: 25 May 2024 

20. The Untold Tales Youth Writing Competition [Free Contest!]

The organizers of this writing contest invite poets and writers under 25 years of age to submit entries in English or Spanish. The writing should be “focused on a true, fact-based untold tale celebrating and/or illuminating the importance of human rights.”

Categories: Poetry, short story, short narrative

Word count: 500 words for poetry; 1,000 words for prose

Prizes: $100 per category

21. Leeway Transformation Award [Free Contest!]

Open to women, transgender, and gender-nonconforming artists, poets, and writers, this award isn’t project-based. Rather, it seeks to honor a creative based in Greater Philadelphia who has been working for social change.

Categories: Various

Prizes: $15,000

22. Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest  

This short story and essay contest offers online publication to 12 outstanding writers of fiction and nonfiction. Both published and unpublished entries are welcome. The top two winners receive two-year gift certificates from Duotrope.

Word count: 6,000

Prizes: $3,500 per category and 10 prizes of $300

Entry fee: $22

23. Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition 2024

This writing contest features nine categories, awarding almost 500 poets and writers with various prizes. As if that wasn’t enough, the names and titles of honorable mentions will be listed on the Writer’s Digest website. Quite the exposure for new writers!

Word count: 40 lines for poetry; 4,000 words for a short story, and 2,000 for an essay 

Prizes: $5,000, 9 prizes of $1,000, $500, $250, $100, and $50 (per category)

Entry fee: $20 for poetry; $30 for manuscript

Closing date: 06 May 2024

24. The Bridport Prize 2024  

This esteemed writing competition offers anthology publication, agent consultation, and editorial advice to the winning poets and writers. It also offers other prizes such as the Young Writer Award and the Dorset Award.

Categories: Poetry, short story, flash fiction, novel, memoir

a. Poetry Contest 2024

Word count: 42 lines

Prizes: £5,000, £1,000, £500

Entry fee: £12

b. Short Story Contest 2024

Entry fee: £14

c. Flash Fiction Contest 2024

Word count: 250

d. Novel Contest 2024

Word count: 5,000–8,000

Prizes: £1,500, £750, 3 prizes of £150

Entry fee: £24

e. Memoir Contest 2024

June 2024 

June is bursting with creative opportunities! From free to paid, there are exciting poetry, short story, and book-writing contests waiting for you. For essay writing enthusiasts, we also managed to find four amazing essay writing contests.

Poetry contests 2024 

1. boulevard magazine poetry contest .

This poetry contest invites writers to submit a group of 3 poems. The winning group of poems will be published in the Boulevard magazine. 

Prize: $1000

Entry fee: $18 

Closing date: 1 June 2024 

2. Dan Veach Prize [Free Writing Contest!] 

Organized by the Atlanta Review magazine, this is a free poetry contest. Currently accepting submissions from college students aged 18-23, the winning entries will be published in the Atlanta Review’s Fall/Winter issue. 

Prize: $100 

3. Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards [Free Writing Contest!] 

This free contest welcomes writers to submit a maximum of 2 unpublished haiku poems. Open to haiku poets globally, winners will receive a cash prize and a copy of Red Leaves: Selected Haiku of Peggy Lyles . 

Prize: $200, $100, $50 

4. McLellan Poetry Prize

This contest invites writers to submit any number of poems on their choice of subject or theme. The poems must be unpublished and not accepted for publication. 

Word count: 90 lines 

Prize: £1000, £250 

Entry fee: £7 for the 1st poem, £5 per poem for 2nd and subsequent poems

Closing date: 2 June 2024 

5. Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year 

Allowing poets to submit poems on any subject, 35 poems will be chosen from all the submitted entries. The shortlisted poems will feature in the Poet of the Year Anthology . 

Word count: 60 lines 

Prize: £200, £100, £50 

Entry fee: £5 per poem 

Closing date: 7 June 2024 

6. Poetry London prize

Judged by Hannah Sullivan, this contest is open to poets anywhere in the world. The submitted poems must be in English. Winning entries will be published in the Poetry London magazine. 

Prize: £5000, £2000, £1000

Entry fee: £5 for Poetry London magazine subscribers, £10 for non-subscribers 

Closing date: 30 June 2024 

Short story competitions 2024 

7. defenestrationism contest.

This competition is looking for stories that “include an incident of Defenestrationism– the art, or -ism, of throwing people out of windows”. This need not be literal and the incident can be sudden, a violent shift or change. Zombie fiction is discouraged. 

Prize: $75, $30, $30 

Closing date: 2 June 2024

8. Imagine 2200

Organized by the American magazine Grist , this contest is looking for “stories rooted in creative climate solutions”. Anyone who is 18 years or older can participate. 

Word count: 2,500-5,000 words

Prize: $3000, $2000, $1000, 9 prizes of $300 

Closing date: 24 June 2024 

9. Moth Short Story Prize

Open to any writer over 16 years of age, the winning entries will be published in the Irish Times . Prizes also include a trip to Circle de Misse in France plus open travel stipend! This contest will be judged by Louise Kennedy. 

Prize: £3000, Circle de Misse trip, £1000 

Entry fee: £15 per entry 

10. Salamander 2024 Fiction Contest

Accepting unpublished stories from writers worldwide, the winning entries will be published in the Salamander magazine. The story submitted must not exceed 30 double-spaced pages in 12-point font. 

Prize: $1000, $500 

Entry fee: $15 

11. FFF Competition 

This flash fiction contest invites writers to submit stories on any theme. The winning entries will be published on the Free Flash Fiction website. 

Wordcount: 100-300 words 

Prize: £150, 2 prizes of £50, 3 prizes of £40 

Entry fee: £3.95, £2.55 

Closing date: 23 June 2024 

Essay contests 2024 

12. goi peace foundation international essay contest .

Open to anyone who is 25 years old or under, this essay writing contest only accepts one entry per person. Participants can submit their essays written in English, Japanese, or French. 

Theme: Experience of overcoming conflict 

Word count: 700 words 

Prize: 100,000 yen, 50,000 yen

Closing date: 15 June  2024 

13. Solid essay contest 

An amazing opportunity for new writers, the winning essay entries will receive a scholarship. To participate, writers will have to write an essay on technology’s role in shaping the future or select the topic of climate change. 

Word count: 600-800 

Prize: $1000, $700, $500

Closing date: 19 June 2024

14. Hubert Butler Essay prize 

To participate in this essay writing contest, the author must be above 18 and should be a European or UK citizen. The subject for the essay is: “With narratives of conflict currently distorted by misinformation and the substitution of memory for history, what are the chances of reconciliation?” 

Wordcount: 3,000

Prize: 1 prize of €1,500, 2 prizes of €500 

Closing date: 28 June 2024 

15. Fountain Essay Contest 2024 

Open to writers worldwide, interested participants can submit 1 entry per person.  While the Chicago Manual of Style is preferred for essay writing, other styles can also be used. 

Theme: Where is home? 

Wordcount: 1500-2000

Prizes: $1000, $500, $300, 2 prizes of $150 

Book writing contests 2024 

16. the novel prize .

This contest rewards unpublished fictional works that “explore and expand the possibilities of the form, and are innovative and imaginative”. The winning entries will be published in North America, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Prize: $10,000

17. Chicken House Prize 

This contest invites writers to submit a “complete fiction manuscript of any genre for children aged 7 up to YA”. The winner will receive a publishing contract plus an offer of representation. 

Prize: £7,500 

18. Creative Arts Book Award 

This contest allows writers to submit original works of fiction or non-fiction. Poetry books cannot be submitted to this contest. 

Prize: $25,000, 2 prizes of $250 

19. Towson prize for literature 

Founded in 1979, this contest accepts manuscript submissions of poetry, fiction, drama, and imaginative non-fiction. Open to Maryland (USA) writers only, the manuscript must be published 3 years before the time of nomination or scheduled for publication within the year it’s nominated.  

Prize: $1,000 

Closing date: 15 June 2024 

20. Scotiabank Giller Prize 

To be eligible to participate in this contest, the writer must be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada. The book should be a first-edition novel, graphic novel, or collection of short stories published between 1st May and 30th June 2024. Unfortunately, self-published books aren’t eligible. 

Prize: $10,000, shortlisted translation ($7,000-author, $3,000-translator), (translation wins- $70,000-author, $30,000- translator) 

Closing date: 21 June 2024 

21. Atwood Gibson Prize 

Organized to encourage Canadian writers, this contest awards the best Canadian novel or short story collection. Funded by the Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie, the authors receive a generous cash prize. 

Prize: $60,000, $5000  

Closing date: 25 June 2024 

22. Drue Heinz Literature Prize 

Open to writers all over the world, participants can submit a manuscript of short stories, 2 or more novellas, or a combination of novellas and short stories. Winning entries will be published by the University of Pittsburgh Press and receive support in book promotion. 

Prize: $15000

Mixed writing contests 2024 

23. arizona authors association literary contest  .

Arizona Literary Magazine has organized this poetry, short story, and essay writing competition in three categories and several subcategories. The 24 winning poets and writers will be published in the magazine.

Location: US and Canada

Categories: Unpublished poetry, short story, essay, novel; Published books of fiction and nonfiction, others

Word count: 50 lines for poetry; 5,000 for short stories and essays; 25 pages for a novel

Prizes: $500, 3 prizes of $200, $100, $75, $50 each , 11 prizes of $25

Entry fee: $35 for unpublished and $45 for published poets and writers

Closing date: 01 June 2024

24. Questions Writing Prize 

This contest welcomes writers to submit fiction/non-fiction works on any topic. Only young Australian writers, aged 18-30 years are open to participate in this contest. 

Prize: $3000

Word count: 1,500-2000

25. Manitoba poetry and short story contest 

Interested participants can either submit 3 poems or 1 story to participate in this exciting contest. The winning entries will be published on the Icelandic Festival of Manitoba website and winners will be given cash prizes. 

Prize: $125, $75, $50 

26. International Wizard of Oz Club Contest 

This contest has 3 categories: fiction, non-fiction, and art. All the entries must be about the land of Oz created by Frank Baum in the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz . 

Prize: $100, $50 

Word count: 10,000 words 

27. Wells Festival of Literature 

Organized as a part of the Wells Festival of Literature, this contest awards amazing fictional works of poetry and prose. The winners will receive amazing cash prizes and will be invited to the celebratory event of the festival on 25th October 2024. 

Categories: Open Poetry, Short Story, Book for Children, Young Poets 

a. Wells Festival Open Poetry Contest 2024 

The poems can be on any subject. Each poem submitted must not exceed more than 35 lines of text in length. Multiple submissions are allowed. 

Prize: £1000, £500, £250 

Entry fee: £6

b. Wells Festival Short Story Contest 2024 

You can submit 1 or more short stories on any topic of your choice to participate in this content. Make sure to mention the story’s word count on the first page! 

Prize: £750, £300, £200, £100 

Entry fee: £6 per story 

c. Wells Festival Book for Children Contest 

This competition requires you to submit either the first two chapters or the first 20 pages of the children’s book you’ve written. You also need to attach your book’s synopsis. 

Prize: £750. £300, £200 

Entry fee: £6 per book 

d. Young Poets Contest 

Open to writers aged 16-22 years old, this contest allows participants to submit poems on any subject. The poems must not exceed 35 lines of length. 

Prize: £200, £150, £100 

Entry fee: £3 per poem 

28. Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction 

This contest rewards the best Canadian non-fiction of the year. Participants can submit a biography, memoir, or non-fiction book of essays, commentary, and criticism. 

Prize: $75,000, $5,000

29. Writers of the future contest

Writers who have not professionally published “a novel or short novel, or more than one novelette, or more than three short stories, in any medium” are eligible to participate. Manuscripts belonging to the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and dark fantasy are also accepted. 

Prize: $5000, $1000, $750, $500

July 2024 

July is the perfect month to let your creativity soar! We’ve found exciting poetry, book, and short story competitions for you! As always, essay writing competitions are scarce. Don’t worry though, we’ll keep adding to this list every month! 

1. Local Word Poetry Prize

In its second year, this contest is open to Australian residents who are 16 years or older. The winning entry will be  published on the Geelong Regional Library Corporation (GRLC) website. 

Wordcount: 75 lines 

Prize: $2,000, $250 

Entry fee: Free! 

Closing date: 1 July 2024 

2. Ledbury Poetry Competition 2024 

A part of the Poetry Ledbury Festival, this contest is open to writers who are 18 years or older. Judged by Maya C. Popa this year, participants can submit unpublished poems up to 40 lines. 

Location: UK 

Prize: £1000, £500, £259 

Entry fee: £6 

Closing date: 8 July 2024 

3. Vice Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize 

Interested participants can submit 1-6 poems. 60 longlisted poems will be published in an online prize anthology. 

Prize: AUD$15,000, AUD$5,000, AUD$5,000

Entry fee: $AUD25 

Closing date: 14 July 2024 

4. Rattle poetry prize

Welcoming writers worldwide to participate, this contest accepts poems primarily written in English. Participants can send 4 poems per entry on any topic of their choice. 

Prize: 1 prize of $15000, 1 prize of $5000, 10 prizes of $500 

Entry fee: $30 

Closing date: 15 July 2024 

5. The Tenth Gate Prize  

To participate, writers must have two previously published full-length poetry collections. The winning entry will be published. 

Entry fee: $25 

6. Muriel Craft Bailey Poetry Contest  

Judged by Charles Rafferty, this contest accepts original, unpublished submissions. The winning entry will be published in the Comstock Review . 

Prize: $1.000, $250, $100 

Entry fee: $27.50 (per submission) 

7. Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize 

Judged by Kim Addonizio, this contest is open to writers worldwide. The top 5 finalists’ entries will be published in the Red Wheelbarrow Literary Magazine . 

Prize: $1,000, $500, $250

Closing date: 31 July 2024 

8. Winchester Poetry Prize 2024 

Judged by Clare Shaw, this contest encourages poets worldwide to submit poems on any subject. The results will be announced on 5th October 2024 and winning entries will be published in a competition anthology. 

Wordcount: Not more than 40 lines 

Entry fee: £6 for the 1st poem, £5 for each subsequent poem

9. Experimental Poetry Contest 

This exciting contest allows participants to submit poems of any form and style. The winning entry will be published in the Connecticut River Review. 

10. HWA Short Story Award

To participate in this contest, writers must submit a story that is set atleast 35 years in the past. The stories of 6 shortlisted writers will be published together in an eBook. 

Wordcount: 3,500 words 

Prize:  £500 

Closing date: 1 July 2024. 

11. HG Wells short story competition 

Free for writers 21 years or under, this contest accepts original, unpublished short stories. The winning entries will be published in the HG Wells Short Story Competition Anthology. 

Theme: The Fool 

Prize: £1,000

Entry fee: £10 for writers over 21, £5 for writers with a student ID 

12. The Paul Cave Prize for Teenage Fiction 

Organized to encourage teenage fiction, writers can submit stories about a murder mystery, science, technology, sports, etc. Winning entries will be published on the contest website and in the Paul Cave Prize for Teenage Fiction 2024 book. 

Prize: £100, £50, £25

Entry fee: £30 (1 entry), £40 (2 entries)

Closing date: 30 July 2024 

13. Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition 2024

Funded by the Munster Literature Centre, this contest invites writers of all nationalities to submit their stories. The selected stories will be published in the literary journal Southward. 

Word count: 3,000 

Prize: €2,000, €500, €250 

14. Inspiring Fiction Contest 

This contest is seeking submissions for “thrilling and thought-provoking short stories”. To participate, writers will have to explore the theme of freedom through genres like crime, fantasy, and speculative fiction. 

Wordcount: 1000-2500

Prize: £100

15. Fiction Factory Competition 

This competition welcomes all stories except those related to children and young adult fiction. Stories must be submitted in a MS Word document. 

Wordcount: 3000 words

Prize: £500

Entry fee: £7.00 (1 story), £13 (2 stories), £18 (3 stories) 

16. Anthology Short Story Competition 

Open to writers worldwide, this short story competition welcomes submissions on any theme or style. The winning entry will be published in the future issue of Anthology. 

Word count: 1,500 words

Prize: €1000, €250, €150 

Entry fee: €18 per entry 

17. Forum Essay Prize 2024 

This contest is seeking submissions of “bold, visionary, and persuasive essays”. The winning essay will be published in the issue of Forum for Modern Language Studies. 

Theme: The Art(s) of Delight 

Wordcount: 6000-8000 words 

Prize: £500, £200

18. Wasifiri New Writing Prize 

This contest is open to all writers who have not yet published a book. The winning entries will be published in the Wasafiri magazine. 

Prize: £1000

Entry fee: £12 (single entry), £16 (double entry) 

19. The St. Laurence Book Award 

This contest rewards an unpublished collection of poetry or prose. The winning entry will be published and the author will receive 10 copies. 

Prize: $1.000

Entry fee: $14 

20. Press 53 Award 

Rewarding “outstanding, unpublished collection of poems”, this contest welcomes submissions of writers 18 years or older. The participant must reside in the United States. 

21. Kingsley Tuft Poetry Award

Interested participants must submit their first book of poetry published between 1st July 2023 and 30th June 2024. Make sure to mail 8 copies of the book and the entry form before the deadline! 

Prize: $100,000

22. North Street Book Prize 

To participate, writers must submit self-published/hybrid published books. Winning writers will also receive a $500 credit at the self-publishing platform BookBaby and book cover consultation from Laura Duffy Design. 

Categories: mainstream/literary fiction, romance, mystery, thriller, young adult, science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, poetry, children’s picture books, middle grade, art books, creative non fiction, graphic novels, and memoirs 

Prize: $10,000, $1,000, $300

Entry fee: $79 per book 

23. Marystina Santiestevan First Book Prize 

Every year, this contest awards a poet who hasn’t yet published a full-length poetry book. Interested poets must submit an unpublished manuscript of 48-90 pages. 

Prize: $1,500  

Closing date: 7 July 2024 

24. Petrichor Prize 

Open to writers 18 years or older, participants can submit more than 1 manuscript. The winning entry will be published by Regal House Publishing. 

25. Bellevue Literary Review Prize 

This contest is currently accepting submissions in 3 categories: poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Simultaneous submissions are accepted. 

Wordcount: 5,000 words 

Prize: $75 (poetry), $150 (prose) 

Entry fee: $5 

26. Robert and Adele Schiff Awards 

Simultaneous submissions of fiction and non-fiction works are accepted by this contest. Writers can submit 8 pages of poetry (5 poems), a 10,000-word fictional work or a 5,000-word work of literary non-fiction. 

Prize: $1,000 (per category) 

27. Work-in-Progress Contest 

This contest supports writers to complete a book of fiction, nonfiction or poetry. Winning writers will also get guidance from editors and their interview will be featured in Unleash Lit . 

Prize: $500 

August 2024 

Ready to unleash your creativity and showcase your talent? We’ve found amazing poetry, book, and short story competitions for you. Although essay writing competitions are still less, we’ll continue updating this list throughout the month. 

1. Cantor Prize

Judged by Juan Morales, this contest is open to Colarodo writers and global writers submitting a poem about Colorado. Previously published poems and simultaneous submissions are allowed. 

Prize: $1,000, $100 each (5 prizes) 

Entry fee: 1 poem ($10), 2 poems ($20), 3 poems, (25), 4 poems ($35) 

Deadline: 31 August 2024 

2. Oxford Poetry Prize 

Judged by Rachel Long, this contest rewards a single poem written in English. The winning poems will also receive the opportunity for publication in Oxford Poetry . 

Wordcount: 50 lines (maximum) 

Prize: £1000, £200, £100

Closing date: 31 August 2024 

3. Off the Grid Poetry Prize 

Open to poets 60 years or older, manuscripts submitted for this contest must be of atleast 50 pages. The winner will also receive additional services of book promotion, book printing, audiobook creation. 

4. Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize

Open to writers residing in the United States, entrants need to be 18 or older to participate. The winning entry will secure publication by Ex Ophidia Press. 

5. Gemini Flash Fiction Prize

This flash fiction contest invites writers to submit literary works on any subject and style. The maximum word-limit is 1,000 words. 

Prize: $1,000, $100, $25 each (4 honorable mentions) 

Entry fee: $8 

Essay writing contests 2024 

6. creative non fiction essay contest .

Judged by Safiya Sinclair, this contest seeks submissions of creative, non-fiction essays of 5,000 words. Every entry must include a cover letter, an essay manuscript, and the entry fee. 

Closing date: 2 August 2024 

7. Aspen Words Literary Prize 

This prize is annually given to “an influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue”. Welcoming writers worldwide, works about violence, religion, race, immigration, or any other social issues are eligible for submission. 

Prize: $35,000

Entry fee: $105 per book 

Closing date: 7 August 2024 

8. Book of the Year Awards Contest 

In its tenth year, this contest welcomes authors to submit fictional/non-fictional books. The entries must be already published and available for sale/presale on Amazon or other online publishing platforms. 

Prize: $2,500, $1,000, $500, $250 

Entry fee: $49 (1st category), $35 (additional category) 

Closing date: 16 August 2024 

9. Stories That Need to Be Told 

This contest welcomes submissions of poetry and prose works. Five additional prizes will be given to stories related to humor, passion, depth, or any form of love. 

Wordcount: Poetry (5 pages per poem), prose (10,000 words) 

Prize: $1,000, $200 each (5 prizes), $200 (wild card) 

Entry fee: $20 per entry 

Closing date: 9 August 2024 

Other writing contests 2024

We’ll keep updating this list as the new year comes closer and more writing competitions in 2024 go live. Keep an eye out on this space and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss an update!

