Welcome

Hi and welcome.

We're both authors and love to write. We want to encourage you to get writing too, and to make it easy for you, we're putting together this listing of English language writing and poetry competitions from around the world. We'll also be alerting you when respected publishers call for manuscript submissions for novels and other types of books.

On our home page, we'll be listing current opportunities, and on the Calendar page you will find a list of past competitions we have listed so you can schedule them for next year.

So you don't miss out, sign up for our email notifications. If you have a writing competition you would like us to list here, please email: editor (at) writerscompetitions (dot) com

Writing for competitions is a great way to improve your writing skills, and you just might win a prize in the process.

We also know there's nothing like a deadline to force those words to flow.  So have a look through this list, choose one to enter and start writing.

Good Luck!

Julie & Dianne

Fish Flash Fiction and Poetry Competitions

It's time to flex those writing muscles after the pleasures of Christmas-New Year. What better way to start than with the Fish Publishing Writing Contests?  Short, sharp and very sweet might be just what is needed.

County Cork (Ireland) based Fish Publishing hosts 4 writing contests a year, with a view to launching talented new writers and getting them into print.  They attract heavyweight Irish writers and poets as judges and patrons and you have the option of paying extra for a full critique of your submission. Michael Collins is the judge for the 2012 Flash Fiction Prize (word limit: 300 words) and US Poet Laureate Billy Collins will judge the Poetry Prize (word limit: 200 words). The Inaugural Short Memoir Award (4000 word limit) will be judged by David Shields. 

Entry fee: EUR14 for first entry, EUR6 for subsequent entries. Option to pay extra to receive a professional critique of your submission.

Prize:  EUR1000 for first prize in Poetry and Flash Fiction contests; EUR2000 for Short Memoir. Other prizes include accommodation at the Anam Cara Writers Retreat in Spain. Winner and up to 10 shortlisted entires selected by the judges in each category are published in the annual Fish Anthology, which is launched during the West Cork Literary Festival each year.  

Open to: Authors worldwide, writing in English.

Deadlines:  30 January 2012 (Short Memoir)

30 March 2012 (Poetry and Flash Fiction)

Short Story 2012 contest to open shortly - check the Fish website

Website:  Fish Publishing

BBC International Short Story Award

To celebrate London's hosting of the 2012 Olympics, the UK Books Trust National Short Story competition will - for just one year - become an international competition sponsored by the BBC.

Entries must be in English, up to a maximum of 8000 words. Entries for the award may be unpublished or must not have been published prior to 1 March 2011. Please take care to read the comprehensive terms and conditions.

Entry fee: Free.

Prize:  GBP15,000 first prize, GBP2,500 runner up, GBP250 for 8 short-listed entries.  All ten prize winners will be read out on BBC's Radio 4 Front Row program in 2012.

Open to: Authors worldwide, ages 18 and over, who have had previous works of creative fiction published in the UK in the past.

Deadline:  27 February 2012

Website:     Booktrust - BBC International Short Shory Award

British Australian Community Literary Prize

Here is the chance to flex your essay writing skills and wave the flag for 'the old country' (!).  Entries up to 800 words on the theme of the positive heritage of British culture in Australia, are invited by the Melbourne-based British Australian Community.

If you have a lot to say, you can submit up to two separate entries, but they must be previously unpublished and not offered up for publication elsewhere until the prize is decided.

Last year's winning entry is published on the website, along with a list of those receiving recommendations.

Entry fee: AUD$10

Prize:  AUD$1000 and publication in the Endeavour -  journal of the British Australian Community

Open to: Citizens or permanent residents of Australia

Deadline:  30 April 2013

Website:     British Australian Community Literary Prize

Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards

The Australian Prime Minister's 2012 Literary Awards are one of Australia's richest and most prestigious prizes - about which we can all dream! There is a total prize pool of AUD$600,000!!! (Worth the exclamation marks!).  Authors who have had a book published between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2011 in a range of categories can enter it for the Awards, though self-published books are not eligible.

