Feeling a bit ‘meh’ about your writing after the cheese-filled ennui of Christmas? Kick off the new year with a BOATLOAD of literary submissions*. (Or even take part in our 100 Submissions in 2018 challenge!)
We’ve put together a bumper list of over 30 competitions, lit mags and organisations baying for fresh words, so what are you waiting for? Dust off those stories and find ’em a new home…
Fiction Factory Short Story Competition
Deadline: 7th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 3,000 words
Prize: 1st: £150, 2nd: £50, 3rd: £25
Entry Fee: £6
Notes: No YA or children’s fiction
More details and submissions info HERE
The Good Journal
Deadline: 7th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 2,000-5,000 words of fiction, 3-5 poems, 2 pages of comics or photo essays
Payment: £150
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Open to British writers of colour
More details and submissions info HERE
Liar’s League London
Deadline: 7th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 800-2,000 words
Prize: Public reading of your story + mp3 & YouTube recording + free drinks all night at the Liar’s League event (or a free book if you can’t attend)
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Theme: Kiss & Tell – accepted stories will be read by a professional actor at the February Liar’s League event
More details and submissions info HERE
The Emerging Writer Award
Deadline: 5pm, 8th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 1,000 word sample of a novel or short story collection work-in-progress
Prize: A tailor-made package worth up to £2,000 including tuition via open courses, retreat time and/or mentoring
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Open to unpublished writers with a novel or short story collection work-in-progress – submissions must also include a CV and synopsis
More details and submissions info HERE
Great Eighty Challenge (RECURRING)
Deadline: 8th & 22nd Jan 2018
Word Limit: Exactly 80 words
Payment: Royalties on collection sales
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Recurring contest – 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month
More details and submissions info HERE
London Independent Story Prize
Deadline: 10th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 300 words
Prize: 1st: £100, 2nd: £30, 3rd: £10
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: LIP is looking for ‘unique, strong voices – BAME, women, LGBTQ especially welcome
More details and submissions info HERE
Henshaw Story Competition (RECURRING)
Deadline: 10th Jan 2018 (recurs quarterly)
Word Limit: 2,000 words
Prize: £100
Entry Fee: £5 (or £10 with critique)
More details and submissions info HERE
The Stinging Fly Issue 28 Vol 2
Deadline: 11th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 1 short story or 1-4 poems – submissions should be ‘just as long (or as short) as they need to be’
Payment: Token payment
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Special interest in publishing new writers
More details and submissions info HERE
Splikety Magazine
Deadline: 12th Jan 2018
Word Limit: Flash fiction: 300-1,000 words, nano fiction: 100 words
Payment: $0.02 per word
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Theme: Dystopian disaster
More details and submissions info HERE
BBC Writersroom DRAMA Script Room 2018
Deadline: 5pm, 15th Jan 2018
Word Limit: Drama scripts of up to 30 minutes
Prize: Winners will join the 2018 drama writing development scheme
Entry Fee: FREE
More details and submissions info HERE
Magma Poetry Competition
Deadline: 15th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 11-50 lines
Prize: 1st: £1,000, 2nd: £300, 3rd: £100
Entry Fee: £5
Notes: Judged by Mona Arshi
More details and submissions info HERE
New Millennium Writings Monthly Muse (RECURRING)
Deadline: 15th Jan 2018 (recurs monthly)
Word Limit: 1,000 words
Prize: ‘Enigma gift’
Entry Fee: $8
Notes: Themes: Beginnings & Endings / Regrets & Resolutions
More details and submissions info HERE
Room Magazine Short Form Competition
Deadline: 15th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 500 words
Prize: $500
Entry Fee: $35-45 (entry fee includes 1 year subscription to Room Magazine)
Notes: Open to women (cisgender and transgender), transgender men, Two-Spirit and non-binary people
More details and submissions info HERE
Myriad Paradigm
Deadline: 15th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 5,000 words
Payment: $0.06 per word
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Speculative fiction
More details and submissions info HERE
Electric Literature: Personal & Critical Essays
Deadline: 16th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 1,500-4,000 words (as a general guide)
Payment: $50
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Electric Lit are particularly interested in “pieces that examine the intersection of the literary experience and other creative endeavors: film, fine art, music, video games, science, tech, architecture”
More details and submissions info HERE
Enchanted Conversation, Feb 2018 Issue
Deadline: 20th Jan 2018
Word Limit: Fiction: 700-2,500 words, poetry: any length, sequential art/comics: 1-5 pages
Payment: Fiction: $30, poetry: $10, sequential art/comics: $30
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Theme: Un rêve d’amour (A Dream of Love) – no sci-fi, dystopian, erotica, high fantasy, excessive world building, time-travel, futuristic, or space travel
More details and submissions info HERE
Fiction War Winter 2018
Deadline: 19th-22nd Jan 2018
Word Limit: 1,000 words
Prize: 1st: $1,000, 14 x finalists: $100
Entry Fee: $37.92
Notes: Themed prompts released over 3 days
More details and submissions info HERE
Ad Hoc Fiction (RECURRING)
Deadline: 24th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 150 words
Prize: Free entry to the Bath Flash Fiction Award
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Entries must include the word ‘edge’. Once submissions are closed, entries are published for public voting on the Ad Hoc site.