1. Personal Essay Awards

Writer’s Digest welcomes all essayists to submit their best work. The top ten entries will be published in the magazine’s May/June 2024 issue. The grand prize winner also receives a paid trip to the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference!

Prizes: $2,500, $1,000, $500, 7 prizes of $100 

Entry fee: $25 (early bird deadline)/ $30 

Closing date: 03 September 2024 (early bird deadline)/01 October 2024

2. Litmag’s Emily Dickinson Award 

To participate, writers can submit 1-3 poems. The winning entry will secure publication in LitMag and receive an agency review by Amy Bishop-Wycisk. 

Prize: $1,500, $100 each (for 3 finalists) 

Closing date: 1 October 2024 

3. Edwin Markham Poetry Prize 

This contest accepts unpublished works in any form and style. Writers can submit upto 5 poems per submission. Make sure to include a 50-word bio with your submission! 

Closing date: 1 November 2024 

4. James Hearst Poetry Prize  

To participate, writers can submit 5 poems per submission. All winning entries, runner-ups, honorable mentions, and finalists will be offered publication in North American Review’s spring issue. 

Entry fee: $23 

Closing date: 2 November 2024 

5. Servicescape Short Story Award 

This contest awards original works of short fiction and non-fiction. Writers can submit a story on any theme and genre. 

Word count: 5,000 or less

Closing date: 30 November 2024 

We’ll keep updating this list every month, adding more paid and free writing contests in 2024. If you’d like us to look for some specific types of contests, feel free to let us know in the comments! As providers of expert self-publishing services , it’s our duty to help you out and we take it very seriously!

Want to stick around and read more about writing? Here are some articles to begin with:

• What Is Show, Don’t Tell? (Meaning, Examples & 6 Tips)
• How to Write a Book Review (Meaning, Tips & Examples)

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is eligible to participate in writing contests, can i submit previously published work to writing contests, what genres are typically covered in free writing competitions, where can i get updates on the results of the contest, what are the submission guidelines for free writing contests.

Found this article helpful?

11 comments on “ Writing Contests 2024: Cash Prizes & Free Entries ”

Thank you for this list. I will try a few.

Please, keep me updated on single poetry contests. Because I have not written enough for a book as of yet!

We’ll keep updating the list.

i liked your list!

Greatly appreciated

This is a fantastic list! 🙂 What is the best way to submit a contest to the list?

Thanks Alex, You can check the contest submission guidelines on the website. Keep reading for the upcoming writing contests!

It is awesome!

Thank you for the list 😉 Great opportunity to get my feet wet; I will try a couple

Thank you to give opportunity to teenagers.

Cool paper true 👍

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Essay Writing Contests: The Ultimate List of 2024

Did you know that the very first recorded essay contest can be traced back to the early 16th century, initiated by none other than the renowned philosopher and essayist Michel de Montaigne? In 1580, Montaigne published his collection of essays titled 'Essais,' which not only marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of the essay as a literary form but also contained an implicit challenge to his readers. He encouraged them to engage with his ideas and respond by writing their own essays, essentially laying the groundwork for what we now recognize as essay contests.

Fast forward to the vibrant year of 2024, and this tradition of writing competitions has evolved into a global phenomenon, offering emerging writers from all walks of life a captivating platform to share their thoughts, emotions, and narratives with the world.

In this article, our essay writer will review essay writing contests, presenting you with an exclusive selection of the most promising opportunities for the year ahead. Each of these competitions not only provides a stage to demonstrate your writing prowess but also offers a unique avenue for personal growth, self-expression, and intellectual exploration, all while competing for impressive writing awards and well-deserved recognition.

Top Essay Writing Contests in 2024

If you enjoy expressing your thoughts and ideas through writing, you're in for a treat. Essay writing competitions in 2024 offer you a chance to do just that and win some great prizes in the process. We've put together a list of contests specially designed for students like you. These contests cover various interesting essay topics , giving you a unique opportunity to showcase your writing skills and potentially earn cash prizes or scholarships. So, let's jump right into these fantastic opportunities.

2024 International Literary Prize by Hammond House Publishing

The 2024 Writing Competition beckons writers with over £3000 in cash prizes, publication opportunities in anthologies, and a chance to participate in a televised Award Ceremony. Sponsored by the University Centre Grimsby, this annual contest, now in its eighth year, draws entries from approximately 30 countries worldwide. Entrants can vie for prizes across four categories, gaining exposure at the televised award ceremony and receiving expert feedback at the annual literary festival.

And if you're determined to learn how to overcome writer's block for this contest, we have a wealth of expert tips and strategies to guide you through the process!

Deadline: 30th September 2024

• 1st Prize: £1000
• 2nd Prize: £100
• 3rd Prize: £50

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International Voices in Creative Nonfiction Competition by Vine Leaves Press

Vine Leaves Press welcomes writers worldwide, prioritizing voices from marginalized communities such as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and individuals with chronic illnesses or disabilities, among others. Submissions, which must be in English and previously unpublished, are accepted from February 1, 2024, until July 1, 2024. Manuscripts can be either narrative (50,000 – 80,000 words) or experimental (at least 100 pages), adhering to specific formatting guidelines, including anonymity to ensure impartial judging. Each submission requires a $25 entry fee via Submittable, and multiple entries are allowed. Entries will be judged based on originality, creativity, writing quality, and adherence to genre, with finalists announced in October 2024, shortlisted in January 2025, and winners in March 2025.

Deadline: July 01, 2024

• The winner will receive a cash prize of $1000.
• Publication of the winning manuscript will occur in 2026 by Vine Leaves Press.
• Runners-up will also be considered for publication.

Solas Awards by Best Travel Writing

The Solas Awards, continuing a tradition since 1993, celebrate travel stories that inspire. They're looking for engaging tales that capture the essence of exploration, whether funny, enlightening, or adventurous. Winners may get published and join a community of fellow storytellers. Entries in essay, non-fiction, and travel genres are welcome with a $25 submission fee.

Deadline: September 21, 2024

• $1,000 Gold
• $750 Silver
• $500 Bronze

Vocal Challenges by Creatd

Vocal, in partnership with Voices in Minor (ViM), announces a creator-led challenge in celebration of International Women's Day, open to all Vocal creators. Participants are invited to write a 600-800 word piece about a woman who has inspired them for International Women's Day in the Year of the Dragon 2024. Submissions must adhere to specific length criteria and can be of any genre or format. Vocal will review entries and create a shortlist, from which ViM will select two co-grand prize winners and ten runners-up.

Deadline: Mar 12, 2024

• 2 Co-Grand Prizes: $200
• 10 Runners-up: $20

Cambridge Re:think Essay Competition 2024

The Re:think Essay Competition welcomes students aged 14 to 18 worldwide to participate in crafting essays under 2000 words, following MLA 8 citation style, with submissions undergoing plagiarism and AI checks. Essay prompts cover diverse themes, such as the role of women in STEM , provided by distinguished professors from prestigious institutions like Harvard, Brown, UC Berkeley, Cambridge, Oxford, and MIT. To maintain anonymity during review, submissions should be in PDF format without personal details.

Deadline : 10th May, 2024

• Gold: $150 cash, $500 CCIR scholarship, digital certificate, interview, Cambridge invite.
• Silver: $100 cash, $300 CCIR scholarship, digital certificate, interview, Cambridge invite.
• Bronze: $50 cash, $200 CCIR scholarship, digital certificate, interview, Cambridge invite.

The Hudson Prize by Black Lawrence Press

Each year, Black Lawrence Press presents The Hudson Prize, inviting submissions for an unpublished collection of poems or prose. This competition is open to writers at all stages of their careers, offering the winner book publication, a $1,000 cash prize, and ten copies of the published book. Entries are read blind by a panel of editors, requiring manuscripts to adhere to specific formatting guidelines, including pagination and font choice. Poetry manuscripts should be 45-95 pages, while prose manuscripts should range from 120-280 pages.

Deadline : March 31, 2024

• Top prize $1,000

Irene Adler Prize by Lucas Ackroyd

Introducing The Irene Adler Prize essay writing contest, offering a $1,000 US scholarship to the winner, with up to two $250 awards for honorable mentions. Open to women pursuing bachelor’s, master’s, or Ph.D. degrees in journalism, creative writing, or literature worldwide, regardless of age. Unlike previous years, this year's competition welcomes applicants from any country. The application period runs from January 30, 2024, to May 30, 2024, with no late submissions accepted. Each application requires a 500-word essay on one of five provided prompts and a completed entry form, both submitted via email.

Deadline : May 30, 2024

• 2x honorable mentions: $250

100 Word Writing Contest by Tadpole Press

With a doubled first-place prize of $2,000 USD, participants are invited from all corners of the globe, regardless of age, gender, or nationality. Pen names are accepted, and winning entries will be published under those names. Previously published pieces are also welcome, with no restrictions. Any genre is accepted, with the theme centered around creativity. Each entry must be 100 words or less, including the title.

Deadline : April 30, 2024

• 1st place: $2,000 USD.
• 2nd place: Writing coaching package valued at $450 USD.
• 3rd place: Developmental and diversity editing package valued at $250 USD.

African Diaspora Awards 2024 by Kinsman Avenue Publishing, Inc

The African Diaspora Award 2024 seeks original works from Afro-descendants, including short stories, flash fiction, essays, poetry, or visual art. Winners can earn up to $1000 USD and publication in Kinsman Quarterly and "Black Butterfly: Voices of the African Diaspora." Submissions reflecting cultural themes are due by June 30, 2024. Authors retain copyrights, and entrants must be 18 or older. No plagiarism is allowed, and Kinsman Quarterly employees cannot enter. Various genres are accepted with specific word count limits.

Deadline : June 30, 2024

• Grand Prize: $1000 cash and publication in Kinsman Quarterly & anthology.
• 1st Runner Up: $300 cash and publication 
• 2nd Runner Up: $200 cash and publication 
• 3rd Runner Up: $50 cash and publication
• Top 6 Finalists: $25 Amazon gift card and publication 
• 6 Honorary Mentions: Publication in Kinsman Quarterly & anthology.

Work-In-Progress (WIP) Contest by Unleash Press

The Unleash WIP Award 2024 offers $500, feedback, coaching, and a feature in Unleash Lit to help writers with their book projects in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. All writers can apply. So, if you're looking for resources like free Harvard online courses to hone your writing skills, consider entering this competition. Submissions of the first 25 pages and answers to questions are due by July 15, 2024. Multiple entries are okay, but follow the rules, especially keeping your submission anonymous. Unleash also welcomes previously self-published works.

Deadline : July 15, 2024

• Top prize: $500
• Additional prizes: Coaching, interview, and editorial support

Aurora Polaris Creative Nonfiction Award by Trio House Press

Open to all writers, the poetry manuscripts should be 48-70 pages, and the prose manuscripts should be up to 80,000 words. Submissions must be from U.S. residents and must be original works. AI-generated submissions and translations are not eligible. Manuscripts should be sent as a single Word doc. or docx. file with no identifying information, and a cover letter with bio and contact details should be uploaded separately.

Deadline: May 15, 2024

• $1,000, publication, and 20 books

Poetry & Spoken Word Competition 2024 by Write the World

Young writers aged 13 to 19.5 are invited to enter this upcoming competition, with submissions of 50 to 500 words. Inspired by Audrey Lorde's words and the power of poetry, participants are encouraged to craft original poems or spoken word pieces advocating for change and self-expression. Winners, including top prizes for written and recorded performances, will be announced on June 14. Malika Booker, a renowned British poet, serves as the guest judge. To enter, writers should sign up on Write the World, respond to the prompt, and submit their final entries before the deadline.

Deadline : May 27, 2024

• Best entry: $100
• Best Peer Review: $50

Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award

The Killer Nashville essay writing contests seek to uncover new talent and recognize outstanding works by established authors, aiming to introduce their works to a broader audience. With numerous fiction and non-fiction categories available, writers have the opportunity to showcase their talent across a wide range of genres. The top prize includes a $250 award, and entry requires a fee of $79. Genres eligible for entry encompass crime, essay, fantasy, fiction, humor, memoir, mystery, non-fiction, novel, poetry, science fiction, script writing, short story, and thriller.

Deadline : June 15, 2024

• Top prize: $250

Journalism Competition 2024 by Write the World

In this upcoming competition, young writers aged 13 to 19.5 are invited to participate, with entries ranging from 400 to 1000 words. Participants are tasked with exploring and reporting on significant events within their own country, fostering a deeper understanding of local issues. Optional draft submissions for expert review are available until July 8, with feedback returned to writers by July 12. Winners will be announced on August 9. To enter, writers must sign up for a free account on Write the World, respond to the prompt, and submit their final entries before the deadline.

Deadline : July 22, 2024

National Essay Contest by U.S. Institute of Peace

This year, AFSA is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the United States Foreign Service. They've been involved in important events throughout history, like making decisions about war and peace, supporting human rights, and responding to disasters. Now, AFSA wants students to think about the future of diplomacy. They're asking students to imagine how diplomats can adapt to the changing world and its challenges. It's a chance for students to explore how diplomacy can continue to make a difference in the world.

Deadline : April 01, 2024

• Top prize: $2,500
• Additional prizes: Runner-up: $1,250

In 2023, the world of writing competitions offers a diverse tapestry of opportunities for writers across the globe. From exploring the depths of nature to delving into the mysteries of microfiction, these competitions beckon with enticing prizes and platforms for your creative voice. So, pick your favorite, sharpen your pen, and embark on a journey of literary excellence!

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25 Best Writing Competitions for High School Students – 2024

April 12, 2024

Over the past several years, the number of college applicants has been steadily rising. [i] As college admissions become more competitive, there are many steps a student can take to achieve high school success and become an outstanding candidate for college admissions: earning high SAT scores, securing strong letters of recommendation , and participating in various competitions will all boost your admissions prospects. [ii] In particular, writing competitions for high school students are a popular way to win scholarships and prize money, receive feedback on writing, build a portfolio of public work, and add to college application credentials!

Below, we’ve selected twenty-five writing competitions for high school students and sorted them by three general topics: 1) language, literature and arts, 2) STEM, environment and sustainability, and 3) politics, history and philosophy. It’s never too soon to begin thinking about your future college prospects, and even if you are a freshman, many of these writing competitions for high schoolers will be open to you! [iii]

Writing Competitions for High School Students in Language, Literature, and Arts

1) adroit prizes for poetry and prose.

This prestigious creative writing award offers high school students the opportunity to showcase their work in Adroit Journal . Judges are acclaimed writers in their respective genres.

• Eligibility: All high school students (including international students) are eligible to apply. Poetry contestants may submit up to five poems. Prose contestants may submit up to three pieces of fiction or nonfiction writing (for a combined total of 3,500 words – excerpts accepted).
• Prize: Winners will receive $200 and their writing will be published in Adroit Journal . All submitted entries will be considered for publication!
• Deadline: May 1st (specific deadline may vary by year).

2)  Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest

This unique essay competition allows writers the chance to explore and respond to Ayn Rand’s fascinating and polemic 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged . Specific essay topics are posted every three months; prizes are granted seasonally with a grand prize winner announced every year.

• Prize: Annual grand prize is $25,000.
• Deadline: Deadlines occur every season, for each seasonal prompt.
• Eligibility: Essays must be written in English and be 800-1,600 words in length.

Writing Competitions for High School Students (Continued)

3)  the bennington young writers awards.

Through Bennington College, this high school writing competition offers three prizes in three different genre categories: poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Winners and finalists who decide to attend Bennington College will ultimately receive a substantial scholarship prize.

• Eligibility: U.S. and international students in grades 9 through 12 may apply.
• Prize: First place winners receive $1,000; second place wins $500; third place winners receive $250. YWA winners who apply, are admitted, and enroll at Bennington receive a $15,000 scholarship per year (for a total of $60,000). YWA finalists who apply, are admitted, and enroll at Bennington will receive a $10,000 scholarship per year (for a total of $40,000).
• Deadline: The competition runs annually from September 1st to November 1st.

4)  Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) Student Essay Contest

Do you love Jane Austen? If so, this is the high school writing competition for you! With the JASNA Student Essay Contest, high school students have the opportunity to write a six to eight-page essay about Jane Austen’s works, focused on a specific, designated topic for the competition year.

• Eligibility: Any high school student (homeschooled students also eligible) enrolled during the contest year may submit an essay.
• Prize: First place winner receives a $1,000 scholarship and two nights’ lodging for the upcoming annual JASNA meeting. Second place wins a $500 scholarship and third place wins a $250 scholarship. All winners will additionally receive a year membership in JASNA, the online publication of their article, and a set of Norton Critical Editions of Jane Austen’s novels.
• Deadline: Submission accepted from February-June 1st (specific dates may vary by year).

5)  The Kennedy Center VSA Playwright Discovery Program

Young aspiring writers with disabilities are encouraged to apply to this unique program. Students are asked to submit a ten-minute play script that explores any topic, including the student’s own disability experience.

• Eligibility: U.S. and international high school students with disabilities ages 14-19 may apply.
• Prize: Multiple winners will receive exclusive access to professional development and networking opportunities at The Kennedy Center.
• Deadline: January (specific deadline date may vary by year).

6)  Leonard M. Milburg ’53 High School Poetry Prize

Through Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts, this prestigious writing competition for high school students recognizes outstanding poetry writing and is judged by creative writing faculty at Princeton University.

• Eligibility: U.S. or international students in the eleventh grade may apply. Applicants may submit up to three poems.
• Prize: First place wins $1,500; second place wins $750; third place wins $500.
• Deadline: November (specific deadline date may vary by year).

7)  Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest

Nancy Thorp was a student at Hollins University who showed great promise as a poet. After her death, her family established this scholarship to support budding young poets.

• Eligibility: Female high school sophomores and juniors are eligible to apply. Applicants must be U.S. citizens.
• Prize: First place wins $350 and publication in Cargoes literary magazine, along with a $5,000 renewable scholarship (up to $20,000 over four years) if the student enrolls in Hollins University, and free tuition and housing for Hollins University’s summer creative writing program (grades 9-12). Second place wins publication in Cargoes, along with a $1,000 renewable scholarship ($4,000 over four years) if the student enrolls at Hollins and $500 to apply toward Hollins’ summer creative writing program.
• Deadline: October (specific deadline date may vary by year).

8)  National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards in Writing

Students may be nominated by their English teachers to win this prestigious writing award. Winners “exhibit the power to inform and move an audience through language” and prompts and genres may vary by competition year.

• Prize: A certificate will be awarded to students who are judged to have exceptional writing skills. Student names will be displayed on the NCTE website.
• Eligibility: U.S. high school sophomores and juniors are eligible for nomination.
• Deadline: February (specific dates may vary by year). Contest prompts released in August.

9)  National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

At Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, numerous opportunities for scholarships and awards await those who submit writing in various genres: literary criticism, drama, poetry, and fiction. In all, there are 28 generic categories of art and writing to choose from!

• Eligibility: Teens in grades 7-12 (ages 13 and up) may apply.
• Prize: Various types of recognition and scholarships (up to $12,500) are offered for these award winners.
• Deadline: Scholastic Awards opens for entries in September; deadlines range from December to January.

10)  National Society of High School Scholars Creative Writing Scholarship

In this creative writing competition for high schoolers, students have the opportunity to submit a piece poetry or fiction (or both – one in each category!) for the opportunity to be published on the NSHSS website and win a monetary prize.

• Eligibility: Rising high school students graduating in 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027 may apply.
• Prize: There will be three $2,000 awards for the fiction category and three $2,000 awards for the poetry category.
• Deadline: Submissions Accepted from May to October (specific dates may vary by year).

11)  National Writing Award: The Humanities and a Freer Tomorrow

This writing competition allows high school students the chance to be nominated by a teacher for a piece of writing in response to Ruth J. Simmons’ “Facing History to Find a Better Future.” Specific prompt topics may vary by year.

• Eligibility: Nominating teachers can submit work from 11th and 12th graders in one category (fiction, poetry, prose, or essay).
• Prize: One top prize of $1,000. Four additional prizes of $500 each. Winners will have the opportunity to have their work published by NCTE.
• Deadline: Applications are open September to October (specific dates may vary by year).

12)  New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award

Although this prestigious award isn’t exclusively for high schoolers (anyone younger than 35 may submit a work of fiction), if you’ve written a collection of short stories or even a novel, you should certainly consider applying!

• Eligibility: Any writer below the age of 35 may submit a novel or collection of short stories to participate in this competition.
• Prize: $10,000 award.
• Deadline: September (specific date may vary by year).

13)  Princeton University Ten-Minute Play Contest

This writing competition for high school students awards three annual top prizes for the best ten-minute play. Play submissions are judged each year by an acclaimed guest playwright.

• Eligibility: U.S. or international students in the eleventh grade may apply. Students may submit one play entry; entries must be ten pages or less. Plays must be written in English.
• Prize: First place prize is $500; second place is $250; third place is $100.
• Deadline: Varies by year. However, students are recommended to submit before the deadline date – the submission portal will close when a maximum of 250 applicants have applied.

14)  YouthPLAYS New Voices One-Act Competition for Young Playwrights

In this exciting writing competition, students have the chance to submit an original play script for a play of around 10-40 minutes in length. An excellent competition choice for any student considering a future in the theatre!

• Eligibility: Prospective authors ages 19 and under may submit a script for consideration in the competition. See specific writing guidelines here .
• Prize: First prize wins $250 and publication with YouthPLAYS; second prize wins $100.
• Deadline: Submissions run from January 1st to May 1st.

STEM, Environment, and Sustainability High School Writing Competitions

15)  engineergirl essay contest.

This wonderful essay contest invites students to explore topics related to engineering and science. Each year a new, specific prompt will be chosen for young writers who wish to compete.

