tips for story writing competition

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Thursday, April 15, 2021

How to win short story contests: insights from a writing competition judge.

1. Submit your story early.

2. stick to the word count., 3. don't tell the judges why you deserve to win., 4. follow the format., 5. focus on the theme, don't just mention it., 6. interpret the theme in an unusual way..

7. Choose an unexpected point of view.

8. emphasize the story goal., 9. beware the anticlimax., 10. make sure your entry fee arrives..

25 comments:

Thanks for featuring my article. :-)

If anyone has questions, please ask. I'll be happy to reply. Also, tell us about your competition experience. Have you participated in a contest where the stories were handed to the judges as soon as they arrived? Or did the organisers wait until the closing date before passing the manuscripts to the judges?

Great article! I've submitted to many writing contests, but often turn in my story on the last day possible. I'm about to change that habit.

Good plan. Although it doesn't apply to all contests, it often happens, so you can give your stories a better chance by submitting early.

What great tips! Speaking as one who has coordinated a couple of anthologies for one of my writing groups, I know that there are a surprising number of writers out there who don't really know what formatting means. They don't know how to format a paragraph, for example, or even change their font. If I were a real editor, I would've disqualified some 15-25% of our submissions on formatting grounds alone. The moral of that story is that writers need to learn the tools of their trade!

Yes. As the coordinator of anthologies for a writing group, you were probably a lot more patient and helpful than a short story competition judge. Contest organisers and judges are glad when they can disqualify an entry unread, because it saves work. :-D -- It's the writer's responsibility to meet all criteria, including formatting. If someone doesn't understand formatting, they should seek help from someone who does. Carelessness doesn't pay.

Great post, thank you. I particularly appreciated the pointers on how to stand out favorably from the other entries.

You're welcome, Peace Writer. I hope the pointers will help your entry stand out in the next competition you enter. :-)

Thanks for the helpful tips from one who knows. The one about entering near the beginning is totally new for me. Shows me I need to keep up on contests in a more timely way. A question about endings: It seems to me a lot of published stories end on what doesn't seems like an ending at all. I'm not fond it this practice. I have a short story I entered in a few contests some time ago. I didn't want a non-ending like so many I've seen, but I thought it best not to be too in-your-face about it. Besides, my protagonist is just then thinking for the first time about embarking on a course of action--but hasn't made up her mind yet--that would go a long way towards the emotional healing she needs. (It's a course of action suggested by events that happened just before the ending.) My question: Can the ending suggest the next step somewhat subtly (but not secretly, ha) without coming right out and saying "This is what's going to happen"? Especially in a case like this when she hasn't even made up her mind yet, but even considering it is a huge step forward?

So what you're shooting for is an open ending. Open endings can be satisfactory - but only if they're handled well. If the story asked a question at the beginning (as it should), e.g. 'Will she get the job?' or 'Will she win the scholarship?', then this question needs to be answered. 'Yes, she gets the job/scholarship' or 'No, she doesn't get the job/scholarship'. There can also be answers which are not quite so happy/unhappy: 'Yes, she gets the job/scholarship but no longer wants it' or 'No, she doesn't get the job/scholarship but she gets something better instead.' However you end the story, the story question must be answered. To create an open ending that satisfies the reader, you need to answer the story question, and pose a new question arising from it: Yes, she got offered the job/scholarship... but will she accept it? This will make the reader think: "If I was in her place, after all that has happened, would I accept this job/scholarship?" This can leave the reader thinking for a long time, sometimes for days after they've finished the story. A poorly handled open ending is one that doesn't answer the story question, and thus leaves the readers dissatisfied, feeling that they've wasted their time reading. I hope this helps with your story plotting.

Very interesting article - Thank you Ms. Rayne Hall.

You're welcome, 'unknown' :-)

Yet another interesting read from Rayne Hall. I am not a writer but I am a keen reader and I''ve always been curious about the life and work of the professional writers. I also enjoyed reading about what the work of the judges involves. I would like to know where I can find and read short stories which have won contests. That would be a great read.

I believe some contest organisers publishing anthologies of their winning stories. Though those are only the winners of that particular contest.

Very informative, as always, Rayne. I have entered many contests, and to my surprise I won a nonfiction contest a few years ago. I just entered two about a month ago. I found your suggestions very helpful, especially interpreting the theme in an unusual way. Thanks, Carole

Hi Carole, I think you'll be good at interpreting the theme in a different way. :-)

Excellent article. I enjoyed the discussion of theme, goal! and a different viewpoint - things you don't see in other discussions. Thanks, Rayne.

And yet, those topics are crucial for writing short stories - whether for contests or for publication.

Thanks for all the tips. I would like to write more short stories and you have given me lots of good ideas for improving me including getting in early

You're welcome, Alex. Are you entering short story contests? Or planning to?

I'm very new to the world of short story contests, so I appreciate the advice and tips. It is especially helpful when they're so clearly presented. Thank you!

Best of luck with your short story contest entries this year. :-)

I read this post simply because I have a quiet night and was intrigued. As a regular short story writer and prizewinner, A judge of many short story and poetry competitions I thought to debunk some of the silly things often written in blogs of this sort. My apologies to Rayne who obviously knows what she is talking about. Good stuff.

Yes, there are some silly myths about, mostly spread by writers who pretend insights they don't have. Which myth do you most want to debunk?

Hi Rayne, Great article and really good advice. As a contest judge myself, I would add emotional impact. If I can read your short story or flash fiction and not really feel some strong emotion, it doesn't make the cut. Make me angry. Make me sad. Scare the hell out of me or give me a "new puppy" moment. This is the element I find most lacking in contest entries.

5 Writing Contest Strategies to Improve Your Winning Chances

by Guest Blogger | 0 comments

Fear, anticipation, and self-doubt are just a few emotions I felt during my first writing contest.

Maybe you’re in the same place now. Wondering if you have a chance among the many entrants. Uncertain if it’s worth the time and effort.

Short answer—it is.

And that holds true whether you win or lose. We’ll get into that more below.

But I also want to reveal five tips for improving your winning chances in a writing contest. See, I won the Short Fiction Break 2020 Summer Writing Contest with my story Dark Time . So the editorial staff at The Write Practice asked me to share strategies I think helped my entry.

My author career is in its infancy, so I’m speaking from limited experience. But I believe the resources and tips below will give you a better chance at snagging the next grand prize.

Want to take your chance at a grand prize and put these tips to the test? Check out our next writing contest!

Discover Writing Contests

Why Enter a Writing Contest?

Besides the obvious benefit of “If I win it’ll be awesome and I get prize money,” here are a few other perks I experienced.

These apply whether or not you place.

You'll become a better writer. A short story is the perfect format to practice writing. You experience the entire process in a short time. Rough draft, revision, critiques, polishing and publishing. With longer works, that journey might take months instead of days or weeks.

You'll pad your portfolio. Even if you don’t win, being published in a competition boosts your credibility. When you point readers, agents, or authors to your published work, they regard you as a more legitimate writer. It’s marketing for the brand of YOU.

You'll connect with other writers. A contest gives you an excuse to comment on the work of other writers. Since you’re all in the same competition, they’ll likely respond. That’s a new connection, and potential collaborator, for your writing career.

You'll experience BEING a writer. Entering a writing contest, producing a story, then submitting makes you feel like a writer. It’s challenging and rewarding. Short story contests are a simple way to live the writer’s life.

Five Strategies That Worked For Me

Here are some top strategies I believe helped me win the 2020 Summer Writing Contest.

1. Review Short Story Best Practices

I began by reviewing several articles on short story best practices. This is important, since it gets you planning how to tell a great story from the beginning.

Having best practices in mind as I brainstormed ideas and wrote the first draft heavily influenced the outcome.

Here are two incredible resources from The Write Practice. I referred to these articles often during my writing and revision process:

How to Write a Short Story From Start to Finish

10 Critical Mistakes Writers Make in Writing Contests

2. Use the MICE Quotient

I debated including this, because it teeters on the edge of being helpful or confusing. But I found it useful, so maybe you will too.

It’s too detailed to describe here, so I’ll just direct you to the source.

Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette—hosts on the podcast Writing Excuses — hosted a lecture on writing short stories . In it, they explain the MICE Quotient . This is a strategy to create satisfying stories by focusing on the type of conflict involved.

There’s also a formula (yes, writers—MATH), which helps estimate your final word count. Knowing that number in advance saves time and headache. Especially if the story you want to tell looks to be 5000 words, and the limit is 1500.

You can find the lecture on YouTube here .

3. Focus on Theme

The contest I entered offered few constraints. A limit of only 1500 words and a theme of isolation .

In a sea of great entries, I knew the judges would seek an exemplary take on the theme to make their final decisions.

I asked myself, how can I best get the reader to FEEL isolation? Short stories, in my opinion, are a mix between prose and poetry. Emotional impact is one of their defining features.

In my story, I attempted this by layering many levels of isolation. My character progressed from self-imposed solitude, to getting stranded alone, to potentially being the last human alive.

Ask yourself, how can you write a narrative that delivers on the theme with an emotional gut punch ?

4. Spend Most of Your Time Revising

I took two mornings to plan my story, then wrote it over two more.

I spent the next week revising.

During that revision process, the story changed a lot and shrank from over 2300 words to just under 1500.

While much of the final version lived in that first draft, the heart and soul were missing. For example, revision helped clarify my protagonist’s motivations and character arc.

Here are a few specific lessons I learned along the way.

Accept the process will be messy. I often had no idea what to include, what to delete, or what to change. I moved sections around only to move them back. Revision is chaotic, and that’s okay. Giving yourself a break from your draft helps. Just an hour away can clarify story blocks. Also, try re-working sections. You may not keep the changes, but at least you’ll have something to compare the original passages against.

Listen to your gut feelings. As a new writer, I often distrust my writing sensibilities. In Dark Time, my first draft had the protagonist, lonely and confused, talking for paragraphs to his flashlight. It was cute and lighthearted. But I wanted the tone dark and tense. So although it kinda worked, I scrapped it. If you have an instinct about your story, listen to it. You’re probably right.

Do multiple polish passes. I revised Dark Time to a point it seemed “done.” Then I kept going. To my surprise, a lot changed after this point. I switched words to be more descriptive. Others I adjusted to better reflect theme and symbolism. I obliterated instances of passive voice. I also eliminated most forms of verbs like “is,” “was,” “were,” etc. So keep polishing, even after the story works.

5. Supercharge Your Draft Using Critiques

Sometimes, it’s difficult to know if a part of your story doesn’t work. After all, you understand what you’re trying to get across.

Until someone NOT you reads it, how do you know if you succeeded?

In my case, turns out I didn’t always hit the mark. Sections of my story received multiple comments expressing confusion. Obviously, something wasn’t working. So if several people get stuck on a part in your story, you’ll want to re-work it.

Critiques also help you discover which passages affect readers, and which don’t. This allows you to tweak structure and supercharge your story’s impact.

For example, I found my ending didn’t touch readers emotionally. Critiques helped me uncover why.

In the last scene, the protagonist fears never seeing his family again. Yet I hadn’t mentioned them until that point. Referring to his relatives earlier in the story fixed the issue.

Critiques may seem scary, but they’re not. The outside perspective I received from workshopping helped me win the competition. No doubt.

Where Will Your Story Take Us?

As I grow in my writing career, I’ve discovered no two authors have the exact story to tell. Your unique perspective, your voice, is what will draw readers to you.

Short story contests are an excellent way to develop that voice and share it with others. That can lead to new opportunities and new readers.

So use the tips above and get started on your next contest entry. Whether or not you take the grand prize, you’ll likely enjoy the experience and walk away a better writer.

Ready to enter a writing contest yourself? We'd love for you to join our next contest! It's your turn to write a story, get feedback, get published , and maybe even take home the grand prize:

Enter the Next Contest

Have you ever won a prize for your writing? What strategies did you use to write a winning piece?   Let us know in the comments .

For today's practice, we'll focus on Demi's third strategy: focus on theme. Here's the theme of the Fall Writing Contest:

Boundless. When your characters are limitless, what will they do?

First, take five minutes to brainstorm. What could boundless mean for a story, and how can you express it? Here are some questions to get you started:

• What does “boundless” mean?
• What could “boundless” mean for a person? A place? A situation? An animal? An object?
• What are some good things about “boundless”?
• What are some bad things about “boundless”?
• What does “boundless”  feel like?

Then, take ten minutes to start writing a story based on the theme. You might outline your story, or write a scene.

When you're done, share your story in the comments below . This is a great way to practice the fifth strategy, too, and improve your story with feedback. Be sure to leave feedback for your fellow writers, too!

Guest Blogger

This article is by a guest blogger. Would you like to write for The Write Practice? Check out our guest post guidelines .

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Your Ultimate Guide to Writing Contests Through 2024

Regardless where you are on your writing journey, you can benefit from entering contests.

The right contest can tell you:

• Where you stand
• How you measure up against the competition
• What you still need to learn

And you could win cash.

That’s why my team researched a wide range of high-quality contests. We’ve included free competitions and also many with modest entry fees.

• Short Story Writing Contests
• Full Manuscript Writing Contests
• Poetry Writing Contests

Great American Fiction Contest

Prize: 1st: $1,000, publication in The Saturday Evening Post

Runners-up (5): $200

Entry Fee: $10

Deadline: TBD 2024 (Annual Contest)

Sponsor: The Saturday Evening Post

From Website: “Unpublished short stories of 1,500 to 5,000 words in any genre touching on the publication’s mission, “Celebrating America—past, present, and future.” No extreme profanity or graphic sex. Work published on a personal website or blog is still eligible.”

SiWC Writing Contest

Prize: 1st: $1,000 plus publication

Honorable Mention: $150

Entry Fee: $15

Deadline: September 15, 2024

Sponsor: Surrey International Writers’ Conference

From Website: “Short stories in any genre must be 2,500-4,000 words. All submissions must contain original material and may not have been previously published, accepted for publication, or have been a winner in another contest prior to the deadline.”

WOW / Women On Writing Quarterly Flash Fiction Competition

Prize: 1st: $400, $25 Amazon gift certificate

2nd: $300, $25 Amazon gift certificate

3rd: $200, $25 Amazon gift certificate

Runners-up (7): $25 Amazon gift certificate

Honorable mentions (10): $20 Amazon gift certificate

Entry Fee: $10 (or $20 with feedback)

Deadline: Quarterly (next deadline February 2, 2024)

Sponsor: WOW / Women On Writing

From Website: “Runs four times a year and is open to all styles and genres. Closes each quarter after 300 entries have been received, or at the deadline. WOW also runs a quarterly nonfiction essay competition with cash prizes.”

Bristol Short Story Prize

Prize: 1st: £1,000 (~$1,242)

2nd: £500 (~$621)

3rd: £250 (~$310)

Shortlisted (17): £100 (~$124)

Entry Fee: £9 (~$11)

Deadline: TBD 2024

Sponsor: Bristol Short Story Prize

From Website: “Open to all published and unpublished writers 16 and up. No geographical restriction, but all entries must be in English. Maximum length 4,000 words (not including title). No minimum length. Stories can be on any subject.”

Aesthetica Creative Writing Award

Prize: £2,500 (~$3,105)

Winners also receive further non-monetary prizes including publication in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual.

Entry Fee: £18 (~$22) (Poetry Category entry fee is ~$15) 

Deadline: August 31, 2024

Sponsor: Aesthetica Magazine

From Website: “Fiction entries should be no more than 2,000 words. Works published or entered elsewhere are accepted. Any theme accepted. You may enter as many times as you wish, however, each work requires a separate fee and submission form.”

The Lascaux Prize

Prize: $1,000

Finalists receive $100

Deadline: June 20, 2024

Sponsor: The Lascaux Review

“Flash Fiction and Creative Nonfiction categories. 

Flash fiction entries should not exceed 1,000 words. All genres and styles welcome. 

From Website: “Creative nonfiction entry length must not exceed 10,000 words. All topics welcome but should be written in a nonacademic style. May include memoirs, chronicles, personal essays, humorous perspectives, literary journalism—anything the author has witnessed, experienced, learned, or discovered.”

The Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize

Prize: First place: £3,000 cash grant (~$3,726)

Second place: £1,000 travel expense (~$1,242)

Third place: £1,000 travel expense (~$1,242)

Entry Fee: Free

Deadline: March 1, 2024

Sponsor: The Alpine Fellowship

From Website: “Entries must fit the annual theme. Maximum of 2,500 words. All genres of writing are permitted, including fiction, non-fiction, and non-academic essays. Open to all nationalities but must be written in English. Stories must not have been published, self-published or accepted for publication in print or online. No entries that have won or been placed in another competition at any time.”