More details and submissions info HERE
Sixfold Spring 2018
Deadline: 24th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 5,000 words of fiction, 1-5 poems
Prize: $1,000
Entry Fee: $5
Notes: Stories are submitted into 3 rounds of voting by participating writers (more on how it works here).
More details and submissions info HERE
A3 Review (RECURRING)
Deadline: 27th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 150 words (not incl title)
Prize: 1st: £175, 2nd: £100, 3rd: £75
Entry Fee: $5/£3
Notes: Theme: ‘losing it’ – optional critique for an extra $10
More details and submissions info HERE
Retreat West First Chapter Competition
Deadline: 28th Jan 2018
Word Limit: First chapter up to 3,500 words
Prize: Review of first 3 chapters, cover letter and synopsis by Diana Beaumont from Marjacq lit agency
Entry Fee: £15
More details and submissions info HERE
Grindstone Open Prose Competition
Deadline: 28th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 1,000 words
Prize: 1st: £250, 2nd: £100, 3rd: £50
Entry Fee: £6
More details and submissions info HERE
Bath Novella in Flash Award
Deadline: 29th Jan 2018
Word Limit: 6,000-18,000 words
Prize: 1st: £1,000, 2nd: £300, 3rd: £100, 2 x commendations: £30
Entry Fee: £16
Notes: Judged by Meg Pokrass
More details and submissions info HERE
Fish Publishing Short Memoir Prize
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: 4,000 words
Prize: 1st: €1,000, 2nd: a week’s writing retreat in Spain + €300
Entry Fee: €17
Notes: Memoir. Judged by Marti Leimbach
More details and submissions info HERE
The Fiction Desk Ghost Story Competition
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: 1,000-7,000 words
Prize: 1st: £500, 2nd: £250, 3rd: £100
Entry Fee: £8
Notes: Supernatural fiction (with a loose definition of ‘ghost story’)
More details and submissions info HERE
Lancashire Authors’ Association Open Competition
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: 100 words (excludes title)
Prize: £100
Entry Fee: £2 or 3 for £5
More details and submissions info HERE
Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: 1,200 words
Prize: Scholarship to the 2018 Writers Workshop in Gambier, Ohio
Entry Fee: $24
Notes: Entrants must not have had a book of fiction already published
More details and submissions info HERE
Asymmetry 2018 Flash Fiction Contest
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: 1,000 words
Prize: 1st: $40, 2nd: $20, 7 x runners-up will also be published
Entry Fee: $2
Notes: Theme: ‘Grifts’ – speculative fiction
More details and submissions info HERE
The Plough Prize International Poetry Competition
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: Short poems up to 10 lines, longer poems up to 40 lines
Prize: 1st: £1,000, 2nd: £500, 3rd: £250
Entry Fee: £5 per poem
Notes: Include an entry form with each poem
More details and submissions info HERE
Autumn House Rising Writer Contest
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: A full-length book of poetry, approx 50-70 pages
Prize: $500 advance + $500 travel expenses + publicity grant
Entry Fee: $25
Notes: Entrants must be 33 years or younger in 2018
More details and submissions info HERE
The Big Moose Prize
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: A full novel manuscript (90-1,000 pages)
Prize: $1000 + book publication + 10 copies
Entry Fee: $25
More details and submissions info HERE
Graywolf Press Non-fiction Prize
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: Minimum 100 page sample (25,000 words) + cover letter + 2-10 page overview
Prize: $12,000 advance
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Entrants must be a resident in the US
More details and submissions info HERE
BBC International Radio Playwriting Competition
