Summer’s on the horizon, sun is shining – it’s the perfect time to shut yourself away in a dark room and get writing. Join us in our quest to send out 100 Submissions in 2018 and have a looksee at our grand collection of writing contests, competitions and opportunities for May. Write, edit, submit, and GET PUBLISHED!
Bristol Short Story Prize
Deadline: 1st May 2018
Word Limit: 4,000 words
Prize: 1st prize: £1,000, 2nd prize: £700, 3rd prize: £400, 17 shortlisted writers will also receive £100
Entry Fee: £8
Notes: The judging panel will select the 20 stories to be published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 11
More details and submissions info HERE
Conium Review Innovative Short Fiction Contest
Deadline: 1st May 2018
Word Limit: 7,500 words
Prize: $500, five copies of the issue, and a copy of the judge’s latest book
Entry Fee: $15
Notes: “Innovative short fiction should take risks that pay off. Don’t tell us a story we’ve already heard before. Show us something new with your subject, style, or characters. Make sure your writing has a ‘wow’ factor.”
More details and submissions info HERE
The John Murray Prize
Deadline: 1st May 2018
Word Limit: 4,000 words + an outline of how your essay could become a book
Prize: £20,000 book contract with John Murray + mentoring
Entry Fee: $15
Notes: Theme: ‘origins’
More details and submissions info HERE
Daily Mail*/Penguin Random House New Crime Novel Competition
Deadline: 5th May 2018
Word Limit: The first 5,000 words of your book + a 600 word synopsis
Prize: £20,000 advance and publishing contract with Century, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK, and the services of literary agent Luigi Bonomi
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Entries must be in the crime and thriller genre and entrants must not have had a novel published before
More details and submissions info HERE
*Please note that Writers’ HQ DOES NOT in any way, shape or form endorse the abominable hate-filled shitrag that is the Daily Mail but maintains a neutral stance on competition listings. Your morals are your own.
Liar’s League London
Deadline: 6th May 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: Rise & Fall – accepted stories will be read by a professional actor at the February Liar’s League event
More details and submissions info HERE
Great Eighty Challenge (RECURRING)
Deadline: 14th & 28th May 2018
Word Limit: Exactly 80 words
Prize: royalties on publication
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Title not included in word count (but limited to 6 words)
More details and submissions info HERE
Prism International Call For Submissions
Deadline: 15th May 2018
Word Limit: Prose up to 25 pages (or up to 3 pieces of flash fiction up to 1,000 words each), or 1-4 poems
Payment: $30 per page for prose, $40 per page for poetry (the editorial board also awards a prize of $500 for an outstanding contributor each year)
Entry Fee: $3
Notes: Theme: ‘dreams’ – “This issue will explore dreams as political acts, as challenges to colonized landscapes, as forces of hope, and as ways to imagine our futures. We’re inviting writers to consider how dreams can be both intimate sites of rebellion and points of connection. We’re open to broad, unexpected, and tangential interpretations of, and associations to, the theme. Send us your stories, your poems, your dreams on the page.”
More details and submissions info HERE
Grouse Grind Lit Prize (For V Short Forms)
Deadline: 15th May 2018
Word Limit: 300 words
Prize: 1st prize: $500, 2nd prize: $150, 3rd prize: $50
Entry Fee: £15
Notes: Open to flash fiction and nonfiction, hybrid forms and experimental work
More details and submissions info HERE
Palooka Press Contest
Deadline: 15th May 2018
Word Limit: 30-50 page manuscripts (fiction, poetry, nonfiction, graphic narrative, or hybrid genres)
Prize: $300 + 20 copies of the book
Entry Fee: $10 (includes electronic copy of Palooka)
Notes: Palooka press was founded to offer a publishing opportunity for writers seeking a home for shorter manuscripts
More details and submissions info HERE
The Raymond Carver Short Story Contest
Deadline: 15th May 2018
Word Limit: 10,000 words
Prize: 1st prize: $1,500, 2nd prize: $500, 3rd prize: $250, 2x Editor’s Choice prizes: $125
Entry Fee: $15 online, $17 mailed
Notes: No genre fiction (romance, horror, sci-fi); literary fiction only
More details and submissions info HERE
Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest
Deadline: 15th May 2018
Word Limit: Fiction and Non fiction: 6,000 words, Poetry: 3-5 pages
Prize: 1st prize in each genre: $2,000
Entry Fee: $24
Notes: The contest is open to writers who have yet to publish a book with a print run of 300 or more
More details and submissions info HERE
SmokeLong Quarterly Award For Flash Fiction
Deadline: 20 May 2018
Word Limit: 1000 words (incl title)
Prize: 1st prize: $1500 + automatic nomination for The Best Small Fictions series, the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and other awards, at least 14 runners-up will also be published in the June 2018 contest issue–and each of the finalists will receive $15.