• Eligibility: High school students are eligible to apply. Previous winners and close family members of employees of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine are not eligible.
• Prize: First place winners receive $1,000; second place receives $750; third place receives $500.
• Deadline: Competition opens in September and submissions are due February 1st of the following year. Winners are announced in the summer.

16)  Ocean Awareness Contest

The Ocean Awareness Contest is an opportunity for students to create written and artistic projects that explore sustainability, environmentalism, and positive change. High school freshmen (up to age 14) may apply to the Junior Division. Students ages 15-18 may enter the Senior Division.

• Eligibility: Students ages 11-18 may apply (international students included).
• Prize: Monetary prizes ranging from $100-$1000 will be awarded each year. Additionally, $500 will be awarded to ten students who identify as Black, Indigenous, or Latino via the We All Rise Prize program.
• Deadline: June 10, 2024 (specific deadline may vary by year).

17)  Rachel Carson Intergenerational Sense of Wonder / Sense of Wild Contest

If you are interested in issues of sustainability, environment, biology and the natural world, this is one of the high school writing competitions that is just for you! Essay prompts explore the natural world and our place within it and may include poetry, essays, and photography.

• Eligibility: Students must pair with an adult from a different generation (e.g. parent, grandparent or teacher – contestants need not be related). Entries must be submitted as a team.
• Prize: Winners will receive a certificate from RCLA; their first names, ages, and entry titles will be posted on the RCLA website.
• Deadline: November 16th, 2024 (specific deadline may vary by year).

18)  River of Words Competition

This writing competition for high school students is another top choice for those thinking of pursuing majors or careers in biology, environment, and sustainability; this specific contest hopes to promote positive education in sustainability by “promoting environmental literacy through the arts and cultural exchange.”

• Eligibility: Any U.S. or international student from kindergarten through 12th grade may apply.
• Prize: Winners will be published in the River of Words
• Deadline: January (specific deadline may vary by year).

Writing Competitions for High School Students in Politics, History and Philosophy

19)  american foreign service association essay contest.

With this writing competition for high school students, entrants may submit essays ranging from 1,000-1,500 words about diplomacy, history, and international politics (specific prompts vary by year).

• Eligibility: Students in grades nine through twelve may apply. Students whose parents are in the Foreign Service Association are not eligible.
• Prize: The first-place winner will receive $2,500, an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. for the winner and the winner’s parents, and an all-expense paid voyage via Semester at Sea. The second-place winner receives $1,250 and full tuition for a summer session at the National Student Leadership Conference’s International Diplomacy program.
• Deadline: Early spring (specific deadline may vary by year).

20)  Bill of Rights Institute We the Students Essay Contest

In this writing competition for high school students, civic-minded U.S. high schoolers may explore the principles and virtues of the Bill of Rights Institute. Interested applicants should review the specific submission guidelines .

• Eligibility: Any high school student aged 13 to 19 may apply.
• Prize: Prizes range from $1,500 to $10,000.
• Deadline: Submissions for 2024 due May 19th (specific deadline may vary by year).

21)  JFK Presidential Library and Museum Profile in Courage Essay Contest

For students interested in history and political science, this competition offers the chance to write about U.S. elected officials who have demonstrated political courage.

• Eligibility: U.S. high school students from grades 9-12 may apply.
• Prize: First prize is $10,000; second prize receives $3,000; five finalists receive $1,000 each; ten semifinalists receive $100 each; eight students receive honorable mention.
• Deadline: Submissions accepted from September to January (specific deadline may vary by year).
• Sample Essays: 2000-2023 Contest Winner Essays

22)  John Locke Institute Essay Competition

This essay competition is for students who would like to write about and cultivate “independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style” from one of seven intellectual categories: philosophy, politics, economics, history, psychology, theology or law.

• Eligibility: Students from any country may submit an essay.
• Prize: $2,000 for each subject category winner toward a John Locke Institute program; winning essays will be published on the Institute’s website.
• Deadline: Registration must be completed by May 31st, 2024; essay submission due June 30th, 2024 (specific deadline may vary by year).

23)  Society of Professional Journalists and the Journalism Education Association Essay Contest

This exciting writing competition for high schoolers allows students to explore topics related to journalism, democracy and media literacy. Specific prompts will be provided for contestants each year.

• Eligibility: All U.S. students from grades 9-12 may submit original writing to participate in this contest.
• Prize: First-place winners will receive $1,000; second place is awarded $500; third place receives $300.
• Deadline: February (specific deadline may vary by year).

24)  Veterans of Foreign Wars Voice of Democracy Youth Scholarship Essay

This audio essay allows high school students the opportunity to “express themselves in regards to a democratic and patriot-themed recorded essay.” One winner will be granted a $35,000 scholarship to be paid toward their university, college, or vocational school of choice. Smaller prizes range from $1,000-$21,000, and the first-place winner in each VFW state wins $1,000.

• Prize: College scholarships range from $1,000-$35,000
• Eligibility: U.S. students in grades 9-12 may submit a 3-5-minute audio essay.
• Deadline: October 31st
• Sample Written Essay: 2023-2024 Prize-winning essay by Sophia Lin

25)  World Historian Student Essay Competition

The World Historian Student Essay Competition recognizes young scholars who explore world historical events and how they relate to the student scholar personally. Ultimately the student writer must describe “the experience of being changed by a better understanding of world history.”

• Eligibility: Internationally, students ages K-12 may submit an entry. See specific prompt and submission guidelines for writing instructions.
• Prize: $500

Writing Competitions for High School Students – Sources

[i] Institute for Education Sciences: National Center for Education Statistics. “Number of applications for admission from first-time, degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students were received by postsecondary institutions in the fall.” https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/TrendGenerator/app/answer/10/101

[ii] Jaschik, Scott. “Record Applications, Record Rejections.” Inside Higher Ed . 3 April 2022. https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2022/04/04/most-competitive-colleges-get-more-competitive

[iii] Wood, Sarah. “College Applications are on the Rise: What to Know.” U.S. News & World Report. 21 June 2022. https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/college-applications-are-on-the-rise-what-to-know

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For the past decade, Jamie has taught writing and English literature at several universities, including Boston College, the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University. She earned a Ph.D. in English from Carnegie Mellon, where she currently teaches courses and conducts research on composition, public writing, and British literature.

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The Best Student Writing Contests for 2023-2024

Help your students take their writing to the next level.

When students write for teachers, it can feel like an assignment. When they write for a real purpose, they are empowered! Student writing contests are a challenging and inspiring way to try writing for an authentic audience— a real panel of judges —and the possibility of prize money or other incentives. We’ve gathered a list of the best student writing contests, and there’s something for everyone. Prepare highly motivated kids in need of an authentic writing mentor, and watch the words flow.

1.  The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

With a wide range of categories—from critical essays to science fiction and fantasy—The Scholastic Awards are a mainstay of student contests. Each category has its own rules and word counts, so be sure to check out the options  before you decide which one is best for your students.

How To Enter

Students in grades 7-12, ages 13 and up, may begin submitting work in September by uploading to an online account at Scholastic and connecting to their local region. There are entry fees, but those can be waived for students in need.

2.  YoungArts National Arts Competition

This ends soon, but if you have students who are ready to submit, it’s worth it. YoungArts offers a national competition in the categories of creative nonfiction, novel, play or script, poetry, short story, and spoken word. Student winners may receive awards of up to $10,000 as well as the chance to participate in artistic development with leaders in their fields.

YoungArts accepts submissions in each category through October 13. Students submit their work online and pay a $35 fee (there is a fee waiver option).

3. National Youth Foundation Programs

Each year, awards are given for Student Book Scholars, Amazing Women, and the “I Matter” Poetry & Art competition. This is a great chance for kids to express themselves with joy and strength.

The rules, prizes, and deadlines vary, so check out the website for more info.

4.  American Foreign Service National High School Essay Contest

If you’re looking to help students take a deep dive into international relations, history, and writing, look no further than this essay contest. Winners receive a voyage with the Semester at Sea program and a trip to Washington, DC.

Students fill out a registration form online, and a teacher or sponsor is required. The deadline to enter is the first week of April.

5.  John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest

This annual contest invites students to write about a political official’s act of political courage that occurred after Kennedy’s birth in 1917. The winner receives $10,000, and 16 runners-up also receive a variety of cash prizes.

Students may submit a 700- to 1,000-word essay through January 12. The essay must feature more than five sources and a full bibliography.

6. Bennington Young Writers Awards

Bennington College offers competitions in three categories: poetry (a group of three poems), fiction (a short story or one-act play), and nonfiction (a personal or academic essay). First-place winners receive $500. Grab a poster for your classroom here .

The contest runs from September 1 to November 1. The website links to a student registration form.

7. The Princeton Ten-Minute Play Contest

Looking for student writing contests for budding playwrights? This exclusive competition, which is open only to high school juniors, is judged by the theater faculty of Princeton University. Students submit short plays in an effort to win recognition and cash prizes of up to $500. ( Note: Only open to 11th graders. )

Students submit one 10-page play script online or by mail. The deadline is the end of March. Contest details will be published in early 2024.

8. Princeton University Poetry Contest for High School Students

The Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize recognizes outstanding work by student writers in 11th grade. Prizes range from $100 to $500.

Students in 11th grade can submit their poetry. Contest details will be published this fall.

9. The New York Times Tiny Memoir Contest

This contest is also a wonderful writing challenge, and the New York Times includes lots of resources and models for students to be able to do their best work. They’ve even made a classroom poster !

Submissions need to be made electronically by November 1.

10.  Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest

The deadline for this contest is the end of October. Sponsored by Hollins University, the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest awards prizes for the best poems submitted by young women who are sophomores or juniors in high school or preparatory school. Prizes include cash and scholarships. Winners are chosen by students and faculty members in the creative writing program at Hollins.

Students may submit either one or two poems using the online form.

11.  The Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers

The Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers is open to high school sophomores and juniors, and the winner receives a full scholarship to a  Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop .

Submissions for the prize are accepted electronically from November 1 through November 30.

12. Jane Austen Society Essay Contest

High school students can win up to $1,000 and publication by entering an essay on a topic specified by the Jane Austen Society related to a Jane Austen novel.

Details for the 2024 contest will be announced in November. Essay length is from six to eight pages, not including works cited.

13. Rattle Young Poets Anthology

Open to students from 15 to 18 years old who are interested in publication and exposure over monetary awards.

Teachers may choose five students for whom to submit up to four poems each on their behalf. The deadline is November 15.

14. The Black River Chapbook Competition

This is a chance for new and emerging writers to gain publication in their own professionally published chapbook, as well as $500 and free copies of the book.

There is an $18 entry fee, and submissions are made online.

15. YouthPlays New Voices

For students under 18, the YouthPlays one-act competition is designed for young writers to create new works for the stage. Winners receive cash awards and publication.

Scroll all the way down their web page for information on the contest, which accepts non-musical plays between 10 and 40 minutes long, submitted electronically. Entries open each year in January.

16. The Ocean Awareness Contest

The 2024 Ocean Awareness Contest, Tell Your Climate Story , encourages students to write their own unique climate story. They are asking for creative expressions of students’ personal experiences, insights, or perceptions about climate change. Students are eligible for a wide range of monetary prizes up to $1,000.

Students from 11 to 18 years old may submit work in the categories of art, creative writing, poetry and spoken word, film, interactive media and multimedia, or music and dance, accompanied by a reflection. The deadline is June 13.

17. EngineerGirl Annual Essay Contest

Each year, EngineerGirl sponsors an essay contest with topics centered on the impact of engineering on the world, and students can win up to $500 in prize money. This contest is a nice bridge between ELA and STEM and great for teachers interested in incorporating an interdisciplinary project into their curriculum. The new contest asks for pieces describing the life cycle of an everyday object. Check out these tips for integrating the content into your classroom .

Students submit their work electronically by February 1. Check out the full list of rules and requirements here .

18. NCTE Student Writing Awards

The National Council of Teachers of English offers several student writing awards, including Achievement Awards in Writing (for 10th- and 11th-grade students), Promising Young Writers (for 8th-grade students), and an award to recognize Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines.

Deadlines range from October 28 to February 15. Check out NCTE.org for more details.

19. See Us, Support Us Art Contest

Children of incarcerated parents can submit artwork, poetry, photos, videos, and more. Submissions are free and the website has a great collection of past winners.

Students can submit their entries via social media or email by October 25.

20. The Adroit Prizes for Poetry & Prose

The Adroit Journal, an education-minded nonprofit publication, awards annual prizes for poetry and prose to exceptional high school and college students. Adroit charges an entry fee but also provides a form for financial assistance.

Sign up at the website for updates for the next round of submissions.

21. National PTA Reflections Awards

The National PTA offers a variety of awards, including one for literature, in their annual Reflections Contest. Students of all ages can submit entries on the specified topic to their local PTA Reflections program. From there, winners move to the local area, state, and national levels. National-level awards include an $800 prize and a trip to the National PTA Convention.

This program requires submitting to PTAs who participate in the program. Check your school’s PTA for their deadlines.

22. World Historian Student Essay Competition

The World Historian Student Essay Competition is an international contest open to students enrolled in grades K–12 in public, private, and parochial schools, as well as those in home-study programs. The $500 prize is based on an essay that addresses one of this year’s two prompts.

Students can submit entries via email or regular mail before May 1.

23. NSHSS Creative Writing Scholarship

The National Society of High School Scholars awards three $2,000 scholarships for both poetry and fiction. They accept poetry, short stories, and graphic novel writing.

Apply online by October 31.

Whether you let your students blog, start a podcast or video channel, or enter student writing contests, giving them an authentic audience for their work is always a powerful classroom choice.

If you like this list of student writing contests and want more articles like it, subscribe to our newsletters to find out when they’re posted!

Plus, check out our favorite anchor charts for teaching writing..

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Best 2024 Competitions for Students in Grades K-12

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Your Ultimate Guide to Writing Contests Through 2024

Regardless where you are on your writing journey, you can benefit from entering contests.

The right contest can tell you:

• Where you stand
• How you measure up against the competition
• What you still need to learn

And you could win cash.

That’s why my team researched a wide range of high-quality contests. We’ve included free competitions and also many with modest entry fees.

• Short Story Writing Contests
• Full Manuscript Writing Contests
• Poetry Writing Contests

Great American Fiction Contest

Prize: 1st: $1,000, publication in The Saturday Evening Post

Runners-up (5): $200

Entry Fee: $10

Deadline: TBD 2024 (Annual Contest)

Sponsor: The Saturday Evening Post

From Website: “Unpublished short stories of 1,500 to 5,000 words in any genre touching on the publication’s mission, “Celebrating America—past, present, and future.” No extreme profanity or graphic sex. Work published on a personal website or blog is still eligible.”

SiWC Writing Contest

Prize: 1st: $1,000 plus publication

Honorable Mention: $150

Entry Fee: $15

Deadline: September 15, 2024

Sponsor: Surrey International Writers’ Conference

From Website: “Short stories in any genre must be 2,500-4,000 words. All submissions must contain original material and may not have been previously published, accepted for publication, or have been a winner in another contest prior to the deadline.”

WOW / Women On Writing Quarterly Flash Fiction Competition

Prize: 1st: $400, $25 Amazon gift certificate

2nd: $300, $25 Amazon gift certificate

3rd: $200, $25 Amazon gift certificate

Runners-up (7): $25 Amazon gift certificate

Honorable mentions (10): $20 Amazon gift certificate

Entry Fee: $10 (or $20 with feedback)

Deadline: Quarterly (next deadline February 2, 2024)

Sponsor: WOW / Women On Writing

From Website: “Runs four times a year and is open to all styles and genres. Closes each quarter after 300 entries have been received, or at the deadline. WOW also runs a quarterly nonfiction essay competition with cash prizes.”

Bristol Short Story Prize

Prize: 1st: £1,000 (~$1,242)

2nd: £500 (~$621)

3rd: £250 (~$310)

Shortlisted (17): £100 (~$124)

Entry Fee: £9 (~$11)

Deadline: TBD 2024

Sponsor: Bristol Short Story Prize

From Website: “Open to all published and unpublished writers 16 and up. No geographical restriction, but all entries must be in English. Maximum length 4,000 words (not including title). No minimum length. Stories can be on any subject.”

Aesthetica Creative Writing Award

Prize: £2,500 (~$3,105)

Winners also receive further non-monetary prizes including publication in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual.

Entry Fee: £18 (~$22) (Poetry Category entry fee is ~$15) 

Deadline: August 31, 2024

Sponsor: Aesthetica Magazine

From Website: “Fiction entries should be no more than 2,000 words. Works published or entered elsewhere are accepted. Any theme accepted. You may enter as many times as you wish, however, each work requires a separate fee and submission form.”

The Lascaux Prize

Prize: $1,000

Finalists receive $100

Deadline: June 20, 2024

Sponsor: The Lascaux Review

“Flash Fiction and Creative Nonfiction categories. 

Flash fiction entries should not exceed 1,000 words. All genres and styles welcome. 

From Website: “Creative nonfiction entry length must not exceed 10,000 words. All topics welcome but should be written in a nonacademic style. May include memoirs, chronicles, personal essays, humorous perspectives, literary journalism—anything the author has witnessed, experienced, learned, or discovered.”

The Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize

Prize: First place: £3,000 cash grant (~$3,726)

Second place: £1,000 travel expense (~$1,242)

Third place: £1,000 travel expense (~$1,242)

Entry Fee: Free

Deadline: March 1, 2024

Sponsor: The Alpine Fellowship

From Website: “Entries must fit the annual theme. Maximum of 2,500 words. All genres of writing are permitted, including fiction, non-fiction, and non-academic essays. Open to all nationalities but must be written in English. Stories must not have been published, self-published or accepted for publication in print or online. No entries that have won or been placed in another competition at any time.”

ServiceScape Short Story Award

Deadline: November 29, 2024

Sponsor: ServiceScape

From Website: “All entries must be original, unpublished works of short fiction or nonfiction, up to 5,000 words in length. Any genre or theme accepted.”

Bacopa Literary Review Contest

Prize: $200 Award 

$100 Honorable Mention in each of six categories

Sponsor: The Writers Alliance of Gainesville

From Website: “Awards in 6 categories (contestants may submit to only ONE category). Fiction (up to 2,500 words), Creative Nonfiction (up to 2,500 words), Humor (up to 2,000 words), Formal Poetry (1-3 poems), Free Verse Poetry (1-2 poems), Visual Poetry (1 poem).”

Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award

Prize: $.08 per word and publication

Deadline: February 1, 2024

Sponsor: National Space Society and Baen Books

From Website: “Write a short story of no more than 8,000 words, that shows the near future (no more than about 50-60 years out) of manned space exploration. What they want to see: Moon bases, Mars colonies, orbital habitats, space elevators, asteroid mining, artificial intelligence, nano-technology, realistic spacecraft, heroics, sacrifice, and adventure.”

Parsec Short Story Contest

Prize: First place: $200 and publication in the Confluence program book. 

Second place: $100 

Third place: $50 

Best Youth Story: $50

Deadline: March 31st, 2024

Sponsor: Parsec, Inc.

From Website: “Each annual contest is based on a theme provided. This can be conveyed in the setting, plot, characters, and dialogue; the only limit is your imagination. The theme must be integral to the story in some way and not just mentioned in passing. No minimum word count, no more than 3500 words. The 2024 Contest theme is ‘AI mythology.’” 

The Raymond Carver Short Story Contest

Prize: First place: $2000 

Second place: $500 

Third place: $250 

Two Editor’s Choice: $125

Entry Fee: $18

Deadline: May 15, 2024

Sponsor: Carve Magazine

From Website: “One short story per entry. No limit to entries. Must be previously unpublished (including online) with a 10,000 maximum word count. We accept entries from anywhere in the world, but the story must be English-language. No genre fiction (romance, horror, sci-fi); literary fiction only.”

Blurred Genres Flash Contest

Prize: First Place: $750 

Second Place: $350 

Third Place: $150 

Publication of Top Five

Sponsor: Invisible City (University of San Francisco)

From Website: “Based on a theme (for example last year’s theme was “Levity”) that can be interpreted through prose, poetry, or some combination of the two. All genres and themes are welcome. Contest submissions must be 750 words or less and can be flash fiction/nonfiction, prose poetry, or some unique combination of the three. Submissions must be the original work of the submitter and unpublished (and not slated for future publication).”

Imagine 2200: Write the future

Prize: First Place: $3,000

Second Place: $2,000 

Third Place: $1,000

An additional nine finalists will each receive $300 

All winners and finalists will have their stories published in an immersive collection on Grist’s website

Sponsor: Grist

From Website: “Imagine 2200 is an invitation to writers from all over the globe to imagine a future in which solutions to the climate crisis flourish and help bring about radical improvements to our world. 3,000 to 5,000 word stories envisioning a world where we prioritize our well-being, work to mend our communities, and lead lives that celebrate our humanity.”

The Elegant Literature Award For New Writers

Prize: First place: $3,000 and 10c/word and publication. Free enrollment in the New Novelist Accelerator.

Second – Tenth: 10c/word and publication.

Eleventh – Thirty-fifth: $20 and an honorable mention in the magazine

Entry Fee: Requires Elegant+ Membership ($9.99 a month)

Deadline: Ongoing (monthly)

Sponsor: Elegant Literature Magazine

From Website: “Write a story involving annual theme. New or unpublished authors may enter. Word count is 500-2000. All genres are welcome as long as it involves the theme.”