Categories include: fiction, non-fiction, young adult fiction, children's fiction, Australian history, and for the first time, poetry!  It's important to read the varying eligibility criteria for each of the categories.

Entry fee: Free

Prize:  First prize in each category AUD$80,000 tax free; short listed entries in each category AUD$5,000

Open to: Citizens or permanent residents of Australia

Deadline:  1 February 2012

Website:    Prime Minister's Literary Awards

Memoirs, Ink. Memoirs Contest

Memoirs, Ink. is a US organisation dedicated to encouraging, promoting and supporting the genre of memoir, to preserving and publishing stories of the past, so those precious human memories are not lost to us all.

They are inviting stories, essays and memoirs based on personal experience written in the first-person (it's all about I, me, my!), but the type, genre and style is up to you.

Entry fee: USD$15 

Prize:  First prize USD$1000, 2nd = USD$500, 3rd = USD$250

Word limit: February deadline up to 1500 words; August deadline up to 3000 words.

Open to: Anyone, anywhere, writing in English

Deadline:  Half-yearly contest: 15th February 2012.  Annual contest: 15 August 2012

Website:    Memoirs Ink., Contest Guidelines 

The Next Big Author

TheNextBigAuthor.com is a joint initiative by a group of big-name publishers, UK Art Council-funded writeon.com, and writers themselves.  You submit the opening chapters of your book (completed draft or work-in-progress).   You retain the copyright of your work at all times.  You then review and rate fellow entrants' chapters, and have your own reviewed/rated in turn.  The more reviews you do, the more your own work will be reviewed.  Great practise in giving and receive critiques!

The 10 highest rating entries will then be reviewed by the major publishers, or leading UK literary agents, and feedback provided. Some past winners of this competition, which has a number of entry deadlines throughout the year, are now best selling published authors. It could be YOU!

Entry fee: Free 

Prize:  Top 10 rated chapter entries will be read and feedback provided by some of the world's most well known and high profile publishing groups.

Word limit: Opening chapters of between 5000-7000 words

Open to: Everyone, everywhere!

Deadline:  31st December 2011 (12 noon Greenwich Mean Time!)

Website:    TheNextBigAuthor.com

The New Writer Prose & Poetry Prize - Closed for this year

The UK based New Writer's Magazine invites writers worldwide to submit 'Fact, Fiction and Poetry' in a range of categories to their 12th annual Prose & Poetry Prize. While themes are wide open, they are particularly keen to receive 'bold and incisive' entries which reflect writing today. Time to exercise your mind and your imagination! 

There will be up to 20 prizes awarded, and all winners will be published in the New Writer 'Special Collection'.  Categories include: Fact, Short Stories, Micro Fiction, Single Poems and Poetry Collections (which may include previously published works). 

Entry fee: GBP5 per entry; GBP12 for poetry collections. 

Prize:  Total prize pool of GBP2000.  First prizes of between GBP150-300 each, Second prizes GBP100 and third = GBP50

Word limit: Fact = 2000 words; Short Stories = 500 to 5000 words; Micro-fiction up to 500 words; Single Poems up to 40 lines; Poetry Collections of 6-10 poems.

Open to: Everyone!

Deadline:  30th November 2011

Website:   The New Writer Prose & Poetry Prize 

Closed - Small Wonder Prose Poem/Microfiction Anthology

The Small Wonder Prose Poetry/Microfiction competition is an initiative of Spineless Wonders, a leading edge Australian publishing company focussed on short, quality fiction writing by Australians, wherever they may be. Electronic submissions only, via the website link below. They are happy for you to blur your genres, so if you haven't yet figured out if you are writing prose, poetry, prose poetry, poetic fiction or something new entirely, this is probably the competition for you!

Entry fee: AUD$7 per entry.

Prize:  First Prize AUD$300, Commended entries AUD$100.  All prize winners will be published in the small wonder anthology. 

Word limit: 800 words

Open to: Australian citizens (everywhere) and Australian permanent residents, over 18 years of age.

