My Novel

My Novel

UK Poetry Competitions (currently (18)

Creative Future Writers’ Award.  Creative Future is seeking entries from poets and fiction writers from underrepresented backgrounds, i.e. those who face barriers due to mental health, disability, identity or social circumstances (you might for instance be a carer).  See the entry page for a comprehensive list.  You also need to be over 18, resident in the UK and not previously published in book form by an established publisher.  If you fit the bill, submit a work of fiction or creative non-fiction of up to 2,000 words, or a poem of up to 50 lines.  The theme in all cases is ‘Reveal’ (a creative prompt, not a requirement).
    Closing: 19.5.24 (11.59pm).
    Prizes: (Poetry ) 1st - £75, a Chapter and Verse Mentorship, manuscript assessment and a year’s Being A Writer membership, plus a Faber Academy online masterclass.  2nd - £50 plus other writing-relatesd items.  3rd - £25 plus other Writing-related items.  There are also prizes for fourth place and runners-up.  (Fiction): 1st - £75, a 9-month Curtis Brown mentorship, one year’s Being A Writer membership, Faber Academy Writing a Novel course,  a year’s membership of the Society of Authors.  (Creative non-fiction): 1st - £75 plus mentoring and manuscript assessment, plus Faber Academy’s Memoir and Life Writing course.  2nd - £50, manuscript assessment and an online writing course from Writing Magazine, plus Society of Authors membership.  3rd - £25 plus manuscript assessment and coaching, and a copy of the W&A Yearbook.  There are also prizes for Highly Commended and Commended.  In addition to the main category prizes there are ‘Joint prizes’, presumably so you can smoke away the blues after not winning the top prize.
    Entry Fee: Free to enter or pay what you can (one entry per person in each category allowed).
    Comp Page: Creative Future.

Indigo Open Poetry Prize 2023.  Here we have another contest from Indigo Dreams Publishing in Devon.  It is for poems of up to 40 lines on any subject.
    Closing: 22.4.24.
    Prizes: £250, £100, £50.  Plus magazine publication.
    Entry Fee: £5 esch, £9 for two, £12 for three.
    Comp Page: Indigo Dreams.

Southport Writers’ Circle International Poetry Competition.  As a child I lived for a while just up the road from Southport.  It was a cultural backwater then, often referred to as the poor man’s Blackpool.  Not any more.  These days, in addition to its renowned flower show (‘a horticultural hotbed’) it has a writers’ circle and not one but two international literary contests.  Some are now calling Blackpool the poor man’s Southport, although admittedly not many.  The latest contest is for poems of up to 40 lines on any theme. The judge is Judith Railton.
    Closing: 30.4.24.
    Prizes: £150, £75, £25.  Humour Prize - £25.
    Entry Fee: £3 each, £10 for four.
    Comp Page : SWC Poetry.

Ver Poets Open Competition .  Here’s a repeat of the annual contest from Ver Poets of St Albans in Hertfordshire.  It is for poems of up to 30 lines on any subject.  The judge this year is Merryn Williams.
    Closing: 30.4.24.
    Prizes: £600, £300, £100.  Winning and selected poems will be published in an anthology.
    Entry Fee: £4 each, £10 for three, £3 each thereafter.
    Comp Page : Ver Poets.

Hi Michael,
     Thanks for a very useful website. Since finding the contact details on your site, I've won the Txtlit competition twice, and the Write Invite competition four times. With the prize money I'm now entering other competitions. Thanks for keeping us writers posted!
     Best regards, Uta Coutts

F(r)iction Writing Competition.  Back again for another round is this international contest from the American online magazine F(r)iction.  It has four categories: Short Story (1,001 to 7,500 words), Poetry (up to three pages per poem), Flash Fiction (up to 1,000 words), Creative Nonfiction up to 6,500 words.
    Closing: 30.4.24.
    Prizes: Short Story - $1,000.  Flash Fiction - £300.  Poetry - $300, Nonfiction - $500.
    Entry Fees: Short Story and creative nonfiction - $15.  Poetry and Flash Fiction - single entry $10, three-pack $12.
   Comp Page: F(r)iction Comps.

Never Such Innocence Poetry Competition.  Here we have a freebie for youngsters between the ages of 9 and 18.  It has four categories - Poetry, Art, Speech and Song - but here I deal only with the first.  Your poem, which should run to no more than 40 lines, must answer the question: How does war affect people’s lives?
    Closing: 24.5.24.
    Prizes: Prizes will be announced later in the competition, they say.  These will include some exciting experiences.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.  You can enter each of the four categories once.
    Comp Page: Innocence