F(r)iction Contests

Prize: $300.00 and consideration for publication in F(r)iction

Entry Fee: $10 for a single entry, $12 for three entries

Deadline: April 30, 2024

Sponsor: F(r)iction

From Website: “Competitions in several categories, short stories (1,001 – 7,500 words), flash fiction (up to 1,000 words), and Poetry (up to three pages per poem). Entries are accepted regardless of genre, style, or origin. Experimental, nontraditional, and boundary-pushing literature is strongly encouraged. Their guidelines include the phrase ‘Strange is good.’”

Manchester Fiction Prize

Prize: £10,000 (~$12,420)

Entry Fee: £18 (~$22) 

100 reduced-price (£10 or ~$13) entries are available to entrants who might not otherwise be able to take part in the competition.

Sponsor: Manchester Metropolitan University

From Website: “The Manchester Fiction Prize asks for a short story of up to 2,500 words in length. Stories submitted should be new work, not previously published elsewhere. The Prize is open internationally to those aged 16 or over.”  

Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition

Prize: Grand Prize $5000, an interview with them in Writer’s Digest (Nov/Dec 2023 issue) and on WritersDigest.com, a paid trip to the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference, including a special trophy presentation at the keynote, a coveted Pitch Slam slot at the Writer’s Digest Conference where the winner will receive one on one attention from editors or agents, and publication of their winning piece on WritersDigest.com

First Place: $1,000 and publication of their winning piece on WritersDigest.com

Second Place: $500 

Third Place: $250 

Fourth Place: $100 

Fifth Place: $50 

Sixth through Tenth Place: $25 gift certificate for writersdigestshop.com.

Entry Fee: $20-30 (varies depending on category)

Deadline: May 6, 2024 

Sponsor: Writer’s Digest

From Website: “Only original works that have not been published (at the time of submission) in print, digital, or online publications will be considered. Self-published work in blogs, on social media, etc. will be considered. For the script category, only unproduced scripts will be considered. Entries in the Nonfiction Essay or Article category may be previously published. All entries must be in English. Memoirs/Personal Essay, Nonfiction Essay or Article, and Children’s/Young Adult Fiction: 2,000 words maximum. Mainstream/Literary Short Story, Genre Short, Story, and Humor: 4,000 words maximum. Inspirational Writing: 2,500 words maximum. Rhyming Poem and Non-rhyming Poem: 40 lines maximum.”

Emerging Writer’s Contest

Prize: Publication, $2,000, review from Aevitas Creative Management, and a 1-year subscription for one winner in each of the three genres

Entry Fee: Free for subscribers to Ploughshares, $24 for nonsubscribers

Sponsor: Ploughshares (Emerson College)

From Website: “The contest is open to writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry who have yet to publish or self-publish a book. Fiction and Nonfiction: Under 6,000 words. Poetry: 3-5 pages.”

Wells Festival of Literature Short Story Competition

Prize: First Place £750 (~$932)

Second Place £300 (~$373)

Third Place: £200 (~$248)

Entry Fee: £6 (~$8)

Sponsor: Wells Festival of Literature

From Website: “Stories may be on any subject and should be between 1,000 and 2,000 words. All entries must be the exclusive and original work of the entrant. At the time of entry, the work submitted must not have been entered into any other Competition and must not have been published in any format or location.”

Anthology Short Story Competition

Prize: First Place: €1,000 (~$1098), the chance to see their work published in a future issue of Anthology, and a one-year subscription to Anthology 

Second Place: €250 (~$275)

Third Place: €150 (~$165)

Entry Fee: Early Bird: €12 (~$13)

Standard fee: €18 (~$20)

Deadline: July 31, 2024

Sponsor: Anthology Publishing

From Website: “Established to recognize and encourage creative writing and provide a platform for publication, the Anthology Short Story Competition is open to original and previously unpublished short stories in the English language by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. There is no restriction on theme or style. Stories submitted must not exceed the maximum of 1,500 words.” 

The Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize

Prize: £1,000 (~$1,246) and publication in Wasafiri’s print magazine

Entry Fee: £10 (~$12) for a single entry, £16 (~$20) for a double entry

Sponsor: Wasafiri Magazine 

From Website: “Exceptionally international in scope, the prize supports writers who have not yet published a book-length work, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background. No entry may exceed 3,000 words. A single poetry entry can include up to three poems, which together total no more than 3,000 words.”

2024 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize

Prize: $1000 and a free 10-week course with Gotham Writers

Entry Fee: $25

Sponsor: Gotham Writers and Selected Shorts

From Website: “This long-running series at Symphony Space in New York City celebrates the art of the short story by having stars of stage and screen read aloud the works of established and emerging writers. Selected Shorts is recorded for Public Radio and heard nationally on both the radio and its weekly podcast.”

Robert and Adele Schiff Awards

Prize: $1,000 All entries will be considered for publication in The Cincinnati Review

Entry Fee: $20

Sponsor: The Cincinnati Review (University of Cincinnati)

From Website: “Writers may submit up to 8 pages of poetry, 40 pages of a single double-spaced piece of fiction, or 20 pages of a single double-spaced piece of literary nonfiction, per entry. Previously published manuscripts, including works that have appeared online (in any form), will not be considered. There are no restrictions as to form, style, or content; all entries will be considered for publication. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable under the condition that you notify us if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere.” 

Salamander 2024 Fiction Prize

Prize: First Place: $1,000 and Publication

 Second Place: $500 and Publication

Deadline: TBD 2024 

Sponsor: Salamander Magazine

From Website: “All entries will be considered for publication and will be judged anonymously. Each story must not exceed 30 double-spaced pages in 12-point font. Previously published works and works accepted for publication elsewhere cannot be considered. Salamander’s definition of publishing includes electronic publication.”

BOA Short Fiction Prize

Prize: $1,000 and publication by BOA Editions, Ltd.

Deadline: May 31, 2024

Sponsor: BOA Editions, Ltd.

From Website: “Entrants must be U.S. citizens, legal residents of the U.S., or have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), or Legal Permanent Status (LPS). Entrants must be at least 18 years of age. Minimum of 90 pages; maximum of 200 pages. Manuscript text should be at least 12 pt. font, double-spaced. As with all BOA fiction titles, our prize-winning short story collections are more concerned with the artfulness of writing than the twists and turns of plot. It is our belief that short story writing is a valuable and underserved literary form that we are proud to support, nurture, and celebrate.”

Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest

Prize: First Place: $3,000 

Entry Fee: $22

Deadline: May 1, 2024

Sponsor: Winning Writers (Co-sponsored by Duotrope)

From Website: “For this contest, a story is any short work of fiction, and an essay is any short work of nonfiction. All themes accepted. Entries may be published or unpublished. Length limit: 6,000 words maximum. No restriction on the age of the author.”

Gabriele Rico Challenge for Nonfiction

Prize: $1,333

Deadline: November 1, 2024

Sponsor: Reed Magazine

From Website: “C reative nonfiction, such as personal essays or narratives, not scholarly papers or book reviews. All works should be stand-alone essays, not chapters of a longer work. Previously published work is not eligible. Up to 5,000 words.”

53-Word Story Contest

Prize: Publication in Prime Number Magazine and a free book from Press 53.

Deadline: Ongoing. 15th of each month

Sponsor: Prime Number Magazine

From Website: “New prompt each month. Judges are looking for stories with a surprising approach to the prompt, something unusual and creative. Stories must be 53 words—no more, no less. Stories with fewer than or more than 53 words will be disqualified. Send only stories; poetry with line breaks will not be considered.”

Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction

Prizes: Three Winners are announced who are published and share in the $1000 USD total prize pool. Twenty writers are Longlisted. All entries considered for publication, and for submission to the Pushcart Prize and other anthologies.

Deadline: Awarded every two months

Sponsor: Letter Review

From Website: “Word Length: 0 – 5000 words. Open to anyone in the world. There are no genre or theme restrictions.”

Letter Review Prize for Nonfiction

Entry Fee: $20.

From Website: “0 – 5000 words. Open to anyone in the world. We welcome all forms of nonfiction including: Memoir, journalism, essay (including personal essay), fictocriticism, creative nonfiction, travel, nature, opinion, and many other permutations.”

University of New Orleans Press Lab Prize

Prize: $10,000 advance on royalties and a contract to publish with the University of New Orleans Press

Entry Fee: $28

Sponsor: University of New Orleans

From Website: “Entries must be unpublished novels or short story collections. The work does not have to be regionally focused. There is no word limit. There is no restriction on subjects covered. The contest is open to all authors from around the world, regardless of publishing history.  Works of fiction (novels and short story collections) only. Submissions must be your entire manuscript.”

The Bath Novel Awards 

Prize: Two £3,000 (~$3738) prizes are awarded annually for the best manuscript as judged by literary agents

All shortlistees win feedback on their full manuscript.

Entry Fee: £29 (~$36)

Deadline: May 31st 2024

Sponsor: The Bath Novel Award (co-sponsored by Cornerstones Literary Consultancy and Professional Writing Academy)

From Website: “Submit the opening 5,000 words plus one-page synopsis of novel manuscripts for adults or young adults. Completed works must be over 50,000 words. Novels can be for adult or young adult readers and any genre. Must be your original work and submitted in English. Novels can be unpublished, self-published, or independently published.”

The Times/Chicken House Competition

Prize:  First Place: worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House with a royalty advance of £10,000 (~$12,459), plus an offer of representation by this year’s agent judge, Davinia Andrew-Lynch of Curtis Brown. 

Second Place: Lime Pictures New Storyteller Award. A publishing contract with a royalty advance of £7,500 (~$9,344) plus an offer of representation by Davinia Andrew-Lynch.

Entry Fee: £20 (~$25)

Deadline: June 1, 2024

Sponsor: The Times and Chicken House 

From Website: “To enter, you must have written a completed full-length novel suitable for children/young adults aged somewhere between 7 and 18 years. A minimum of 30,000 words and a maximum of 80,000 words suggested.”

The Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction

Prize: $5,000 advance and publication by Dzanc Books

Deadline: September 30, 2024

Sponsor: Dzanc Books

From Website: “The Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction recognizes daring, original, and innovative novels (generally over 40,000 words, but there is no hard minimum). The contest is open to new, upcoming, and established writers alike. Agented submissions are also eligible, and we ask that you include all agency contact information with the application. All submitted works must be previously unpublished novel-length manuscripts and should include a brief synopsis, author bio, and contact information.”

Claymore Award

Prize: Discounted admission to Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference, with introductions to agents/editors (And probably publishing contract)

Entry Fee: $45 (Full critique included for $125)

Deadline: April 1, 2024

Sponsor: Killer Nashville

From Website: “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. These can include Action Adventure, Comedy, Cozy, Historical, Investigator, Juvenile/YA, Literary, Mainstream/Commercial, Mystery, Nonfiction, Sci-fi/Fantasy, Short Story Collections, Southern Gothic, Supernatural, Suspense, Thriller, and Western manuscripts, and any of their derivatives. (Self-published manuscripts are considered already published and are not eligible.)”

St. Martin’s Minotaur / Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition

Prize: Publication and a $10,000 advance

Sponsor: Minotaur Books and Mystery Writers of America

From Website: “Open to any writer, regardless of nationality, aged 18 or older, who has never been the author of any published novel and is not under contract with a publisher for publication of a novel. All Manuscripts submitted must be original works of book length (no less than 220 typewritten pages or approximately 60,000 words), written in the English language, written solely by the entrant, and must not violate any right of any third party or be libelous. Murder or another serious crime is at the heart of the story.”

The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing

Prize: $10,000 advance and publication

Sponsor: Restless Books

From Website: “Created in 2015 to honor outstanding debut literary works by first-generation immigrants, awarded for fiction and nonfiction in alternating years. Fiction manuscripts must be complete. Nonfiction submissions must consist of either a complete manuscript or a sample of at least 25,000 words and a detailed proposal that includes a synopsis and an annotated table of contents. All submissions must be in English (translations welcome). Fiction candidates must not have previously published a book of fiction in English. Nonfiction candidates must not have previously published a book of nonfiction in English.”

New American Fiction Prize

Prize: $1,500 and a book contract, as well as 25 author’s copies and promotional support

Deadline: January 15, 2024

Sponsor: New American Press

From Website: “Manuscripts should be at least 100 pages, but there is no maximum length. All forms and styles of full-length fiction manuscripts are welcome, including story collections, novels, novellas, collections of novellas, flash fiction collections, novels in verse, and other hybrid forms.”

Your Next Best Read

Prize: First Place (Fiction & Nonfiction): $100 Cash Price, 6-month Advertising Package, Press Release, Editorial Review, Newsletter Announcement, Promotional Creatives

Second Place Awards (Fiction & Nonfiction): 6-month Advertising Package, Editorial Review, Newsletter Announcement

Third Place (Fiction & Nonfiction): 3-month Advertising Package, Editorial Review, Newsletter Announcement

Deadline: May 5, 2024

Sponsor: Excalibre Publishing

From Website: “ The contest is open to writers of all backgrounds, ages, and nationalities. Both published and unpublished works are welcome. We encourage submissions in various/ALL genres –  fiction, non-fiction, poetry (submit in nonfiction), and short stories. No specific wordcount requiered. Submissions must be in English.”

Letter Review Prize for Manuscripts

Prizes: Three Winners are announced who have a brief extract published, receive a letter of recommendation from our Judges for publishers, and share in the $1000 USD total prize pool. Twenty writers are Longlisted.

Entry Fee: $25.

Deadline: Awarded Every two months

From Website: “Please submit the first 5000 words of your manuscript, whether it be prose or poetry. 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 which are unpublished, self published, and some which are indie published. Review full entry guidelines for further details.”

2nd place in fiction & non-fiction $750 cash prize and trophy

3rd place in fiction & non-fiction $500 cash prize and trophy

Winner of each of the 80+ categories $100 cash prize and gold medal

Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize

Prize: $2,500 plus publication

Entry Fee: $30

Sponsor: Kent State University Press

From Website: “Offered annually to a poet who has not previously published a full-length collection of poems. The winner and the competition’s judge will give a reading together on the Kent State campus. The competition is open to poets writing in English who have not yet published a full-length collection of poems (a volume of 50 or more pages published in an edition of 500 or more copies).”

Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry

Prize: $2,000 plus publication

Sponsor: Lynx House Press

From Website: “Awarded for an unpublished, full-length volume of poems by a U.S. author, which includes foreign nationals living and writing in the U.S. and U.S. citizens living abroad. Manuscripts may include poems that have appeared in journals, magazines, or chapbooks. Poems that have previously appeared in full-length, single-author collections, are not eligible.”

Ó Bhéal Five Words International Poetry Competition

Prize: First Place: €750 ($890) 

Second Place: €500 ($590) 

Third Place: €250 ($295)

Entry Fee: €5 ($6)

Deadline: Every Tuesday at 12pm (Irish time) from April 11, 2023 – January 30, 2024

Sponsor: Ó Bhéal

From Website: “Five words will be posted on this competition page. Entrants will have one week to compose and submit one or more poems which include all five words given for that week. Entry is open to all countries. Poems cannot exceed 50 lines in length (including line breaks), and must include all five words listed for the week.”

Letter Review Prize for Poetry

Prizes: Three Winners are announced who are published and share in the $800 USD total prize pool. Twenty writers are Longlisted. All entries considered for publication, and for submission to the Pushcart Prize and other anthologies.

Entry Fee: $15.

From Website: “70 lines max per poem Open to anyone in the world. There are no style or subject restrictions.”

• Advice for Researching Writing Competitions

This list includes only a few of the many writing contests you can find online.

Here are some tips for looking into options on your own:

1. Narrow your search with details that are relevant to you, for example, “writing contests in Texas,” “writing contests for women authors,” or “writing contests for veterans.” 

2. Be genre-specific.

3. Include the year in your search to ensure the most up-to-date results. 

4. Carefully read the guidelines and eligibility requirements. 

5. Pay attention to the contest sponsor. Only submit to reputable hosts.  

Worried your writing isn’t quite ready to compete? Take my free writing assessment and see personalized guidance on how to improve your skills. https://jerryjenkins.com/quiz/

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Essay Papers Writing Online

Engaging in competitive essay writing – how to excel in essay writing competitions.

Essay writing competitions can be a great opportunity to showcase your writing skills and win accolades for your creativity and thoughtfulness. Whether you are a seasoned writer or just starting out, competition can be fierce, so it’s vital to have a winning strategy in place.

In this article, we will discuss top tips and strategies that can help you stand out from the competition and increase your chances of winning essay writing competitions.

From identifying the right competition to crafting a compelling thesis statement and polishing your final draft, there are several key steps you can take to improve your chances of emerging victorious. Let’s dive into these tips and strategies to help you succeed in essay writing competitions!

Prepare Your Essay

1. Understand the topic: Before you start writing your essay, make sure you completely understand the topic. Research and gather relevant information to build a strong foundation for your argument.

2. Develop a clear thesis statement: Your thesis statement should clearly convey the main point of your essay. It will serve as the guiding principle for the rest of your writing.

3. Create an outline: Organize your thoughts and arguments by creating an outline. This will help you structure your essay in a logical and coherent manner.

4. Write a compelling introduction: Start your essay with a compelling introduction that captures the reader’s attention and clearly presents your thesis statement.

5. Support your arguments with evidence: Back up your arguments with reliable evidence, examples, and research. This will strengthen your essay and make your points more convincing.

6. Craft a strong conclusion: End your essay with a strong conclusion that summarizes your main points and reinforces your thesis statement. Leave a lasting impression on the reader.

7. Edit and revise: Once you have completed your essay, take the time to edit and revise it. Check for spelling and grammatical errors, ensure your arguments flow smoothly, and make any necessary revisions to improve clarity and coherence.

Research Your Topic

One of the most important steps in preparing for an essay writing competition is to thoroughly research your topic. Ensure that you understand the key concepts, arguments, and perspectives related to the subject matter. Use credible sources such as academic journals, books, and reputable websites to gather information and support your arguments.

Understand the Competition Guidelines

One essential aspect of winning essay writing competitions is understanding the competition guidelines. Before you start writing your essay, carefully read and follow the rules and requirements provided by the competition organizers. Pay attention to the word count, topic restrictions, formatting guidelines, submission deadlines, and any other specific instructions.

By familiarizing yourself with the competition guidelines, you can ensure that your essay meets all the necessary criteria for consideration. Failure to adhere to the rules could result in disqualification, so it is crucial to read and understand the guidelines thoroughly before you begin your writing process.

Develop Your Writing Skills

Improving your writing skills is essential if you want to succeed in essay writing competitions. Here are some tips to help you develop your writing skills:

• Read extensively: Reading a variety of books, articles, and essays can help you improve your writing style and vocabulary.
• Practice writing regularly: The more you write, the better you will become. Set aside time each day to write and experiment with different writing techniques.
• Seek feedback: Ask teachers, peers, or writing professionals to provide feedback on your writing. Constructive criticism can help you identify areas for improvement.
• Study grammar and punctuation: Understanding the rules of grammar and punctuation is crucial for producing high-quality writing. Take the time to study these rules and apply them to your writing.
• Learn from successful writers: Study the works of successful writers and analyze their writing techniques. Try to incorporate some of these techniques into your own writing.

Practice Regularly

One of the key ways to improve your essay writing skills and increase your chances of winning competitions is to practice regularly. Writing is a skill that improves with practice, so make time each day to write essays, articles, or even short stories. Set aside dedicated time to work on your writing, and challenge yourself to explore different topics and styles.

By practicing regularly, you’ll not only improve your writing technique but also build confidence in your abilities. This confidence will show in your competition entries and set you apart from other participants. Remember, practice makes perfect, so the more you write, the better you’ll become.

Seek Feedback and Editing

Getting feedback on your essay is crucial to improving it and making it stand out in competitions. Don’t be afraid to ask teachers, peers, or writing tutors to review your work and provide constructive criticism.

Consider joining a writing group or workshop where you can share your essay and receive feedback from other writers. This can help you identify weak points in your argument or areas where you can improve your writing style.

After receiving feedback, be open to making edits and revisions. Polish your essay by fixing grammar and punctuation errors, tightening up your arguments, and ensuring your ideas flow logically and cohesively.

Remember, the more eyes you have on your essay, the better it will become. Don’t hesitate to seek feedback and editing to make your essay the best it can be.

Hook Your Readers

One of the most important aspects of winning an essay writing competition is grabbing the reader’s attention right from the start. Your introduction should be compelling and draw the reader in, making them want to continue reading. Here are some effective ways to hook your readers:

• Start with a powerful quote: Using a thought-provoking quote at the beginning can set the tone for your essay and intrigue your readers.
• Pose a question: Asking a question can engage your readers and make them curious to find out the answer, encouraging them to keep reading.
• Provide a shocking statistic: Sharing a surprising statistic can capture your readers’ interest and make them want to learn more about the topic.
• Share a personal anecdote: Connecting with your readers on a personal level by sharing a relevant anecdote can make your essay more relatable and engaging.
• Use descriptive imagery: Painting a vivid picture with descriptive language can transport your readers into the world you’re describing, making them more invested in your essay.

By hooking your readers from the beginning, you set the stage for a captivating essay that will leave a lasting impression on the judges of the competition.

State Your Thesis Clearly

One of the most important aspects of winning an essay writing competition is to state your thesis clearly in the introductory paragraph. Your thesis is the main argument or point you will be making in your essay, and it serves as the foundation for your entire piece. Make sure your thesis is specific, debatable, and concise. Avoid vague statements and ensure that your thesis directly addresses the prompt provided for the competition.

Tip: Your thesis should be strong and compelling, drawing the reader in and establishing the purpose of your essay from the start. It should be clear enough that your reader can easily understand what you will be arguing throughout the rest of your essay.

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7 Essay Writing Contests to Look Out For in 2023

7-minute read

• 28th December 2022

Essay contests are not only a great way to exercise your essay-writing skills but also an awesome way to win cash prizes, scholarships, and internship or program opportunities. They also look wonderful on college applications as awards and achievements.