Deadline:  16 December 2011

Website:   Small Wonders - Spineless Wonders

Closed - 7th Annual Writers Digest Poetry Awards

US-based Writer's Digest runs a series of writing competitions throughout the year for writers worldwide.  If you have something to say in a poem, as long as it is 32 lines or less, they would love to hear it! I managed to pick up a 10th place in the 2009 Awards - so anything is possible!

Entry fee: USD$15 for first poem; USD$10 for each subsequent poem.

Prize:  First Prize of USD$500 and cost-contribution towards attendance at the Writer's Digest Conference to be held in New York in January 2012. Cash prizes for 2nd (USD$250), 3rd (USD$100) and 4th to 10th (USD$25) places and gift certificates for 11th to 25th place.  All winners receive a copy of the 2012 Poets Market. The first 50 place-getters are also published in an annual Awards Collection. 

Open to: Poets everywhere.

Deadline:  1 December 2011

Website:  Writers Digest Poetry Competition

2012 Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition

The Munster Literature Centre (based in Cork, Ireland) is calling for poets worldwide to enter the 2012 Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition.  Original, unpublished poems in English, up to 40 lines, can be on any theme and in any style.

This new competition honours the late Irish poet, Gregory O'Donoghue, and will be judged by Cork-based writer and publisher, Patrick Cotter - who will read every single entry himself (whew!). The great cash prizes are supplemented by publication Literature Centre's Southword, and first prize could even see you in Cork for the Spring Literary Festival.  What more could you possibly want?!

Entry fee: EUR5 per poem or EUR20 for 5 poems 

Prize:  First Prize: EUR1000, plus publication in Southword and a contribution towards travel costs to attend the Cork Spring Literary Festival. Second prize: EUR500 plus publication, 3rd prize: EUR250 plus publication. Ten runners up will be published and receive EUR30 publication fee.

Open to: Poets worldwide

Deadline:  18 December 2011

Website:    Munster Literature Centre: Gregory O'Donoghue Competition

Closed - Fellowship of Australian Writers National Literary Awards

The Fellowship of Australian Writers National Literary Awards have something for everyone!  There are 20 different awards, including full length fiction, non-fiction, poetry, short stories, anthologies, short stories, scripts, anthologies and group writing. This is definitely an opportunity to flex your writer's muscles.

Entry fee: Free to AUD$15, depending on category.

Prize:  First Prizes in 20 different categories range from AUD$100 to AUD$1000. Major awards also have plaques and medallions.

Open to: Residents of Australia and its Territories, including specific categories for school-age students

Deadline:  30 November 2011

Website: FAW 2011 National Literary Awards

Closed - Inktears Short Story Competition

UK-based Inktears aims to bring readers and writers together and has a very active membership of both. Writers worldwide are asked to submit short stories on any theme, between 1000 and 3000 words - either unpublished or published prior to April 2011.

Apart from the pretty fabulous GBP1000 first prize, all winners will be published to the Inktears readership (online and in hard copy), have their bio published on the Inktears website and, if they have enough quality stories, may even be offered a publishing contract by Inktears! What are you waiting for?!

Entry fee: GBP4.50 

Prize:  GBP1000 first prize, GBP100 runner up, GBP25 highly commended

Open to: Anyone, anywhere, as long as you are 18 years and over

Deadline:  30 November 2011

Website:   Inktears Short Story Competition 2011

Closed - The Hal Porter Short Story Competition

The 18th Annual Hal Porter Short Story Competition, run by the East Gippsland Art Gallery, invites Australian writers to submit short stories, in English, up to 2500 words. The style and format is up to you, though it must not have been published before - not even on your blog, so here is the chance to try something fresh and shiny!

First prize is an inspiring AUD$1000 and short listed authors will receive publications from the University of Qld Press.

Entry fee: AUD$6 admin fee

Prize:  AUD$1000 first prize, books for shortlisted entries

Open to: Australian writers

Deadline:  16 December 2011

Website:  Hal Porter Short Story Competition