All the top writing contests.


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Poetry London Prize 2025
Deadline: 30 June 2025
The competition is organized by Poetry London magazine.

Entries must be in English. The maximum length is 80 lines.

For Poetry London subscribers the entry fee is £5 per poem; for non-subscribers £10.

• 1st prize: £5,000
• 2nd prize: £2,000
• 3rd prize: £1,000

2025 Rattle Poetry Prize
Deadline: 15 July 2025
The competition is open to poets of any nationality writing in English. You may submit up to four poems per entry. The $30 USD entry fee is a one-year subscription to Rattle magazine.

The overall winner will receive a cash prize of $15,000. Ten finalists will each receive $500, and be eligible for the $5,000 Reader's Choice Award.

The Tom Grass Spirit of Adventure Literary Prize
Deadline: 31 March 2025
The competition is open to emerging writers over the age of 25.

Your entry can be fiction or non-fiction. The word count is between 1,500 and 3,000 words.

The competition is free to enter.

Prizes:
• 1st prize: £1,000
• Two runners-up prizes: £500 each

The International Audio Drama Competition 2026
Deadline: 4 June 2025,
The competition is hosted by BBC World Service and the British Council. Entrants should write an audio drama script on any subject. The competition is only open to writers outside of the UK. There are two prizes. Each prize will consist of £2500 and a trip to London.

The competition is free to enter.

The Alpine Fellowship Poetry Prize 2025
Deadline: 1 April 2025
The competition is open to anyone aged 18 and above.

This year's theme is ''Fear''. You can submit either a single poem or a collection of poems, as long as every poem in the collection relates to the theme.

The competition is free to enter.

The winner will receive a cash prize of £3,000.

2025 HG Wells Short Story Competition
Deadline: 8 July 2025
The competition is open to anyone. This year's theme is ''The Middle Ground''. Your story can be set anywhere, feature any characters, and be written in any style. There are two categories: • Authors 21 years of age and under with a prize of £1,000. Entry is free. • Authors aged 22 years and above with a prize of £500 (entry £10 or £5 with student id).
The Moth Short Story Prize 2025
Deadline: 30 June 2025
The Moth Short Story Prize is an international prize, open to anyone over the age of 16.
You can enter as many stories as you like.

The entry fee is 15 € per story.

• 1st prize: 3,000 €
• 2nd prize: a week-long writing retreat at Circle of Misse in France
• 3rd prize: 1,000 €

2025 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize
Deadline: 5 May 2025
The Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize is an annual short fiction competition organized by the Australian Book Review.

Entries must be a single, original story of 2,000 to 5,000 words.

Entry fee: AU$ 30

• 1st prize: AU$ 6,000
• 2nd prize: AU$ 4,000
• 3rd prize: AU$ 2,500

The Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize 2025
Deadline: 1 April 2025
The competition is open to anyone aged 18 and above. This year's theme is ''Fear''. All genres of writing are permitted, including fiction, non-fiction and non-academic essays. The competition is free to enter. The winner will receive a cash prize of £3,000.
The 2025 Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition
Deadline: 2 June 2025
The competition is open to writers over the age of 18.

The entry must be a full-length children's novel for readers aged between 7 and 18.

The entry fee is £20.

The main prize is a worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House with a royalty advance of £10,000.

2025 Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize
Deadline: 13 April 2025
The Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize is awarded to an original work of fiction under 2000 words.

The competition is organized by Desperate Literature, an international bookshop in Madrid, Spain.

The entry fee is €20 for the first submission and €10 for each subsequent submission.

First prize: €2,000 and a week’s residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation.

PURORRELATO micro-story contest 2025
Deadline: 16 April 2025, 14:00 GMT
The competition is open to anyone over the age of 18.

The theme is free, although the micro-stories should be related to Africa in some way.

The competition is free to enter.

• 1st Prize: 750 €
• 2nd Prize: 375 €
• 3rd Prize: 225 €

The 2025 Yeovil Literary Prize
Deadline: 31 May 2025
The Yeovil Literary Prize is open to anyone over the age of 16. There are five categories: • Novel (1st prize: £1350) • Short Story (1st prize: £625) • Poetry (1st prize: £625) • Children's and Young Adult Novel (1st prize: £625) • Writing Without Restrictions (1st prize: £275). Entry fees: from £8 to £18.50.

The Plough Poetry Prize 2025
Deadline: 28 March 2025
The Plough Poetry Prize is an international competition for a poems in English up to 40 lines on any subject.

The entry fee is £5 per poem.

• 1st prize £1,000
• 2nd prize £500
• 3rd prize £250

Bath Short Story Award 2025
Deadline: 31 March 2025
Entrants must be 16 years or over. Stories can be on any theme or subject but must be original and written in English. Maximum length is 2,200 words. There is a fee of £9 for each story submitted. • 1st prize: £1,000 • 2nd prize: £300 • 3rd prize: £100

Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award 2025
Deadline: 31 March 2025
The competition is open to writers who have not previously published or self-published a full-length book of prose. Entrants must reside in the British Commonwealth or Eire.

The submitted work can be fiction, non-fiction, children’s or short stories.

The competition is free to enter.

The winner receives £10,000 and the two shortlisted authors £1,000 each.

The 2025 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing
Deadline: 31 May 2025
Authors must be first-generation immigrants. ''First-generation'' can refer either to people born in another country who relocated, or to residents of a country whose parents were born elsewhere.

The competition is open to both fiction and nonfiction submissions.

The entry fee is $20.

The winner receives $10,000 and publication by Restless Books.

Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest 2024/2025
Deadline: 1 May 2025
You may submit stories and essays on any theme, up to 6,000 words each. For this contest, a story is any short work of fiction, and an essay is any short work of nonfiction.

The entry fee is $25.

The winning story and essay will each receive $3,500.
Ten Honorable Mentions will receive $500 each.

Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2025
Deadline: 31 August 2025
The competition is open to anyone. There are two categories: Poetry and Short Fiction. Entry fees: from £12 to £18. Prizes: • £2,500 for the Poetry Winner • £2,500 for the Short Fiction Winner
The Caterpillar Poetry Prize 2025
Deadline: 31 March 2025
The prize is for unpublished poems written by an adult for children aged 7–11. The entry fee is €15 per poem. • 1st prize: €1,000 • 2nd prize: €500 • 3rd prize: €250
The Bridport Prize 2025
Deadline: 31 May 2025
The competition is open to writers of any nationality, aged 16 years old and over. The competition has four categories: • Poetry (1st prize: £5,000); • Short story (1st prize: £5,000); • Flash fiction (1st prize: £1,000); • Novel (1st prize: £1,500). Entry fees: from £11 to £24.
The Rialto Nature and Place Poetry Competition 2025
Deadline: 1 April 2025
The competition is open to anyone over the age of 18. `Poems are invited that deal with any aspect of nature and place – these terms will be given a wide interpretation by the judge Helen Mort.` Entry fees: £7 for your first poem £4 for each subsequent poem • 1st prize: £1000 • 2nd prize: £500 • 3rd prize: £250
2025 Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest
Deadline: 1 April 2025
You may submit one humor poem, in English. Your poem should not exceed 250 lines in length. The competition is free to enter. • 1st prize: $2,000 • 2nd prize: $500 • 3rd Prize: $250 • 10 honorable mentions, $100 each