In this article, you’ll learn about 7 essay writing contests to enter in 2023. Watch the video below, or keep reading to learn more.

1. Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest 

Deadline: Now–April 30, 3023

Who may enter:

This is an international contest for people of all ages (except for residents of Syria, Iran, North Korea, Crimea, Russia, and Belarus due to US government restrictions).

Contest description:

●  The contest is organized by Winning Writers, located in MA, USA.

●  They accept stories and essays on any theme, up to 6,000 words each. This contest defines a story as any short work of fiction and an essay as any short work of nonfiction.

●  Your stories and essays must be submitted in English.

●  You may submit published or unpublished work.

Entry fee: USD 22 per entry

●  Story: First Prize is USD 3,000.

●  Essay: First Prize is USD 3,000.

●  10 Honorable Mentions will receive USD 300 each (any category).

●  The top 12 entries will be published online.

Official website

Please visit the competition’s official website for more information on judges and submissions.

2. 2023 Calibre Essay Prize 

Deadline: Now–January 15, 2023, 11:59 pm

Who may enter: All ages and any nationality or residency are accepted.

●  This contest is hosted by the Australian Book Review.

●  Your essay must be between 2,000 and 5,000 words.

●  You may submit nonfiction essays of all kinds, e.g., personal, political, literary, or speculative.

●  You may enter multiple essays but will need to pay separate fees for each one.

●  Your essay must be unpublished.

Entry fee: AU 30 for non-members

Prize: AU 7,500

Official website:

For more information on this contest, please visit its official website.

3. John Locke Institute Essay Competition 

Deadline: June 30, 2023

●  Students from any country.

●  Students aged 15 to 18 years by the competition deadline.

●  Students aged 14 years or younger by the competition deadline are eligible for the Junior prize.

●  The contest is organized by the John Locke Institute.

●  Your essay cannot exceed 2,000 words.

●  There are seven subjects or categories for essay submissions: Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology, and Law.

Entry fee: Free to enter

●  The best overall essay winner receives an honorary John Locke Fellowship, which comes with a USD 10,000 scholarship to attend one or more summer schools or gap year courses.

●  There is also a prize for the best essay in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category and the Junior category is a scholarship worth USD 2,000 toward the cost of a summer program.

●  All winning essays will be published on the Institute’s website.

For more information about this competition and the John Locke Institute, please visit the official website . Also, be sure to check out our article on all you need to know about this contest.

4. The American Foreign Service Association 2023 Essay Competition 

Deadline: April 3, 2023

●  Students in grades 9–12 in any of the 50 states, DC, the US territories, or if they are US citizens or lawful permanent residents attending high school overseas.

●  Students attending a public, private, or parochial school.

●  Home-schooled students.

●  Your essay should be 1,000–1,500 words.

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●  You will select a country or region in which the United States Foreign Service has been involved at any point since 1924 and describe how the Foreign Service was successful or unsuccessful in advancing American foreign policy goals – including promoting peace – in this country or region and propose ways in which it might continue to improve those goals in the coming years.

●  Your essay should follow MLA guidelines.

●  Your essay should use a variety of sources.

●  The first-place winner receives USD 2,500, a paid trip to the nation’s capital from anywhere in the U.S. for the winner and their parents, and an all-expense-paid educational voyage courtesy of Semester at Sea.

●  The runner-up receives USD 1,250 and full tuition to attend a summer session of the National Student Leadership Conference’s International Diplomacy program.

Please visit the American Foreign Service website for more information.

5. The Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) 2023 Essay Contest 

Deadline: Mid-February 2023–June 1, 2023

Who may enter: High school (including homeschooled), college, and graduate students worldwide.

●  The 2023 essay contest topic is marriages and proposals.

●  High school students may focus on Pride and Prejudice only or bring in other Austen works.

●  Undergraduate and graduate students should discuss at least two Austen novels of their choice.

●  Your essay must be in MLA format and 6 to 8 pages (not including your Works Cited page).

●  Your essay must be written in English.

●  First place wins a USD 1,000 scholarship.

●  Second place wins a USD 500 scholarship.

●  Third place wins a USD 250 scholarship.

●  Winners will also receive one year of membership in JASNA, publication of their essays on this website, and a set of Norton Critical Editions of Jane Austen’s novels.

For more information and submission guidelines, please visit JASNA’s official website .

6. 2023 Writing Contest: Better Great Achievements by EngineerGirl

Deadline: February 1, 2023

●  Students in Grades 3–12. If international or homeschooled, please select your grade level based on if you were attending a public school in the U.S.

●  This contest is organized by EngineerGirl.

●  Students should write a piece that shows how female or non-white engineers have contributed to or can enhance engineering’s great achievements.

●  You should choose one of the 20 Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century as a topic and explore the technologies developed in the last century and the new ones being developed today. Make sure to follow the specific guidelines for your grade level.

●  Essays should be 650–750 words based on your grade level.

●  Please visit the contest’s website to see specific requirements based on your grade.

Winners in each grade category will receive the prizes listed below:

●  First-place winners will be awarded USD 500.

●  Second-place entries will be awarded USD 250 .

●  Third-place entries will be awarded USD 100 .

For more information and submission guidelines, please visit the official website .

7. World Historian Student Essay Competition

Deadline: May 1, 2023

Who may enter: Students enrolled in Grades K–12 in public, private, and parochial schools and home-study programs worldwide.

●  Your essay must address the following issue: In what way has the study of world history affected my understanding of the world in which I live?

●  Your essay should be 1,000 words.

Prizes: USD 500

For more information and submission requirements, please visit the contest’s official website.

Essay contests are a great way to expand your writing skills, discuss a topic that is important to you, and earn prize money and opportunities that will be great for you in the long term. Check out our articles on writing thesis statements, essay organization, and argumentative writing strategies to ensure you take first place every time.

If you need help with your essays and would like to make sure that every comma is in place, we will proofread your first 500 words for free !

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The 17 Best Writing Contests for High School Students

Other High School

If you're a writer—fiction, non-fiction, or fanfiction—you can put those skills to work for you. There are tons of writing contests for high school students, which can award everything from medals to cash prizes to scholarships if you win .

Not only will a little extra money, whether cash or scholarships, help you when it comes time to pay for college, but the prestige of a respected reward is also a great thing to include on your college application.

Read on to learn more about what writing contests for high school students there are, how to apply, and what you could win !

Writing Contests With Multiple Categories

Some high school contests accept entries in a variety of formats, including the standard fiction and non-fiction, but also things like screenwriting or visual art. Check out these contests with multiple categories:

Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

• Award Amount: $1,000 to $12,500 scholarships
• Deadline: Varies between December and January, depending on your region
• Fee: $10 for single entry, $30 for portfolio

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards celebrate art by students in grades seven through twelve (age 13 or older) on a regional and national scale. These awards have a huge number of categories and styles, including cash prizes or scholarships for some distinguished award winners . Categories include science-fiction and fantasy writing, humor, critical essays, and dramatic scripts, among others.

Deadlines vary by region (but are mostly in December and January), so use Scholastic's Affiliate Partner search to find out when projects are due for your area.

Scholastic partners with other organizations to provide prizes to winners, so what you can win depends on what you enter and what competition level you reach. Gold medal portfolio winners can earn a $12,500 scholarship, and silver medal winners with distinction can earn a $2,000 scholarship , as well as many other options in different categories.

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards are open to private, public, or home-schooled students attending school in the US, Canada, or American schools in other countries. Students must be in grades seven through twelve to participate. Eligibility varies between regions, so consult Scholastic's Affiliate Partner search tool to figure out what applies to you .

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards have a $10 entry fee for individual submissions and $30 for portfolio submissions, which may be waived for students in need . These fees may vary depending on location, so be sure to check your local guidelines .

Ocean Awareness Contest

• Award Amount: Scholarships up to $1,500
• Deadline: June 13, 2023 (submissions open in September)

The Ocean Awareness Contest asks students to consider the future of a coastal or marine species that is under threat from climate change. Submissions are accepted in a variety of art forms, but all must consider the way that climate change impacts ocean life .

Submissions for all categories, including art, creative writing, film, interactive and multimedia, music and dance, and poetry and spoken word are due in June, although the exact date varies slightly each year.

Winners may receive prizes of up to a $1,500 scholarship , depending on which division they fall into and what prize they win.

The contest is open to all international and US students between the ages of 11 and 18.

River of Words

• Award: Publication in the River of Words anthology
• Deadline: January 31, 2023

The River of Words contest asks students to consider watersheds—an area that drains into the same body of water—and how they connect with their local community. Students can explore this concept in art or poetry, with winners being published in the annual River of Words anthology .

Entries in all categories must be submitted by January 31, 2023. 

The River of Words contest is primarily for recognition and publication, as the website doesn't list any prize money . The contest includes specific awards for certain forms, such as poetry, some of which may have additional prizes .

The contest is open to International and US students from kindergarten to grade 12 (ages 5 through 19). Students who have graduated from high school but are not yet in college are also eligible.

Adroit Prizes

• Award Amount: $200 cash award
• Deadline: Typically April of each year

Sponsored by the Adroit Journal, the Adroit Prizes reward high school students and undergraduate students for producing exemplary fiction and poetry. Students may submit up to six poems or three works of prose (totaling 3,500 words) for consideration. Submissions typically open in spring .

Winners receive $200 and (along with runners-up) have their works published in the Adroit Journal . Finalists and runners-up receive a copy of their judge's latest published work.

The contest is open to secondary and undergraduate students, including international students and those who have graduated early . The Adroit Prizes has a non-refundable fee of $15, which can be waived.

YoungArts Competition

• Award Amount: Up to $10,000 cash awards
• Deadline: October 15, 2022; application for 2024 opens June 2023

Open to students in a variety of disciplines, including visual arts, writing, and music, the YoungArts competition asks students to submit a portfolio of work. Additional requirements may apply depending on what artistic discipline you're in .

Winners can receive up to $10,000 in cash as well as professional development help, mentorship, and other educational rewards.

Applicants must be 15- to 18-year-old US citizens or permanent residents (including green card holders) or in grades 10 through 12 at the time of submission . There is a $35 submission fee, which can be waived.

Fiction Writing Contests for High School Students

Many contests with multiple categories accept fiction submissions, so also check out the above contests if you're looking for places to submit original prose.

EngineerGirl Writing Contest

• Award Amount: $100 - $500 cash prize
• Deadline: February 1, 2023

This year's EngineerGirl Writing Contest asks students (though the name of the organization is "EngineerGirl," students of any gender may participate) to submit a piece of writing that shows how female and/or non-white engineers have contributed to or can enhance engineering’s great achievements. Word counts vary depending on grade level.

At every grade level, first-place winners will receive $500, second-place winners will receive $250, and third-place winners will receive $100 . Winning entries and honorable mentions will also be published on the EngineerGirl website.

Students of any gender from third to 12th grade may submit to this contest. Home-schooled and international students are also eligible.

Nonfiction Contests for High School Students

Like fiction, non-fiction is often also accepted in contests with multiple categories. However, there are quite a few contests accepting only non-fiction essays as well.

The American Foreign Services Association Essay Contest

• Award Amount: $1,250 to $2,500
• Deadline: April 3, 2023

The American Foreign Services Association sponsors a high school essay contest tasking students with selecting a country or region in which the United States Foreign Service has been involved at any point since 1924 and describe, in 1,500 words or less, how the Foreign Service was successful or unsuccessful in advancing American foreign policy goals in this country/region and propose ways in which it might continue to improve those goals in the coming years .

One winner will receive $2,500 as well as a Washington D.C. trip and a scholarship to attend Semester at Sea . One runner-up receives $1,250 and a scholarship to attend the International Diplomacy Program of the National Student Leadership Conference.

Entries must be from US students in grade nine through 12, including students in the District of Columbia, US territories, or US citizens attending school abroad, including home-schooled students.

John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Contest

• Award Amount: $100 - $10,000
• Deadline: January 13, 2023

The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage contest tasks students with writing an essay between 700 and 1,000 words on an act of political courage by a US elected official serving during or after 1917 , inspired by John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage . Each essay should cover the act itself as well as any obstacles or risks the subject faced in achieving their act of courage. Essays must not cover figures previously covered in the contest, and should also not cover John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, or Edward M. Kennedy.

One first-place winner will receive $10,000, one second-place winner will receive $3,000, five finalists will receive $1,000 each, and eight semi-finalists will win $100 each.

The contest is open to students in grades nine through 12 who are residents of the United States attending public, private, parochial, or home schools . Students under the age of 20 in correspondence high school programs or GED programs, as well as students in US territories, Washington D.C., and students studying abroad, are also eligible.

SPJ/JEA High School Essay Contest

• Award Amount: $300 - $1,000 scholarships
• Deadline: February 19, 2023 (submissions open in November)

The SPJ/JEA high school essay contest , organized by the Society of Professional Journalists and the Journalism Education Association, asks students to  analyze the importance of independent media to our lives (as of now, the official essay topic for spring 2023 is TBD) . Essays should be from 300 to 500 words.

A $1,000 scholarship is given to a first-place winner, $500 to second-place, and $300 to third-place.

The contest is open to public, private, and home-schooled students of the United States in grades 9-12 .

Playwriting Contests for High School Students

For those who love the stage, playwriting contests are a great option. An original play can earn you great rewards thanks to any of these contests!

VSA Playwright Discovery Program Competition

• Award: Participation in professional development activities at the Kennedy Center
• Deadline: January 4, 2023 (Application opens in October)

The VSA Playwright Discovery Program Competition asks students with disabilities to submit a ten-minute script exploring their personal experiences, including the disability experience . Scripts may be realistic, fictional, or abstract, and may include plays, screenplays, or musical theater.

All entries are due in January. Scripts may be collaborative or written by individuals, but must include at least one person with a disability as part of the group .

One winner or group of winners will be selected as participants in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Winners will have access to professional assistance in developing their script as well as workshops and networking opportunities.

This contest is open to US and international students in ages 14 to 18 . Groups of up to five members may collaborate on an essay, but at least one of those students must have a disability.

Worldwide Plays Festival Competition

• Award: Professional production in New York
• Deadline: March (official 2023 deadline TBD)

In the Worldwide Plays Festival Competition , students from around the world can submit an eight-minute script for a play set in a part of a neighborhood —specifically, at a convenience store, outside a character's front door, or at a place where people convene. Each play must have roles for three actors, should not have a narrator who isn't also a character, and should not contain set changes.

Entries are due in February. Winners will have their play produced by professionals at an off-Broadway New York theater . Scholarships are also available for winners.

Any student, including US and international, in first through 12th grade may submit work for consideration.

• Award Amount: $50 - $200 cash prize
• Deadline: 2023 deadline TBD (application opens January 2023)

Students may submit a one-act, non-musical play of at least ten pages to YouthPLAYS for consideration . Plays should be appropriate for high school audiences and contain at least two characters, with one or more of those characters being youths in age-appropriate roles. Large casts with multiple female roles are encouraged.

One winner will receive $250, have their play published by YouthPLAYS, and receive a copy of Great Dialog , a program for writing dialog. One runner up will receive $100 and a copy of Great Dialog.

Students must be under the age of 19, and plays must be the work of a single author.

The Lewis Center Ten-Minute Play Contest

• Deadline: Spring of each year

Students in grade 11 may submit a ten-minute play for consideration for the Lewis Center Ten-Minute Play Contest . Plays should be 10 pages long, equivalent to 10 minutes.

One first-prize winner will receive $500, one second-prize winner will receive $250, and one third-prize will receive $100.

All entries must be from students in the 11th grade .

Poetry Writing Contests for High School Students

For those who prefer a little free verse or the constraints of a haiku, there are plenty of poetry-specific contests, too.

Creative Communications Poetry Contest

• Award Amount: $25
• Deadline: December

Students in ninth grade or below may submit any poem of 21 lines or less (not counting spaces between stanzas) for consideration in the Creative Communications Poetry Contest .

Students may win $25, a free book, and school supplies for their teacher .

Public, private, or home-schooled US students (including those in detention centers) in kindergarten through ninth grade may enter.

Leonard L. Milberg '53 High School Poetry Prize

• Award Amount: $500-$1500
• Deadline: November 

Students in 11th grade may submit up to three poems for consideration in the Leonard L. Milberg '53 High School Poetry Prize . Submissions are due in November .

One first-prize winner will receive $1500, one second-prize winner will receive $750, and a third-prize winner will receive $500. Poems may be published on arts.princeton.edu. All entrants must be in the 11th grade.

Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest

• Award Amount: $500 - $5,000 renewable scholarship, $350 cash prize
• Deadline: October 31, 2022

Women poets who are sophomores or juniors in high school may submit two poems for consideration for the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest .

One first-place winner will receive a $350 cash prize, publication in and ten copies of Cargoes , Hollins' student magazine, as well as a renewable scholarship of up to $5,000 for Hollins and free tuition and housing for the Hollinsummer creative writing program. One second-place winner will receive publication in and two copies of Cargoes, a renewable scholarship to Hollins of up to $1,000, and a $500 scholarship to attend Hollinsummer.

Applicants must be female students in their sophomore or junior year of high school .

What's Next?

If you're looking for more money opportunities for college , there are plenty of scholarships out there— including some pretty weird ones .

For those who've been buffing up their test scores , there are tons of scholarships , some in the thousands of dollars.

If you're tired of writing essays and applying for scholarships, consider some of these colleges that offer complete financial aid packages .

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Melissa Brinks graduated from the University of Washington in 2014 with a Bachelor's in English with a creative writing emphasis. She has spent several years tutoring K-12 students in many subjects, including in SAT prep, to help them prepare for their college education.

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THE QUEEN'S COMMONWEALTH ESSAY COMPETITION

Since 1883, we have delivered The Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition, the world's oldest international schools' writing competition. Today, we work to expand its reach, providing life-changing opportunities for young people around the world.

The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition 2024 is now closed for entries

Find out more about this year’s theme

'Our Common Wealth'.

140 years of The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition

The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition (QCEC) is the world’s oldest international writing competition for schools and has been proudly delivered by the Royal Commonwealth Society since 1883. 

ABOUT THE COMPETITION 

An opportunity for young Commonwealth citizens to share their thoughts, ideas and experiences on key global issues and have their hard work and achievement celebrated internationally.

Frequently Asked Questions for the Competition. Before contacting us please read these.

MEET THE WINNERS 

In 2023 we were delighted to receive a record-breaking 34,924 entries, with winners from India and Malaysia. Read their winning pieces as well as those from previous years.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Terms and Conditions for entrants to The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition. Please ensure you have thoroughly read them before submitting your entry.

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

23 Writing Competitions for High School Students

What’s covered:, why should you enter a writing competition, writing competitions for high school students, how do writing competitions affect my admissions chances.

Do you dream of writing the next great American novel? Are you passionate about poetry? Do you aspire to become a screenwriter? No matter what genre of writing you’re interested in—whether it’s fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or something else entirely—there’s a writing competition focused on it.

Writing competitions provide great motivation to put pen to paper (or finger to key). Moreover, they’re an excellent step toward getting published, and can ultimately start you on the path to becoming a professional writer.

One of the best ways to improve your writing is simply to write—and competitions provide an excellent impetus to do so. Writing competitions also serve as an introduction to what life is like for many writers; participants entering writing competitions will receive a prompt or must think of an original idea, compose a piece of work, and submit it for review.

Another benefit of entering a writing competition for high schoolers is that many offer cash awards and scholarships, which can be used to help with the costs of college.

Additionally, many writing competitions are run by colleges and universities, so submitting them is a great way to introduce faculty to yourself and your work. If you win an award—especially a prestigious award—it can significantly improve your odds of college acceptance.

1. The Adroit Prizes for Poetry and Prose

Type: Poetry and Prose

Submission Fee: $15

Prize: $200

Deadline: May 1, 2023

Eligibility:

• All secondary and undergraduate students

Guidelines:

• Each student may send up to five total submissions across the genres of poetry and prose
• Each poetry submission may include up to six poems (maximum of ten pages single-spaced). Each prose submission may include up to three works of fiction or creative nonfiction (combined word limit of 3,500 words; excerpts are acceptable).

Adroit Prizes are awarded to emerging high school and college writers in two categories: poetry and prose. Winning pieces are considered for publication in the Adroit Journal and winners receive an award of $200. The 2023 judges are Natalie Diaz and Ocean Vuong.

2. Ten-Minute Play Contest

Type: Plays

Submission Fee: N/A

Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024

Eligibility: Students in the eleventh grade in the U.S. (or international equivalent of the eleventh grade)

Guidelines: Applicants may submit only one play (10 pages maximum)

The Ten-Minute Play Contest is put on by Princeton University’s Lewis Center of the Arts. Applicants are allowed to submit one play that is no longer than 10 pages. Their submissions are judged by members of Princeton University’s Theater Program faculty.

3. Ayn Rand Anthem and The Fountainhead Essay Contests

Type: Essays

• Anthem: $2,000
• The Fountainhead : $5,000
• Anthem: Grades 8-12
• The Fountainhead : Grades 11-12
• Anthem: Essays must be written in English only and between 600 and 1,200 words in length, double-spaced
• The Fountainhead: Essays must be written in English only and between 800 and 1,600 words in length, double-spaced

In this essay competition, students pick one of three prompts about a topic related to Ayn Rand’s books and write an essay that goes through three stages of grading. Students are graded on their clarity, organization, understanding, and ability to stay “on topic.”

4. Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize

Type: Poetry

Prize: $500-$1,500

Eligibility: Students must be in the 11th grade in the U.S. or abroad

Guidelines: Applicants may submit up to 3 poems

The Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize is another contest run by Princeton University’s Lewis Center of the Arts. Winners are chosen by judges who are both poets and members of Princeton University’s creative writing faculty. Three monetary awards are available.

5. World Historian Student Essay Competition

Prize: $500

Eligibility: Students enrolled in grades K–12 in public, private, and parochial schools, and those in home-study programs

Guidelines: Essays should be approximately 1,000 words

Winners of this competition receive a $500 prize along with a free yearlong membership to the World History Association . To apply, you must submit an approximately 1,000-word essay responding to the following prompt:

• Submit an essay that addresses the following topic and discusses how it relates to you personally and to World History: Your view of a family story related to a historical event or your personal family cultural background, or an issue of personal relevance or specific regional history/knowledge.

6. Jane Austen Society of North America Essay Contest

Prize: $250-$1,000

Deadline: June 1, 2023

Eligibility: Open to high school, undergraduate, and graduate students

• Must be submitted by the student through the official Essay Contest Submission website
• Entries may include a statement about the student’s mentor; however, a mentor statement is not required
• The essay must be 6-8 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page
• The essay must use MLA documentation, including a Works Cited page and parenthetical citations in the body of the text. Use endnotes only for substantive notes. Source material that is directly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized must be cited. Quotations from the Jane Austen work under discussion should be cited as well.

The Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) Essay Contest is an annual writing competition aimed at fostering an appreciation for its namesake’s work. The contest is broken down into three divisions—high school, college/university, and graduate school.

First-place winners are awarded a $1,000 prize along with free registration and lodging for two nights at JASNA’s Annual General Meeting—smaller monetary awards are also given to second- and third-place essayists.

This year’s essay topic:

• In Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen’s other novels, we see proposals and marriages that are motivated by love, as well as those that are better described as arranged marriages or marriages of convenience. Many cultures today also expect arranged marriages (not the same as forced). In your essay, compare and discuss the different types of marriages or courtships found in the novels, whether those relationships are new or longstanding.

7. Bennington College Young Writers Awards

Type: Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction

Deadline: November 1, 2023

Eligibility: Students in grades 9-12

• Poetry: A group of three poems
• Fiction: A short story (1,500 words or fewer) or one-act play (run no more than 30 minutes of playing time)
• Nonfiction: A personal or academic essay (1,500 words or fewer)

Bennington College has a strong history of developing writers—it’s produced twelve Pulitzer Prize winners, three U.S. poet laureates, and countless New York Times bestsellers—and the Bennington College Young Writers Awards celebrate this legacy.

In addition to offering cash awards to winners and finalists in all three categories, winners and finalists who apply and are accepted to Bennington College are also eligible for substantial scholarships.

8. Rachel Carson Intergenerational Sense of Wonder/Sense of the Wild Contest

Type: Poetry and Essays

Deadline: November 16, 2023

• You are required to have a team of 2 or more people
• The team must be intergenerational

Guidelines: Maximum length of 500 words (approximately 2 pages)

This unique writing competition requires that entries must be submitted by a team of two people from different generations—for example, a high school student and a teacher. Contestants can compete in a number of categories and themes, each with unique submission requirements.

9. NSHSS Creative Writing Scholarship

Type: Fiction and Poetry

Prize: $2,000

Deadline: October 2, 2023

Eligibility: Rising high school students graduating in 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, and recently graduated 2023 seniors

• Poetry: Students may submit their original poetry in any style, from formal verse to free verse to experimental. The poem should be formatted as you wish it to appear in the publication.
• Fiction: Students may submit a piece of short fiction, which must be no more than 5,000 words and should not be single-spaced. The entry may be any genre of the student’s choice, including graphic novel or story.
• Must submit educator recommendation, academic resume, and current transcript with application

Winning works for this competition are chosen based on their creativity, technique, expression, and originality. Three winners are chosen in each category and each winner receives a $2,000 prize.

10. John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Contest

Prize: $100-$10,000

Eligibility: The contest is open to United States high school students in grades 9-12, U.S. students under the age of twenty enrolled in a high school correspondence/GED program,  and U.S. citizens attending schools overseas.

• Essays can be no more than 1,000 words but must be a minimum of 700 words. Citations and bibliography are not included in the word count.
• Essays must have a minimum of five sources.

The prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Contest is one of the most recognizable and prestigious writing competitions for high schoolers in the nation. Essays for the contest are required to describe an act of political courage by a U.S. elected official who served during or after 1917. The first-place winner of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Contest takes home a $10,000 award and second place receives a $3,000 prize.

11. YoungArts National Writing Competition

Deadline: Opens June 2023

Eligibility: 15- to 18-year-old visual, literary, or performing artist based in the United States

Guidelines: To be released

YoungArts supports talented young artists between the ages of 15 and 18 (or grades 10-12) in 10 disciplines, including writing. Applicants can submit entries in six genres—creative nonfiction, novel, play or script, poetry, short story, and spoken word.

12. SPJ/JEA High School Essay Contest

Submission Fee: $5

Prize: $300-$1,000

Eligibility: All students enrolled in grades 9-12 in U.S. public, private and home schools within the United States

• The essay should be 300-500 words
• Entries may be typed or handwritten but must be double-spaced

This high school writing contest is presented by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the Journalism Education Association (JEA) to increase awareness of the importance of independent media.

Last year’s prompt was:

• While consumers are drawn toward tweets and sound bites, how can journalists tell more of the story without losing readers’ interest?

13. VSA Playwright Discovery Program Competitions

Eligibility: High school students with disabilities

• 10-minute script
• Entries may be the work of an individual student or a collaboration between two students that includes at least one student with a disability

This writing competition, presented by the Kennedy Center, is open to students ages 15-18 (or enrolled in high school) with disabilities. Writers may submit a “ten-minute” script in any genre, including plays, musicals, multimedia, video, film, TV, and podcasts.

Entries can be the work of an individual or the product of collaboration—provided that at least one of the collaborators has a disability. Multiple winners are chosen and given the chance to work with industry professionals, attend Kennedy Center professional development activities, and participate in networking opportunities.

14. Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest

Prize: $350

Eligibility: Women who are sophomores or juniors in high school or preparatory school

Guidelines: No more than two poems by any one student may be submitted

For almost six decades, the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest has provided recognition, scholarships, and awards to the best female high school sophomore and junior poets. Submissions are reviewed by faculty members of Hollins University’s creative writing program and students enrolled in its M.F.A. in creative writing.

The first-place winner receives a $350 cash prize, a renewable $5,000 scholarship to Hollins University if they choose to enroll there, as well as free tuition and housing at the university’s Hollinsummer creative writing program. Their winning work is also published in Cargoes , the university’s student literary magazine.

15. Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

Type: Various

Submission Fee: $10 for individual entry, $30 for portfolio (can use Fee Waiver Form)

Prize: Varies

Deadline: Opens in September

Eligibility: Teens in grades 7–12 (ages 13 and up)

Guidelines: Varies by category

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is the nation’s longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens. They offer 28 submission categories, including writing, critical essay, dramatic scripts, flash fiction, journalism, humor, novel writing, personal essay and memoir, poetry, science fiction and fantasy, and short story.

Works are judged by famous jurors who look for works that show originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. Students can earn a variety of scholarships through success in these competitions.

Works that celebrate individual differences or personal grief, loss, and bereavement are eligible for $1,000 scholarships. High school seniors submitting winning portfolios of six works are eligible for up to $12,500 in scholarships.

16. Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest

Type: Creative Writing and Poetry

Prize: $100-$1,500

Deadline: June 13, 2023

• Students ages 11-18 from around the world
• Students can participate as an individual or as a club, class, or group of any size
• All students must provide the contact information for an Adult Sponsor (teacher, parent, mentor, etc.)
• Creative Writing: no more than 5 pages (approximately 1,250 words)
• Poetry: no more than 2 pages
• A written reflection is required to accompany your submission, regardless of category. It is like the introduction to a book or an artist’s statement in a museum.

The 12th annual Ocean Awareness Contest is a platform for young people to learn about environmental issues through art-making and creative communication, explore their relationship to a changing world, and become advocates for positive change. Students can participate in six different categories, including poetry and spoken word, and creative writing.

This year’s prompt centers around climate issues:

• Research and choose an inspirational scientist, activist, artist, educator, or other hero who is working to solve climate change issues. Create a piece of art, writing, or media that highlights their efforts, organizations, and/or positive impacts. We are familiar with the amazing work of environmental giants like Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough. We challenge you to introduce the Bow Seat community to a Climate Hero whose work we may not know about yet – but should.

17. John Locke Global Essay Competition

Submission Fee: N/A (unless late entry)

Prize: $2,000-$10,000 toward attending any John Locke Institute program

Deadline: June 30, 2023 (must register by May 31, 2023)

Eligibility: Candidates must be no older than 18 years old on June 30, 2023 (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be no older than 14 on the same date)

Guidelines: Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2,000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, footnotes, bibliography, or authorship declaration)

Students competing in this competition have the opportunity to write an essay in one of seven categories—philosophy, politics, economics, history, psychology, theology, and law. Each category has three prompts, from which students choose and respond to one.

Essays are judged on knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style, and persuasive force.

If you miss the deadline, you can submit a late entry up until July 10. Late entries will be charged a $20 late fee.

18. AFSA National High School Essay Contest

Prize: $2,500

• Students whose parents are not in the Foreign Service are eligible to participate.
• Students must be in grades 9-12 in any of the 50 states, Washington, D.C, the U.S. territories, or—if they are U.S. citizens/lawful permanent residents —attending high school overseas.

Guidelines: Your essay should be at least 1,000 words but should not exceed 1,500 words (word count does not apply to the list of sources)

The AFSA Essay Contest focuses on knowledge of foreign policy and the American Foreign Service. Last year’s prompt was:

• In your essay, you will select a country or region in which the United States Foreign Service has been involved at any point since 1924 and describe, in 1,500 words or less, how the Foreign Service was successful or unsuccessful in advancing American foreign policy goals – including promoting peace – in this country/region and propose ways in which it might continue to improve those goals in the coming years.

The first-place winner receives $2,500, a paid trip to the nation’s capital with their parents from anywhere in the U.S., and an all-expenses-paid educational voyage courtesy of Semester at Sea. The runner-up wins $1,250 and full tuition to attend a summer session of the National Student Leadership Conference’s International Diplomacy program.

19. EngineerGirl Writing Contest

Prize: $100-$500

• The contest is open to individual students in the following three competition categories—Elementary School Students (grades 3-5), Middle School Students (grades 6-8), or High School Students (grades 9-12).
• You can also qualify with corresponding homeschool or international grade levels.
• High school student essays must be no more than 750 words
• You must also include a reference list of 3-10 resources

In this competition, students choose one of four prompts related to the 20 Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century and explore the technologies that have been developed in the last century and technologies that are being developed today. Students are judged based on their presentation and examples of engineering (~35%), their celebration of diversity (~50%), and their quality of writing (~15%).

20. The Blank Theatre Young Playwright’s Festival

Prize: Play is produced

Eligibility: Playwrights must be 19 years old or younger as of March 15, 2023; co-authored plays are welcome, provided all authors are 19 or younger

• Original plays or musicals of any length or genre and on any subject
• Up to three plays per playwright or team

While winners of this theater competition do not receive a cash prize, they have the unique opportunity to be mentored by leaders in the field, then will have their play directed and performed by professional artists during the following summer. The 12 best submissions are produced and professionally performed.

21. Saint Mary’s College of California River of Words Contest

Type: Poetry and Arts

• The contest is open to K-12 students, ages 5-19
• Students must be enrolled in school to be eligible
• Participants may submit up to 5 entries for poetry and 5 entries for art (total of up to 10 entries)
• Poems should not exceed 32 lines in length (written) or 3 minutes (signed)
• Collaborative poems and artwork are accepted, but only one student (chosen as the group representative) will be eligible for any prizes awarded

The River of Words contest aims to promote environmental literacy through the exchange of arts and culture. River of Words has been inspiring educators and students through this competition for over 25 years.

The goal of River of Words is to connect youth with their watersheds—the environments they live in—through engagement with art and poetry related to the idea of “place.” They look for art and poetry that shows the connection between students and the worlds around them.

22. Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest

Prize: $10,000

Deadline: November 6, 2023

Eligibility: Open to all 12th grade, college, and graduate students worldwide

Guidelines: Essays must be between 800 and 1,600 words in length

In this essay competition, high school seniors pick one of three prompts about a topic related to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and write an essay that goes through three stages of grading. Students are graded on their clarity, organization, understanding, and ability to stay “on topic.”

23. Writopia Lab’s Worldwide Plays Festival

Prize: Play produced

Eligibility: Playwrights ages 6 to 18

• 8 minutes maximum
• Any genre or style
• Plays should have no more than three characters
• There can be no narrator of the play who is not emotionally invested in the story
• Students must incorporate at least one of the following props or costumes —blue plates, a yellow blouse, a Valentine’s heart with the word “Love,” a flower crown, a plush hotdog, a Mardi Gras bead with jester heads, a pack of clothespins, Russian nesting dolls, a set of miniature cymbals, a lavender blouse, a lei, or a roll of aluminum foil

Since 2010, Writopia Lab has been producing, designing, and directing one-act plays submitted by young playwrights. These winning plays are then performed by New York City theater professionals. The contest looks for playwrights who embody fearlessness and imagination. Writopia Lab says, “Write deeply! Write fiercely! Write politically and personally! And don’t be afraid to write with a sense of play – they are called plays, after all.”

While we can’t know exactly how activities outside of the classroom will affect your college admissions odds, the 4 Tiers of Extracurricular Activities provide a helpful framework for understanding how colleges view your extracurriculars.

Extracurricular activities in Tiers 1 and 2 are reserved for the most exclusive and acclaimed awards, and can significantly improve your odds of college admission. By contrast, Tiers 3 and 4 are reserved for more common extracurriculars, and have less of an impact on your chances of college admission.

For example, if you place in a nationally renowned writing competition—a Tier 2 activity—this will positively affect your admissions chances. On the other hand, if you receive an honorable mention in your high school’s poetry contest—a Tier 4 activity—your admissions chances will not be significantly affected.

That said, if you are applying to an English Literature or Creative Writing program with a well-developed essay and recommendations that emphasize your commitment to language, participation in Tier 3 and 4 writing competitions could help admissions officers conceptualize your passion for your future career.

Curious how the writing competition you participated in will affect your college admission chances? CollegeVine can help! Our free chancing calculator uses a variety of factors—including grades, test scores, and extracurriculars—to estimate your odds of getting into hundreds of colleges and universities, while also providing insight into how to improve your profile.

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This Is Fictional

The Big List of UK Writing Competitions & Awards 2024 (Part 1)

This one's a biggie.

Hello writery pals!

*Fanfare music* Welcome to the big list of 50 writing competitions and awards for UK writers in 2024.

Whether you write novels, short stories, flash fiction, poetry, prose poetry or anything in between , whether you’re unpublished or published, there’s something for everyone.

The opportunities below come along with some impressive prizes. From free places on writing retreats (I’m dying to go on one of these!) and mentoring with industry experts, to tens of thousands of pounds in cash prizes.

Disclaimers — sounds boring but, trust me, they’re worth reading

If you’re a new writer, I’d recommend going only with the free entry opportunities in the first instance. Tip: search this page for the word ‘free’ to find them quicker.

The more prestigious awards on this list are highly competitive and some have more expensive entry fees than others, so only go with what you can afford.

Most of the bigger competitions also offer a number of free or sponsored entries for writers on low incomes.

For any opportunities you’re particularly interested in, I’d recommend signing up to the organisation’s mailing list (most of them have one) and following them on social media for updates. I say this because some deadlines or competition details may change as organisations gear up for the 2024 round.

Always make sure you read the full T&Cs for any opportunity you enter.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. There are tons of other amazing opportunities out there, some still to be announced. If there are any you think should be added to this list, let me know in the comments.

Happy writing!

The Big List of UK Writing Competitions & Awards 2024 — Part 1

New Writers - Flash Fiction Competition

This flash competition is open to writers from around the world. Entries should be 300 words maximum. New Writers is offering a top prize of £1,000, a second prize of £300 and a third prize of £200. The deadline is midnight (UK time) on Wednesday 31st January 2024 and £1.00 from each entry will be donated to First Story.

Entry fee: from £10

Deadline: 31st January 2024

Story Unlikely - Short Story Contest

There are no restrictions on genre for this contest. Story Unlikely says, “we don't care as long as it's written and told with quality and care.” The word limit is 4,500. The competition is open to writers of any age and location. 

A prize package of $1,000- $1,500 will be divided up into: $750 first place, $500 second place, $250 third place. The winning story will be featured on Story Unlikely’s website and will be strongly considered for their annual print sample magazine.

Entry fee: unknown but looks like it’s free

Bath Flash Fiction Award

Submit your best flash fiction to this industry favourite award at 300 words or less. 50 longlisted writers will be offered publication in the end of year print and digital anthology. Longlistees will also receive a free print copy. £1,000 prize for the winner, £300 second and £100 third. Two commendations will receive £30 each.

Entry fee: from £7.50

Deadline: 4th February 2023

Curtis Brown Creative - Gillian McAllister Novel-Writing Scholarship for Disabled Writers

The Gillian McAllister Novel-Writing Scholarship for Disabled Writers awards one disabled writer a free place on their online Writing Your Novel – Three Months course. With weekly teaching and workshopping from author Christopher Wakling on CBC’s interactive platform, the winner will also receive one-to-one tutorials and advice from authors and literary agents. 

The course will help the winning writer hone your craft and develop their novel. 

Entry fee: free

Deadline: 11th February 2024

Writers' & Artists' Short Story Competition 2024

W&A’s free annual short story competition offers the winner a place on an Arvon Residential Writing Week (worth £850) as well as publication on our site.

To enter, all you have to do is submit a short story (for adults) of no more than 2,000 words on the theme of risk via our online competition form. Make sure you have a (free) account on their website. 

Deadline: 12th February 2024

The Watson, Little x Indie Novella Prize

Founded in 1971, Watson, Little Ltd is a long-established literary agency offering a full service to its clients across all aspects of media. 

Indie Novella is an online hub providing free advisory services to aspiring writers and a free online forum to help make novel writing and publishing more transparent and accessible. In celebration of this commitment, they are jointly launching a Fiction Prize for emerging writers.

The Prize is for fiction of all lengths (novels, novellas or stories), open to all unpublished (self-published also accepted) UK-based authors aged 16 and over. Writers are invited to write to fit one of three themes.

Deadline: 14th February 2024

The Rhys Davies Short Story Competition

The Rhys Davies Short Story Competition is a distinguished national writing competition for writers born or living in Wales. The first prize is £1,000 and publication in a short story anthology to be published by Parthian Books. 11 x finalists will win £100 each and publication in the anthology.

Entry fee: £8

Deadline: 15th February 2024

Next Generation Short Story Awards

The 2024 Next Generation Short Story Awards is open to all authors, even first time authors, in the USA, Canada or internationally, who have an original short story of 5,000 words or less. Entries should be previously unpublished and written in English.

Entry fee: from $20

Deadline: 28th February 2024

The London Library - Emerging Writers Programme

The London Library Emerging Writers Programme is a unique opportunity which offers writers, in all genres and disciplines, one year’s free membership of The London Library and includes writing development masterclasses, networking opportunities, peer support, access to and guidance in using all the Library’s resources and publication in the cohort anthology. 

The Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition

Every year since 2014, the CWA and the Margery Allingham Society have jointly held an international short story competition. The word limit on this one is 3,500.

The goal of this competition is to find the best unpublished short mystery, one which fits into Golden Age crime writer Margery Allingham’s definition of what makes a great mystery story.

Entries are welcomed from published and unpublished writers, written in English. The prize for the winner is £500. 

Entry fee: £18

Deadline: 29th February 2024

Scottish Arts Trust - Edinburgh Short Story Award 2024

The Edinburgh Short Story Award is open to writers everywhere with stories on any topic up to 2,000 words. The first prize is £3,000 and there’s a £750 prize for the top entry by an unpublished writer living in Scotland. 

Entry fee: £10 per story

Deadline: 29th February 2024 

P.S. Check out the other awards from the Scottish Arts Trust including the Write Mango Award and Isobel Lodge Award. Entries for these close at the same time as the Short Story Award.

The Kelpies Prize for Writing 2024

The Kelpies Prize for Writing is for writers in Scotland who are keen to start a career in children’s books. The prize package includes a mentorship with an experienced editorial team, consideration for a publishing deal and £500 cash, “which we hope will help our winner take their first steps as a children’s author.”

Anthology Poetry Competition

Established to recognise excellence in the craft of poetry writing and provide a platform for publication, the Anthology Poetry Competition is open to original and previously unpublished poems written in English. Entries are welcomed from poets of all nationalities, living anywhere in the world. 

There is no restriction on theme or style. Poems submitted should be 40 lines or less. There is no limit on the number of entries per person. Each submission requires a separate entry form and will be subject to a separate entry fee.

The winner will receive a €1,000 cash prize and the chance to see their work published in a future issue of Anthology. The winner will also receive a one-year subscription to Anthology. Second place: €250. Third place: €150.

Entry fee: €10

Deadline: 27th February 2024 for very early bird entry fee

BBC National Short Story Award

This is one of the most significant short story competitions in the UK. The prize is awarded yearly by the BBC. Writers entering this award must have a prior record of publishing creative work in the UK (so this one is for established writers only). Stories up to 8,000 words are accepted and may be submitted by the author or by their agent. First place: £15,000.