ServiceScape Short Story Award

Deadline: November 29, 2024

Sponsor: ServiceScape

From Website: “All entries must be original, unpublished works of short fiction or nonfiction, up to 5,000 words in length. Any genre or theme accepted.”

Bacopa Literary Review Contest

Prize: $200 Award 

$100 Honorable Mention in each of six categories

Sponsor: The Writers Alliance of Gainesville

From Website: “Awards in 6 categories (contestants may submit to only ONE category). Fiction (up to 2,500 words), Creative Nonfiction (up to 2,500 words), Humor (up to 2,000 words), Formal Poetry (1-3 poems), Free Verse Poetry (1-2 poems), Visual Poetry (1 poem).”

Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award

Prize: $.08 per word and publication

Deadline: February 1, 2024

Sponsor: National Space Society and Baen Books

From Website: “Write a short story of no more than 8,000 words, that shows the near future (no more than about 50-60 years out) of manned space exploration. What they want to see: Moon bases, Mars colonies, orbital habitats, space elevators, asteroid mining, artificial intelligence, nano-technology, realistic spacecraft, heroics, sacrifice, and adventure.”

Parsec Short Story Contest

Prize: First place: $200 and publication in the Confluence program book. 

Second place: $100 

Third place: $50 

Best Youth Story: $50

Deadline: March 31st, 2024

Sponsor: Parsec, Inc.

From Website: “Each annual contest is based on a theme provided. This can be conveyed in the setting, plot, characters, and dialogue; the only limit is your imagination. The theme must be integral to the story in some way and not just mentioned in passing. No minimum word count, no more than 3500 words. The 2024 Contest theme is ‘AI mythology.’” 

The Raymond Carver Short Story Contest

Prize: First place: $2000 

Second place: $500 

Third place: $250 

Two Editor’s Choice: $125

Entry Fee: $18

Deadline: May 15, 2024

Sponsor: Carve Magazine

From Website: “One short story per entry. No limit to entries. Must be previously unpublished (including online) with a 10,000 maximum word count. We accept entries from anywhere in the world, but the story must be English-language. No genre fiction (romance, horror, sci-fi); literary fiction only.”

Blurred Genres Flash Contest

Prize: First Place: $750 

Second Place: $350 

Third Place: $150 

Publication of Top Five

Sponsor: Invisible City (University of San Francisco)

From Website: “Based on a theme (for example last year’s theme was “Levity”) that can be interpreted through prose, poetry, or some combination of the two. All genres and themes are welcome. Contest submissions must be 750 words or less and can be flash fiction/nonfiction, prose poetry, or some unique combination of the three. Submissions must be the original work of the submitter and unpublished (and not slated for future publication).”

Imagine 2200: Write the future

Prize: First Place: $3,000

Second Place: $2,000 

Third Place: $1,000

An additional nine finalists will each receive $300 

All winners and finalists will have their stories published in an immersive collection on Grist’s website

Sponsor: Grist

From Website: “Imagine 2200 is an invitation to writers from all over the globe to imagine a future in which solutions to the climate crisis flourish and help bring about radical improvements to our world. 3,000 to 5,000 word stories envisioning a world where we prioritize our well-being, work to mend our communities, and lead lives that celebrate our humanity.”

The Elegant Literature Award For New Writers

Prize: First place: $3,000 and 10c/word and publication. Free enrollment in the New Novelist Accelerator.

Second – Tenth: 10c/word and publication.

Eleventh – Thirty-fifth: $20 and an honorable mention in the magazine

Entry Fee: Requires Elegant+ Membership ($9.99 a month)

Deadline: Ongoing (monthly)

Sponsor: Elegant Literature Magazine

From Website: “Write a story involving annual theme. New or unpublished authors may enter. Word count is 500-2000. All genres are welcome as long as it involves the theme.”

F(r)iction Contests

Prize: $300.00 and consideration for publication in F(r)iction

Entry Fee: $10 for a single entry, $12 for three entries

Deadline: April 30, 2024

Sponsor: F(r)iction

From Website: “Competitions in several categories, short stories (1,001 – 7,500 words), flash fiction (up to 1,000 words), and Poetry (up to three pages per poem). Entries are accepted regardless of genre, style, or origin. Experimental, nontraditional, and boundary-pushing literature is strongly encouraged. Their guidelines include the phrase ‘Strange is good.’”

Manchester Fiction Prize

Prize: £10,000 (~$12,420)

Entry Fee: £18 (~$22) 

100 reduced-price (£10 or ~$13) entries are available to entrants who might not otherwise be able to take part in the competition.

Sponsor: Manchester Metropolitan University

From Website: “The Manchester Fiction Prize asks for a short story of up to 2,500 words in length. Stories submitted should be new work, not previously published elsewhere. The Prize is open internationally to those aged 16 or over.”  

Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition

Prize: Grand Prize $5000, an interview with them in Writer’s Digest (Nov/Dec 2023 issue) and on WritersDigest.com, a paid trip to the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference, including a special trophy presentation at the keynote, a coveted Pitch Slam slot at the Writer’s Digest Conference where the winner will receive one on one attention from editors or agents, and publication of their winning piece on WritersDigest.com

First Place: $1,000 and publication of their winning piece on WritersDigest.com

Second Place: $500 

Third Place: $250 

Fourth Place: $100 

Fifth Place: $50 

Sixth through Tenth Place: $25 gift certificate for writersdigestshop.com.

Entry Fee: $20-30 (varies depending on category)

Deadline: May 6, 2024 

Sponsor: Writer’s Digest

From Website: “Only original works that have not been published (at the time of submission) in print, digital, or online publications will be considered. Self-published work in blogs, on social media, etc. will be considered. For the script category, only unproduced scripts will be considered. Entries in the Nonfiction Essay or Article category may be previously published. All entries must be in English. Memoirs/Personal Essay, Nonfiction Essay or Article, and Children’s/Young Adult Fiction: 2,000 words maximum. Mainstream/Literary Short Story, Genre Short, Story, and Humor: 4,000 words maximum. Inspirational Writing: 2,500 words maximum. Rhyming Poem and Non-rhyming Poem: 40 lines maximum.”

Emerging Writer’s Contest

Prize: Publication, $2,000, review from Aevitas Creative Management, and a 1-year subscription for one winner in each of the three genres

Entry Fee: Free for subscribers to Ploughshares, $24 for nonsubscribers

Sponsor: Ploughshares (Emerson College)

From Website: “The contest is open to writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry who have yet to publish or self-publish a book. Fiction and Nonfiction: Under 6,000 words. Poetry: 3-5 pages.”

Wells Festival of Literature Short Story Competition

Prize: First Place £750 (~$932)

Second Place £300 (~$373)

Third Place: £200 (~$248)

Entry Fee: £6 (~$8)

Sponsor: Wells Festival of Literature

From Website: “Stories may be on any subject and should be between 1,000 and 2,000 words. All entries must be the exclusive and original work of the entrant. At the time of entry, the work submitted must not have been entered into any other Competition and must not have been published in any format or location.”

Anthology Short Story Competition

Prize: First Place: €1,000 (~$1098), the chance to see their work published in a future issue of Anthology, and a one-year subscription to Anthology 

Second Place: €250 (~$275)

Third Place: €150 (~$165)

Entry Fee: Early Bird: €12 (~$13)

Standard fee: €18 (~$20)

Deadline: July 31, 2024

Sponsor: Anthology Publishing

From Website: “Established to recognize and encourage creative writing and provide a platform for publication, the Anthology Short Story Competition is open to original and previously unpublished short stories in the English language by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. There is no restriction on theme or style. Stories submitted must not exceed the maximum of 1,500 words.” 

The Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize

Prize: £1,000 (~$1,246) and publication in Wasafiri’s print magazine

Entry Fee: £10 (~$12) for a single entry, £16 (~$20) for a double entry

Sponsor: Wasafiri Magazine 

From Website: “Exceptionally international in scope, the prize supports writers who have not yet published a book-length work, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background. No entry may exceed 3,000 words. A single poetry entry can include up to three poems, which together total no more than 3,000 words.”

2024 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize

Prize: $1000 and a free 10-week course with Gotham Writers

Entry Fee: $25

Sponsor: Gotham Writers and Selected Shorts

From Website: “This long-running series at Symphony Space in New York City celebrates the art of the short story by having stars of stage and screen read aloud the works of established and emerging writers. Selected Shorts is recorded for Public Radio and heard nationally on both the radio and its weekly podcast.”

Robert and Adele Schiff Awards

Prize: $1,000 All entries will be considered for publication in The Cincinnati Review

Entry Fee: $20

Sponsor: The Cincinnati Review (University of Cincinnati)

From Website: “Writers may submit up to 8 pages of poetry, 40 pages of a single double-spaced piece of fiction, or 20 pages of a single double-spaced piece of literary nonfiction, per entry. Previously published manuscripts, including works that have appeared online (in any form), will not be considered. There are no restrictions as to form, style, or content; all entries will be considered for publication. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable under the condition that you notify us if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere.” 

Salamander 2024 Fiction Prize

Prize: First Place: $1,000 and Publication

 Second Place: $500 and Publication

Deadline: TBD 2024 

Sponsor: Salamander Magazine

From Website: “All entries will be considered for publication and will be judged anonymously. Each story must not exceed 30 double-spaced pages in 12-point font. Previously published works and works accepted for publication elsewhere cannot be considered. Salamander’s definition of publishing includes electronic publication.”

BOA Short Fiction Prize

Prize: $1,000 and publication by BOA Editions, Ltd.

Deadline: May 31, 2024

Sponsor: BOA Editions, Ltd.

From Website: “Entrants must be U.S. citizens, legal residents of the U.S., or have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), or Legal Permanent Status (LPS). Entrants must be at least 18 years of age. Minimum of 90 pages; maximum of 200 pages. Manuscript text should be at least 12 pt. font, double-spaced. As with all BOA fiction titles, our prize-winning short story collections are more concerned with the artfulness of writing than the twists and turns of plot. It is our belief that short story writing is a valuable and underserved literary form that we are proud to support, nurture, and celebrate.”

Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest

Prize: First Place: $3,000 

Entry Fee: $22

Deadline: May 1, 2024

Sponsor: Winning Writers (Co-sponsored by Duotrope)

From Website: “For this contest, a story is any short work of fiction, and an essay is any short work of nonfiction. All themes accepted. Entries may be published or unpublished. Length limit: 6,000 words maximum. No restriction on the age of the author.”

Gabriele Rico Challenge for Nonfiction

Prize: $1,333

Deadline: November 1, 2024

Sponsor: Reed Magazine

From Website: “C reative nonfiction, such as personal essays or narratives, not scholarly papers or book reviews. All works should be stand-alone essays, not chapters of a longer work. Previously published work is not eligible. Up to 5,000 words.”

53-Word Story Contest

Prize: Publication in Prime Number Magazine and a free book from Press 53.

Deadline: Ongoing. 15th of each month

Sponsor: Prime Number Magazine

From Website: “New prompt each month. Judges are looking for stories with a surprising approach to the prompt, something unusual and creative. Stories must be 53 words—no more, no less. Stories with fewer than or more than 53 words will be disqualified. Send only stories; poetry with line breaks will not be considered.”

Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction

Prizes: Three Winners are announced who are published and share in the $1000 USD total prize pool. Twenty writers are Longlisted. All entries considered for publication, and for submission to the Pushcart Prize and other anthologies.

Deadline: Awarded every two months

Sponsor: Letter Review

From Website: “Word Length: 0 – 5000 words. Open to anyone in the world. There are no genre or theme restrictions.”

Letter Review Prize for Nonfiction

Entry Fee: $20.

From Website: “0 – 5000 words. Open to anyone in the world. We welcome all forms of nonfiction including: Memoir, journalism, essay (including personal essay), fictocriticism, creative nonfiction, travel, nature, opinion, and many other permutations.”

University of New Orleans Press Lab Prize

Prize: $10,000 advance on royalties and a contract to publish with the University of New Orleans Press

Entry Fee: $28

Sponsor: University of New Orleans

From Website: “Entries must be unpublished novels or short story collections. The work does not have to be regionally focused. There is no word limit. There is no restriction on subjects covered. The contest is open to all authors from around the world, regardless of publishing history.  Works of fiction (novels and short story collections) only. Submissions must be your entire manuscript.”

The Bath Novel Awards 

Prize: Two £3,000 (~$3738) prizes are awarded annually for the best manuscript as judged by literary agents

All shortlistees win feedback on their full manuscript.

Entry Fee: £29 (~$36)

Deadline: May 31st 2024

Sponsor: The Bath Novel Award (co-sponsored by Cornerstones Literary Consultancy and Professional Writing Academy)

From Website: “Submit the opening 5,000 words plus one-page synopsis of novel manuscripts for adults or young adults. Completed works must be over 50,000 words. Novels can be for adult or young adult readers and any genre. Must be your original work and submitted in English. Novels can be unpublished, self-published, or independently published.”

The Times/Chicken House Competition

Prize:  First Place: worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House with a royalty advance of £10,000 (~$12,459), plus an offer of representation by this year’s agent judge, Davinia Andrew-Lynch of Curtis Brown. 

Second Place: Lime Pictures New Storyteller Award. A publishing contract with a royalty advance of £7,500 (~$9,344) plus an offer of representation by Davinia Andrew-Lynch.

Entry Fee: £20 (~$25)

Deadline: June 1, 2024

Sponsor: The Times and Chicken House 

From Website: “To enter, you must have written a completed full-length novel suitable for children/young adults aged somewhere between 7 and 18 years. A minimum of 30,000 words and a maximum of 80,000 words suggested.”

The Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction

Prize: $5,000 advance and publication by Dzanc Books

Deadline: September 30, 2024

Sponsor: Dzanc Books

From Website: “The Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction recognizes daring, original, and innovative novels (generally over 40,000 words, but there is no hard minimum). The contest is open to new, upcoming, and established writers alike. Agented submissions are also eligible, and we ask that you include all agency contact information with the application. All submitted works must be previously unpublished novel-length manuscripts and should include a brief synopsis, author bio, and contact information.”

Claymore Award

Prize: Discounted admission to Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference, with introductions to agents/editors (And probably publishing contract)

Entry Fee: $45 (Full critique included for $125)

Deadline: April 1, 2024

Sponsor: Killer Nashville

From Website: “The contest is limited to only the first 50 double-spaced pages of unpublished English-language manuscripts containing elements of thriller, mystery, crime, or suspense NOT currently under contract. These can include Action Adventure, Comedy, Cozy, Historical, Investigator, Juvenile/YA, Literary, Mainstream/Commercial, Mystery, Nonfiction, Sci-fi/Fantasy, Short Story Collections, Southern Gothic, Supernatural, Suspense, Thriller, and Western manuscripts, and any of their derivatives. (Self-published manuscripts are considered already published and are not eligible.)”

St. Martin’s Minotaur / Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition

Prize: Publication and a $10,000 advance

Sponsor: Minotaur Books and Mystery Writers of America

From Website: “Open to any writer, regardless of nationality, aged 18 or older, who has never been the author of any published novel and is not under contract with a publisher for publication of a novel. All Manuscripts submitted must be original works of book length (no less than 220 typewritten pages or approximately 60,000 words), written in the English language, written solely by the entrant, and must not violate any right of any third party or be libelous. Murder or another serious crime is at the heart of the story.”

The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing

Prize: $10,000 advance and publication

Sponsor: Restless Books

From Website: “Created in 2015 to honor outstanding debut literary works by first-generation immigrants, awarded for fiction and nonfiction in alternating years. Fiction manuscripts must be complete. Nonfiction submissions must consist of either a complete manuscript or a sample of at least 25,000 words and a detailed proposal that includes a synopsis and an annotated table of contents. All submissions must be in English (translations welcome). Fiction candidates must not have previously published a book of fiction in English. Nonfiction candidates must not have previously published a book of nonfiction in English.”

New American Fiction Prize

Prize: $1,500 and a book contract, as well as 25 author’s copies and promotional support

Deadline: January 15, 2024

Sponsor: New American Press

From Website: “Manuscripts should be at least 100 pages, but there is no maximum length. All forms and styles of full-length fiction manuscripts are welcome, including story collections, novels, novellas, collections of novellas, flash fiction collections, novels in verse, and other hybrid forms.”

Your Next Best Read

Prize: First Place (Fiction & Nonfiction): $100 Cash Price, 6-month Advertising Package, Press Release, Editorial Review, Newsletter Announcement, Promotional Creatives

Second Place Awards (Fiction & Nonfiction): 6-month Advertising Package, Editorial Review, Newsletter Announcement

Third Place (Fiction & Nonfiction): 3-month Advertising Package, Editorial Review, Newsletter Announcement

Deadline: May 5, 2024

Sponsor: Excalibre Publishing

From Website: “ The contest is open to writers of all backgrounds, ages, and nationalities. Both published and unpublished works are welcome. We encourage submissions in various/ALL genres –  fiction, non-fiction, poetry (submit in nonfiction), and short stories. No specific wordcount requiered. Submissions must be in English.”

