Open Directory - Arts: Writers Resources: Contests
See also: - Held annually on Labor Day weekend. Rules, survival guide, prizes, and past winners. - Writing contest for women seeks a story, memoir or book chapter on a given theme. Deadline; December 31, thence monthly. Entry fee: $7. First prize: $70. - An annual competition for writers, editors, publications staff, and both business and non-profit communicators. - AAA requires entries for unpublished poetry, short stories, essays/articles, and novels. Cash prizes of $100 in each category, plus publication, are offered. Deadline: July 1, annually. Entry fees vary from $10 (poetry) to $30 (novels). - Annual awards of $2,000 (plus publication) are offered for original, unpublished, book-length work in each of three categories: novels, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Reading fee: $20. Deadline: February 28. Open to U.S. residents only. - Information on major literary awards throughout the USA and other countries, particularly focusing on (though not limited to) science fiction and fantasy. - San Jose State University sponsors this yearly challenge "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels". No entry fee. Official deadline: April 15. - Annual competitions honoring excellence in all areas of communication, with separate categories for print (177 sub-categories), video (216 sub-categories) and audio (140 sub-categories). - 6th Annual Flyway Sweet Corn Prize. $150 and a book bag of Iowa sweet corn for top entries in each category: fiction, nonfiction (maximum: 4,000 words) and poetry. Reading fee: $18. Deadline March 1st. - Milkweed Editions is a non-profit publisher of literature for adults and young adults based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Milkweed National Fiction Prize is awarded annually for the best fiction manuscript submitted by an author not previously published by Milkweed. - Humorous stories and essays up to 750 words are required. Reading fee: $5. Deadline: December 1. Cash prizes total $850. - Literary short stories (maximum 5,000 words) and poetry are sought in contests sponsored by Rutgers University. Reading fees: $10 and $5 respectively. Deadline: September 30. $1000 prize in each category, plus publication in PBQ. - Publishers of the magazines, "Scribble" and "Countryside Tales", holding quarterly competitions for original, unpublished short stories and poems, some open, some limited to specific themes. - Annual contest seeks poetry (maximum: 30 lines), short stories and non-fiction (both maximum: 2,000 words). Minimum entry fee: $10. Cash prizes total: $750. All entries considered for publication. Deadline: August 15. - Offers free monthly contests for poetry and fiction. Open worldwide, but to teenagers only. - Promotes annual prose (up to 5,000 words) and poetry (no more than 60 lines) contests relating to contemporary life in three specific regions, namely, the Rockies, the Desert Southwest, and the Northwest Coast. - Writing contests open to all types of entries including essays, short stories, and poetry. Maximum length: 700 words. Entries are published in a book and readers determine the winners. - SFWP provides resources for authors and features online fiction as well as an annual writing contest for prose, both fiction and non-fiction, including short stories, essays and sample chapters of novels. $6,000 in cash prizes. Deadline: mid-January. - Open to U.S. citizens only, Sarabande offers an annual $2,000 prize for both poetry (minimum 48 pages) and short fiction (minimum 150 pages). - Offers prize money totalling 2,500 pounds for essays (maximum 2,000 words), short stories (maximum 4,000 words), serials or novellas (up to 20,000 words), and poetry (maximum 100 lines). Closes November 30. Modest entry fees. - Annual awards, worth $1,000 each and publication, for literary fiction in the form of both a novel and a short story collection. Entrants must have at least one publication credit in the realm of literature. No entry fee. Deadline: July 1. - Sponsors quarterly poetry contests (closing February 15, et seq) and an annual fiction contest (closing February 15). A $10 subscription to the quarterly magazine offers one free entry to both contests. - An annual prize of $12,500, this award is intended to encourage new writers who have recently published a work of fiction or memoirs. - Offers a prize of $1,010 for the best on-line submission of literary (no genre) fiction totaling exactly 1,010 words. Reading fee: $15. Deadline: July 1. - Offers $25,000 in prize money for original, unpublished work in ten categories including poetry, short stories, plays, television scripts, articles, and children's fiction. Deadline: mid-May. Also provides separate annual awards for short short stories, screenplays and self-published books.
