Upcoming Contest Deadlines

G&A: The Contest Blog
9.15.23

Autumn begins with a bevy of contests for writers in all genres, including nineteen with a deadline of September 30. Half a dozen awards offer $5,000 or more and publication for full-length manuscripts of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and three have no entry fee. A prize of $15,000 is being offered for a book of fiction published during the current year; several prizes of $1,000 or more are offered for a single essay, story, or poem; and that’s not all! Good luck as you decide where to send your work!

Boulevard
Nonfiction Contest for Emerging Writers
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Boulevard is given annually for an essay by a writer who has not published a full-length book in any genre with a nationally distributed press. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $18.

California State University in Fresno
Philip Levine Prize for Poetry
A prize of $2,000, publication by Anhinga Press, and 25 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. The winner will also be invited to give a public reading at California State University in Fresno. Douglas Kearney will judge. Entry fee: $25.

Connecticut Poetry Society
Vivian Shipley Poetry Award 
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Connecticut River Review and on the Connecticut Poetry Society website is given annually for a single poem. Antoinette Brim-Bell will judge. Entry fee: $15.

Dzanc Books
Short Story Collection Prize
A prize of $2,500 and publication by Dzanc Books is given annually for a story collection. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $25.

Dzanc Books
Prize for Fiction
A prize of $5,000 and publication by Dzanc Books is given annually for a novel. Mark Dunn, Alan Grostephan, and Julie Ann Stewart will judge. Entry fee: $25.

Ghost Story
Supernatural Fiction Award
A prize of $1,500 and publication on the Ghost Story website is given twice yearly for a short story with a supernatural or magic realist theme. The winning work will also be published in Volume III of the 21st Century Ghost Stories print anthology. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $20.

Hackney Literary Awards
Novel Contest
A prize of $5,000 is given annually for an unpublished novel. Entry fee: $30.

Lascaux Review
Prize in Creative Nonfiction
A prize of $1,000 is given annually for an essay. The winner and finalists will also be published on the Lascaux Review website. Previously published and unpublished essays are eligible. Entry fee: $15.

One Page
Poetry Contest
A prize of $2,000 will be given annually for a single poem. A second-place prize of $1,000 will also be given. Mark Graham, Monique Jonath, and Ann Tinkham will judge. Entry fee: $25.

PEN/Faulkner Foundation
Award for Fiction
A prize of $15,000 is given annually for a book of fiction published during the current year. Four finalists each receive $5,000. The winner and finalists will also be invited to read in Washington, D.C., in May 2024. Entry fee: $75.

The Moth
Nature Writing Prize
A prize of €1,000 (approximately $1,092) and online publication in Irish Times is given annually for a poem, a story, or an essay that features “an exploration of the writer’s relationship with the natural world.” The winner also receives a weeklong stay at the Circle of Misse artist’s retreat in Missé, France. Kathleen Jamie will judge. Entry fee: $16.

Texas Review Press: The University Press of SHSU
George Garrett Fiction Prize
A prize of $1,000, publication by Texas Review Press: The University Press of SHSU, and 20 author copies is given annually for a short story collection or novel. Entry fee: $28.

Texas Review Press: The University Press of SHSU
X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize
A prize of $10,000, publication by Texas Review Press: The University Press of SHSU, and 10 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. Richard Blanco will judge. Entry fee: $28.

University of Arkansas Press
Miller Williams Poetry Prize
A prize of $5,000 and publication by University of Arkansas Press is given annually for a poetry collection. Patricia Smith will judge. Entry fee: $28.

University of Iowa Press
Iowa Short Fiction Award
Two prizes of publication by the University of Iowa Press are given annually for first collections of short fiction. Entry fee: None.

University of Mississippi
Willie Morris Award for Southern Nonfiction
A prize of $12,000 is given annually for a book of nonfiction published during the current year that asks readers “to engage with or reflect on the complexities of the American South.” The winner will also receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Oxford, Mississippi, for the awards ceremony in April 2024. Entry fee: None.

University of Mississippi
Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction
A prize of $12,000 is given annually for a novel published during the current year that asks readers “to engage with or reflect on the complexities of the American South.” The winner will also receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Oxford, Mississippi, for the awards ceremony in April 2024. Entry fee: None.