Letter Review Prize for Manuscripts

Prizes: Three Winners are announced who have a brief extract published, receive a letter of recommendation from our Judges for publishers, and share in the $1000 USD total prize pool. Twenty writers are Longlisted.

Entry Fee: $25.

Deadline: Awarded Every two months

From Website: “Please submit the first 5000 words of your manuscript, whether it be prose or poetry. Open to anyone in the world. The entry must not have been traditionally published. We are seeking all varieties of novels, short story collections, nonfiction, and poetry collections. We will accept manuscripts which are unpublished, self published, and some which are indie published. Review full entry guidelines for further details.”

2nd place in fiction & non-fiction $750 cash prize and trophy

3rd place in fiction & non-fiction $500 cash prize and trophy

Winner of each of the 80+ categories $100 cash prize and gold medal

Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize

Prize: $2,500 plus publication

Entry Fee: $30

Sponsor: Kent State University Press

From Website: “Offered annually to a poet who has not previously published a full-length collection of poems. The winner and the competition’s judge will give a reading together on the Kent State campus. The competition is open to poets writing in English who have not yet published a full-length collection of poems (a volume of 50 or more pages published in an edition of 500 or more copies).”

Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry

Prize: $2,000 plus publication

Sponsor: Lynx House Press

From Website: “Awarded for an unpublished, full-length volume of poems by a U.S. author, which includes foreign nationals living and writing in the U.S. and U.S. citizens living abroad. Manuscripts may include poems that have appeared in journals, magazines, or chapbooks. Poems that have previously appeared in full-length, single-author collections, are not eligible.”

Ó Bhéal Five Words International Poetry Competition

Prize: First Place: €750 ($890) 

Second Place: €500 ($590) 

Third Place: €250 ($295)

Entry Fee: €5 ($6)

Deadline: Every Tuesday at 12pm (Irish time) from April 11, 2023 – January 30, 2024

Sponsor: Ó Bhéal

From Website: “Five words will be posted on this competition page. Entrants will have one week to compose and submit one or more poems which include all five words given for that week. Entry is open to all countries. Poems cannot exceed 50 lines in length (including line breaks), and must include all five words listed for the week.”

Letter Review Prize for Poetry

Prizes: Three Winners are announced who are published and share in the $800 USD total prize pool. Twenty writers are Longlisted. All entries considered for publication, and for submission to the Pushcart Prize and other anthologies.

Entry Fee: $15.

From Website: “70 lines max per poem Open to anyone in the world. There are no style or subject restrictions.”

• Advice for Researching Writing Competitions

This list includes only a few of the many writing contests you can find online.

Here are some tips for looking into options on your own:

1. Narrow your search with details that are relevant to you, for example, “writing contests in Texas,” “writing contests for women authors,” or “writing contests for veterans.” 

2. Be genre-specific.

3. Include the year in your search to ensure the most up-to-date results. 

4. Carefully read the guidelines and eligibility requirements. 

5. Pay attention to the contest sponsor. Only submit to reputable hosts.  

Worried your writing isn’t quite ready to compete? Take my free writing assessment and see personalized guidance on how to improve your skills. https://jerryjenkins.com/quiz/

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How to Win Writing Competitions

Posted on February 3, 2019 by aaronmullins

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Creative writing competitions are a great way to give yourself a deadline, focus your mind and produce your best writing. Embark on a journey to conquer the world of creative writing competitions with our comprehensive guide. Whether you’re a seasoned author or a budding talent, this article is tailored to help you submit winning short stories, poetry, and books to various contests. From understanding judging criteria to crafting compelling entries, we’ve got the strategies you need.

How to win writing contests: this guide is for authors who are ready to master the art of winning writing competitions and submit their short stories, poetry and books into creative writing contests. Short story competitions are usually for writers to submit their stories of around 1,000 to 3,000 words length. Poetry contests usually request poems for submission to be around 40 to 60 lines. There are also many young writers competitions, with age restrictions on accepting submissions, as well as flash fiction writing competitions , who usually accept stories up to 500 words.

This author guide will examine the judging criteria for winning writing contests and give tips and advice on how to win creative writing competitions .

Winning Writing Contest Strategies

There are a number of things authors can do to give themselves the best possible chance of winning a writing competition , many of which are also great advice for creative writing in general.

Writing competitions are great practice for budding authors, particularly for young authors entering children’s writing competitions , and a lot of fun even for published writers. And while nothing can guarantee you a win in the subjective world of judging the written word, there are a few things we can do to help all writers.

If you’re looking for a writing contest to enter then bookmark this Huge List of Writing Competitions .

So you’ve identified a contest that you’d like to target and are ready to write your story, or have a finished story that you feel fits well within one of the categories. Before you send it off to the panel of judges, have a read through my top tips for winning a writing contest and unlock the secrets to success with proven strategies tailored for authors aiming to dominate writing competitions.

Explore techniques applicable to short story contests and poetry competitions, and delve into the intricate world of judging criteria for writing contests. Gain valuable insights and advice on how to align your submissions with what judges are looking for, increasing your chances of clinching victory.

How to Win Writing Contests: The Basics

Step one of how to win writing competitions is to get the very basics of writing correct. Take practical steps to optimise your entry and give yourself the best chance of winning a creative writing contest. From basic proofreading to leveraging tools like Grammarly, ensure your submission is flawless and captivating.

This means proofreading your creative writing and making any necessary edits to polish your story or poetry it as much as possible. Get other people to read over your stories and poems and listen to their feedback. Correct any typos to appear more professional and ensure the reader (and judge) stays immersed in your story, rather than being distracted by spelling mistakes and other basic errors.

If you don’t feel confident enough that you have removed all the basic writing errors, there’s a choice of spelling and grammar checking software that can do this for you, such as Grammarly. Though if you are writing in Microsoft Word, you could just look for the red underlined words and change them if you need to.

“It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.” Jack Kerouac

If you are unsure about certain aspects of your writing, such as whether to use quotation marks or apostrophes for dialogue, always go with the traditional method in your chosen genre. If your work is good enough to be published and the editor wishes to change it, then that’s fine. If you get it to this standard, then you have a good chance of winning a writing competition .

For creative writing competitions , there are particular expectations about the basics being done. Most writing contests will disqualify your short story or poem if it is littered with basic errors. I find that reading my work aloud shows me errors that would otherwise have remained hidden.

Writing Competition Word Counts

Navigate the challenge of meeting specified word counts in writing competitions by trimming unnecessary elements without compromising your story’s essence, ensuring judges engage with your work from start to finish. If you go over (or under) the word count for the creative writing competition then there is a good chance your story or poem will not even be read, meaning all your hard work will have gone to waste.

The writing contest judges won’t get to see the quality of your work. Need to trim your story down? Try cutting out backstory. Does the reader really need to now every tiny detail? Or are there parts that aren’t progressing the story that can be chopped.

If you feel changing the word count would be detrimental to your story, then find another creative writing contest that is a better match for your story. You can find more ways to trim adverbs, cliches and other ideas in my Top 10 Writing Tips .

Writing Contest Themes

Creative writing competitions often have a central theme. Understand the importance of aligning your story with contest themes. Whether it’s an image, quote, or genre requirement, master the art of incorporating the theme into your narrative for a competitive edge. If you aren’t sure whether your story fits the theme, then have a look at previous winner’s stories. If it asks for a horror story, ensure you have written a horror story, and so on. Make the contest theme central to your story and you will have a better chance to win a writing contest .

Know the difference between a literature contest and a writing competition.

A literature contest usually wants a style of writing that embodies creativity, depth and clever use of language. A writing competition usually wants more popular fiction, plot-driven rather than setting-focused, and a conflict your main character needs to resolve.

Writing Contest Guidelines

Follow crucial guidelines to maximise your chances of success. From submission methods to font choices, adhere to the rules set by writing competitions to ensure your entry stands out for the right reasons. When devising strategies for how to win writing competitions , always read and adhere to the writing competition rules.

• If the writing contest states that all submissions must be online, then only submit online.
• Check that there aren’t any restrictions on who can enter, as you don’t want to get your story disqualified.
• Never put your name  or other identifying information on the manuscript. Writing competitions are judged anonymously, based on merit.
• Unless specified otherwise, use 12 point Arial or Times New Roman font.
• Don’t add a note for the judges, or any personal pictures, or anything else that isn’t asked for. All they need is your story.

Create Memorable Characters

Having got the basics for winning a writing contest in place, it now comes down to the quality of your writing which decides how well your story places within the contest. Elevate your storytelling by creating characters that resonate with readers and judges alike.

Then heighten the tension by placing them within a fascinating world, but one filled with jeopardy and intrigue. If you need support bringing a character to life, then have a look at How to Describe People .

Write a Complete Story

Try to create a story arc or events that can be told within the contest word count. If it’s a short story competition, try to focus on one small event that perhaps doesn’t go as expected. If it’s poetry competition, find a way to convey the story or emotion within fewer lines than you may otherwise normally compose.

Don’t submit a partial story or snippet of a larger story, as it won’t contain all the elements that the judges are looking for when choosing who will win the writing contest. This includes limiting the number of characters, locations, events, time periods to a manageable amount. Focus on delivering a complete and engaging experience.

Get the Judge’s Attention

One of the best ways to immediately grab the judge’s attention and boost your chances of winning a writing competition is to hit them with an amazing opening line. This will be the first impression they have of your overall story, so make it a powerful one that makes them want to continue reading and make your work stand out.

The judging panel will have read loads of stories in a very short amount of time, so will be looking for something that truly stands out. In addition, come up with an intriguing title that relates to the story and overall theme.

Keep the Judge’s Attention

Okay, so you’ve hit them with your best opening line, and now you have to follow it up with some action. To stand out and win a writing contest, don’t bother with back story or world building in the beginning, drop your characters straight into trouble. Or indicate what will shake up their routine. What is your character’s goal?

Write Dilemmas, Create Crisis

A great way to keep a judge’s attention is to base your story on a dilemma that your character is facing. Something that forces them to make a choice, in order to achieve a goal.

Questions for  writing inspiration :

• What incident causes your character’s world to turn upside down?
• What surprises your character?
• How do your characters react to the incident?
• What choices must your character make?

“There is only one plot – things are not what they seem.” Jim Thompson

Build tension as they work their way towards that goal, increase the risks and danger, making the outcome extremely important. Then introduce the consequence of their decisions and actions. Or unexpected consequences. You will now be well positioned to win a writing competition !

Move Your Story Forwards

Your characters should always find themselves in new situations, facing new obstacles. Or variations of old obstacles which drive the story. Decisions have to be made, the consequences dealt with, then new decisions made and new trials overcome.

• What subplots can move the main plot forward?
• How can your conflicts become more perilous?

To win a writing competition, things should always be changing in your character’s world, generally growing more intense until it reaches an equally powerful ending. Your character’s personality should grow and change with the action too.

Write a Satisfactory Ending

After all that hard work poured into the opening and middle action, you need to give your story the ending it deserves. One that wraps up all the loose ends, leaving the reader (and judges) feeling satisfied that the story has been resolved, but also leaves them with a final thought.

This could be adding a bit of mystery or a revelation that changes how the rest of the story is viewed, a memorable twist. Something that makes your story stick in their minds. This final aspect could be how you win a writing competition .

“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it.” Octavia E. Butler

Bonus Writing Tip

Relax and simply write .

Remember that nothing can guarantee that you’ll win a writing contest.

But getting these fundamental elements right can help your story to overcome the initial hurdles. Most of all you should enjoy the writing experience that leads to your final story, write to the competition rules, hit the submit button, then relax.

It’s now out of your hands.

Who will judge my story?

Your story will likely go to a team of writing contest readers who will select their favourites to go through to the next phase of judging.

The number of judging rounds will likely depend on the number of entries and size of contest you have chosen to enter. Eventually there will be a longlist formed, which will then be whittled down to a shortlist. This is normally where the prizes and commendations begin.

Read  How to Write Fiction: A Creative Writing Guide to find more guidance and support on becoming the best writer you can be.

Learn insights into how to use the secret art of euphonics to unleash the power of psychology in your work. This book is designed to guide you step-by-step through your complete story journey and achieve success with your writing!

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Aaron Mullins ( @DrAaronMullins ) is an award winning, internationally published psychologist and bestselling author. Aaron has over 15 years experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in business strategy for authors and publishers. He started Birdtree Books Publishing where he worked as Editor-in-Chief, partnered with World Reader Charity and taught Academic Writing at Coventry University. Aaron’s book How to Write Fiction: A Creative Writing Guide for Authors has become a staple reference book for writers and those interested in a publishing career. Find out more .

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Category: All Categories , Writing Guides Tags: Craft winning entries in writing competitions , how to win writing competitions , how to win writing contests , Judging criteria for writing contests , Master the art of winning writing competitions , Proven methods for winning writing awards , Strategies for winning contests , Tips for impressing writing competition judges , Writing competition success tips , Writing contest submission advice

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Mastering Writing Competitions: Insider Tips from a Two-Time Winner

06 Apr, 2024 | Blog Articles , English Language Articles , Get the Edge , Humanities Articles , Writing Articles

V. Community and networking

Participating in writing competitions can allow students to connect with fellow writers, mentors and professionals in the literary community. Joining writing groups, workshops or clubs through competitions can provide you with opportunities to share ideas and receive support. 

This not only provides the chance to learn from professionals, but can also help you to feel part of literary circles. Building relationships with experienced writers, editors and publishers fosters guidance and mentorship for you in your writing endeavours. These connections could also help you find and gain access to future opportunities.

Discover More

Thanks for signing up, 12 insider tips to ace a writing competition.

1. Make a list of the requirements

This first one may sound obvious, but it’s easy to accidentally stray from the guidelines set by the competition. Some things to bear in mind include: 

• Minimum and/or maximum word count . This is very important as your entry could be disqualified if it fails to keep within this.
• Form . Is it meant to be a poem, a short story, an essay, a script or something else?
• Prompt material. A question, statement, title, quote or photograph, for example.
• Suggested approaches . This might be a character perspective, line of argument, or particular image or theme.

By keeping a clear list of exactly what is asked of you, you can reference it as you work and ensure your writing meets the requirements. After all, you don’t want to finish your work only to realise that it needs to be partly or fully rewritten.

2. Plan out the timescale

While a competition may have a seemingly-distant deadline, you don’t want to fall into the trap of leaving it to the last minute and having to rush. Note down the deadline on your calendar or in your planner, then schedule in some time to work on your entry. 

You might want to set a few personal goals based on how much needs to be done, and by when. For example, you could set a date for having completed a plan, and another date to have finished a first draft. Make sure you leave enough time to edit and proofread.

3. Seek inspiration

It’s best to give yourself some time to think about the different ways you could approach the topic/question/theme set by the writing competition. For example, you could consider any ideas you may have had in the past, such as storylines, poetic images, characters or arguments, and see if any of them can be adapted to fit the competition’s requirements. 

Alternatively, you may need to seek out material you haven’t encountered before. This might involve reading books or news articles, visits to new or familiar places, or even something as simple as a walk. However, try not to put too much pressure on yourself, and go about your daily routine – it’s often while doing ordinary tasks that you’ll have a eureka moment.

4. Do your research

This is especially important for essay competitions, but applies to any kind of writing competition. For example, for both of my winning entries (a poem from the perspective of Queen Joanna I of Castile, and a short story inspired by a painting by Goya, a Spanish artist), I had to carefully research the historical context in which I was setting my narratives. This not only helped to inform what I was writing, but also provided great material to enrich my work and bring the stories and characters to life.

Sources might include books, websites, podcasts, articles, blogs, images and much more.

When essay-writing, backing up your ideas and arguments with evidence and research is essential to making your work convincing. When reading, it’s good to constantly ask yourself what you think about a particular line of thinking, whether you agree or disagree, or if you feel you could provide a more nuanced perspective. Including this in your essay will help make your work stand out to the judges.

Competitions often require referencing in your work, so make sure you use reliable sources and keep a note of where you’re finding each idea or piece of information. That way it’s easier for you to add any necessary footnotes, a list of sources or a bibliography to your entry.

5. Collect and brainstorm ideas before structuring

Try not to worry too much about the structure of your entry at first, and start by collecting any ideas, themes, images and descriptions you come up with, and any information and arguments you’ve read about. Jotting all of this down in mind-maps, lists or posters for example (whichever works best for you), can help you visualise your work. This makes it easier to find the best way to structure your work later on.

6. Take some time to plan

While it might be tempting to dive straight into writing, and this can be helpful when you have the momentum to write a particular part of your entry, it’s still important to plan. This helps to ensure your work is coherent and each section leads smoothly into the next one. 