Deadline: estimated March 2024

Tempest Prize

The Tempest Prize will award one unpublished LGBTQ+ writer based in the North of England a £1000 bursary, mentoring from Andrew McMillan and access to the Northern Writers’ Awards Talent Network. It will be open between February and March 2024 to submissions of poetry, fiction and narrative non-fiction. The prize will be judged by Andrew and a co-judge still to be announced.

Andrew McMillan is the writer of award-winning poetry collections physical, pandemonium and playtime and his highly anticipated debut novel, Pity, is due for publication by Canongate in 2024. The Tempest Prize is the second to be set up and funded by a previous award-winner, after author Benjamin Myers inaugurated the Finchale Prize for Short Fiction in 2022.

Entry fee: unknown

P.S. It looks like there’s no website yet so follow Andrew on social media and keep an eye out for this one. 

Forward Prizes for Poetry

This is the largest annual poetry competition in the UK. The prize recognises the best collection, best first collection and best single poem in the UK each year. All works put forward for the prize will also be considered for publication in The Forward Book Of Poetry, an annual anthology. Entries must be published works and individual poets cannot enter their own work. There’s up to £5,000 to be won depending on the category you enter.

The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction 2024

The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction (The Smokey) is a biennial competition celebrating excellence in flash.

The grand prize winner of The Smokey is automatically nominated for The Best Small Fictions, The Pushcart, Best of the Net and any other prize deemed appropriate. They’ll also pay the grand prize winner $2,500. Second place: $1,000. Third place: $500. Finalists: $100.

Entry fee: $14

Deadline: 1st March 2024

The Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize 2024

This prize is awarded for the best piece of writing on the theme of the Alpine Fellowship 2024 – to be announced. The winner will receive a cash prize and the runners up will receive travel expense support to attend the 2024 symposium. First place: £3,000. Second place: £1,000. Third place: £1,000

Entry fee: unknown 

PFD Queer Fiction Prize

PFD (Peters, Fraser and Dunlop) runs a Queer Fiction Prize for new LGBTQIA+ writers to find emerging talent. Winners will be signed to PFD and supported in completing their novels. There are two separate categories: Adult and YA & Children’s Fiction.

Any un-agented LGBTQIA+ writer who is in the process of writing a piece of fiction is eligible to enter. Submissions do not necessarily have to be about LGBTQIA+ experiences, though they do especially want stories with LGBTQIA+ characters or themes.

Works do not need to be complete as the prize will provide representation and support in writing to the end of your novel.

The 2024 International Book & Pamphlet Competition

Poets with a collection drafted, this one is for you! This is The Poetry Business’s 38th International Book & Pamphlet Competition, judged by Jane Clarke.

The two winning collections will be beautifully produced and promoted widely and entered for all eligible awards and prizes. They will also be sold in bookshops throughout the UK and through online stockists of The Poetry Business publications.

Entrants should submit a collection of 20 pages of poetry. The two winners will receive £500 each, publication in The North magazine, a reading at The Wordsworth Trust and a place on a residential writing course. Two runners-up will receive publication in East of The North plus an online reading and an honorarium of £100 each.

Entry fee: £29

Deadline: 6th March 2024

Neil Gunn Writing Competition

Poetry and short story entries are welcome for the Neil Gunn Writing Competition. In their entry, writers should respond to this line from Bloodhunt by Neil Gunn: “Mystery. That was the last word, the word you came to at the end. No corner of its coverlet could you lift.”

Entry fee: £10 per single entry or £18 for both a poem and short story

Deadline: 8th March 2023

The Plaza Prose Poetry Prize

A rare one for all you prose poets! The Plaza Prose Poetry Prize aims to shine a light on this exciting hybrid form. They welcome prose poems, up to 50 lines, and encourage writers to be experimental and play with readers' expectations. First prize: £750. Second prize: £200. Third prize: £50

Entry fee: £11 (£5 per additional entry) 

Deadline: 31st March 2024

P.S. The Plaza Prizes has a host of other awards including crime, memoir, microfiction, audio poetry and much more. Check out the website for more information. 

Anthology Short Story Competition

The Anthology Short Story Competition is open to original and previously unpublished short stories, written in English, by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. 

There are no restrictions on theme or style. There is a maximum word count of 1,500 words. Writers can submit as many entries as they like. Each submission will require a separate entry form and entry fee.

The winner will receive €1,000 and the winning story will be published in a future issue of Anthology. Second place: €250. Third place: €150.

Entry fee: €15

Deadline: 31st March 2024 for early bird entry fee

Anne Brown Essay Prize 2024

The Anne Brown Essay Prize awards £1500 for the best literary essay by a writer in or from Scotland. Essays can be on any topic, with a maximum word count of 4,000. Unpublished essays are especially welcome.

The Deborah Rogers Foundation – The Writers Award

This writer’s award was the first initiative of the Deborah Rogers Foundation. It was set up in 2015 in memory of the much loved and respected literary agent, Deborah Rogers. 

In keeping with Deborah’s special talent for nurturing emerging writers, the Award offers a substantial prize. £10,000 will go to a previously unpublished writer whose submission of 15,000- 20,000 words demonstrates literary talent and who needs financial support to complete their first book. The submitted work can be fiction, non-fiction, children’s or short stories. Applicants must reside in the British Commonwealth or Eire. Two shortlisted authors will win £1,000 each.

Entry fee: estimated £6

Deadline: estimated 31st March 2024

Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize

The Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize was established in 2019 as a celebration of the short story form and the resilience of independent booksellers. Funded by Brick Lane Bookshop, the competition is open to all UK residents and seeks to discover, publish and promote new, exciting and diverse voices in fiction. The prize is run by former Brick Lane Bookseller, Kate Ellis.

Each year, they invite a writer, a publisher and a literary agent to judge the competition. From a longlist of 12, they select a shortlist of six and three prize winners. The first prize is £1,000.

The 12 longlisted stories are published in their anthology which is available to buy from their website, Brick Lane Bookshop and many other good bookshops.

Deadline: estimated April 2024 (check Brick Lane Bookshop to confirm)

Bristol Short Story Prize 2024

The Bristol Short Story Prize is an international writing competition based in Bristol, UK which aims to publish great short stories and promote writers as much as possible. Discovering previously unpublished writers is central to their mission. They are committed to celebrating the short story form and making it accessible and available to as wide an audience as possible.

First prize: £1,000.

Entry fee: £9

Deadline: estimated 26th April 2024 (check Bristol Short Story Prize to confirm)

Jane Austen Literacy Foundation Short Story Competition

The Jane Austen Literacy Foundation Short Story Writing Competition is an international competition for new and experienced writers.

Three winning stories, selected by a panel including Jane Austen’s family, will be recorded as an audiobook by multi-award-winning narrator, Alison Larkin, and published worldwide to raise money for literacy projects in developing communities.

Deadline: 28th April 2024

Belfast Book Festival - Mairtín Crawford Award

The Mairtín Crawford Award invites writers working towards their first full collection of poetry, short stories or a novel. Both published and unpublished writers are welcome to submit between 3-5 poems for the poetry award and a short story of up to 2,500 words for the short story award. The only stipulation is you can’t already have a published collection of poetry, short stories or a novel.

The winner of each award will receive a £500 cash prize. Each winner will also receive a ‘Time to Write’ package which includes a 3-night stay at Bullitt Hotel Belfast and 4 days of dedicated writing space in The Crescent. Two finalists for each category will receive a £250 cash prize.

Deadline: estimated 1st May 2024

The Creative Future Writers’ Award

The Creative Future Writers’ Award (CFWA) is a national writing development programme celebrating talented, underrepresented writers who lack opportunities due to mental health issues, disability, health or social circumstance.

The prizes sound amazing! They include £20,000 and top writing development prizes supplied by publishers and development agencies. 

Deadline: estimated 14th May 2024

SI Leeds Literary Prize

The SI Leeds Literary Prize is for unpublished fiction by UK-based Black and Asian women, aged 18 and above. The aim of the prize is to act as a loudspeaker for fresh literary voices from under-represented groups and to help them reach new audiences in the mainstream.

The writer of the winning entry in 2022 was awarded of £4,000 and a range of additional valuable benefits through the prize’s unique writer development scheme, including: a free place at an Arvon creative writing course, free manuscript assessment of their work from The Literary Consultancy, an invitation to New Writing North’s London summer salon event for publishers and agents, workshops and support, speaking engagements and serious consideration for publication by Peepal Tree Press.

Entry fee: £10 but they do have a number of free entry bursaries for writers on a low income

Deadline: estimated 25th April 2024

Bridport Prizes - Short Story Competition

One of the largest short story prizes. The winning story will features in the Bridport Prize anthology, so you will see your words in print, maybe for the first time. The first place prize is £5,000. You will be invited to the awards celebration and get feedback from the judges and professional partners. Bridport will also champion you and your work. Second place: £1,000. Third place: £500. 

Entry fee: from £11

Deadline: May 31st 2024

BPA First Novel Award 2024

This award is open to unrepresented and unpublished authors for a novel in any adult fiction genre.

The winner receives £1,000 and an introduction with an agent. The runner up will get £500 and an introduction with an agent. And the highly commended writer will receive £150 and an introduction with an agent.

Entry fee: £24

Deadline: estimated 31st May 2024

Bath Novel Award 2024

The Bath Novel Award is an international writing competition based in Bath, UK for writers of novels in every genre. Now in its 10th year, the prize celebrates emerging authors who may be unpublished, self-published or independently-published. 

First prize: £5,000 with full manuscript feedback for shortlistees and extract feedback for all listees. Additional longlist prize of a £1,800 course with the Professional Writing Academy & Cornerstones Literary Consultancy 

Entry fee: £29.99 with sponsored places available for writers on a low income

Deadline: 31 May 2024

Jenny Brown Associates – Over 50 Award

Open to all writers over 50, this award was created to address the lack of literary opportunities available to older writers eager to break into the publishing industry. The award also aims to celebrate and value the collected, distilled wisdom and a lifetime of reading and experience of writers over 50. 

Debut novelists are invited to submit the first 5,000 words of their novels. The prize will consist of £1,000 and a week’s residential placement at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre (the dream!) for the winner. The runners up will receive mentoring sessions with experienced writers, editors and agents as appropriate.

Deadline: estimated 31st May 2024 (check the Jenny Brown Associates website for more details) 

As well as compiling this list, I’ve also created a deadline calendar for you, populated with all 50 opportunities! This will make it even easier to keep up to date with writing competitions and awards throughout the year and never miss a deadline.

Read Part 2 and get the deadline calendar link

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Arts | Hopkins researchers launch writing contest to…

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Arts | hopkins researchers launch writing contest to learn about how the brain processes stories.

Now, a research team at the Johns Hopkins University is asking for the public’s help in mapping the areas of the brain that kick into high gear every time we read a new Stephen King novel or see a “Deadpool” sequel, or watch reruns of “Doctor Who.”

It turns out that telling and listening to tales isn’t just fun — it’s a key survival strategy.

“Understanding stories is part of the fundamental anatomy of the brain,” said Janice Chen, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins, “and it’s a very robust brain system that you find in everyone.”

Chen said different regions of the brain tune into characters or location, while others are devoted to what could be described as the plot.

“If you think about it, your life is made up of a series of events. And each one of those events is a story,” she said.

But Chen doesn’t study literature. She studies how neural systems support memory. And she’s especially interested in a group of high-level brain regions, known as the “default mode network,” that appear to be involved in episodic memories, or those that spring from personal experience.

Many of her experiments involve putting subjects into an “fMRI” — a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine  — and recording their brain activity as they read a book, watch a movie or talk about an episode of a favorite TV show.

Chen thought members of the public might enjoy helping to design her team’s research studies. How often does the average Baltimorean get a chance to don an imaginary white lab coat, to become Doctor You?

So she reached out to her colleague, Dora Malech, an associate professor in Hopkins’ Writing Seminars and editor in chief of The Hopkins Review literary journal, and asked for her help in devising a short story contest.

The fMRI Writing Prize contest , which runs through July 31, is for a piece of original, unpublished “flash fiction” or a very short story of between about 500 and 1,500 words. It is open to high school students and adults who live, work or study in Baltimore.

“We thought it would be an accessible way to engage the public in science experiments taking place at Hopkins,” Malech said. “There are overlapping questions about what makes enduring art and how art affects memory.”

Two winners — one aged 14 to 18, and one adult — will be selected to receive a $500 prize based on standard literary criteria as well as whether their work contains attributes useful to the researchers.

Chen, for instance, is interested in stories that have unusual narrative structures instead of unfolding chronologically. Sammy Tavasoli, who is studying for her doctorate in brain sciences, is intrigued by memories of emotional events, while scientist Christopher Honey is looking into why some stories linger in the brain for weeks or months after the reader has turned the last page.

The winning stories will be published in the Hopkins Review. Their authors also will receive a tour of the lab where the research is being conducted, plus a framed computer image showing the brain activity of study participants as they read the winning submissions.

Iris Lee, who has worked in Chen’s lab and who will begin graduate school in creative writing this fall, said that because the material collected in the contest will be used for a variety of studies, researchers aren’t looking for any particular type of story. A whodunit is as likely to win as a historical romance.

“Authors can experiment with plot,” she said. “They can experiment with time and write stories that cross generations and that show how the past and future affect one another.”

The winning submissions will be used in experiments exploring the link between narrative and memory, a relationship that helped our species persist from one generation to the next. If our early human couldn’t remember how they escaped the wolves, they might not think to climb a tree the next time. They couldn’t show their friends the hidden stream they found stocked with fat fish.

“If you don’t have a memory, you don’t the ability to go from one moment to the next and predict what’s going to happen,” Chen said. “You can’t connect cause and effect. Memory is essential to being a person.”

And stories have proven particularly suited for helping people remember better.

“There’s decades-old studies that show that if you just give people a list of random words to read and then ask them to recall it, they’re not very good at it,” Chen said.

“But if you force them to create a story out of that same list of words, their memory goes through the roof.”

She said stories across all formats are equally useful at transforming fleeting events into permanent memories, whether from written words, song lyrics played over the radio, or a sequence of images flashed onto screens.

And if at times it seems our need for narrative is insatiable, it’s because our brains are trying to motivate us to consume stories. Like other activities necessary for survival from eating food to having sex, we’re programmed to crave them.

That’s why the Hopkins researchers are asking for Baltimoreans’ help in generating new and original tales. It’s possible, they said, that researchers eventually will learn enough about memory to gain insight into the causes of some of humanity’s most intractable problems, from schizophrenia to Alzheimer’s disease to other forms of age-related memory loss.

“There’s a lot of questions you can ask about memory using the same data,” Chen said.

“This contest is really a two-way street,” she said. “We’re going to see what stories come in, and use them as a source of inspiration for thinking of interesting questions that we can try to answer.”

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Visual Stories

Submit a written or audiovisual response that exemplifies your own vision, story, experience, hope or dream for the future of the LGBTQIA+ community - OUR FUTURE!

The competition is open to all current RMIT students. There will be two categories that can be entered:

• Written - A submission of up to 1000 words. Short essay, opinion piece, or poem. 
• Visual art - A short video 1 to 5 minutes duration, TikTok, photo, poster, small physical item or whatever your heart desires!
• $200 for best written work
• $200 for best visual artwork
• $50 for people's choice of work chosen during the showcase period
• Registration of interest opens 3 July and closes 14 July, 2024.
• Submissions open 15 July and close on 11 August, 2024.
• Showcase of submissions available 26-28 August in Building 8, Level 6 at Swanston Library.
• The winners will be announced on Wear It Purple Day , 30 August. Afternoon tea provided at event.

See more details on the LGBTIQA+ Resource Library subject guide page. 

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Visualise Your Thesis Competition - get your submissions ready!

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Woolf Essay Prize 2024

The Woolf Essay Prize 2024 has now closed. Check back here in January 2025 for the 2025 competition!

In 1928, Virginia Woolf addressed the Newnham Arts Society on the Subject of ‘Women and Fiction’, and from this talk emerged her seminal text,  A Room of One’s Own . Newnham is very proud of its place in the history of women’s education, and we are delighted in the continuation of the Woolf Essay Prize.  A Room of One’s Own  raises a number of questions surrounding the place of women in society, culture, and education, and the competition allows students to contemplate these themes and ideas while developing the independent research and writing skills essential to university-level study.

This year, the Woolf Essay Prize is open to all Women in Year 12 (or equivalent), regardless of school or country. For more information, including the question list, word limit, and submission details, please consult the Information and Questions document. The deadline for submission is 09:00am BST on Monday 8th July 2024. For any queries not answered here, please contact [email protected].

The Woolf Essay Prize will run separately to our Essay Writing Masterclass Programme , which encompasses a variety of subject interests.

This prize may be of particular interest to those studying English Literature, History, Politics, Philosophy or Sociology, but we absolutely welcome entries from interested students studying any combination of subjects.

Find out more about  studying English Literature  at University of Cambridge

Meet  Shakespeare scholar Dr Bonnie Lander-Johnson

Please note information submitted as part of this competition will be used by the College for the purposes of assessing your essay as part of the Woolf Essay Prize. Certain personal details (questions 24-33 in the submission form) may also inform research which includes evaluation of the effectiveness of this programme for different types of participant, and equalities monitoring. All essay submissions are retained by the College permanently in the College Archive, with winning entries additionally published on the Newnham College website. If you have any questions about the use of your data, please contact [email protected] in the first instance.

Information about how your personal information will be used by us in connection with the administration of this event/activity, and for related purposes, is available here .

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Our 2024 wine writing competition – a guide

A guide to this year's wine writing competition on unforgettable wine moments.

The judges and I are all very excited about the entries that have been selected for publication in the coming weeks. We have been astounded by how varied, innovative, clever and powerful so many of these 211 submissions have been and are so grateful to all the entrants for sharing their stories this year.

There is no single criterion that determines what makes a particular wine moment unforgettable. It can be lighthearted or gritty, happy or sad, exciting or disappointing, a combination of those feelings or something else entirely.  What makes the moment unforgettable is not determined by the putative quality or price of the wine itself as much as it is shaped by our personal experience of the given moment. A cherished moment of sharing a bottle of generic Merlot with family can be just as memorable as tasting a famous wine or visiting a legendary winery.

Several entrants explore the moment that made them a wine lover, while others describe the instant that led them to pursue a career in the wine industry. Some recount jarring incidents that led the author to reevaluate their relationship with the wine industry, or with wine itself. These essays document the range of significant moments that wine enthusiasts and those working in the wine industry can have.  They show that for some of us, our most unforgettable experiences are wine moments, for many of the episodes that will be published were truly life-changing ones. At its heart, this competition is about the profound meanings that wine can have for people and the varied ways in which it can indelibly impact our lives. 

Entries will be published daily, unedited, free for all readers and in no particular order in the coming weeks. We will publish a shortlist of the top entries on 3 September, then readers can vote for their favourite entry from the list until 16 September. Entries will be added to the list below as they are published, with the most recently published ones listed at the top.

Published 2024 competition entries

'I don't want to be a statue', by Emilie Aspeling  10 July 2024

Fermé, by Zoe Fisher  9 July 2024

An inconvenient memory, by Jason Millar  8 July 2024

A matter of time, by Allyson Noman  7 July 2024

A moment of waiting, by Kate Burns  6 July 2024

Ice Ice Baby, by Christy Frank  5 July 2024

L'appel du Vide, by Richard Lane  4 July 2024

Chianti spritzer on the beach, circa 1964, by Melanie Webber 3 July 2024

Other articles about the 2024 competition

Our 2024 wine writing competition – update 25 June 2024

Our 2024 wine writing competition theme announced 18 April 2024

Image by Constantine Johnny via Getty Images.

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Filipinos in Bahrain shine in On the Spot Essay Writing Contest

The “On the Spot Essay Writing Contest,” hosted by the Filipino Writers’ Circle in collaboration with the Migrant Workers Office (MWO) and the Philippine Embassy concluded successfully on 5 July 2024.

Held at the Sentro Rizal, Philippine Embassy Manama, the participants of the On the Spot Essay Writing Contest demonstrated their writing prowess and creativity as they explored the theme “Kalayaan, Kinabukasan, Kasaysayan” (Freedom, Future, History), weaving essays sharing Philippine history and culture with Filipinos living and working in the kingdom.

Maria Carmella R. Solido, a nursing graduate, Lornalyn Penuliar, a medical center receptionist, and Melinda Nomananap, teacher, theatre moderator, and Filipino subject coordinator, emerged as first, second and third place winners.

The contest started with a solemn opening ceremony, featuring the singing of the national anthems of Bahrain and the Philippines led by Filwriite Vice President Ruth Mirhan Orense, preceded by a prayer headed by Melinda C. Dangaran.

In her welcome remarks, Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Migrant Workers Office (MWO), Celia V. Cabadonga, highlighted how the activity reached her office and led to the submission of a proposal by Filwrite. The impromptu essay contest serves as a platform for participants, particularly Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), to share their distinctive perspectives and insights.

“Through this creative endeavor, we can advance our mission to build a more connected and supportive community.”

Filwrite President Cecil V. Ancheta emphasized the importance of writing as a cornerstone of Filipino culture, highlighting its role in sharing stories and preserving voices. “Through writing, we have the opportunity to inspire, stimulate thought, and inspire change,” she continued.

The event was attended by Her Excellency (HE) Ambassador Anne Jalando-on Louis. She expressed her gratitude to the group of writers and to all the contestants for their role in making the celebration of the 126th anniversary of the Proclamation of Philippine Independence a meaningful and memorable event in Bahrain.

In her inspiring message, she stressed the importance of Sentro Rizal in promoting Filipino pride.

