All the top writing contests.
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Winchester Poetry Prize 2025
Deadline: 31 July 2025
The competition is open to anyone aged 16 or over.
Poems may be on any subject and in any form or style.
Entry fees: £6 for first poem and £5 for subsequent poems.
• 1st Prize: £1,000
• 2nd Prize: £500
• 3rd Prize: £250
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize 2025
Deadline: 30 April 2025
The Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize is a literary award for a first full-length book of poetry in the English language.
The entry fee is $25 per manuscript.
The prize carries a cash award of $5,000 and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press as part of the Pitt Poetry Series.
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 $5,000 Reader's Choice Award.
The International Audio Drama Competition 2026
Deadline: 4 June 2025,
The competition is hosted by BBC World Service and the British Council. Entrants should write an audio drama script on any subject. The competition is only open to writers outside of the UK. There are two prizes. Each prize will consist of £2500 and a trip to London.
The competition is free to enter.
2025 HG Wells Short Story Competition
Deadline: 8 July 2025
The competition is open to anyone. This year's theme is ''The Middle Ground''. Your story can be set anywhere, feature any characters, and be written in any style. There are two categories: • Authors 21 years of age and under with a prize of £1,000. Entry is free. • Authors aged 22 years and above with a prize of £500 (entry £10 or £5 with student id).
The Moth Short Story Prize 2025
Deadline: 30 June 2025
The Moth Short Story Prize is an international prize, open to anyone over the age of 16.
You can enter as many stories as you like.
The entry fee is 15 € per story.
• 1st prize: 3,000 €
• 2nd prize: a week-long writing retreat at Circle of Misse in France
• 3rd prize: 1,000 €
2025 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize
Deadline: 5 May 2025
The Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize is an annual short fiction competition organized by the Australian Book Review.
Entries must be a single, original story of 2,000 to 5,000 words.
Entry fee: AU$ 30
• 1st prize: AU$ 6,000
• 2nd prize: AU$ 4,000
• 3rd prize: AU$ 2,500
The 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 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 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.