For example, you may come up with a few stanzas of a poem or paragraphs of a story or essay before planning. However, it’s always good to take a step back and plan exactly where they’ll fit best within your piece, based on other content you want to include.

7. Play with form

Don’t be afraid to experiment with the form set by the competition. For example, you could research different types of poems, narrative types or ways to structure an essay. Sometimes competitions are more specific – for example, if it should be written in first or third person – but there’s always scope to find your personal approach.

Often, the best entries are those that creatively engage with the possibilities and constraints of the form they’re written in.

8. Experiment with imagery

For more descriptive pieces, it can be helpful to research literary devices and techniques. 

You might want to choose certain motifs or literary images to recur throughout the piece, which can help to provide stylistic unity to your work. Exploring the possibilities of a particular set of images or concepts to be presented in different ways can help to develop your work and showcase your creativity and imagination. 

For example, in my poem about Joanna ‘The Mad’ of Castile, I explored the weight of the charge of ‘madness’ and what it implied about illness, suffering, suppression and control.

Alternatively, using lots of different ways to describe the subject at hand can highlight your versatility and creative potential as a writer.

These tips can also be applied to essay writing, as particular case studies, anecdotes and imagery can help to anchor the focus of your work, highlighting your personal take on the subject.

9. Pay attention to tone

It’s important to bear in mind the tone you want to set for your piece. Will it be light-hearted and humorous, bitterly ironic, serious, dramatic or tragic (or something else entirely)? Think about which approach works best for the competition requirements, and try to be consistent with your tone. 

If you want to change the tenor of the piece as it develops – starting off more light-hearted but ending with a serious note, for example – make sure you’re purposeful with the way the tone changes.

10. Don’t give up!

Everyone suffers from writer’s block sometimes, and it’s normal to get a bit stuck at some stage in the writing process. Try not to get disheartened, and instead take a break and come back to working a bit later. You might feel the need to seek out a new source of inspiration, or your brain may simply be tired and you may need a break to gather your thoughts.

11. Take breaks when you need them

You might get into the ‘zone’ and want to blitz your way through the essay at once, but often we need to take a few breaks to get the cognitive juices flowing and persevere through any bouts of writer’s block as mentioned above.

Exercising, listening to music, playing an instrument, reading for pleasure, and meeting up with friends are just some of the ways that you can take a healthy break. The most important thing is to pay attention to how you’re feeling and do what’s best for you.

12. Proofread, proofread and proofread again!

Once you’ve finished your first draft, take a break and come back to proofread and edit where necessary. Pay attention to spelling, punctuation and grammar, and potentially consider alternative ways of phrasing sentences or structuring your ideas. 

Once you’ve gone through your work once or twice, it’s a good idea to ask for a second (and third) pair of eyes to check for typos and give some feedback. A competition may limit the input of the help of others such as teachers, but as long as you keep within the guidelines, asking for others’ responses is a good way to refine your work and get a feel for how others may respond to your writing. This way, you can ensure everything makes sense and is as effective as possible.

Writing competitions are an amazing opportunity for your personal and academic development, as a way of practising and improving your writing skills, encouraging your creativity and interest, and connecting you to the literary community. 

I hope these tips will guide and encourage you with your writing competition applications. Just remember to have fun and let your creativity shine through!

Costas is currently studying a BA in History and Spanish at the University of Oxford, specialising mainly in medieval history and literature. His interests include reading widely, creative writing, and playing and listening to music.

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• Book Publishing
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• Writing Contests

by Alex Keegan

British Crime and Literary Fiction Author Alex Keegan is publisher and editor of the British literary magazine, Seventh Quark . He is creator of the five Caz Flood novels: Cuckoo (Headline Books, St. Martin's Press), Vulture , Kingfisher , Razorbill (Headline Books) and A Wild Justice (Piatkus Books) which all feature feisty female private investigator Catherine "Caz" Flood. Cuckoo was published in the U.S. by St Martin's Press, and was nominated for an Anthony Award as best first novel. His prize-winning short stories have been featured in numerous publications including Mystery and Manners , BBC Radio 4 , Blue Moon Review , Southern Ocean Review , and The Atlantic . He is a Contributing Editor for The Internet Writing Journal . His blog can be found here .

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Best Fiction Writing Contests in 2024

Showing 177 contests that match your search.

The Reedsy Prompts Contest

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

Every Friday, Reedsy sends out five writing prompts. Enter your response within a week for a chance at $250. Winners may also be included in a future issue of Reedsy’s literary magazine, Prompted.

Additional prizes:

$25 credit toward Reedsy editorial services

💰 Entry fee: $5

📅 Deadline: December 31, 2024

Bridport Novel Award

Bridport Arts Centre

Genres: Fiction and Novel

Your novel doesn't have to be finished. We initially need only 5,000 to 8,000 words plus a 300 word synopsis. If you're long listed we'll ask for a total of 15,000 words, including your original word count. Shortlisted? Then we need a total 30,000 words, again including your original entry and long listed word count. It all adds up to an incredible opportunity.

£750 for the runner up and three prizes of £150

💰 Entry fee: $29

📅 Deadline: May 31, 2024 (Expired)

Inception 2024: $500 for Best Opening

Sunspot Literary Journal

Genres: Fiction and Poetry

For Sunspot Lit’s Inception contest, send your best opening (novel, CNF, art collection, photo series, etc.). No restrictions on theme or category. Submit via Submittable or Duotrope.

Publication

💰 Entry fee: $12

📅 Deadline: March 31, 2024 (Expired)

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The Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize

Alpine Fellowship

Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, and Short Story

Awarded for the best piece of writing on the theme of the Alpine Fellowship 2023 - Flourishing. The winner of the Writing Prize will receive a cash prize, and the runners up will receive travel expense support that must be used to attend our 2023 symposium which will be held from 10th-13th August 2023 in Fjällnäs, Sweden

£3,000 cash grant

2nd: £1,000 travel expense | 3rd: £1,000 travel expense

💰 Entry fee: $0

📅 Deadline: March 01, 2024 (Expired)

As Bright as the Moon

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Short Story, and Thriller

Can’t decide between the headstrong alpha or the hunky omega? Us either. We’re seeking stories featuring steamy werewolf romance, perfect for reading under a full moon. Whether you’re Team Jacob Black or Team Alcide Herveaux…we’re all Team Awoooo. Works up to 3,000 words will be considered.

2nd place: $300; 3rd place: $100

📅 Deadline: May 31, 2022 (Expired)

Nimrod Literary Awards

Nimrold International Journal of Prose and Poetry

Genres: Fiction, Poetry, Short Story, and Novel

All finalists in fiction and poetry will be published and paid at our standard publication rate. Semi-finalists in poetry will also be published and paid at our standard publication rate.

$2000 + Publication

2nd: $1000 + Publication

💰 Entry fee: $20

📅 Deadline: April 01, 2024 (Expired)

Fish Flash Fiction Prize

Fish Publishing

Genres: Fiction and Flash Fiction

The Fish Flash Fiction Prize is an opportunity to attempt one of the most interesting and rewarding tasks – to create, in a tiny fragment, a completely resolved and compelling story in 300 words or less. The top ten stories will be published in the FISH ANTHOLOGY 2022.

2nd: €300 + Online Writing Course | 3rd: €300

💰 Entry fee: $14

📅 Deadline: February 28, 2024 (Expired)

Bacopa Literary Review Annual Writing Contest

Writers Alliance of Gainesville

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Short Story

Bacopa Literary Review’s 2024 contest is open from March 4 through April 4, with $200 Prize and $100 Honorable Mention in each of six categories: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Flash Fiction, Free Verse Poetry, Formal Poetry, and Visual Poetry.

📅 Deadline: May 02, 2024 (Expired)

Summer Nanofiction Battle

Writing Battle

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

Two days to write a 250 word short story. The peer-powered quarterly writing contest where every story receives oodles of feedback. Write one. Read ten. Win thousands.

Genre Winner (x4): $1,500

Genre Runner-up (x4): $375 | Feedback by industry professionals

📅 Deadline: August 02, 2024

South Warwickshire Literary Festival Writing Competition

South Warwickshire Literary Festival

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Short Story

Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction 800 words, Poetry 40 lines, any genre any style. Over 16s only

Read entry at literary festival, September 2024 UK

📅 Deadline: March 29, 2024 (Expired)

Work-In-Progress (WIP) Contest

Unleash Press

Genres: Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Science Fiction, Science Writing, and Young Adult

We aim to assist writers in the completion of an important literary project and vision. The Unleash WIP Award offers writers support in the amount of $500 to supplement costs to aid in the completion of a book-length work of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. Writers will also receive editorial feedback, coaching meetings, and an excerpt/interview feature in Unleash Lit.

Coaching, interview, and editorial support

💰 Entry fee: $35

📅 Deadline: July 15, 2024

The Moth Short Story Prize 2024

Judged by Louise Kennedy, The Moth Short Story Prize is open to anyone over 16, as long as their story is previously unpublished. The word limit is 3,000. Winning story published as part of the summer fiction series in the Irish Times, while the 2nd and 3rd-prize-winning stories will be published in the Irish Times online.

2nd: week-long writing retreat at Circle of Misse in France plus open travel stipend | 3rd: €1,000

💰 Entry fee: $16

📅 Deadline: June 30, 2024

Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize

Lambda Literary

Genres: Fiction, LGBTQ, and Novel

Dedicated to the memory of author and journalist Jim Duggins, this prize honors LGBTQ-identified authors who have published multiple novels, built a strong reputation and following, and show promise to continue publishing high quality work for years to come.

📅 Deadline: February 16, 2024 (Expired)

Science Fiction Writing Contest

FanStory.com Inc

Genres: Fiction, Science Writing, and Science Fiction

Share a Science Fiction themed story to enter this writing contest with a cash prizes. Let your imagination fly and enjoy sharing your writing.

Winning entries will be features on the FanStory.com welcome page.

💰 Entry fee: $9

📅 Deadline: April 12, 2023 (Expired)

Fabula Press Short Story Contest

Fabula Press

Fabula Press’ annual short story competition has two segments – a free section, and a paid section. At least 3 submissions from the free section will be selected for publication in the Fabula Press Anthology and on the Fabula Press website; for paid submissions, at least twelve entries will be included in the anthology on the website. There is no theme for our contests; also, barring a few exceptions, we are flexible about genre

2nd: $250 | 3rd: $100 | Stories selected for publication: $75

💰 Entry fee: $10

📅 Deadline: June 07, 2024

Emerging Writer's Contest

Ploughshares

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, and Poetry

The 2024 Emerging Writer's Contest will run from March 1 at noon EST to May 15 at noon EST. The Emerging Writer's Contest is open to writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry who have yet to publish or self-publish a book. Read past winners of the contest here. We award publication, $2,000, review from Aevitas Creative Management, and a 1-year subscription for one winner in each of the three genres. =

Review from Aevitas Creative Management

💰 Entry fee: $30

📅 Deadline: May 01, 2024 (Expired)

Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize

Gotham Writers Workshop

Genres: Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

The Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize is a writing competition sponsored by the stage and radio series Selected Shorts. Selected Shorts is recorded for Public Radio and heard nationally on both the radio and its weekly podcast. This years entries will be judged by Carmen Maria Machado (In the Dream House, Her Body and Other Parties).

$1000 + free 10 week course with Gotham Writers

💰 Entry fee: $25

Creative Nonfiction Prize

Indiana Review

Genres: Essay, Fiction, and Non-fiction

Send us one creative nonfiction piece, up to 5000 words, for a chance at $1000 + publication. This year's contest will be judged by Lars Horn.

Genre Smash Short Story Challenge

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

For this short story challenge, all participants will be randomly assigned a genre pairing. As soon as you receive your ‘smashed’ genres you'll have until the closing time to write and submit a short story of any length up to 5,000 words, that perfectly and seamlessly combines both genres into one amazing short story.

💰 Entry fee: $11

📅 Deadline: October 23, 2023 (Expired)

The Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition

The Ghost Story

Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Short Story, and Thriller

We’re interested in flash fiction pieces of between 250 and 1,000 words. We’re seeking the finest work we can find that incorporates an uncanny element. Ghost stories are welcome, of course—but your submission may involve any paranormal or supernatural theme, as well as magic realism. What we’re looking for is superb writing, fresh perspectives, and maybe a few surprises.

print and online publication

💰 Entry fee: $15

📅 Deadline: January 31, 2024 (Expired)

The Masters Review Novel Excerpt Contest

The Masters Review

Each fall, The Masters Review hosts a call for novel excerpts! Writing a novel can be an arduous and lonely process, but we’re here to champion the great work being produced. Whether your book is not quite finished or ready to pitch, we want to read your words. For this contest, we’re looking for self-contained excerpts that display a strong voice, compelling characters, and carefully constructed narrative arcs. You may submit an excerpt from any section of your completed or in-progress novel, but choose wisely: a synopsis should not be required for understanding the excerpt. As always, we have no limitations on genre, though we are primarily interested in literary fiction.

2nd: $300, online publication | 3rd: $200, online publication

📅 Deadline: November 12, 2023 (Expired)

Reader Views Literary Awards

Reader Views

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

The Reader Views Literary Awards program helps level the playing field for self-published authors, recognizing the most creative and exciting new books in the industry. Our awards program is recognized industry-wide as one of the top literary awards programs for independent authors.

Several marketing prizes (e.g. book review)

💰 Entry fee: $89

📅 Deadline: December 15, 2024

Interactive Narrative Writing Contest

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, and Romance

An interactive narrative writing contest. Four categories, capped at 20 participants in each category, and 3 prizes for the winners in each. No need to write a complete novel, just 3 shorts "episodes". We're hosting the contest to find amazing writers and get feedback on our interactive narrative writing tool!

2nd: $150 | 3rd: $100

📅 Deadline: May 22, 2024 (Expired)

Book Pipeline Unpublished Contest

Book Pipeline

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Non-fiction, Science Fiction, and Young Adult

Launched in 2014, Book Pipeline connects writers worldwide with publishers, editors, agents, and the film industry. Through two submission platforms—Unpublished and Adaptation—the company seeks both new and established authors. For over 22 years, Pipeline has bridged the gap between up-and-coming writers and the industry through a unique, long-term, hands-on facilitation process. The result thus far has been $8 million in scripts sold to studios and networks since 1999.

💰 Entry fee: $45

📅 Deadline: August 20, 2024

Elegant Literature's Monthly Award For New Writers

Elegant Literature

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, Young Adult, Flash Fiction, and Science Writing

One of the largest awards open to unpublished writers and closed to professionals. We are the first magazine to pay pro rates and only accept submissions from new writers, putting over $150k into the hands of emerging talent around the globe so far. One new writer receives the grand prize. We also choose the best stories, pay the authors professional rates, and publish them in our magazine. April guest judge is Christopher Fielden.

10x Paid publication, 25 x $20 USD | Free entry to Novelist Accelerator

Best Indie Book Award

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

The annual Best Indie Book Award® (or BIBA®) is an international literary awards contest recognizing self-published and independently published authors from all over the world. Entries are limited to independently (indie) published books, including those from small presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors.

💰 Entry fee: $65

📅 Deadline: August 15, 2024

IndieReader Discovery Awards

IndieReader

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, and Novel

Where talented authors meet publishing professionals with the power to make a difference in the success of their books. Every author who enters a title in the IR Discovery Awards will receive a verdict, written by an IndieReader reviewer and based on their assessment after reading the complete book.

First look consideration by a top, NYC-based literary agency

$500, publicist consultation service, Reedsy credit, custom author website

💰 Entry fee: $150

📅 Deadline: February 14, 2024 (Expired)

North Street Book Prize

Winning Writers

Genres: Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, Poetry, Children's, Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Thriller, and Young Adult

Submit a self-published or hybrid-published book, up to 200,000 words in length. One grand prize winner will receive $10,000, a marketing analysis and one-hour phone consultation with Carolyn Howard-Johnson, a $300 credit at BookBaby, three months of Plus service (a $207 value) and a $500 account credit from Book Award Pro, and 3 free ads in the Winning Writers newsletter (a $525 value)

$1,000 for top winner in each category | $300 for honorable mentions

💰 Entry fee: $75

Goldilocks Zone

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Script Writing, and Short Story

Sunspot Lit is looking for the perfect combination of craft and appeal in stories, CNF, novel or novella excerpts, artwork, graphic novels, poems, scripts/screenplays. Literary and genre accepted. Enter through Submittable or Duotrope.

📅 Deadline: April 30, 2024 (Expired)

Geminga: $250 for Tiny Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, or Art

Sunspot Lit

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, Poetry, Script Writing, Short Story, and Novella

Geminga is a neutron star so small it was difficult to detect. With Geminga: $500 for Tiny Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, or Art, Sunspot Lit honors the power of the small. No restrictions on theme or category. Word limit is 100 for fiction and nonfiction. Micropoetry is limited to 140 characters. Graphic novels should be 4 pages or less.