Frogmore Poetry Prize.  This annual contest is run by Frogmore Press which was founded in 1983 in the Frogmore tearooms in Folkestone.  Well, what else can you do in Folkestone?  I’ll tell you what: you can fall in the sea - a feat I managed at the age of 8.  Will I ever forget that day?  Unlikely, for I had the misfortune to be rescued by my two sisters.  ‘No, no - let me drown!’ I cried.  ‘I’ll never be able to face my mates again.’  But I had the ice cream money in my pocket and so my pleas were ignored.  I later wrote a poem about the shame of it all but it would have been too long for this contest as it ran to 360 lines.  The line limit here is 40.
    Closing: 31.5.24.
    Prize: 1st - 250 guineas.  Classy.  You also get a two-year subscription to The Frogmore Papers.  2nd - 75 guineas and a year’s subscription.  3rd - 50 guineas and a year’s subscription.  Shortlisted poets also get copies of selected Frogmore Press publications, plus publicaion in the mag.
    Entry Fee: £4.
    Comp Page: Frogmore PP

Wirral Poetry Festival Open Poetry Competition.  Poems of up to 40 lines are invited for this long-running contest from the Wirral where Vikings once settled ... before being moved on by the council following complains of antisocial behaviour.
    Closing: 31.5.24.
    Prizes: Open - £250, 4 x £25.  Wirral Prizes - £100, 2 x £25
    Enry Fee: £4 each, £10 for three.
    Comp Page: Wirral Poetry

Bridport Prize.  This famous international competition from the Bridport Arts Centre is one of the most prestigious writing contests in the British literary calendar.  Everyone in the trade whose mind is not addled by drugs has heard of it, and they will be impressed if you can claim to have won it.  The good news is that winning it is easy.  All you have to do is submit the best poem or short story, the former having no more than 42 lines, the latter running to no more than 5,000 words.  For those who find 5,000 words too tiring to write there is now a flash fiction category for stories of up to 250 words (if that’s too much, consider becoming a poet).  There is also a First Chapter Award (see separate listing) for a novel opening and synopsis.
    Closing: 31.5.24.
    Prizes: Short Stories, Poems - (in each category) £5,000, £1,000, £500, and ten @ £100.  Flash Fiction - £1,000, £500, £250, and five @ £100.  Winning entries will be published in an anthology.
    Entry Fees: Poems - £12.  Short Stories - £14.  Flash Fiction - £11.
    Comp Page: Bridport Prize.

And now a word from our sponsor.  Hello.  I’m Michael Shenton, creator of this website and author of Stiff Competition, winner of the Peter Pook Humorous Novel Competition.  People who are looking for me through search engines can remember just about everything about the website save its name and, more distressingly for me, my name. They search for ‘Peter Pook author’, ’the man who wrote Peter Pook’, ‘that bloke who won the cars’ and all manner of other odd things, but never ‘Michael Shenton’. The sole purpose of this site is to get my name known in the hope that one day dozens of people will buy my current novel and any others I manage to get published.  So would you all kindly make a note of it.  Michael Shenton.  Thank you.

Yeovil Literary Prize.  This is the 23rd of these annual international contests from Yeovil, the literary capital of the West Country where even the sheep appreciate poetry.  There are five categories: Short Story, Poetry, Novel, Children’s & YA Novel, and Unrestricted.  The short stories can run to 2,000 words, while poems should be no more than 40 lines.  Adult Novels have a limit of 10,000 words for the opening chapters and synopsis.  Children’s & YA entries should be no more than 3,000 (opening) words with a 500-word synopsis, and can include one illustration.  The final category is unusual in that it’s for anything you have written - as long as it has ‘the Wow! factor’ (they mean ‘Wow - that’s brilliant!’ rather than, ‘Wow - you’ve really plumbed the depths with that one!’).  Your entry could be a particularly creative tax return, a witty note to the milkman, or that hilariously scathing critique of your former best friend’s novel, etc.
    Closing: 31.5.24.
    Prizes: Short Story - £600, £250, £125.  Poetry - £600, £250, £125.  Novel - £1,250, £500, £125.  Children’s & YA Novel - £600, £250, £125.  Writing Without Restrictions - £250, £125, £75.  In addition there is the Western Gazette Best Local Writer Award for a shortlisted writer living in the Western Gazette distribution area (mainly Dorset and Somerset).  It isn’t worth moving down there however as the prize is only £100.
    Entry Fee: Short Story - £8.  Poetry - £5.  Novel - £14.50.  Children’s & YA Novel - £12.50.  Writing Without Restrictions - £6.
    Comp Page: Yeovil Lit Prize.