Sentro Rizal, named after the Philippine national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, is indeed an important institution established by the Philippine government to spread and promote Filipino culture, art, language, history, and values around the world, playing a key role in preserving and promoting our national identity. Various works of art and literature were exhibited at the center.

Phyvvy Harisse C. Mabalot, a student from the Philippine School Bahrain, took the stage with a song number, enriching the event’s atmosphere as an intermission performance. This presentation not only provided entertainment but also seamlessly bridged the segments of the event, showcasing the diverse talents within the community.

According to the 1st place winner, Maria Carmella R. Solido, “Receiving the 1st prize in the on-the-spot essay writing contest during the Philippine Independence Day celebration at the Philippine Embassy in Bahrain was a moment of overwhelming gratefulness and joy.”

“As I accepted the award with trembling hands, I felt deeply honored to contribute to the celebration of our country’s history and to represent the voices of Filipino Overseas Workers. I am sincerely grateful to the Philippine Embassy in Bahrain, the Migrant Workers Association, and the Filipino Writers Circle for giving us the platform to express our passion and support for the endeavors of our fellow Filipinos as well as the opportunity to ‘reconnect’ to our homeland. Above all, I thank God for this would not be possible without His gift of creativity and wit,” she added.

The competition itself was meticulously organized, with a panel of respected judges who are well-regarded within the community. Dr. Amelito S. Adel from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) led the panel, accompanied by Dinah E. Sta. Ana of Pinay Ikaw Na (PIN) president and Joselito C. Sarmiento, vice president of the Filipino American Association of Bahrain (Fil-Am Bahrain). Their roles were crucial in ensuring that the evaluation process was both rigorous and fair, upholding the highest standards of judgment based on the criteria set for the competition.

Winners of this contest were chosen for their exceptional writing skills, which were evaluated on originality, clarity of thought, and relevance to the theme. Such criteria ensured that the entries not only adhered to the technical aspects of writing but also resonated on a deeper emotional level with the audience and judges alike.

They were awarded plaques, certificates, and cash prizes, serving as a recognition of their outstanding writing skills and dedication to promoting Philippine culture and history.

The contest organizers received generous support from various sponsors, including individuals such as Mr. Orlando O. Fontanilla, Dinah E. Sta. Ana, Desiree Pasahol, and Rowena Crisostomo, as well as the Good Cause Bahrain represented by Antonette Guese Avila.

Volunteers who take on roles as facilitators and tabulators play a crucial role in ensuring the smooth operation of events including photographers Sajid Rafiq Butt and Rafiq Adnan were greatly appreciated.

Additionally, several organizations were present to show their including the Knights of Rizal, the Philippine Institute of Certified Accountants (PICPA), and the Northern Bahrain Nobles Eagles Club.

These contributions underscore the community’s support for educational and cultural initiatives, emphasizing a sense of unity and pride among its members including a spirit of collaboration reinforcing the importance of organizational relationships.

Filwrite, a writers’ organization established in 2019, has made significant progress, as evident in a brief video presentation that showcases the group’s journey, highlighting its growth and achievements over the years, which were made possible through the dedication of its volunteer writers.

Filwrite officers and members, including Gina Garro, Scott Saboy, and Rodel Pomperada, expressed their deepest gratitude to the Migrant Workers Office and the Philippine Embassy for the event’s success, with special thanks to Cultural Attache Ms. Jiemarie Mortel Ladrica for her guidance throughout the process.

Sentro Rizal as the venue for the contest added a touch of prestige and cultural significance to the event as it often serves as hubs for promoting art, literature, and exhibits enhancing the overall experience for participants and attendees.

Written with the contributions of Cecil V. Ancheta Ruth Mirhan Orense

Staff Report

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Best Short Story Writing Contests in 2024

Showing 132 contests that match your search.

The Reedsy Prompts Contest

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

Every Friday, Reedsy sends out five writing prompts. Enter your response within a week for a chance at $250. Winners may also be included in a future issue of Reedsy’s literary magazine, Prompted.

Additional prizes:

$25 credit toward Reedsy editorial services

💰 Entry fee: $5

📅 Deadline: December 31, 2024

Minds Shine Bright Writing Competition

Minds Shine Bright

Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, Poetry, Script Writing, and Short Story

Minds Shine Bright is an arts business based in Melbourne Australia committed to supporting the arts and writers. We run two fiction writing competitions; Minds Shine Bright Confidence, a longitudinal look at the theme confidence in fiction and poetry, and Seasons a competition with a changing external theme. Light and Shadow is currently open.

2nd: $400 AUD | 3rd: $300 AUD | 4th: $200 AUD | Commended entries: $100 AUD

💰 Entry fee: $3

📅 Deadline: March 31, 2024 (Expired)

The Moth Short Story Prize 2024

Judged by Louise Kennedy, The Moth Short Story Prize is open to anyone over 16, as long as their story is previously unpublished. The word limit is 3,000. Winning story published as part of the summer fiction series in the Irish Times, while the 2nd and 3rd-prize-winning stories will be published in the Irish Times online.

2nd: week-long writing retreat at Circle of Misse in France plus open travel stipend | 3rd: €1,000

💰 Entry fee: $16

📅 Deadline: June 30, 2024 (Expired)

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Great American Fiction Contest

Saturday Evening Post

In its two centuries of existence, The Saturday Evening Post has published short fiction by a who’s who of great American authors, including Ray Bradbury, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Louis L’Amour, Sinclair Lewis, Jack London, Joyce Carol Oates, Edgar Allan Poe, Anne Tyler, and Kurt Vonnegut, among so many others.

💰 Entry fee: $10

📅 Deadline: July 01, 2024 (Expired)

New Deal Writing Competition

New Deal Museum

Genres: Christian, Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, LGBTQ, Mystery, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, and Travel

GVCA is excited to announce the ninth annual New Deal Writing Competition! This competition challenges writers to use a painting chosen by the staff at GVCA as inspiration for a short story. This year’s painting is “Playtime” by Fred Ross.

Publication in newsletter

📅 Deadline: March 15, 2024 (Expired)

Fiction Factory Short Story Competition

Fiction Factory

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, LGBTQ, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, and Travel

Length of story: max 3,000 words. Entries should be as a Word document. All types of stories are welcome (excluding Children’s and Young Adult Fiction). Entry Fee: £7.00 (£13 for 2 stories, £18 for 3 stories) Winning stories will be published on this website and, at a later date in a planned anthology.

Publication on website

💰 Entry fee: $7

📅 Deadline: July 31, 2024

South Warwickshire Literary Festival Writing Competition

South Warwickshire Literary Festival

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

Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction 800 words, Poetry 40 lines, any genre any style. Over 16s only

Read entry at literary festival, September 2024 UK

📅 Deadline: March 29, 2024 (Expired)

A Warm Mug of Cozy Anthology

Warm Mug of Cozy

Genres: Crime, Flash Fiction, Mystery, and Short Story

Do you like writing short cozy mysteries? If so, we would love to invite you to submit your work for potential inclusion in our first Warm Mug of Cozy Anthology. Theme: No restriction, as long as your story follows the classic rules of Cozy Mystery.

2% royalties per published story ($)

📅 Deadline: April 30, 2024 (Expired)

Rigel 2024: $500 for Prose, Poetry, Art, or Graphic Novel

Sunspot Literary Journal

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Script Writing, and Short Story

Literary or genre works accepted. Winner receives $500 plus publication, while runners-up and finalists are offered publication. No restrictions on theme or category. Closes: February 29. Entry fee: $12.50. Enter as many times as you like through Submittable or Duotrope

$500 + publication

Runners-up and finalists are offered publication

💰 Entry fee: $12

📅 Deadline: February 29, 2024 (Expired)

Spring Microfiction Battle

Writing Battle

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

Two days to write a 500 word short story. The peer-powered quarterly writing contest where every story receives oodles of feedback. Write one. Read ten. Win thousands.

Genre Winner (x4): $1,500

Genre Runner-up (x4): $375 | Feedback by industry professionals

💰 Entry fee: $20

📅 Deadline: May 03, 2024 (Expired)

Goldilocks Zone

Sunspot Lit is looking for the perfect combination of craft and appeal in stories, CNF, novel or novella excerpts, artwork, graphic novels, poems, scripts/screenplays. Literary and genre accepted. Enter through Submittable or Duotrope.

Publication

Flying South

Genres: Non-fiction, Poetry, and Short Story

All entries will be considered for publication. Winning submissions in each of the three categories (Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry) will be awarded prizes of $400 for First Place, $200 for Second Place, and $100 for a total of $2,100 in prizes. All finalists will be accepted for publication and will receive one copy of the current issue of Flying South.

💰 Entry fee: $15

📅 Deadline: May 31, 2024 (Expired)

The International Amy MacRae Award for Memoir

Memoir Writing Ink

Genres: Memoir, Non-fiction, and Short Story

Original, unpublished works of memoir writing up to 2000 words. The winner will be interviewed and the winning story published on Alison Wearing’s website and featured in the Memoir Writing Ink program. This award was created in celebration of the life of Amy Macrae and in support of her living legacy to improve the outcomes of women with ovarian cancer. Submissions accepted between April 15 to June 30, 2024.

💰 Entry fee: $25

Anthology Flash Fiction Award

Anthology Magazine

Genres: Fiction, Short Story, and Flash Fiction

The Anthology Flash Fiction Competition is open to original and previously unpublished flash fiction on any theme in the English language by writers of any nationality. We are looking for writing that is clever and unique, inspires us, and crafts a compelling story. Max 250 words.

📅 Deadline: September 30, 2024

Hastings Book Festival - Short Story

Hastings Book Festival

Genres: Short Story

Hastings Book Festival writing competition is open to writers from anywhere in the world writing in English on any theme. We invite short stories up to 2,500 words. We have additional prizes for LGBT+ writers and writers resident in Sussex.

2nd: £100 | 3rd: £50

📅 Deadline: July 07, 2024 (Expired)

The Paul Cave Prize for Literature

Tim Saunders Publications

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

The Paul Cave Prize for Literature, established in 2023 by Tim Saunders Publications, is in memory of Paul Astley Cave-Browne-Cave (1917 to 2010), a hugely inspirational magazine and book publisher. What we are looking for All forms of poetry: haiku, free verse, sonnet, acrostic, villanelle, ballad, limerick, ode, elegy, flash fiction, short stories and novellas. Work must be new and unpublished. International submissions welcome.

Best Short Story: £50 | Best Flash Fiction: £25 | Best Poem: £25

The Rhys Davies Short Story Competition 2024

Swansea University’s Cultural Institute

The Rhys Davies Short Story Competition recognises the very best unpublished short stories in English in any style and on any subject up to a maximum of 5,000 words by writers in / from Wales. Entrants must have been born in Wales, lived in Wales for 2 years or more, or currently be living in Wales.

Publication in short story anthology | 11x Runners Up: £100 and publication in short story anthology

📅 Deadline: February 15, 2024 (Expired)

Stringybark Open Short Story Award 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!

2nd: $360 | 3rd: $210 | 4th: $110

📅 Deadline: February 25, 2024 (Expired)

Twist in the Tale - May 1k Words

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.

📅 Deadline: May 19, 2024 (Expired)

Stories Through The Ages - Baby Boomer Plus

Stories Through The Ages

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.

2nd: $200 | 3rd: $100

📅 Deadline: June 15, 2024 (Expired)

2024 Spring Prose & Poetry Contest

Onyx Publications

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Poetry, Science Fiction, Short Story, and Thriller

Our contest provides a First, Second, and Third prize for both prose and poetry. There are no themes or special requirements so just send us your best work. We recommend you read through previous editions or listen to the works and author interviews on our Story Discovery Podcast to get a sense of the range of creativity we enjoy.

$500 + publication and author interview on Story Discovery podcast

2nd: $150 | 3rd: $75

📅 Deadline: May 05, 2024 (Expired)

ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize

Australian Book Review

ABR welcomes entries in the 2024 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. The Jolley Prize is worth a total of $12,500 and is for an original work of short fiction of between 2,000 and 5,000 words, written in English. This is the fifteenth time the Jolley Prize has run and it is one of the world’s leading prizes for short fiction.

2nd: $4000 AUD | 3rd: $2500 AUD

📅 Deadline: April 22, 2024 (Expired)

Narrative Prize

Narrative Magazine

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.

💰 Entry fee: $27

Cranked Anvil Short Story Competition

Cranked Anvil Press

Our quarterly short story competition is open for entries all year round. The competition is open to any theme or genre, but your story must be a maximum of 1,500 words (not including the title). You can enter up to three stories in each quarterly competition.

£75 for 2nd, £30 for 3rd

📅 Deadline: January 31, 2024 (Expired)

New Writers 1000-Word Short Story Competition 2024

New Writers

Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, and Short Story

Open to writers from around the world, we’re offering a top prize of £1,000, a second prize of £300 and a third prize of £200. Any themes/genres are welcome but stories must be 1,000 words or fewer. The deadline is midnight (UK time) on Tuesday 30th April 2024 and £1.00 from each entry will be donated to the creative writing charity, First Story.

2nd: £300 | 3rd: £200

💰 Entry fee: $13

Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest

Winning Writers

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, and Short Story

Welcome to the 31st annual Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest. Submit published or unpublished work. $9,000 in prizes.

Two-year gift certificate from Duotrope; 10 Honorable Mentions will receive $300 each

💰 Entry fee: $22

📅 Deadline: May 01, 2024 (Expired)

Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition

Writer's Digest

Enter our 91st Annual Writing Competition for the chance to have your work be seen by editors and agents! Almost 500 winners will be chosen. The top winning entries of this writing contest will also be on display in the Annual Writer’s Digest Competition Collection. [$20 for a poetry entry, $30 for a manuscript entry]

2nd: $500 | 3rd: $100

💰 Entry fee: $30

📅 Deadline: May 06, 2024 (Expired)

Fiction Potluck

The Writer's Workout

Fiction Potluck is free to enter and open to fiction writers of all ages around the world. One entry per person per challenge. Submissions are accepted six weeks at a time, starting in January, April, July, and October. The challenge and guest judge will change each open period. The guest judge picks the challenge—we never know what we'll get!

Query package reviews to all finalists

📅 Deadline: May 20, 2024 (Expired)

Bridport Short Story Prize

Bridport Arts Centre

Gail Honeyman was shortlisted in our competition and went on to write Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, winning the Costa debut novel award. All the winning and highly commended pieces are entered into the Sunday Times Audible competition, top prize £30,000. UK based writers are entered into the BBC short story competition. That's not all, literary agent A.M. Heath reads all the shortlist and considers representation. Long story short? You are 5,000 words away from success.

£1000 for 2nd, £500 for 3rd

💰 Entry fee: $17

Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition

Hemingway Days Festival

Writers of short fiction may now enter the 2024 Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition. The competition has a forty-three year history of literary excellence, and Lorian Hemingway and her small judging panel are dedicated to enthusiastically supporting the efforts and talent of writers of short fiction whose voices have yet to be heard. Lorian Hemingway, a granddaughter of Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway, is the author of three critically acclaimed books: Walking into the River, Walk on Water, and A World Turned Over.

Publication on site

📅 Deadline: September 01, 2024

Elegant Literature's Monthly Award For New Writers

Elegant Literature

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

One of the largest awards open to unpublished writers and closed to professionals. We are the first magazine to pay pro rates and only accept submissions from new writers, putting over $150k into the hands of emerging talent around the globe so far. One new writer receives the grand prize. We also choose the best stories, pay the authors professional rates, and publish them in our magazine. June's theme is Secret Societies.

10x Paid publication, 25 x $20 USD | Free entry to Novelist Accelerator

F(r)iction Contests

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.

📅 Deadline: November 03, 2024

7 Day Story Writing Challenge

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!

💰 Entry fee: $0

Letter Review Prize for Short Stories

Letter Review

The Letter Review Prize for Short Stories (1000-3000 words) is open to writers from anywhere in the world and has no theme or genre restrictions. Winners are published and every entry is considered for publication. 20 entries are Longlisted.

$1000 prize pool

2nd: $250 | 3rd: $150

Best Stories on Human Impact of Climate Change

Secant Publishing

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

We are seeking the year's best original short stories (fiction) devoted to the theme of global climate change and its human impact. We are interested in literary interpretations of how individuals and families, cities and nations are bearing the brunt of a world dominated by new extremes of weather, seasons, and eco-disasters. All genres welcome.

2nd: $500 | 3rd: $250 | Publication in anthology

📅 Deadline: March 01, 2024 (Expired)

Discover the finest writing contests of 2024 for fiction and non-fiction authors — including short story competitions, essay writing competitions, poetry contests, and many more. Updated weekly, these contests are vetted by Reedsy to weed out the scammers and time-wasters. If you’re looking to stick to free writing contests, simply use our filters as you browse.

Why you should submit to writing contests

Submitting to poetry competitions and free writing contests in 2024 is absolutely worth your while as an aspiring author: just as your qualifications matter when you apply for a new job, a writing portfolio that boasts published works and award-winning pieces is a great way to give your writing career a boost. And not to mention the bonus of cash prizes!

That being said, we understand that taking part in writing contests can be tough for emerging writers. First, there’s the same affliction all writers face: lack of time or inspiration. Entering writing contests is a time commitment, and many people decide to forego this endeavor in order to work on their larger projects instead — like a full-length book. Second, for many writers, the chance of rejection is enough to steer them clear of writing contests. 

But we’re here to tell you that two of the great benefits of entering writing contests happen to be the same as those two reasons to avoid them.

When it comes to the time commitment: yes, you will need to expend time and effort in order to submit a quality piece of writing to competitions. That being said, having a hard deadline to meet is a great motivator for developing a solid writing routine.

Think of entering contests as a training session to become a writer who will need to meet deadlines in order to have a successful career. If there’s a contest you have your eye on, and the deadline is in one month, sit down and realistically plan how many words you’ll need to write per day in order to meet that due date — and don’t forget to also factor in the time you’ll need to edit your story!

For tips on setting up a realistic writing plan, check out this free, ten-day course : How to Build a Rock-Solid Writing Routine.

In regards to the fear of rejection, the truth is that any writer aspiring to become a published author needs to develop relatively thick skin. If one of your goals is to have a book traditionally published, you will absolutely need to learn how to deal with rejection, as traditional book deals are notoriously hard to score. If you’re an indie author, you will need to adopt the hardy determination required to slowly build up a readership.

The good news is that there’s a fairly simple trick for learning to deal with rejection: use it as a chance to explore how you might be able to improve your writing.

In an ideal world, each rejection from a publisher or contest would come with a detailed letter, offering construction feedback and pointing out specific tips for improvement. And while this is sometimes the case, it’s the exception and not the rule.

Still, you can use the writing contests you don’t win as a chance to provide yourself with this feedback. Take a look at the winning and shortlisted stories and highlight their strong suits: do they have fully realized characters, a knack for showing instead of telling, a well-developed but subtly conveyed theme, a particularly satisfying denouement?

The idea isn’t to replicate what makes those stories tick in your own writing. But most examples of excellent writing share a number of basic craft principles. Try and see if there are ways for you to translate those stories’ strong points into your own unique writing.

Finally, there are the more obvious benefits of entering writing contests: prize and publication. Not to mention the potential to build up your readership, connect with editors, and gain exposure.

Resources to help you win writing competitions in 2024

Every writing contest has its own set of submission rules. Whether those rules are dense or sparing, ensure that you follow them to a T. Disregarding the guidelines will not sway the judges’ opinion in your favor — and might disqualify you from the contest altogether. 

Aside from ensuring you follow the rules, here are a few resources that will help you perfect your submissions.

Free online courses

On Writing:

• "How to Craft a Killer Short Story" ( Click here )
• "The Non-Sexy Business of Writing Non-Fiction" ( Click here )
• "How to Write a Novel" ( Click here )
• "Understanding Point of View" ( Click here )
• "Developing Characters That Your Readers Will Love" ( Click here )
• "Writing Dialogue That Develops Plot and Character" ( Click here )
• "Stop Procrastinating! Build a Solid Writing Routine" ( Click here )

On Editing:

• "Story Editing for Authors" ( Click here )
• "How to Self-Edit Your Manuscript Like a Pro" ( Click here )
• "Novel Revision: Practical Tips for Rewrites" ( Click here )
• "How to Write a Novel: Steps From a Bestselling Writer" ( Click here )
• "How to Write a Short Story in 9 Simple Steps" ( Click here )
• "100 Literary Devices With Examples: The Ultimate List" ( Click here )
• "20 Writing Tips to Improve Your Craft" ( Click here )
• "How to Write Fabulous Dialogue [9 Tips + Examples]" ( Click here )
• "8 Character Development Exercises to Write 3D Characters" ( Click here )

Bonus resources

• 200+ Short Story Ideas ( Click here )
• 600+ Writing Prompts to Inspire You ( Click here )
• 100+ Creative Writing Exercises for Fiction Authors ( Click here )
• Story Title Generator ( Click here )
• Pen Name Generator ( Click here )
• Character Name Generator ( Click here )

After you submit to a writing competition in 2024

It’s exciting to send a piece of writing off to a contest. However, once the initial excitement wears off, you may be left waiting for a while. Some writing contests will contact all entrants after the judging period — whether or not they’ve won. Other writing competitions will only contact the winners. 

Here are a few things to keep in mind after you submit:

Many writing competitions don’t have time to respond to each entrant with feedback on their story. However, it never hurts to ask! Feel free to politely reach out requesting feedback — but wait until after the selection period is over.

If you’ve submitted the same work to more than one writing competition or literary magazine, remember to withdraw your submission if it ends up winning elsewhere.

After you send a submission, don’t follow it up with a rewritten or revised version. Instead, ensure that your first version is thoroughly proofread and edited. If not, wait until the next edition of the contest or submit the revised version to other writing contests.

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