Publication in digital and print

First Chapter + Synopsis Competition

Fiction Factory

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Novel, Romance, Science Fiction, and Young Adult

Have you completed the first draft of your novel? Are you ready to pass it on to a fresh pair of eyes, to see if you are on the right track? Is your all-important first chapter ready for submission to an agent? Whatever your plans, your first chapter must shine – it must grab your readers or quickly lose their interest.

£500 + an appraisal

💰 Entry fee: $22

📅 Deadline: February 29, 2024 (Expired)

The Caledonia Novel Award

Genres: Fiction, Novel, and Young Adult

We are an Edinburgh-based, international competition for unpublished and self-published novelists in all genres for adults and YA. This year's judge is Alice Lutyens, literary agent at Curtis Brown. Send us your first 20 pages plus a 200-word synopsis - all details on our website.

£1500 for winner

£500 for Highly Commended; week-long writing retreat at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre for best novel from UK & Ireland

💰 Entry fee: $36

📅 Deadline: October 15, 2024

The Big Moose Prize

Black Lawrence Press

Genres: Fiction, Novel, Poetry, and Short Story

Each year Black Lawrence Press will award The Big Moose Prize for an unpublished novel. The prize is open to new, emerging, and established writers. The winner of this contest will receive book publication, a $1,000 cash award, and ten copies of the book. Prizes will be awarded on publication. The Big Moose Prize is open to traditional novels as well as novels-in-stories, novels-in-poems, and other hybrid forms that contain within them the spirit of a novel.

Publication, 10 copies of your book

💰 Entry fee: $27

Short Story Competition 2021

Exeter Writers

Exeter Writers runs an annual short story competition. The competition began in 2009 and is very popular, receiving entries from all over the world. The maximum word count is 3,000.

📅 Deadline: February 28, 2021 (Expired)

The Rubery Prize

Rubery Book Awards

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Science Fiction, Thriller, Young Adult, and Romance

The Rubery Prize is a prestigious international book award seeking the best books by indie writers, self published authors and books published by independent presses, judged by reputable judges. Through our reputation of finding quality and outstanding books we aim to bring recognition to the works that win and heighten an author's profile.

£200, a write-up

💰 Entry fee: $60

Discover the finest writing contests of 2024 for fiction and non-fiction authors — including short story competitions, essay writing competitions, poetry contests, and many more. Updated weekly, these contests are vetted by Reedsy to weed out the scammers and time-wasters. If you’re looking to stick to free writing contests, simply use our filters as you browse.

Why you should submit to writing contests

Submitting to poetry competitions and free writing contests in 2024 is absolutely worth your while as an aspiring author: just as your qualifications matter when you apply for a new job, a writing portfolio that boasts published works and award-winning pieces is a great way to give your writing career a boost. And not to mention the bonus of cash prizes!

That being said, we understand that taking part in writing contests can be tough for emerging writers. First, there’s the same affliction all writers face: lack of time or inspiration. Entering writing contests is a time commitment, and many people decide to forego this endeavor in order to work on their larger projects instead — like a full-length book. Second, for many writers, the chance of rejection is enough to steer them clear of writing contests. 

But we’re here to tell you that two of the great benefits of entering writing contests happen to be the same as those two reasons to avoid them.

When it comes to the time commitment: yes, you will need to expend time and effort in order to submit a quality piece of writing to competitions. That being said, having a hard deadline to meet is a great motivator for developing a solid writing routine.

Think of entering contests as a training session to become a writer who will need to meet deadlines in order to have a successful career. If there’s a contest you have your eye on, and the deadline is in one month, sit down and realistically plan how many words you’ll need to write per day in order to meet that due date — and don’t forget to also factor in the time you’ll need to edit your story!

For tips on setting up a realistic writing plan, check out this free, ten-day course: How to Build a Rock-Solid Writing Routine.

In regards to the fear of rejection, the truth is that any writer aspiring to become a published author needs to develop relatively thick skin. If one of your goals is to have a book traditionally published, you will absolutely need to learn how to deal with rejection, as traditional book deals are notoriously hard to score. If you’re an indie author, you will need to adopt the hardy determination required to slowly build up a readership.

The good news is that there’s a fairly simple trick for learning to deal with rejection: use it as a chance to explore how you might be able to improve your writing.

In an ideal world, each rejection from a publisher or contest would come with a detailed letter, offering construction feedback and pointing out specific tips for improvement. And while this is sometimes the case, it’s the exception and not the rule.

Still, you can use the writing contests you don’t win as a chance to provide yourself with this feedback. Take a look at the winning and shortlisted stories and highlight their strong suits: do they have fully realized characters, a knack for showing instead of telling, a well-developed but subtly conveyed theme, a particularly satisfying denouement?

The idea isn’t to replicate what makes those stories tick in your own writing. But most examples of excellent writing share a number of basic craft principles. Try and see if there are ways for you to translate those stories’ strong points into your own unique writing.

Finally, there are the more obvious benefits of entering writing contests: prize and publication. Not to mention the potential to build up your readership, connect with editors, and gain exposure.

Resources to help you win writing competitions in 2024

Every writing contest has its own set of submission rules. Whether those rules are dense or sparing, ensure that you follow them to a T. Disregarding the guidelines will not sway the judges’ opinion in your favor — and might disqualify you from the contest altogether. 

Aside from ensuring you follow the rules, here are a few resources that will help you perfect your submissions.

Free online courses

On Writing:

How to Craft a Killer Short Story

The Non-Sexy Business of Writing Non-Fiction

How to Write a Novel

Understanding Point of View

Developing Characters That Your Readers Will Love

Writing Dialogue That Develops Plot and Character

Stop Procrastinating! Build a Solid Writing Routine

On Editing:

Story Editing for Authors

How to Self-Edit Like a Pro

Novel Revision: Practical Tips for Rewrites

How to Write a Short Story in 7 Steps

Reedsy's guide to novel writing

Literary Devices and Terms — 35+ Definitions With Examples

10 Essential Fiction Writing Tips to Improve Your Craft

How to Write Dialogue: 8 Simple Rules and Exercises

8 Character Development Exercises to Help You Nail Your Character

Bonus resources

200+ Short Story Ideas

600+ Writing Prompts to Inspire You

100+ Creative Writing Exercises for Fiction Authors

Story Title Generator

Pen Name Generator

Character Name Generator

After you submit to a writing competition in 2024

It’s exciting to send a piece of writing off to a contest. However, once the initial excitement wears off, you may be left waiting for a while. Some writing contests will contact all entrants after the judging period — whether or not they’ve won. Other writing competitions will only contact the winners. 

Here are a few things to keep in mind after you submit:

Many writing competitions don’t have time to respond to each entrant with feedback on their story. However, it never hurts to ask! Feel free to politely reach out requesting feedback — but wait until after the selection period is over.

If you’ve submitted the same work to more than one writing competition or literary magazine, remember to withdraw your submission if it ends up winning elsewhere.

After you send a submission, don’t follow it up with a rewritten or revised version. Instead, ensure that your first version is thoroughly proofread and edited. If not, wait until the next edition of the contest or submit the revised version to other writing contests.

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Tips on Writing For Competitions

A good way to build up confidence when it comes to your own writing is by entering contests. Along with the potential prizes, it can be good exposure for your reputation as an author and is a way to get you to stretch your typing muscles. So here’s some advice on how best to approach these events and what you can do to improve your chances of progressing through them.

1. Read the Terms & Conditions Writing competitions tend to have to remove a number of their entries because of mistakes like incorrect font sizes or entries sent after the deadline. Read the Terms and conditions carefully before doing anything else. They will usually go over the theme of the event, any extra expenses when entering, and how they want your entry to be sent to them, e. g. digitally, post, etc.

2. Writing style It’s best not to enter competitions that have themes or word counts which you don’t typically write, such as how a short story writer will find writing micro fiction difficult. Stick to your strengths, this is a contest to show your best work, so avoid writing something you’re not used to.

3. Reusing your old work Don’t be afraid to use old pieces of fiction you’ve shelved away. Sometimes they can be a perfect fit for the contest you’re entering. Previously published stories can also be used. Just check to see if they allow fiction that has already been published, and can be found in their terms and conditions.

4. Expenses Whilst there are plenty of free competitions to enter, some require payment. This’ll also only be enough to pay for a single entry unless stated otherwise, meaning you won’t be able to send off more than one story.

5. Don’t apply to too many Keep in mind that you’ll already be working on at least entry, adding too much would be a lot to handle at once, depending on your schedule. It’s best to stick to only doing one or two contests at a time.

6. Keeping track Each time you apply or get an update on a competition entry, have a record of it so that you know what’s happening with your works. That way, you can have a good idea about which organisations enjoy your writing and which ones to avoid.

7. Keeping in the loop There are plenty of online websites that can track a range of competitions happening at the current moment. If you’d like to try doing this again, make sure to bookmark them and check up every now and then!

If you want to learn more about how to write stories, check out the story craft section of the website for more information and guidance.

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Here, you will find links to all the resources on this website that are to do with writing competitions and publishing opportunities.

Most of them comprise extensive curated lists and calendars detailing submission information for contests, prizes, awards and publications that are open to unsolicited submissions from writers. These include opportunities for anthologies, books, flash fiction, non-fiction, novels, poetry, short stories and more. The competitions listed are from all over the world. Most of them are open to authors living anywhere on the planet. On each page, you will also find links to other writing competition list providers, meaning there are thousands of opportunities to browse through.

I'm often asked how to find writing contests, so I thought having all the different awards and prizes listed on one page would be useful.

So, here are the links to the relevant resources:

Book and Novel Competitions

Some of the contests are for unpublished books, some for self-published and some for professionally published, so there is something for writers at every stage of their career.

Flash Fiction Competitions

Competitions that celebrate the art of very short fiction, also known as flash fiction, micro fiction, sudden fiction, twitterage, twitterature, dribble, drabble, minisaga, nanotale, and micro-story. Word limits range from 6 up to 1,000 words.

Non-Fiction Contests

The prizes and awards listed here are for non-fiction writing. They include essay and memoir contests, as well as bursaries, grants and scholarships for students.

Poetry Awards

Most of these contests listed in this resource are for single poems, but you will also find details of competitions for chapbooks and poetry collections.

Short Story Collection Contests

This list is for single author short story collection competitions. It's quite short as there aren't many opportunities for this type of book, but there are a couple of highly prestigious prizes for this niche, so it's worth checking out.

Short Story Competitions

This is the most popular resource on my website. It lists hundreds of short story writing competitions. These are awards for stories over 1,000 words in length, up to around the 20,000 word mark. However, the vast majority of the competitions are for stories between 1,000 and 5,000 words in length.

Writing Magazines and Journals

These are publications open to general submissions of articles, flash fiction, poetry, short stories and more. Some are open all year round, some have submission windows. There are paying markets and non-paying markets, online and print. So, you will find a wide range of publishing opportunities via this resource.

Young Writer Competitions

This resource lists many publishing opportunities specifically aimed at young writers, including children and older students in full-time education. The lists include details of competitions, prizes, awards and challenges. Some of these offer publication and valuable experience to young authors.

All of these resources are updated throughout the year. They undergo a full overhaul every January.

I do my best to keep the lists as up to date as possible. However, it's hard to stay on top of it all as there are so many different opportunities listed across multiple resources. If you do spot any errors, please let me know - any help in this area is very much appreciated.

I hope you find those resources useful. If you would like to see any others developed, please contact me to make suggestions.

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Karen V Hi Chris, it has been noticed that Fiction War is still listed as a flash fiction competition - Wolvesburrow Publishing. It may not be running at all now and the last year saw them running about a year behind with publication as well as owing many prize winners money. I was published in the second issue and paid but they heavily edited and rewrote my story.

One other observation is that NYC Midnight is missing from the list of competitions - they run Short Story, Screenplay, Flash Fiction and now microfiction. They have been running for about 15 yrs very successfully (NYC is New York City).

Thanks for compiling this information and sharing it :-)

Chris Fielden Hi Karen. Thanks for your message and passing that info on to me - very much appreciated.

I have added a warning note to the Fiction War listing for now, so people see it. I will retire the listing next time I undertake an overhaul of the lists.

I have NYC Midnight listed on the short story competitions page. I shall add that listing to the flash comps page as well.

Thanks again for this, it really helps :-)

Kourtni J I am 21 years old. I've always loved to write but never published anything, but I think this is finally my chance. I mainly write stuff for children and stuff about myself.

Chris Fielden Thanks for your message, Kourtni, that's great. Try looking through my list of competitions and publishing opportunities for young writers . You might find something there you can submit to. Or submit to my Amazing Young Writers Challenge .

I wish you the best of luck with your writing :-)

Sylvia AT Thanks, Chris. You're awesome! I'm so grateful to you for your wonderful lists.

Chris Fielden Thank you, Sylvia, it's great to hear you find the lists helpful :-)

All the best to you.

Klaus G Hi Chris, thank you for your tireless  effort.

Chris Fielden No problem at all, thank you Klaus :)

Patrick E Hello  Chris. Thanks for your newsletter, which I always look forward to. I am like many of your subjects, no doubt that does write but never have the writings published or entered into competitions. My comment is plain and simple, just to say a big THANK YOU.

Chris Fielden Thank you, Patrick, very much appreciated. I wish you all the best with your writing :-)

Jayne J Thanks Chris, your lists are amazing and always appreciated.

Chris Fielden Thank you very much, Jayne :)

Shirley M Hi Chris, just a quick comment about the REEDSY weekly prompt competition. If you wish to submit an entry to the competition, it now costs 5$ (it used to be free until about a year ago). You can still submit a story for free, but if so, it is NOT entered into the competition at all, but just available for other readers to check out on the site.

Chris Fielden Thank you for letting me know, Shirley - much appreciated. I'll update the listing accordingly :)

Roger W Hi Chris, please keep up the good work you are doing for many authors and possibly more would-be authors. Yours is still the best site of this kind.

Incidentally, I've a couple of drumming auditions next month, blues and R&B. Maybe not your thing? Best wishes, Roger

Chris Fielden Hi Roger, thanks for your message and kind words - very much appreciated.

I like a bit of blues and R&B. I saw BB King a few years ago (actually, a lot of years ago...) in London at the Hammersmith Apollo. What a legend.

Good luck with the auditions :)

Barbie H Hi - I am looking for competitions for adult writers who're writing short stories for children/teens. Are there any out there? When I try to search, I get lots of links to competitions for younger writers, but not for adult writers writing specifically for a younger audience. Any help gratefully received! Thanks and best wishes, Barbie

Chris Fielden Hi Barbie, thanks for your message. These are the ones that I'm aware of:

• Bath Children's Novel Award
• Cheshire Prize for Literature
• Kelpies Prize For Writing
• Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awards
• Searchlight Awards - Best Children's Picture Book (text only)
• Searchlight Awards - Best Novel Opening for Children or Young Adults
• The Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition
• Tim Saunders Publications' "The Paul Cave Prize for Children's Literature"
• Wells Festival of Literature "A Book For Children" Competition
• Writers' League of Texas Manuscript Contest

Some of them are for books rather than short stories, but children's books can be quite short, depending on the age group you're writing for. I hope that helps :)

Barbie H Hi Chris, thanks so much for such a detailed and fast reply - I really appreciate it! This all looks very helpful. All my best wishes, Barbara

Chris Fielden No problem, Barbara :) All the best to you.

The copyright of the stories and content published on this website remain with the author.

Christopher Fielden and all the other contributing authors published via this website have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of these works.

The stories and articles on this site are provided for you to read free of charge subject to the condition that they are not, by way of trade or otherwise, copied, lent, sold, hired out, printed or otherwise circulated in any format without the author’s prior consent.

11 Themes & Topics for Story Writing Competitions

• October 16, 2023

Every writer dreams of winning a short story competition at some point. It is one of those sweet dreams that push you towards writing better and fills you with the essential motivation to keep doing the lonely task of writing well. 

But the real question is:  what does it take to be one of the winning few? Is it just the quality of writing or do other elements like the topic for the story competition have some weightage too? 

We think and so do countless editors that the topic for the story writing competition definitely has a lot of relevance. The quality of writing matters but the choice of topic can make or break the winning entry. 

{Check out this list of 40 Literary Magazines to Submit Short-stories, Non fiction and Poetry in India }

Why Focus on the Topic for a Story Writing Competition?

