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Best Writing Contests in 2024

Showing 340 contests that match your search.

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.

Top Prize:

$250

Additional prizes:

$25 credit toward Reedsy editorial services

💰 Entry fee: $5

📅 Deadline: December 31, 2024

Passionate Plume

Passionate Ink

Genres: Fiction, Novel, Novella, Romance, and Short Story

The 2024 Passionate Plume celebrates the best in erotic fiction, both long and short, and features a special category for emerging authors.

Additional prizes:

Publication in the Passionate Ink Charity Anthology

💰 Entry fee: $40

📅 Deadline: March 21, 2024 (Expired)

J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Awards

Columbia Journalism School

Genres: Non-fiction

Two J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Awards, in the amount of $25,000, are given annually to aid in the completion of significant works of nonfiction on topics of American political or social concern. Recognizing that a nonfiction book based on extensive research often overtaxes the resources available to its author, the project envisions the Awards as a way of closing the gap between the time and money an author has and the time and money that finishing a book requires.

Top Prize:

$25,000

📅 Deadline: December 07, 2023 (Expired)

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Genres: Flash Fiction

The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction (The Smokey) is a biennial competition that celebrates and compensates excellence in flash.

Top Prize:

$2,500

Additional prizes:

2nd: $1000 | 3rd: $500 | Finalists: $100 | Publication

💰 Entry fee: $14

📅 Deadline: April 30, 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, and Short Story

We seek work that actively pushes boundaries, that forces us to question traditions and tastes. If your work takes risks, we want to read it. We like strong narratives that make us feel something and stories we haven’t seen before. We accept work, written in English, from anywhere in the world—regardless of genre, style, or origin—and welcome speculative writing and experimental literature. Strange is good. Strange with a strong character arc is even better. Keep it weird, folks.

Top Prize:

$1,000

Additional prizes:

Publication

💰 Entry fee: $15

📅 Deadline: April 30, 2024

Genres: Mystery and Short Story

Every year since 2014, the CWA and the Margery Allingham Society have jointly held an international competition for a short story of up to 3,500 words. Our mission is to find the best unpublished short mystery, and not only that, but one which fits into Golden Age crime writer Margery Allingham’s definition of what makes a great story. Entries are invited from all writers, published or unpublished, writing in English.

Additional prizes:

Two weekend passes to CrimeFest

💰 Entry fee: $16

📅 Deadline: February 29, 2024 (Expired)

Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize

Academy of American Poets

Genres: Poetry

Established in 1975, this $25,000 award recognizes the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in the previous calendar year. The prize includes distribution of the winning book to hundreds of Academy of American Poets members.

Top Prize:

$25,000

Additional prizes:

Publication and distribution of book

💰 Entry fee: $75

📅 Deadline: May 15, 2024

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

Register now for our next 7-day story writing challenge. A secret theme, a randomly assigned genre, and just 7 days to write a story of no more than 2,000 words. Our 7-day story writing challenges take place throughout the year. The challenges are free and you can even get feedback on your story. Take part in one challenge or take part in all of them!

Additional prizes:

Publication on website

💰 Entry fee: $0

📅 Deadline: March 11, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

2024 marks the 10th anniversary of the BBC YWA, an award created to inspire and encourage the next generation of short story writers, open to 14 – 18-year-olds. BBC Radio 1 Presenter Katie Thistleton returns as Chair of Judges for the YWA for the seventh time.

Additional prizes:

4x shortlisted stories: £600

📅 Deadline: March 18, 2024 (Expired)

One Line Poem Contest

FanStory.com Inc.

Genres: Poetry

Share a one line poem to enter this poetry contest. Cash prize to the winner. How creative can you get with one line to work with.

Top Prize:

$100

💰 Entry fee: $10

📅 Deadline: July 07, 2022 (Expired)

Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, Poetry, and Short Story

Subscribe to Fanstory for $9.95 a month and enter as many contests as you like from their list of writing and poetry contests, updated daily. All participants receive feedback from a community of writers, and the winner of each contest receives a cash prize of up to $100.

💰 Entry fee: $10

📅 Deadline: January 31, 2023 (Expired)

World Historian Student Essay Competition

World History Association

Genres: Children's and Essay

The World Historian Student Essay Competition is an international competition open to students enrolled in grades K–12 in public, private, and parochial schools, and those in home-study programs. Membership in the World History Association is not a requirement for submission. Past winners may not compete in the same category again.

Top Prize:

$500

📅 Deadline: May 01, 2024

Free Verse Poetry Contest

FanStory.com Inc.

Genres:

Write a free verse poem. This is a method of writing poetry, which does not essentially follow any structure or style. There is no fixed meter and no structure regarding rhyme and lines in each stanza.

Top Prize:

$100

💰 Entry fee: $10

📅 Deadline: August 22, 2022 (Expired)

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

Stories may be previously published or unpublished, and simultaneous submissions are accepted. Winner receives $1,000 and a bronze medallion. Finalists receive $100. Winner and finalists are published in both the online and annual print editions of The Lascaux Review.