University of Mississippi
Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry
A prize of $3,000 is given annually for a single poem that evokes the American South. The winner will also receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Oxford, Mississippi, for the awards ceremony in April 2024. Susan Kinsolving will judge. Entry fee: None.

Winning Writers
Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest
Two prizes of $3,000 each, two-year gift certificates for membership to the literary database Duotrope, and publication on the Winning Writers website are given annually for a poem in any style and a poem that either rhymes or is written in a traditional style. Briana Grogan, Michal “MJ” Jones, and Dare Williams will judge. Entry fee: $22.

Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translation.

Among Others

The Time Is Now
9.14.23

In a profile of Annie Dillard by John Freeman, published in the March/April 2016 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author demonstrates the generosity she is known for as a writer and mentor by speaking about how working in a soup kitchen can benefit a writer. “There are many unproductive days when you might hate yourself otherwise,” writes Dillard in a correspondence with Freeman. “You are eating the food, using the water, breathing the air—and NOT HELPING. But if you feed the hungry, you can’t deny you’re doing something worth doing.” Write an essay about a time in which an act of service added meaning to your creative practice. How did this intimate exchange help fuel you as a writer?

Murder Mystery

The Time Is Now
9.13.23

This week marks the birthday of famed mystery novelist Agatha Christie, who was born on September 15, 1890. Many of her murder mysteries revolve around their settings, which have made them popular for film adaptations. In Murder on the Orient Express, a murderer is among the passengers of a luxury train trapped in heavy snow; in And Then There Were None, ten strangers on an isolated island die one by one; and in The Body in the Library, a young woman’s body is found dead in a wealthy couple’s house. If you were to craft a murder mystery of your own, where would you set it up? In celebration of Christie’s birthday, write a story centered around a murder. Begin by outlining a cast of suspicious characters, and make sure to leave readers guessing until the end.

Local News

The Time Is Now
9.12.23

In “Tenants,” the opening poem of Hannah Sullivan’s hybrid collection Was It for This (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023), the British poet contends with nursing a new baby a mile away from the Grenfell Tower in West London, a high-rise public housing building that tragically caught fire. The poem combines various viewpoints to address how local, public tragedies can affect private lives, such as accounts from firefighters, research from news reports, and descriptions of the building’s “crinkled, corrugated, lacy” façade. This week, research the local news of your city and write a poem centered around a recent headline. How does this news story affect your personal life? Does this exercise help you feel more connected to your community?

Deadline for Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Prize Approaches

G&A: The Contest Blog
9.9.23

If you’re a new, emerging, or established fiction writer, you’ve got until the end of the month to submit to the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Prize, which “celebrates imaginative and inventive writing in book-length collections.” The winner receives $2,500 and publication of their collection by Dzanc Books.

Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of at least 40,000 words and a brief synopsis with a $25 entry fee by September 30. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Dzanc Books is an award-winning nonprofit press; all its contest fees go toward supporting its “commitment to producing quality literary works, providing creative writing instruction in public schools through the Dzanc Writers-in-Residence program, and offering low-cost workshops for aspiring authors.” Its Short Story Collection Prize has recognized writers including Chaya Bhuvaneswar (White Dancing Elephants), Nino Cipri (Homesick), Jen Grow (My Life as a Mermaid), Ethel Rohan (In the Event of Contact), Julie Stewart (Water and Blood), and Anne Valente (By Light We Knew Our Names) for their “innovative, risk-taking, and brilliant fiction.” 

Find a Writing Contest

The Grants & Awards database includes details about every writing contest we’ve published in Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it, making the Grants & Awards database the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.

Search the database

Life of an Artist

The Time Is Now
9.7.23

While pregnant and struggling with her mental health and a creative block, author JoAnna Novak sought solace in the work and life of abstract expressionist painter Agnes Martin, who lived with schizophrenia. In Novak’s memoir, Contradiction Days: An Artist on the Verge of Motherhood (Catapult, 2023), she recounts the experience of moving to Taos, New Mexico, where Martin lived for decades, to model her life after the painter’s hermetic existence, shutting herself off from the world for introspection and writing. Whose work do you go to when seeking a way forward? Research the biography of a favorite artist—including their creative habits and routines—and write an essay that meditates on what makes their life and work inspirational. Try to find the personal and aesthetic lineages that connect you together. For more from Novak, read her installment of our Ten Questions series.

