“The majority of us start off asking our peers and our instructors, How can I improve my prose/poetry? How can I become ‘publishable’? These are necessary and essential questions. Equally essential, yet often neglected, is the question, How can I assist other writers? In my classes, and in my own writing life, I pursue the idea that one of the greatest inspirations for producing our own best work is by promoting and being inspired by other writers. These are coequal concerns. For me this manifests itself in a number of ways: attending readings, consuming work at a retail level, using the public library, writing editors about work I’ve most appreciated, etcetera. Experience has taught me the more one contemplates how one might assist other writers, the more one’s own writing benefits. It’s almost too simple a concept to advertise.”
—Brian Leung, author of Take Me Home (Harper, 2010)
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.