Here’s why: 

• If you have ever scoured Twitter, where the lit mag twitterati resides, then you will know that many times editors post about the kind of stories they are looking for. For example, recently an editor from the acclaimed lit mag Cimarron Review had asked for fiction about characters with irrational fears where the story explores how they come to have it and what they did with it. Editors are human, and sometimes they have an affinity towards certain topics more than others. Just like we read certain genres at certain times and stages of life.
• All Story Writing Competitions have judges. And judges have their own choices, likes, desires and authors they admire. Knowing more about the judges and what kind of writing they like, and how they themselves write helps in knowing what kind of topics they would enjoy reading. 

{Check out this list of 22 Literary Magazines in Hindi – Publish Poetry, Short Stories, and Non-fiction Online }

12 Themes or Topics for Story Writing Competition

We have divided our list into three areas –

• The Classics: which are evergreen topics of comparatively sombre theme. These topics always work for story-writing competitions because they deal directly with the human condition.
• The Unusual: These are topics that you wouldn’t think could win these prizes, topics far from the spectrum of emotionality that we operate in, they are weird and at times can make us uncomfortable.
• The In-Between: These are topics that probably aren’t very loaded in themselves, they are neither too familiar nor too weird. They are likely to not get a particular response of like and dislike from your editor. In fact, these are topics that can shine just through the power of your writing. 

{You can submit your short stories to these 15 Contests and Awards for Short stories in India }

The Classics

• Issues or Hardships in Marriage or Love

A topic for having a shot at a story writing competition that can be written with great variance and depth is the topic of an affair, love, relationship or marriage falling apart. One does not need to reach into the prize winners of yesteryears to impose the point that marriage or relationship is a great topic for a story writing competition because there is a range of short stories written by the masters of the short story – from Katherine Mansfield’s Bliss to John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums.

• Loss of Home/Identity in a New Land

A lot of literature in the past few decades has found its strength in writing about the loss of home. Probably, we as a generation are facing it so intensely for the first time in this unique way when globalisation, fast travel and many border crisis have reached their peak. 

And so when we see a winning story such as ‘A Simple Animal’ by Pallavi Wagharkhar published in Iowa Review, we are not in a bit of shock. It captures many things such as modern dating, and grief but at heart talks of identity and home. Home in places, in people, in memory is a powerful thing. And a great idea as a topic for a story writing competition.

• Familial Relationships

If you are good at finding patterns then reading the previous two topics for story writing competitions, you would have noticed that all these story topics relate to either intimate relationships or intimate spaces. So we thought this list is not complete without the larger umbrella of familial relationships as a good topic. Family, close or far, even friends for family is a powerful theme. Universal and conflict-prone, as readers we are always looking to understand our lives better through these stories and find the courage to do the hard work that familial relationships require. You could write about your aunt, your father’s estranged brother who you grew closer to as you aged, or the little five-year-old in your house and the searing questions they can ask. 

The story that won The Paris Review’s 2021 Plimpton Prize for emerging writers took a similar path, even more so when it named itself ‘ Brothers and Sisters’. It was written by Chetna Maroo who is a British Indian author and currently her novel Western Lane is in line for the 2023 Booker. 

Grief is powerful and the stories written from that place usually take the reader with them. It could be a story about the loss of a pet and how that takes over us so entirely, and no one tells us that losing a pet could be so hard. Grief does not depend on enormity, there are smaller griefs, daily griefs. It is a vast subject that does not even have to be a direct theme in itself or a direct topic for the story writing competition that you’re applying to. It can be used as a sub-theme to a larger story that you are writing. There are far too many good stories here. 

Check out this story by Rowan Beaird called Perennial that won the Ploughshares Emerging Writers Content in 2017-18. 

• Motherhood/Child Loss/Infertility

Some of the most visceral stories ever written, stories that gut us and pierce our hearts and stay there for a good while are written on the topic of motherhood, on loss relating to it, or the relationship between mothers and their children. All of us have mothers and it might be safe to say that we have complex relationships with them which is why it is so universal. Having this as the topic for a story-writing competition and doing it the required justice will definitely enhance your chances of getting shortlisted.

Here is this winning story by Casey Gentry Quinn that won the second prize in the Masters’ Review 2022-23 Winter Short Story Award which was judged by Morgan Talty, author of the short story collection Night of the Living Rez. The story is about infertility and how that can affect couples but the setting is magnificent and otherworldly under full moons and whatnot. So different the setting is that it takes us to our next segment – The most Unusual topics for story writing competitions.

{Here’s How will beta reading improve your story? }

The Unusual

• Commodification/Famous People/Fame 

The winner of the Donald Barthelme Award for short fiction last year was a story that had us in stitches – of all sorts. It was funny surely, it was a beautiful cocktail of soothsaying and apocalyptical fiction concocted with a not-so-experimental form. This story was titled Taylor Swift and it was a searing commentary on what the world has done to her, and what the world does to its idols in general. 

This story is so unusual that the judge Steve Almond himself said that he tried to resist prizing this entry with all his might. And so that’s the thing, you can write any story well if you know what you are doing and no idea is a bad idea when it comes to choosing a topic for a story writing competition.

• A Thing or Object – Carmen Maria Egg

When choosing a topic for a story writing competition, sometimes you don’t have to look deeply within yourself, you don’t even have to look far, you can probably just open your fridge and look at the top shelf in the door area. You might find an egg there, and then you might think of writing a good, really good story around it. Perhaps that’s what the PEN and Lambda Literary award-winning author Carmen Maria Machado did when she wrote this story . 

She wrote 15 observations around an egg and we think that just goes to show the range of emotions and ideas that everyday objects or things generate within us. In the same way, you would do good with reading The Mark On The Wall , where Virginia Woolf, one of the greatest writers of our times wonders about everything by looking at the mark on the wall. The story isn’t about that thing or object but through that thing or object. 

• A Bizarre Setting – rainmaking

In the shop of unusual topics for story writing competitions, you should definitely check out the item that is creating a mesmerizing and bizarre setting. A bizarre setting with similarly bizarre characters and a sense of the unknown are great themes for story-writing competitions. Judges are usually receptive when writers can deliver an entirely new sense of place. 

I think a story that greatly does this is Rainmaking by Lindsay Drager which was published by the acclaimed litmag Conjunctions for its 80th issue. 

{Brush up your knowledge of 17 Types of Creative Writing }

The In-Between

• A Budding Friendship

A budding friendship is a sweet, tender theme that when done with skill allows the reader to experience and reminiscence the warmth of friendship. People get busy with their families or work and life goes on, and somehow friendships become a thing of the past. So it is definitely ranking high in our list of topics for story writing competitions compared to other things.

• Coming-of-Age

Everyone is asking: Is Coming-of-Age done as a genre? Is it? Yet we see countless stories and novels where its characters are coming of age. So we don’t think it is done, because it too, is an evergreen topic. 

The reason that this topic wields the power it does is because it captures the times the character is growing up in. For years and years, readers have read coming-of-age fiction because of its ability to tell us what is the nature of certain youth of our times. It captures the younger values, ideas and sensibilities of a place or time.

When writing for a competition, it is important to consider everything and topics are no less important. But keep in mind that the themes mentioned above are simply suggestions and the central idea is to find something that truly matters to you because that is what brings true depth to a work.  The thing that really makes any topic and any idea come to life in a brilliant manner is the craft or skill of the writer. All the above-mentioned stories have one thing in common – they are extremely chiselled and every word used is intentional. Craft takes time and work. We have HWR have some craft-focused courses like Kritika Pandey’s Short Story Writing Workshop , the Creative Writing Course or the Writing Masterclass with Jerry Pinto .

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2 Responses

Very informative and good guideline for writers beginning to write or for those that have been writing and need to chisel their art and style .

Thank You Trevor

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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.

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A prize of €1,000 (approximately $1,088) and publication in Anthology Magazine is given annually for a short story. Using only the online submission system, submit a story of no more than 1,500 words with an €18 (approximately $20) entry fee by July 31. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

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Best 2024 Competitions for Students in Grades K-12

Competitions in STEM, ELA and the arts, and more!

We tell students that learning is its own reward, and that’s certainly true. But it’s also nice to win money and other prizes! Knowing they could gain recognition or even a prize for winning can be incredibly motivating. This roundup includes the best contests and competitions for high school students, as well as middle school and elementary too.

Contests and Competitions for High School Students

Contests and competitions for middle school students, contests and competitions for elementary school students, contests and competitions for students of all ages, adcap challenge.

Come up with a big idea to help create meaningful change and healthier school communities. Then use the AdCap project designer to submit your idea, and compete for funding to bring your project to life.

AFSA National High School Essay Contest

If you’re looking to help students take a deep dive into international relations, history, and writing, look no further than this essay contest. Winners receive full tuition to the Semester at Sea program as well as a trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with a leader at the Department of State.

All American High School Film Festival

Student films have the opportunity to become an Official Selection, screened at the AMC Empire 25 Theaters in Times Square, the busiest movie theater in America! Each October, thousands of student filmmakers gather in New York City for an action-packed weekend of resources and entertainment, including the Teen Indie Awards Show, where over $500,000 in prizes and scholarships are handed out.

ArtEffect Project

The ArtEffect Project teaches middle and high school students about their power to effect positive change through creative storytelling that celebrates unsung heroes from history. Students submit high-quality creative art projects in the visual arts, narrative film, theater, and creative nonfiction genres. Winners can receive thousands of dollars in prizes.

Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge

The Youth Design Challenge (YDC) is a free hands-on project-based learning experience that provides classroom and informal educators with a new framework to introduce biomimicry and an interdisciplinary lens on science and environmental literacy. It’s open to middle school and high school students.

Breakthrough Junior Challenge

Students submit a big scientific idea in fundamental physics, life sciences, or mathematics in video form. Winners receive college scholarships, plus money for their teacher and school.

BUILD’s Design Challenge

Students in grades 7–12 use design thinking to create solutions to real-world challenges. In this 10-hour experience, students develop entrepreneurial skills and empathy while learning about prototyping and testing.

Congressional Art Competition

Each spring, the Congressional Institute sponsors a nationwide high school visual art competition. Winners are recognized both in their district and at an annual awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. The winning works are displayed for one year at the U.S. Capitol.

Conrad Challenge

Design an innovation, solve an important problem, and establish yourself as an entrepreneur. You might just change the world in the process! Students work in teams of two to five to compete for prizes such as scholarships, pro-bono legal and consulting services, and a Dell Chromebook.

C-SPAN’s StudentCam Competition

This national contest invites all middle and high school students to create a five-to-seven-minute documentary based on an annual theme.

DECA Competitive Events

DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. DECA’s competitive events can be grouped into three broad categories: role-plays and case studies, prepared events, and online simulations. Events take place around the country and throughout the year.

International Compost Awareness Week Poster Contest

Students create a poster for International Compost Awareness Week, which takes place in May. The winner gets $500 and the chance to see their poster produced professionally.

Jane Austen Essay Contest

High school students can win up to $1,000 in scholarship money by writing an essay on a new Austen theme each year, sponsored by the Jane Austen Society of North America.

NAQT Quiz Bowl

Quiz Bowl is a fast-paced buzzer competition in which teams of four players compete to answer questions that cover academic subjects like literature and science as well as the broader world of popular culture and current events. Local middle school and high school tournaments send their winners on to regional and national championships.

National Academic League

As middle and high school student teams compete to answer questions aligned to national standards, they must also cooperate and use teamwork to tackle each quarter’s new challenge. Each school can field a team of 15 to 40, giving lots of kids a chance to participate.

National History Day (NHD)

National History Day (NHD) is an annual event for teachers and students in grades 6–12 that promotes critical thinking skills through project-based learning. Students begin their journey by presenting their projects in classrooms, schools, and districts around the world. Top entries are invited to the state/affiliate-level contests. The top two entries in every category at the state/affiliate level are then invited to the National Contest.

National Young Composers Challenge

The challenge is simple: First, students write their own composition for a small ensemble (two to six instruments) or full orchestra. Then, a panel of judges chooses the top three orchestral and top three ensemble compositions to be performed and recorded by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra at the NYCC Composium held in Orlando, Florida.

New York Times Student Writing Contests

Each month, the New York Times announces a new writing contest for middle and high school students ages 13 to 19. The topics and requirements are different each month, with something to appeal to all sorts of young authors and journalists.

PicoCTF Cybersecurity Competition

PicoCTF is a computer security game for middle and high school students. The game consists of a series of challenges centered around a unique storyline where participants must reverse-engineer, break, hack, decrypt, or do whatever it takes to solve the challenge. The challenges are all set up with the intent of being hacked, making it an excellent, legal way to get hands-on experience.

Princeton 10-Minute Play Contest

Looking for student writing contests for budding playwrights? In this competition, judged by the theater faculty of Princeton University, students submit short plays in an effort to win recognition and cash prizes of up to $500. (Note: Only open to 11th graders.)

Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

The nation’s longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens (ages 13+, grades 7–12) awards scholarships and gives kids a chance to showcase their skills for some of the foremost leaders in the arts.

Slingshot Challenge

Produce a 1-minute video with a solution to a current environmental problem (think: uniting creative waste reducers on social media or rehabilitating forests affected by fire) for the chance to receive up to $10,000 in funding.

Solve for Tomorrow

The Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition invites middle and high school teachers to lead a group of students in creating a STEM-centered solution that addresses a need in their communities. Teachers and students compete to win a share of $2 million for their schools. The National Winner prize is $100,000 in technology and classroom materials.

Space Settlement Design Competitions

These events emulate, as closely as possible for high school students, the experiences of working as members of aerospace design and proposal teams. Students learn cooperation, management, and communication skills. Finalists win the chance to travel to Kennedy Space Center!

Stossel in the Classroom

Stossel in the Classroom wants to know what high school and middle school students think about entrepreneurship and innovation. With $20,000 in cash prizes up for grabs, kids can enter the essay contest or the video contest . There are bonus prizes for teachers too!

United States Academic Decathlon

The United States Academic Decathlon is a 10-event scholastic competition for teams of high school students. Each high school enters a team of nine students: three honors students (3.80–4.00 GPA), three scholastic students (3.20–3.799 GPA), and three varsity students (0.00–3.199 GPA). They’ll need a wide variety of academic knowledge and skills to come out on top!

U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad

This tiered competition for high school students consists of a series of chemistry exams. Local winners move on to the national exam, whose winners participate in a study camp and international exam contest over the summer.

World of 8 Billion Video Contest

Middle and high school students create a short video—up to 60 seconds long—about human population growth that highlights one of the following global challenges: climate change, gender equality, or waste. Kids can win up to $1,200!

Future City

Future City is a project-based learning program in which students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future.

The Hardest Math Problem

This contest challenges students in grades 6–8 to practice critical thinking supported by accurate computation. Both kids and their teachers are eligible for prizes.

New Moon Girls

New Moon Girls publishes contributions from girls ages 8–14. The magazine publishes four times each year, and submissions are more likely to be published if they fit an upcoming editorial theme.

Ocean Awareness Contest

Students ages 11 to 18 can learn about environmental issues through art-making and creative communication, explore their relationship to a changing world, and become advocates for positive change. Submit a piece recognizing climate change heroes, using visual arts, poetry and creative writing, film, performing arts, or multimedia. Prizes include cash awards and eligibility for special opportunities.

Promising Young Writers Program

Teachers and schools can nominate 8th grade students to compete in this contest. Nominees submit a piece of writing based on the year’s prompt. Winners receive certificates in various levels of distinction.

Ranger Rick Photo Contest

Kids 13 and under can enter any nature-themed photo they’ve taken on their own using a camera or phone camera app. Every month, winners will be selected by the judges and posted on the contest homepage in the Recent Contest Winners slideshow. Online winners will be in the running for Ranger Rick’s “Your Best Shots” Magazine Award. Magazine Award winners will be selected three times each year for publication in Ranger Rick magazine’s December–January, April, and August issues.

Rubber Band Contest

This contest challenges students in grades 5–8 to design and create a working invention/artwork that incorporates at least one rubber band. Students can compete in one of two separate divisions: Arts & Leisure or Science & Engineering. Winners receive up to $300.

Young Scientist Challenge

Students in grades 5–8 create a one-to-two-minute video describing a new, innovative solution that could solve an everyday problem. Ten finalists will be chosen for their passion for science, spirit of innovation and ingenuity, and effective communication skills.

YouthPLAYS Prospective Authors

Authors 19 and under can submit a one-act play to the New Voices competition. They’re particularly interested in plays that speak to BIPOC teens and youth.

Doodle for Google

Did you know that each year, one student in grades K–5 has a chance to see their own doodle featured on the Google search page? This annual contest gives kids the opportunity to reach millions of viewers with their design.

New Moon Girls publishes contributions from girls ages 8 to 14. The magazine publishes four times each year, and submissions are more likely to be published if they fit an upcoming editorial theme.