Entry Fee: $13 up to 2 stories
More details and submissions info HERE
Fiction War Atom Bomb
Deadline: 23 May 2018
Word Limit: 100 words (not incl title)
Prize: $5,000
Entry Fee: 1 story: $7, 2 stories: $6 each, 3 stories: $5 each*
Notes: *reduced entry fees til 30 April
More details and submissions info HERE
A3 Review (RECURRING)
Deadline: 26th May 2018
Word Limit: 150 words (not incl title)
Prize: 1st prize: £175, 2nd prize: £100, 3rd prize: £75
Entry Fee: $5/£3
Notes: Theme: ‘the moon’ – optional critique for an extra $10
More details and submissions info HERE
Welsh Poetry Competition
Deadline: 27th May 2018
Word Limit: 50 lines
Prize: 1st prize: £500, 2nd prize: £250, 3rd prize: £100
Entry Fee: £6
Notes: 17 runners up will be published on the website and in a future anthology
More details and submissions info HERE
Grindstone Lit Flash Fiction 1000
Deadline: 28th May 2018
Word Limit: 1,000 words
Prize: 1st prize: £50, Runner-up: £10
Entry Fee: £3
Notes: All shortlisted stories will also be published in either Grindstone Literary Magazine or year-end Anthology. Every entrant will receive feedback on their story.
More details and submissions info HERE
The Fiction Desk Newcomer Prize
Deadline: 31st May 2018
Word Limit: 1,000-7,000 words
Prize: 1st prize: £500, 2nd prize: £250
Entry Fee: £8
Notes: Open to writers who have not previously been published by The Fiction Desk and have not had a novel or collection of short stories published in print
More details and submissions info HERE
Battered Moons Poetry Competition
Deadline: 31st May 2018
Word Limit: 40 lines / 250 words
Prize: 1st prize: £700, 2nd prize: £200, 3rd prize: £100, 4x commendations £25 each
Entry Fee: £5 for the first entry, £3.50 each thereafter
More details and submissions info HERE
‘I Must Be Off!’ Travel Writing Contest
Deadline: 31st May (free entry) / 31st July 2018
Word Limit: 1,000 words
Prize: 1st prize: €300, 2nd prize: €50, Reader’s Choice Award: €50
Entry Fee: FREE (until May 31st, then €4)
Notes: Theme: travel articles, travel stories and travel reflections
More details and submissions info HERE
The Yeovil Literary Prize
Deadline: 31st May 2018
Word Limit: Various – see individual categories
Prize: £50-£1,000 – see individual categories
Entry Fee: £5-£12 – see individual categories
Notes: There are five categories to enter: Novel, Short Story, Poetry, Writing Without Restrictions, Local Prize
More details and submissions info HERE
Nowhere Travel Writing Contest
Deadline: 31st May 2018
Word Limit: 800-5,000 words
Prize: $1,000
Entry Fee: $20
Notes: Stories can be fiction, nonfiction or essay, but please indicate which genre at the top of your manuscript
More details and submissions info HERE
Bodley Head/FT Essay Prize 2018
Deadline: 31st May 2018
Word Limit: 3,500 words
Prize: 1st prize: £1,000, 2x runners up: £500 each
Entry Fee: £10
Notes: The competition is open to anyone between 18 and 35 years old
More details and submissions info HERE
Wundor Short Fiction Contest
Deadline: 31st May 2018
Word Limit: up to 45,000 words
Prize: £500
Entry Fee: £10
Notes: There is no lower word limit for entries (novellas, short stories and flash fiction)
More details and submissions info HERE
Txtlit (RECURRING)
Deadline: 31st May 2018
Word Limit: 160 characters
Entry Fee: Submissions are made by text message. You will be charged for one standard text by your network operator.
Notes: Themed (check website for details) – 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
Ad Hoc Fiction (RECURRING)
Deadline: Various (weekly)
Word Limit: 150 words
Prize: Free entry to the Bath Flash Fiction Award
Entry Fee: FREE
Notes: Entries must include the prompt word (see website for latest deadline). Once submissions are closed, entries are published for public voting on the Ad Hoc site.
More details and submissions info HERE
Writers’ Forum Short Story Contest (RECURRING)
Deadline: Rolling
Word Limit: 1000-3000 words
Prize: 1st prize: £300, 2nd prize: £150, 3rd prize: £100
Entry Fee: £6 (£3 for subscribers)
Notes: Optional feedback for £5. This is a rolling competition which means that entries received after one issue’s cut-off point are simply placed in the next contest.
More details and submissions info HERE
Check out our 100 Submissions in 2018 challenge here!
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…
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