Guided by Screens

The Time Is Now
9.6.23

As technology continues to play a larger role in society, writers are reflecting on the anxieties and unexpected hopes born out of these changes in their work. Cleo Qian, who is featured in “Literary MagNet” in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, explores the fear and loneliness experienced in a technology dependent world in her debut story collection, Let’s Go, Let’s Go, Let’s Go (Tin House, 2023). Her stories center around the inner lives of young Asian and Asian American women using technology to cope: one character escapes into dating simulations after her best friend abandons her while another character looks to a supernatural karaoke machine for redemption. Write a short story in which a technological invention plays a major role. How does this reliance connect to your characters’ vulnerabilities?

Watchfulness

The Time Is Now
9.5.23

“Everybody looks at him playing / the machine hour after hour, / but he hardly raises his gold lashes,” writes Thom Gunn in his poem “Bally Power Play,” which appears in his collection The Passages of Joy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1982). In the poem, an unnamed speaker describes the movements of a pinball player in a bar with a sense of close watchfulness and adoration. “He is / the cool source of all that hurry / and desperate activity, in control, / legs apart, braced arms apart, / seeming alive only at the ends,” writes Gunn. This week, write a poem that captures a scene in which your speaker is observing someone closely. Consider, as in Gunn’s poem, how descriptive language can create and match the rhythm of a subject’s movements. For more inspiration, read C. K. Williams’s poem “From My Window.”

Upcoming Contest Deadlines

G&A: The Contest Blog
9.1.23

Are you an established writer developing a major creative project? Or perhaps an emerging or debut poet seeking to place your chapbook or full-length collection? Read on to learn about two prestigious fellowships and three poetry contests with application deadlines between September 14 and September 19. Both fellowships are open to poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers and offer $50,000 or more with no entry fee. All prizes awarded for poetry collections offer publication and $1,000 or more. We hope you share your work!

Harvard University
Radcliffe Institute Fellowships
Fellowships of $78,000 each, office space at the Radcliffe Institute, and access to the libraries at Harvard University are given annually to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers to allow them to pursue creative projects. Fellows, who are expected to reside in Boston during the fellowship period, which lasts from September through May, also receive $5,000 to cover project expenses. Poets who have published a full-length collection or at least 20 poems in magazines or anthologies in the last five years and who are in the process of completing a manuscript are eligible. Fiction and creative nonfiction writers who have published one or more books, who have a book-length manuscript under contract for publication, or who have published at least three shorter works are eligible. Writers who are graduate students at the time of application are not eligible. Deadline: September 14. Entry fee: None.

Lightscatter Press
Poetry Prize
A prize of $1,000, 25 author copies, and multimodal publication by Lightscatter Press is given annually for a poetry collection written by an emerging writer. Hybrid works and multilingual texts that combine English with another language are eligible. Eduardo C. Corral will judge. Deadline: September 15. Entry fee: $30.

Finishing Line Press
New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition  
A prize of $1,500 and publication by Finishing Line Press is given annually for a poetry chapbook by a writer who identifies as a woman and has not yet published a full-length collection. English translations of poems originally written in another language are accepted. Leah Huete de Maines will judge. Deadline: September 15. Entry fee: $20.

University of Wisconsin Press
Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes
Two prizes of $1,500 each and publication by University of Wisconsin Press are given annually for poetry collections. Additional finalists will be published in the press’s Wisconsin Poetry series. Deadline: September 15. Entry fee: $28.

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Writing Fellowships
Fellowships of approximately $50,000 each are awarded annually to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers on the basis of “exceptional creative ability.” Citizens and permanent residents of the United States and Canada with a “significant and appropriate record” of publication are eligible. Deadline: September 19. Entry fee: None.

Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translation.

Shared Questions

The Time Is Now
8.31.23

In “Singing Into the Silence of the State,” an essay from Dark Days: Fugitive Essays (Graywolf Press, 2023) by Roger Reeves, who speaks about his first book of prose in our September/October 2023 issue, many unanswered questions are posed to the reader. “What is the song that can be sung to soothe a fretting child in a bomb shelter?” writes Reeves. “What is the necessity of singing during catastrophe, whether State-created or virus-induced?” Through these questions, Reeves considers how to console his young daughter, himself, and the reader while in the midst of social unrest and a pandemic. Try writing an essay that begins and ends with a question. What are you asking your reader to consider and how can you offer consolation through this shared questioning?

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - blogs