Top Prize:

$1,000

Additional prizes:

Publication in The Lascaux Review

💰 Entry fee: $15

📅 Deadline: December 31, 2021 (Expired)

Gulf Coast Writers Association Writing Contest

Gulf Coast Writers Association

Genres: Flash Fiction, Non-fiction, and Poetry

The Gulf Coast Writers Association is a twenty-nine year old association which was founded to promote writing and writers in Southwest Florida. Its annual contest is open to anyone from anywhere. The entries are judged blind by experienced members of the association and esteemed members of the local community. Entry fees are $20 for the first submission and $10 thereafter, with discounts for GCWA Members. Winners will be notified in June of 2024. Prose has a 1,500 word limit and poetry must be 40 lines or less. Send us your bravest work.

Top Prize:

$200

Additional prizes:

2nd: $75 | 3rd: $50

💰 Entry fee: $20

📅 Deadline: May 31, 2024

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

Our mission is to find the best unpublished short mystery — one that fits into legendary crime writer Margery’s definition of what makes a great story: “The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it.”

Additional prizes:

Two passes to Crimefest & a selection of books

💰 Entry fee: $15

📅 Deadline: February 29, 2024 (Expired)

Shiny Dime Writing Challenge

Write of Passage

Genres: Non-fiction

The Shiny Dime is a concept we teach to help people stand out online, and we’ve distilled it into a simple writing challenge. Challenge registrants will participate in a 10 week writing challenge where we request participants to publish once per week. We will choose among the participants who have the most impactful writing and who are the most consistent.

Top Prize:

$1,000

Additional prizes:

Free access to our 5 week writing bootcamp (a $4000 dollar value)

📅 Deadline: February 18, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Fiction and Short Story

The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award celebrates outstanding writers. The Award was launched after the publication of Aesthetica Magazine, as a way to support the next generation of literary talent. The Creative Writing Award is open to Poetry and Short Fiction submissions on any theme, however, we are particularly interested in works that reflect upon our ever changing world.

Top Prize:

$2,500

Additional prizes:

Publication in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual | A five-day course from Arvon | Consultation with Redhammer Management | Six-week writing short stories course from Curtis Brown Creative

💰 Entry fee: $22

📅 Deadline: August 31, 2024

Debut Dagger

Crime Writer's Association

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Novel, Novella, Suspense, and Thriller

The Debut Dagger is a competition for the opening of a crime novel by a writer who isn’t represented by an agent by the time the competition closes, and who has never had a traditional contract for any novel of any length, or who has never self-published any novel of any length in the last 5 years. Writers submit their opening 3,000 words and a 1,500 word synopsis. Entries from shortlisted writers are sent to UK literary agents and publishers. Every year, authors find representation this way.

Top Prize:

$577

💰 Entry fee: $41

📅 Deadline: February 29, 2024 (Expired)

The Pinch Literary Awards & Page Prize

The Pinch Literary Journal

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

The 2023 Pinch Literary Awards accepts poetry and fiction. The 2023 Page Prize accepts non-fiction.

Additional prizes:

$1000 for Page Prize winner

💰 Entry fee: $20

📅 Deadline: February 29, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Poetry

The Poetry Book Awards is an annual, international book award given to the best poetry books produced by indie writers, self published authors or books published by small, truly independent presses. We are proud to be a Welsh based international awards programme, open to all indie authors and self published poets globally.

Additional prizes:

2nd: £200 | 3rd: £100 | Publication

💰 Entry fee: $44

📅 Deadline: June 30, 2024

Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, and Short Story

The challenge: write a story using 100 words on one of four topics. Open to all ages with a special prize for authors 14 years or younger. The contest supports nonprofit literacy programs.

Top Prize:

$200

Additional prizes:

6 cash prizes of $100 each; publication in digital magazine, inclusion in webcast

💰 Entry fee: $12

📅 Deadline: February 01, 2024 (Expired)

Askew's Word on the Lake Writing Contest

Shuswap Association of Writers

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

Whether you’re an established or emerging writer, the Askew’s Word on the Lake Writing Contest has a place for you. Part of the Word on the Lake Writers’ Festival in Salmon Arm, BC, the contest is open to submissions in short fiction (up to 2,000 words), nonfiction (up to 2,000 words), and poetry (up to three one-page poems).

Additional prizes:

Publication

💰 Entry fee: $11

📅 Deadline: January 31, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Fiction, Flash Fiction, and Short Story

The aim of the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize is both to celebrate the best of new, boundary-pushing short fiction and to give winners the most visibility possible for their writing. That’s why we’ve teamed up with fourteen different literary and artistic institutions to not only offer cash prizes and writing retreats but also to ensure that all our shortlisters have the opportunity to be published in multiple print and online journals, have their work put in front of literary agents, and present their stories in multiple countries.