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: A 53-minute radio play with a max of 6 characters + synopsis + entry form
Prize: £2,200 + BBC radio broadcast
Entry Fee: FREE
More details and submissions info HERE
The Kent and Sussex Poetry Society Open Competition
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: 40 lines
Prize: 1st: £1,000, 2nd: £300, 3rd: £100, 4 x £50 runners-up
Entry Fee: £5 per poem, or for 3 or more poems £4 each
Notes: Judged by Helen Ivory
More details and submissions info HERE
Hyperion & Theia
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: Short stories:1001-7,499 words, novelettes: 7,500-17,499 words, novellas: 17,500-40,000 words, poetry: up to 100 lines
Payment: Fiction: $0.01 per word, poetry: $0.25 a line (plus royalties of ebook sales)
Entry Fee: $20 (discounts for multiple entries)
Notes: Theme: Rebus
More details and submissions info HERE
45th New Millennium Awards
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: Fiction + non-fiction: 6,000 words, flash fiction: 1,000 words, poetry: up to 3 poems (5 pages in total)
Prize: $1,000 for winner of each category
Entry Fee: $20 (discounts for multiple entries)
Notes: Categories in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, flash fiction
More details and submissions info HERE
Nonbinary Review Issue #16
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: Fiction/creative nonfiction: up to 5,000 words, flash fiction: 1-5 pieces of up to 1000 words each, poetry: up to 3 pages
Payment: 1 cent per word for fiction and nonfiction, and a flat fee of $10 per poem and $25 per piece of visual art
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Theme: The Little Prince – all entries should include a cover letter + 50 word bio
More details and submissions info HERE
The Disquiet Prize
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: Fiction/non-fiction up to 25 pages, or up to 6 poems (10 pages total)
Prize: Full fellowship (airfare stipend, tuition, and housing included) to the 2018 DISQUIET International Program in Lisbon, Portugal
Entry Fee: $15
More details and submissions info HERE
2018 Crazyhorse Prize
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: Fiction/essays up to 25 pages, or 1-3 poems
Prize: $2000 in each category (fiction, non fiction & poetry)
Entry Fee: $20
Notes: All entries receive a one year subscription to Crazyhorse
More details and submissions info HERE
The Iowa Review
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: Fiction/non-fiction up to 25 pages, poetry up to 10 pages
Prize: First prize: $1,500, runners-up: $750
Entry Fee: $20
Notes: Optional subscription to The Iowa Review for an additional $10 upon entry
More details and submissions info HERE
Lamar York Prizes
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: Fiction and non-fiction up to 6,000 words
Prize: Two prizes of $1,000
Entry Fee: $18
More details and submissions info HERE
Txtlit (RECURRING)
Deadline: 31st Jan 2018
Word Limit: 160 characters
Prize: Publication
Entry Fee: Submissions are made by text message. You will be charged for one standard text by your network operator.
Notes: Theme: ‘caught in the act’ – send your story as a text message from a UK mobile phone to our new number 07537 432 432
More details and submissions info HERE
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*NOTE: We’ve mainly included listings that offer payment or prizes here, as an added impetus, but there are huuuundreds more literary mags and submissions opportunities out there that reward you with publication, which is absolutely nothing to be sniffed at, and is a great way to build your ‘writer’s CV’ and prove your mettle. Check out Duotrope or The Submission Grinder for wider listings of non-paying markets – or, y’know, google “list of literary magazines” and you should be busy for the next zillion years…