Kids 13 and under can enter any nature-themed photo they’ve taken on their own, using a camera or phone camera app. Every month, winners will be selected by the judges and posted on the contest homepage in the Recent Contest Winners slideshow. Online winners will be in the running for Ranger Rick’s “Your Best Shots” Magazine Award. Magazine Award winners will be selected three times each year for publication in Ranger Rick magazine’s December–January, April, and August issues.

90-Second Newbery Film Festival

The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival is an annual video contest in which young filmmakers create movies that tell the entire story of a Newbery award–winning book in about 90 seconds. Winning entries are screened at events nationwide including in New York, Chicago, and Boston.

Celebrating Art

This contest is open to K–12 students attending public schools, homeschool, and art studios. Kids and teachers can win prizes, classroom supplies, and more!

Discovery Award

The Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes Discovery Award provides students in grades 4–12 a unique opportunity to research primary sources and develop outstanding projects that feature unsung heroes who can serve as role models and inspire others to create change.

EngineerGirl Writing Contest

Each year, EngineerGirl sponsors an essay contest with topics centered on the impact of engineering on the world. Students can win up to $500 in prize money. This contest is a nice bridge between ELA and STEM and great for teachers interested in incorporating an interdisciplinary project into their curriculum. It’s open to students in grades 3 and up.

Invention Convention

The Invention Convention program is a K–12 project-based learning curriculum to help students learn to think critically by identifying problems in their world. Inventors and entrepreneurs are invited to compete at prestigious annual events.

NAfME Music Competitions

The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) holds multiple music competitions each year for composers and songwriters in several categories. Students of all ages are eligible to win cash prizes.

NASA CineSpace Short Film Competition

Competitors submit a short film inspired by, and using, actual footage from NASA’s digital archives for a chance to earn cash prizes and have their film screened at the Houston Cinema Arts Festival, held each November. Although entrants must be at least 18 to enter, parents and guardians can enter submissions on behalf of their children.

NASA Langley Student Art Contest

The contest is open to all K–12 students attending public, private, parochial, and homeschool who are residents of the United States, and grades K–12 of U.S. military members stationed overseas.

National History Bowl

The National History Bowl is a buzzer-based history quiz competition for teams of up to six students ages 19 or younger. Local competitions send their winners on to compete in the national championships.

National PTA Reflections Awards

Students of all ages create and submit original works of art in the areas of dance choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography, and visual arts. Local winners move on to the regional, state, and national levels. National-level awards include an $800 prize and a trip to the National PTA Convention.

National Spelling Bee

Is the country’s next spelling champion in your own classroom? Find out by holding your own spelling bee, then sending the winner on to compete in regional competitions leading to the ultimate national competition. Students up to age 16 are eligible to participate.

PepsiCo Recycle Rally Contests

Encourage friendly competition throughout your K–12 schools or express creativity through writing and designing with a PepsiCo Recycle Rally contest.

Scope Writing Contests

Scope magazine (published by Scholastic) features a wide variety of contests to excite students in grades 4–12 about writing. Plus they can win awesome prizes!

SIBA Invention Competition

The Student Ideas for a Better America contest welcomes applications from pre-K through 12th grade. Enter any idea for a new way to demonstrate an educational concept, an idea for a new product, or an improvement for an existing product or procedure.

Students With Solutions

This project is designed for educators to engage their students in bullying prevention. Students watch a video followed by a handout review. Then they respond to the content in their own creative way through art, writing, graphics, or videos for the chance to win prizes for their school.

Telling Room Founders Prize

Students ages 6–18 can submit fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to The Telling Room . Each year, the Founders Prize is awarded to the best piece of writing to come out of a Telling Room program.

Toyota Dream Car USA Art Contest

The Toyota Dream Car USA Art Contest inspires creativity in youths ages 4 to 15 and helps them imagine the future of mobility. Kids can win hundreds of dollars in prize money.

Did we miss one of your favorite contests or competitions for high school, middle school, or elementary school students? Come share in our We Are Teachers HELPLINE group !

Plus, check out  the ultimate guide to college scholarships ..

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The Best Student Writing Contests for 2023-2024

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Read the three runner-up entries from our annual short story competition

Sam Rennie, Sabrina Wolfe and Philippa Howell spun enthralling tales that were worthy of note

The top accolade was unanimously awarded to Stephanie Y Tam for her powerful and elegant tale 'Bird Bones', exploring the silence between intergenerational relationships. Tam wins a Montblanc Meisterstück 149 pen, which celebrates its centenary this year, as well as a two-night stay at Chewton Glen in Hampshire.

The calibre of other entries was so high that in the end, the judges chose three runners-up: Sam Rennie’s ‘Limerence’, a brilliantly observed skewering of a classic meet-cute; ‘Acacia’ by Sabrina Wolfe – a compelling, melancholic work of fiction; and ‘Pacificadora’, an imaginative take on lockdown, love and fruit-based mania, by Philippa Howell. Read all three spellbinding stories below.

‘Acacia’ by Sabrina Wolfe

‘pacificadora’ by philippa howell.

‘Limerence’ by Sam Rennie

So the other week I was in the waiting room looking up how to make olives fancy and then how to make olives fancy for one when I overheard this guy reciting his phone number to the receptionist and for some reason I found myself writing it down. On his way to the exit he dropped a bag of shopping and the largest lime I’d ever seen fell out and rolled away so I saved him in my phone as Big Lime.

Since then, whenever I brush up against the cute agony of being alive, I distract myself by writing a message to Big Lime. Obviously I don’t actually send it; I just type out whatever thoughts are in my head and then when I’m finished I hold and drag my thumb across the screen to highlight and delete the block of text. Maybe it’s because I’m in my Romantic Era – falling in love with everyone and doing absolutely nothing about it – but in my head this feels like an updated version of when people used to write letters they would never send, pouring out their hearts and then watching the paper burn. What’s surprising is that this feels exactly how I imagined: I’ve always wanted people to be like oh my god who are you texting , I’ve always wanted that shot of me staring at my phone and smiling, and even though I know it’s not real, the act of typing something to someone and being seen by others to be typing something to someone is enough to transport me to all kinds of imagined worlds, as if each message is a different timeline I could be living.

In the office, when someone brings in a cake for someone’s birthday, I take a picture and draft a message that says about to eat so much dairy i shit myself . Out shopping, I write as if I’m Big Lime’s wife and I’m asking him what he wants for dinner. In the moment it actually feels like this is who I am: married with kids, stressed about schedules and errands. When I catch my reflection, I notice my hair is not chaotic enough for someone so pressed for time, so I play with it until I look as rushed as I am pretending to be. This role stays with me long after I leave the store, the performance triggering a physical exhaustion as if I’m pushing against the elastic of time, simultaneously imagining myself to be much older than I am but also from an earlier period of history in which I am some random housewife. At night I lie in bed looking up the sort of things I assume this version of me might search like how to tell if your partner has stopped loving you and is it normal for your partner to joke about leaving you and is it normal to hate your kids and how to delete search history . Eventually I put the phone down and stare at the wall until I feel tired enough to sleep and when I close my eyes my life flashes with insignificance.

I used to send messages to my best friend until they said I was too annoying and couldn’t contact them all day every day . As if that’s a bad thing? Like, sorry for caring so much? Sorry my brain literally never switches off? Sorry I have little versions of all the people I love walking around in my head? I thought everyone had that, but a lot of the time it feels like whenever I leave the room I just completely disappear from their lives. But somehow it’s my fault I’m so emotionally intelligent that I notice whenever someone’s not one hundred per cent happy. So, yeah, I would say you can talk to me whenever you need . I would say this is a judgement-free zone . I would say did you get my last message . I would say look at this chunky cat . I would say are you ignoring me . I would say i am always here for you , and I would remind them of that every single day because I am a Good Person. They would reply with something like oh my god chill out i’m just tired , which is fine? But then they’d share these posts that are all: me, wishing i was dead and somebody asks how I am: yeah all good just tired so?

Now nobody sends me anything and I spend an embarrassing amount of time making sure my phone isn’t on aeroplane mode. I’ve noticed that if I don’t have an outlet I will spend all day typing things like how do you live in the moment and what are you supposed to do with life and things to do before you die and is it normal to feel like you’ve wasted your life and do jalapenos go with mince and i feel like i’m not in control of my life and how long are you young for and what do people say on their deathbed and what do people regret most in life and what do jalapenos go with . If I search what I think is a harmless question the results will be like you are super depressed and you won’t be depressed if you buy this air fryer and why haven’t you bought this air fryer and thank you for buying this air fryer and would you like to buy another air fryer . Sometimes it gets too much, and all I want is to be a normal person living a normal life. Enter: Big Lime.

Back in the waiting room I walk up to the receptionist and shout out my phone number even though nobody asked me to, then I look over to see if he’s paying attention, maybe writing it down, but he isn’t even on his phone. Something’s different, his presence elevated by all the secret lives I’ve imagined us living. I sit next to him but leave an empty chair between us to not make it too obvious. While I’m reading the last message my best friend sent me – please stop talking about olives – there’s an announcement that they are running twenty minutes behind schedule. Big Lime looks over and rolls his eyes and in return I give him a thumbs up, but then it feels awkward so I go back to my phone and search can you freeze cheese . At one point he takes out his phone, so I open his chat and wait, and when his status suddenly changes to online it makes me jump. This, in turn, makes him jump. He does a nervous laugh and in the brief period of eye contact we have I wonder if this is the start of something, if this is the story we will tell years from now, what our first words to each other might be, what he will say in the speech he gives at our wedding, and I smile in a way that says I do! but he’s already turned away.

Now somehow Big Lime is talking to me and I haven’t said a word in like ten minutes. I was in the middle of drafting a message to him – they just said they’re delayed so tell the kids we might have to push back Mega Mince Monday – when he turned to me and said, ‘Do you have an air fryer?’ and I didn’t reply because I was too busy thinking really? those are our first words? so he carried on and said, ‘I keep getting adverts for air fryers and it’s really weirding me out but now I can’t think about anything else.’ I have imagined this moment so often I’m not entirely sure it’s happening. Usually I am the observer, not the participant, remembering what other people have said or done more than my own contributions. He gestures to my phone and says, ‘Sorry I didn’t mean to–’ and I tell him it’s fine, to not worry, I’ll just finish this and, yeah. So without thinking I press send and then immediately hear the vibration of his phone. With a little oop he takes it out and reads my message. For a while nothing happens. It feels like I am finally participating in something. Glancing back and forth between our phones and my face, his expression unravels everything, and I find myself mentally scrolling through a stream of all the ways everyone else is choosing to live, thinking about how often I try to find a real world equivalent to the exaggerated versions of life I consume; how easy it is to imagine the what ifs , the montage of all the things that might happen; how much time I spend predicting the story of my life so that even when it moves in a particular direction I barely react because it feels like I am simply rewatching moments I’ve already seen. Eventually he mouths something but the audio is cut, the performance has started to stutter, and the only thing I can hear is the sound of all these different timelines collapsing into one.

I’d known Bill for two years but I only really started to talk properly to him in the summer of 1993.

He was older than me, not that that kind of thing mattered there, but he kept himself away from the rest of us. Took it all more seriously. The rest of us were friends. I think we’d have been friends anywhere. Could picture us all heading out on bikes in the evenings, yelling behind us that we’d be back before dark.

I couldn’t imagine Bill on a bike, somehow. His legs looked too stiff to move in that way. His back was always straight up, never hunched, even when he was fruit-picking. I don’t know how he did it, crouched to the floor picking strawberries, but still looking stretched out, long. There was no slouch to Bill, no ease. Straight and lean and serious. Not the sort of body that could have fun on a bike.

The rest of us picked fruit together. We’d eat some of it, while we picked, though we’d be told off later. We knew there wasn’t enough fruit to eat while you picked. But those strawberries! In the first years, anyway. So red it was impossible not to try a few. And it felt as if the whole thing was going to work out fine, with strawberries like that, that we’d grown ourselves.

Bill was on watering duty, and he did it properly. Watered the soil, not the plant. Turned the hose off between rows. Watered at the right time of day, and made notes in a yellow book he carried in his work belt. Noted down the exact time, the exact amount, the position of the sun. In the evenings, he’d read over the book, flick back to previous years. Compare. I can still picture him, sitting in his red boilersuit, marking up that notebook with his pen.

I was friends with all the rest of them, but I was closest with Kip. He and I would sit under the acacia tree playing cards most evenings. Our pack was tattered by then and the top right corner was ripped off the Queen of Hearts. We’d play Shithead, and Slam. We’d play Cheat. Shithead was spoilt if the Queen of Hearts was left till the end. You could spot her straight away; she couldn’t stay hidden. We made up rules for her: you had to play her last, we said. Third of the three.

We sometimes wondered if we should rip corners off other cards, to disguise her better. Wondered if we should rip all of the corners, make all the cards the same. But the pack was precious. We hadn’t brought enough cards with us. This pack had to last. We couldn’t bring ourselves to rip the corners off them all, even if that would have matched the poor queen.

We’d play with the adults sometimes, after supper. Even with Mum. She’d never played much cards before then. It wasn’t her thing. Would have felt frivolous to Mum, to play cards. She used to plan protests in the evenings, make placards. She used to write letters to her MP, organise petitions, knock on doors.

But there was time there for Mum to play cards. She should have enjoyed it, but I think she missed the placards and the protests. Even though what we were doing in there was bigger, better. I think she missed the camaraderie of crowds, the anger of opposition. At least when you’re marching, you get to go somewhere.

I was sitting with Kip, playing cards under the acacia tree in June 1993, when Bill stopped to chat to us. I know it was June, because we were supposed to be pollinating the courgettes and I worried Bill was going to tell us off. He didn’t though, just asked if he could join us for a hand. He sat down, crossed his legs in front of him as if he was hinging stiff metal joints. I became aware of the tattiness of the playing cards, the dirt we were sitting in.

But Bill was friendly. Said it was a good idea about the queen. Told us about a pack of cards he’d had as a child where the Ten of Diamonds was missing all together.

He’d made a new one, he said, painted the back to look the same, convinced it would match perfectly. Felt disappointed when he finished and realised that you would always be able to spot the handmade card. A piece of paper, cut in shape and painted with watercolours, in the middle of a machine printed pack.

We played a few rounds. After a while, Bill started to chat. He said he liked the hems of my trousers. We all dressed the same, that was the way of it, but I’d cut the cuffs off. Felt freer. Could run faster. I liked that he’d noticed.

We didn’t say much back to him, that first time. Worried that anything we might talk about would seem too small to him, with his yellow notebook and his workbelt. But I liked how he talked to us.

We played cards a few more times that week, Kip and Bill and I. Always in the evenings, once the work was over. Before then, Bill had always stayed with the adults. Talked with them after meals. He was 17, closer to them than us in most ways. I didn’t know why he’d started coming down to the acacia tree, but I hoped the others had noticed.

One evening when Bill arrived, Kip said he’d something else to do, and he wandered off. I think he found Bill difficult, found the air around him too heavy. I saw Kip with the others soon after that, a bunch of kids running through the dirt by the watering unit. The adults used to tell us off if we ran too close to the machinery, but they’d stopped bothering now. Dozed off after meals. Seemed languid.

Kip was still my favourite, but I started spending time with Bill in the day too. I’d always thought his dedication was because he was Jonty’s son, but I realised it was more than that. I’d only been 11 when Jonty started The Experiment. Hadn’t paid too much attention to the whys of it. But the way Bill spoke about it was different even to the way Mum did. If we could just make it work here, he explained to me, they could use this model anywhere – anywhere – in the world. Anywhere in space, even. If we could just make it work here, we would have solved most of the world’s problems. No big deal.

And he showed me the right way to water the plants, so you didn’t waste water, how to check for spider mites, and how to monitor the oxygen levels. He showed me the things he was worrying about. The size of the tomatoes this year compared to last. How the growth of the acacia tree was slowing. How the adults seemed tired all of the time, never did anything in the evenings anymore.

That summer, in 1993, I got used to spending time with Bill and his stiff limbs. I got used to the expression on his face when he told me we just had to make it work. I got used to seeing the creases between his eyes when he made notes in the yellow book, and flipped back to compare to the year before. Towards the end of summer, he stopped writing in the book so much and we started to spend more time playing cards again. Kip joined us, and most of the others too. Bill didn’t talk much in a big group, and I missed the things he’d been telling me, but I thought I probably knew enough, by then, for my own work belt in a few years.

We sat in a circle, in the dirt, and the others laughed, and made jokes about the Queen of Hearts, and we played Slam and Shithead and Cheat, and I looked up at Bill, and smiled at him sometimes, when I saw his forehead creasing. He smiled back. Honestly, I’m sure he smiled back.