Additional prizes:

2nd + 3rd: €1000 | All shortlisters: publication in our print collection Eleven Stories | All longlisters: One-year subscription to The Literary Consultancy's "Being a Writer" platform | One shortlister: two-week residency at Studio Faire, France

💰 Entry fee: $22

📅 Deadline: December 04, 2024

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Poetry, Science Fiction, Short Story, and Thriller

Our contest provides a First, Second, and Third prize for both prose and poetry. There are no themes or special requirements so just send us your best work. We recommend you read through previous editions or listen to the works and author interviews on our Story Discovery Podcast to get a sense of the range of creativity we enjoy.

Additional prizes:

2nd: $150 | 3rd: $75

💰 Entry fee: $12

📅 Deadline: April 21, 2024

Sonnet Poetry Contest

FanStory.com Inc

Genres: Poetry

A sonnet is a poem with a specific structure. It has 14 lines and a specific rhyme scheme. The topic is open! Write about anything for this poetry contest. Just follow the rules on how to write a sonnet. To read the rules and for an example view the contest announcement. Cash prize for the winner of this contest.

Top Prize:

$100

💰 Entry fee: $10

📅 Deadline: November 06, 2022 (Expired)

Frightening First Line Contest 2023

Gotham Writers Workshop

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

Autumn is the season of rustling leaves, a chill in the air, and, of course, Halloween. In that spirit, we invite you to create the first line of a frightening story. But we want that first line to be so intriguing or chilling or scary that it makes our skin tingle and our nerves twitch.

💰 Entry fee: $0

📅 Deadline: November 30, 2023 (Expired)

National Essay Contest

U.S. Institute of Peace

Genres: Essay

This year, AFSA celebrates the 100th anniversary of the United States Foreign Service. Over the last century, our diplomats and development professionals have been involved in groundbreaking events in history – decisions on war and peace, supporting human rights and freedom, creating joint prosperity, reacting to natural disasters and pandemics and much more. As AFSA looks back on this century-long history, we invite you to join us in also looking ahead to the future. This year students are asked to explore how diplomats can continue to evolve their craft to meet the needs of an ever-changing world that brings fresh challenges and opportunities to the global community and America’s place in it.

Top Prize:

$2,500

Additional prizes:

Runner-up: $1,250

📅 Deadline: April 01, 2024

Genres: Fiction, Poetry, and Short Story

The 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, the fifteenth edition of the prestigious prize, is open from 1 February to 1 July 2024. 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. The winners of each category will receive a £1,000 cash prize and publication in Wasafiri magazine.

Additional prizes:

Publication

💰 Entry fee: $15

📅 Deadline: June 30, 2024

2024 International Literary Prize

Hammond House Publishing

Genres: Poetry, Script Writing, and Short Story

Our Annual Literary Prize is back again for 2024, with bigger cash prizes, publication for all shortlisted entries in our annual anthologies, a televised award ceremony, and an inspiring new theme.

Additional prizes:

Worldwide publication for all shortlisted entries

💰 Entry fee: $10

📅 Deadline: September 30, 2024

Four Line Poem

FanStory.com Inc.

Genres: Poetry

Write a four line poem that has a specific syllable count. The first line has 1 syllable, the second line has 5 syllables, the third line has 5 syllables, and the last line has 9 syllables. The subject can be anything.

Top Prize:

$100

💰 Entry fee: $10

📅 Deadline: May 16, 2024

Flash Memoir

Writer Advice

Genres: Memoir and Flash Fiction

WriterAdvice seeks flash memoir, a personal life story running 750 words or less.

Top Prize:

$150

Additional prizes:

Publication in our e-zine

💰 Entry fee: $5

📅 Deadline: March 02, 2024 (Expired)

Genres: Poetry

The Rialto working in association with the RSPB, BirdLife International, Cambridge Conservation Initiative and The University of Leeds Poetry Centre. Poems are invited that deal with any aspect of nature and place – these terms will be given a wide interpretation by the judge Zaffar Kunial.

Additional prizes:

2nd: £500 | 3rd: £250

💰 Entry fee: $8

📅 Deadline: April 01, 2024

Genres: LGBTQ

The J. Michael Samuel Prize honors emerging LGBTQ writers over the age of 50. This award is made possible by writer and philanthropist Chuck Forester, who created it out of the firmly held belief that “Writers who start late are just as good as other writers, it just took the buggers more time.” The prize will go to an unpublished LGBTQ writer over 50 working in any genre.

Top Prize:

$5,000

📅 Deadline: February 16, 2024 (Expired)

The Porter Fleming Literary Competition

The Morris Museum of Art

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Script Writing

Welcome to the 2024 Porter Fleming Literary Competition, now in its twenty-ninth year of recognizing outstanding writing and writers. The competition honors the memory of Porter Fleming, one of Augusta, Georgia’s leading citizens and foremost philanthropists. The competition is administered, with the support of the Porter Fleming Foundation, by the Morris Museum of Art, the first museum in the country to focus on the art and artists of the American South. Writers, ages 18 and older, who reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington, D.C are invited to apply.

Additional prizes:

2nd place: $500 & 3rd place: $250 in each of the four genre categories

💰 Entry fee: $15

📅 Deadline: February 16, 2024 (Expired)

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:

On Editing:

Blog posts

Bonus resources

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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