Too many options when it comes to submitting your work? Here’s our top five comps and subs for December 2025.
Name: Trash Cat Lit Short Short Fiction Competition
Deadline: 14th December 2025 (submissions window opens on 1st December)
Wordcount: 100-1,000 words
Genre: Short Fiction
Description: For their ‘Winter Pop-Up’, Trash Cat Lit are looking for short fiction on theme of CATS. As stated on their website: “This theme lends itself to pretty much any genre. We’d be excited to see felines in horror, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, fantastical and uncanny settings as well as in more contemporary, literary pieces.” The type of cat should be of the domestic kind and should not be badly hurt or killed in the story.
Entry fee: Free
Website: https://trashcatlit.com/call-for-cat-stories/
Name: Extra Teeth Magazine
Deadline: Submission Window: 1st December – 14th December
Wordcount: 800-4000 words
Genre: Fiction & Non-Fiction
Description: Extra Teeth is a Scottish magazine with an international outlook – they will always champion and cultivate great Scottish writing, but also publish work from writers located elsewhere. They especially welcome submissions from underrepresented groups.
Entry fee: Free
Website: https://www.extrateeth.co.uk/
Name: Minotaur/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition
Deadline: 14th December (11.59pm EST)
Wordcount: minimum 65,000 words
Genre: Crime Novel
Description: This First Crime Novel Competition is sponsored by Minotaur Books and Writers of America First (MWA). They are calling for crime novels of at least 65,000 words and authors must not have been previously published, self-published writers are eligible as long as they are submitting an unpublished work. They encourage authors to submit their entries as early as possible. The winner will be awarded a publishing contract with Minotaur Books, this will include a US$10,000 advance.
Entry fee: Free
Website: https://us.macmillan.com/minotaurbooks/writing-competitions/
Name: The Fiction Desk – Submissions Call: Uncertain Stories
Deadline: Open submissions now until 30th January 2026
Wordcount: 1,000-15,000 words
Genre: Supernatural and speculative fiction
Description: The Fiction Desk are short story publishers, devoted to encouraging and promoting short story writing. For their Uncertain Stories anthology series, they are looking for the kind of supernatural and speculative fiction that takes place more-or-less here, more-or-less now. If writing ghost stories is more your thing, the Fiction Desk annual call for ghost stories is also open now until the end of January.
Entry fee: £5 per story or purchase an anthology instead of the fee
Website: https://www.thefictiondesk.com/
Name: Hilary Mantel Prize for Fiction
Deadline: 31st December 2025
Wordcount: 15,000 words maximum, taken from the opening chapter(s) and a 1,000 word synopsis.
Genre: Novel
Description: Literary agency AM Heath are launching a biannual adult novel prize to honour Booker Prize-winning author Hilary Mantel who died in 2022. The panel of five judges will be chaired by Maggie O’Farrell. The winner will receive a cash prize of £7,500, an offer of representation from an agent at AM Heath, six hours of mentoring from an agent at AM Heath and an editor at John Murray, and a place on an Arvon residential writing course. The runner-up will receive £2,500, an offer of representation from an agent at AM Heath, six hours of mentoring from an agent at AM Heath and an editor at John Murray, and a place on an Arvon masterclass.
Entry fee: Free
Website: https://amheath.com/hilary-mantel-prize