It was September when I heard him arguing with his Dad one evening. I’d been harvesting apples, had taken it more seriously than I would have done before. I didn’t eat any. Placed them carefully in boxes, making sure not to bruise them. Making sure to leave space between each fruit so that it could breathe. For airflow. If one of them started to rot, it wouldn’t spread to the rest.

I heard Bill and Jonty arguing, but I couldn’t hear the details. Bill had his notebook out and he was trying to show pages to his Dad, but his Dad wouldn’t look. Was shaking his head. Bill started shouting, and I had never heard Bill shout before, though I couldn’t make out many of the words. I think he said ‘ego’ but that might not be right. I might have heard a presenter, on a TV show, using that word about Bill’s Dad later. Bill might not have said it at all.

Bill didn’t come and play cards with us that night, and – though I suppose we were friends by then – I didn’t go and look for him.

I woke early the next morning. Mum was still asleep. I’d left the playing cards by the acacia tree and I wanted to get them before the sprinklers came on. I pulled on my red boilersuit, didn’t bother with shoes, walked out into the dirt and down the hill that led to the orchard. Mornings here weren’t like mornings on the outside. The sun came up behind the glass, refracted in the dome’s geometry.

I walked down to the tree, and as I looked over I knew it was Bill’s body, though his limbs were crumpled, disorganised in a way he would have never held them when he was alive. His yellow book was neatly by the trunk, he must have placed it there before climbing up. He was face down, and as I got closer, I could see his shoulder blades through the fabric of his boilersuit. They looked just as they always had. Lean. Taut.

I didn’t go back to get anyone else. Didn’t yell out. Didn’t cry. I picked up the yellow notebook, and sat, cross-legged, with it in my lap, next to Bill. I watched over his disorganised limbs until Kip found me, after breakfast. Found us.

Everything happened quickly after that, I don’t remember much of it. The Experiment was shut down that day. Mum and I went to stay with her sister, my aunt, on the other side of the country. We had to take a plane to get there. I had a panic attack looking out of the window.

I never saw Kip again. He’s probably not called Kip now. My name has changed. Mum’s too. Jonty’s name was on the news for weeks afterwards, but I’m sure that has changed now as well. Only Bill gets to keep his real name, I suppose.

We’ve got our own house again, Mum and me, with a tiny yard. I walk into the yard in the mornings most days, and watch the sun rise directly, not through glass. I never get bored of the tiny yard, boxed in by fences, and the endless direct sky, the sun breaking the horizon above me.

I bought a new pack of cards when we got here. Shiny. Stiff. No corners are missing. But I took two cards out of the pack, and replaced them with my own. The Ten of Diamonds and the Queen of Hearts. Cut the correct shape out of paper, copied the illustrations with pencil, painted them in with watercolours. They are flimsy, fragile.

The paper is thin.

You always know where they are in the pack.

Alan and Ayesha met on a Himalayan Health Exchange and were married within a few months. As Sod’s Law would have it, their individual assignments seemed fated to be at opposite ends of the Earth, so marital contact was limited to acrobatic rendezvous in airport hotel rooms, wherever their flight paths crossed.

One day they learned to their joy that they had been assigned to the ‘Pacificadora Project’, and were to spend an uninterrupted year together in the frozen wastelands of Antarctica. The Pacificadora Project was a study of ‘communal isolation’, and Ayesha and Alan were to be a Couple in Dual Confinement . The media labelled them the golden couple of anthropology, and their somewhat bitter colleagues predicted lavish TV documentaries and high-profile lectures. Maybe even the Reith.

‘Antarctica! Cryogenics with sex!’ chortled Alan. Ayesha blushed fondly.

To their surprise they were issued with a clothing list, which included swimwear. ‘All will be revealed!’ Alan joked again. Ayesha smiled again.

They were assigned one of a dozen little red houses, perched on the ice. There were also Confined Families , and groups of Collectively Confined Friends in larger red houses. Every fourth Sunday all the residents were allowed to leave their houses and socialise. They would make their way across the ice to the Great Barn, emerging from their 900-fill power-down duvet-coats like a cloud of fluorescent butterflies. The Pacificadora Staff organised music, games, food and drink and there was a large, heated pool in the basement, for the prescribed swimwear. The Confined Families played tag and ninepins, while the Collectively Confined Friends danced eightsome reels in swirling groups. Alan thought it was all dreadfully old-school, but he and Ayesha mixed with other Couples in Dual Confinement , swapping anecdotes about their partners over drinks. It crossed Alan’s mind that they might forgo the anecdotes and just swap their partners. He dismissed the thought reluctantly; perhaps they were being watched.

The months passed. Ayesha enjoyed the daily routine of indoor exercise, study, and keeping house. Technology was banned so she and Alan handwrote their journals documenting any notable shifts in their thinking, mood, or activity. She congratulated herself on the successful conjoining of their eclectic lives, and felt she was proving herself to be adaptable and capable. She also discovered she was pregnant, and was pleased.

Alan, on the other hand was pissed off. He missed globetrotting, and dropping like a latter-day Livingstone into remote pockets of the world to patronise its indigenous people; he also missed the impressionable students at far-flung places of learning who happily joined him in bed.

Alan had also discovered that he didn’t like Ayesha.

One Sunday evening when nothing else was happening, Ayesha decided the time was right to tell Alan her news. She finished her weekly report and left him to finish his while she prepared a fish molee, made from tinned tuna, rice, and spices. Then she showered and put on a saffron silk shirt, and earrings, which resembled bunches of bananas. When Alan emerged from the study, he seemed subdued and not particularly hungry. He munched his way through the curry, staring at her earrings. Eventually he muttered, ‘I miss bananas.’ Ayesha smiled, nursing the secret that would cheer him up. Later she put the earrings back in their box and got into bed beside him, but before she could say a word he whispered: ‘I miss bananas terribly,’ and turned his face to the wall.

Alan’s claustrophobia became stratospheric with the baby news. He plunged into painting, teaching himself Spanish, and running on the spot, but nothing helped. He tried to doze on the sunbed but the built-in track of waves breaking relentlessly on the shore irritated him so much, he smashed the sound system. He yearned for external contact, desperately missing the internet. He couldn’t finish anything, not even his sentences. And now, thanks to his wife’s earrings, he had become obsessed with bananas.

He remembered Kelly’s Farm near his childhood home in Sidcup, where they boasted that their shop sold ‘a million pounds-worth a year!’ Not of bananas, he knew that. They sold all sorts. Plus there were ‘Pick Your Own’ fields of strawberries in summer, and carthorse rides for the children. That must have brought in a few bob. ‘Bananas,’ he muttered, staring out of the window into the icy darkness, remembering Mum’s banana bread studded with fat sultanas, her banana splits stuffed with ice-cream, and a stack of pancakes covered in sliced bananas topped with maple syrup. While Ayesha slept, he crept into their study and designed a banana-wallchart as a countdown to freedom. ‘Six bananas are six days,’ he murmured, ‘seventh banana crosses out first six bananas, that’s one week; four lots of seven, that’s four weeks to go.’

The following Sunday, on arrival at the Great Barn for the monthly knees-up, the Head of Staff informed the residents that a sneezing bat in a Chinese market had caused a viral pandemic, and the world was going into lockdown. Instead of a triumphant return to civilisation, Alan and Ayesha were facing infinite dual isolation, she with a fast-growing foetus and he with banana mania veering out of control. They realised that the experiment was now deeply unremarkable; who would be in the least interested in the effects of communal isolation if the whole world were experiencing the same thing? Not only was their thunder stolen, but for the first time in their lives they felt a teensy bit pointless. Worst of all, they saw their pointlessness reflected in each other. Ayesha went quiet. Alan was manic.

The monthly extravaganzas in the Great Barn shrank to short briefings, followed by rather dry pizza. No one dressed up anymore, and the atmosphere was subdued and resentful. A finite experiment was acceptable, but to have no end-date was intolerable. Music played, but the Collectively Confined Friends seemed too depressed to dance, the Confined Families too exhausted to separate their squabbling children, and the Couples in Dual Confinement sulked in silence, terminally polarised. A return to civilisation might mean exposure to a deadly virus, but ‘Bring it on,’ Alan muttered, ‘I choose Death.’

The Pacificadora Project was disintegrating, and Ayesha and Alan documented this in their weekly reports, somehow managing to keep it general, not personal. However, they were like rats in a box breathing the same air, inhaling each other’s fury and frustration. The weeks passed in silence only punctuated by occasional slanging matches.

‘I don’t want my baby to be born here!’ cried Ayesha.

‘Bugger the baby, I can’t live without bananas!’ yelled Alan.

After one particularly ugly incident to do with bed linen, Alan cut the duvet in half and took to sleeping in the sitting room. They created no-go areas for each other, and drew up a strict rota for cooking and bathing. Ayesha devoured books on paediatrics whilst Alan researched hydroponics, planning to germinate banana seeds on his shower sponge under the sunbed tubes. If he could only get hold of the seeds! He slept in his Speedos and dreamt of diving into banana custard, and in the mornings he wandered around unabashed, damp and unmistakably exhilarated. Ayesha refused to notice.

Sixteen months had passed since their crossing by cruise ship from Argentina. Alan’s banana calendar was five months out of date when the UK lockdown lifted briefly, and a small window of escape presented itself. Now makeshift landing strips had been cleared on site and light aircraft were to fly in from Chile to lift the desperate residents out. Ayesha and Alan would fly back to Punta Arenas, then on to Argentina, then London. Ayesha, now heavily pregnant, was top of the list, and Alan, as her husband, was expected to travel with her. The couple managed to be almost civil to each other, agreeing that they would ‘play the game’ when back in the UK, give interviews if asked, and make the most of any career opportunities. Once the last trace of limelight had faded, they would go their separate ways. They were packed and ready the night before their departure, and even ate dinner together.

The next morning Ayesha could not find her passport. She was sure she had put it in her hand luggage, but despite emptying the contents out on to the bed several times and feeling for holes in the lining, it was not to be found. She turned their little red house inside out, and Alan watched her. When she finally cracked and yelled accusations at him, he merely smiled and refused to respond. Ayesha had no choice but to miss the flight, and she watched it take off, knowing Alan would inhale any whiff of publicity on arrival, and feign regret that his darling wife was unable to be with him.

However, once his plane had risen through the clouds, a remarkable change came over Ayesha. The fury left her, and she felt surprisingly serene. The sun was sparkling on the snowy landscape, and a diversionary boat trip was organised to visit some Emperor penguins. Later the news came through that Alan’s Aerolíneas Argentinas flight from Buenos Aires to London had vanished off the radar shortly after take-off. When she heard, Ayesha promptly went into labour and gave birth to a daughter. The Pacificadora Staff closed round her in support, and she named her baby Aisla, from aislamiento , the Spanish for isolation. Ayesha soon found comfort in the arms of the Head of Staff, and a return to the UK rather lost its attraction. Some months later, when a way was found to bring in a regular supply of fresh fruit to the settlement, it came as no surprise to Ayesha that Aisla was particularly fond of bananas.

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‘Creative writing can be as impactful as an academic paper’

Grassroots initiatives can promote visibility of marginalised groups, self-expression and community, writes Emily Downes. Here are her key tips from running a creative writing competition to mark LGBTQ+ History Month

Emily Downes

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Last year marked two decades since the repeal of Section 28, a UK law that prohibited what was described as “the promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities. What this meant, in practice, was that generations of LGBTQ+ children grew up with no safe access to information about LGBTQ+ issues, no role models, no representation. They had no indication, in fact, that they could have a successful life that included employment, acceptance and community. 

Surely, as hubs of knowledge production, higher education institutions have a social and ethical responsibility to actively repair some of the damage wrought by this law. As LGBTQ+ staff in the sector continue to report  discrimination and erasure , are we providing enough opportunities for our students to see their own lived experiences roadmapped and reflected? 

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While institutional support and backing are essential in amplifying LGBTQ+ representation and visibility, staff on the ground can also make an impact through grassroots initiatives. And where better to push back against the fearmongering of Section 28 than from a place of love? For author, theorist and educator  bell hooks , all key social justice movements have promoted a love ethic: a practice that seeks to use knowledge, responsibility, care, trust, respect and commitment. How might that look in your professional context? 

In mine, I have had the privilege of coordinating a creative writing competition for LGBT+ History Month . Here’s some of what I learned.

Knowledge and responsibility

It’s natural to feel powerless against discrimination. However, take heart – there’s no one defining form of activism. You may not feel you have the capacity or physical ability to protest in the streets or the wherewithal for a strategic campaign. That doesn’t mean you have nothing to contribute to the cause of a more inclusive landscape in higher education. We each have our own offering of knowledge, skills and interests to share. These needn’t exclusively be academic pursuits.

What brings you joy? Perhaps it’s a gentle walk in nature or listening to a podcast or crocheting. I’m partial to all three…and I also enjoy using writing to make sense of my inner and outer worlds. A couple of years ago, I started facilitating LGBTQ+ creative writing for well-being sessions in my local community. Last year the chair of our university LGBTQ+ focus group asked if I would use this experience to make our campus more inclusive. We agreed that I would deliver a drop-in session exploring the importance of queer representation , and that I would coordinate a creative writing competition around the same theme. As a “late bloomer” bisexual who grew up with a dearth of positive representation, I felt a responsibility to be visible in our university community. I had first-hand experience of the possibilities that creative writing affords for healing and growth. I am also well aware of how stifling and impenetrable academic writing can feel for many. I saw the creative writing competition as an opportunity to put self-expression firmly back into the hands of a marginalised community. 

Care and trust

Over the past two academic years, I have gained important insights into developing the competition process with care and establishing trust with our participants. Working with students with protected characteristics means a vital aspect of care is gaining consent at multiple stages. For trans students , for example, being named in certain contexts could have immediate and severe material consequences. One student sought me out during graduation week last year to ensure they would be  dead-named – otherwise, they said, they wouldn’t be able to return home with their parents after the ceremony. 

This has fed into my experience with the competition. Just because someone has entered doesn’t mean they will feel willing or able to be named in a university update or read their piece at a public event. However much you think you’ve tied up loose ends, please double-check. It’s better to be mildly irritating with an abundance of care.

That said, please don’t let the need for caution be off-putting. Demonstrating this level of care is foundational to developing trust. Repeatedly checking in with participants about how they are represented also helps to build a sense of agency they may not always feel they have in wider society. Liaise with those in your initiative whenever a new context arises in which they may be named. 

Respect and commitment

University community members who participate in our writing competition are occupying a  brave space , and this demands our respect. We value our staff and students’ intersectional identities and recognise how vulnerable it can feel sharing those parts of yourself in your place of work or study. I have shared some of my own LGBTQ+ journey during the drop-in sessions. Another sign of respect has been the active and enthusiastic engagement from our executive director of communications and development, who has sat on the judging panel both years. Having buy-in from senior management is indescribably validating not just for our entrants but for the wider LGBTQ+ community at the university.

Commitment to such an initiative can take many forms, the most essential of which are reflection and learning. For example, our inaugural winner, Allison Rosewood, submitted a non-fiction piece about becoming the trans role model she had always sought herself. We platformed her work at the university Pride event – she was unable to speak in person, so we recorded her reading her work and played it during the Pride Literary Hour. We invited Allison to sit on the 2024 judging panel, and the award has been named the Allison Rosewood LGBTQ+ History Month award. Now, our winner will always be invited to read at Pride and to sit on the panel. Allowing the project to evolve has helped create space for students to have their experiences and identities validated, and to build an archive of visible role models. 

This year, our prompt invited entrants to imagine a world where Section 28 had never existed. Mac McClelland’s winning entry,  Brianna , is staggering. The piece eloquently draws a line from past to present, highlighting just how far-reaching and damaging legislation in this vein can be. Opening the door for this creative expression has resulted in something that, in my opinion, is as impactful as an academic paper. 

Knowledge, responsibility, care, trust, respect and commitment, then…what’s coming to mind for you? Perhaps you owe it to yourself and your community to explore your own initiative. One caveat to this: please also apply a love ethic to yourself. Does the thought of a project like this make you weary? You may be running low on reserves, especially as we so often expect members of marginalised communities to advocate and enact positive change themselves. Someone else can take up this mantle, and that’s fine, too. 

The legacy of Section 28 is a traumatised, under-represented LGBTQ+ community and a wider UK society that still often struggles to accept those living outside a heteronormative, cisnormative version of reality. But if you do have the energy and resources, projects like ours can be transformative for individuals and institutions. As bell hooks wrote: “When we are taught that safety always lies with sameness, then difference, of any kind, will appear as a threat…The choice to love is a choice to connect – to find ourselves in the other.” Let’s work to make our institutions a place of connection and relish all the richness of experience that entails. 

Emily Downes is senior student success tutor (academic writing) and LGBTQ+ Focus Group co-chair at Teesside University.

If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,  sign up for the Campus newsletter .

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