Canterbury Poet of the Year Competition.  It’s back again: the annual international poetry contest from Canterbury Festival.  As usual, it is for poems of up to 60 lines.  Shortlisted poets will be asked to read their work via Zoom at the online awards evening on October 5, but they can if they wish nominate someone else to do this, including one of the judges.
    Closing: 7.6.24.
    Prizes: £200, £100, £50.  All longlisted entries (approximately 35) will be published in an anthology.
    Entry Fee: £5.
    Comp Page: Canterbury Festival Comp

George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition.  This annual contest from the Suffolk Poetry Society, a registered charity, has been running since 1954.  It is for poems of up to 50 lines on any subject.  To enter ,you will have to buy eligibilty by joining the Society unless you are already a member, or were born in Suffolk, Norfolk or Essex, or work or reside there, or have been educated there.  I don’t think it will be good enough if you merely identify as having been born in the area even though you were actually born in, say Glasgow, but these days you never know.
    Closing: 14.6.24.
    Prizes: £500, £250, £150.  Runners-up (2) - £100.  There will be an awards event at which winning and commended poems will be read, preferably by their authors.  The poems will be published in an anthology.
    Entry Fee: £4.
    Comp Page: Crabbe Poetry.

Dear Michael
   I discovered your excellent site a few months back and entered some of the poetry competitions. I have in all my long years never received a payment for anything I have written, but I today received an email from Cooldog Publications to say I have won second prize in their E-mag Poetry Competition! £50! What a great way to start the new year.
   I just had to write and say thanks to you for the trouble you have taken with your site and how much I appreciate the sense of humour that underpins it.
  This has given me a terrific boost.
                                                                                -  Carol Browne

International Welsh Poetry Competition.  I know what you’re thinking: you’ll have to write a poem in Welsh for this one.  Not so, because there are only four poets in the entire world who write in Welsh, so the promoters are wisely asking for entries in English.  They’re also asking for no more than 50 lines.  These lines can be in any style and on any subject.  Award-winning poet Kathy Miles will be judging.
    Closing: 30.6.24.
    Prizes: £500, £250, £100.  Winners and 17 runners-up will be published in a future anthology.
    Entry Fee: £6.
    Comp Page: Welsh Poetry.

Wells Festival of Literature Competitions.  Here we have a return of the famous Wells Litfest and its various competitions: Poetry, Short Story, Book for Children, Young Poets.  I should mention before we go any further that we are talking about Wells in Somerset, not Wells in Norfolk which also has an annual litfest (I wouldn’t want you turning up at the wrong event to receive your prize or to berate the judges for not awarding you anything).  Anyway, back to business.  For the Poetry you are allowed up to 35 lines, while the Short Stories should be between 1,000 and 2,000 words.  For the Book for Children, which must be suitable for youngsters aged 7+ (includes YA), you need to submit the first two chapters (or first 20 pages, this being the maximum) plus a synopsis of up to 2 pages (and don’t use a microscopic font that’s only suitable for the small print in dodgy contracts).  If shortlisted, you may be asked to submit the rest of your story.  The Young Poets category, for budding bards aged between 16 and 22, requires poems of no more than 35 lines.
    Closing: 30.6.24.  Opens for entries 1.4.24.
    Prizes: Poetry - £1,000, £500, £250.  Short Story, Book for Children (in each category) - £750, £300, £200.  Young Poets - £200, £150, £100.  Additional prizes: Local Prize for poetry, short story - £100 in each category.  Book for Children Local Prize - £100.
    Entry Fee: Adult categories - £6.  Young Poets - £3.
    Comp Page: Wells Litfest.

Ware Poets Poetry Competition.  Ware Poets of Hertfordshire are running their annual contest again, and as before it is for poems of up to 50 lines on any subject.  There is a separate category for sonnets.  Winning poems are entered for the Forward Prize.
    Closing: 30.6.24.
    Prizes: £600, £300, £150.  Ware Sonnet Prize - £150.
    Entry Fee: £5 each, £13 for three and £4 each thereafter.
    Comp Page: Ware Poets

Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize.  ‘Wasafiri’, according to the website, ‘is a literary magazine at the forefront of mapping new landscapes in international literature.’  Try saying that in Kiswahili, the language from which the magazine’s title comes.  Now, you are probably thinking that the magazine itself must hail from Africa, but this is not so.  It was born at the University of Kent in 1984, and as far as I know it has no African connection at all.  Nor, I might add, has the contest.  This has three categories (Poetry, Fiction, Life Writing) and is open to anyone anywhere in the world who has not published a complete book in their chosen category.  The word limit for the Fiction and Life Writing is 3,000.  In the poetry category, you can submit up to three poems (total words 3,000 max) for the same entry fee (start each poem on a separate page in the same document).  You can enter more than one category, but only once each.  Incidentally, ‘wasafiri’, in case your Kiswahili is a bit rusty, means ‘cultural traveller’.
    Closing: 1.7.24 (5pm).
    Prize (in each category): £1,000 and publication in the mag.  Winners will also be offered Chapter & Verse or Free Reads mentoring in partnership with The Literary Consultancy.  Shortlisted entries will be published on the website.
    Entry Fee: £12.  If you enter two separate categories it’s £16.
    Comp Page: Wasafiri Prize.

Aesthetica Creative Writing Award.  The writing in question for this contest from Aesthetica Magazine is short fiction running to no more than 2,000 words, and poetry of up to 40 lines.  Submissions can be on any subject and may have been previously published.
    Closing: 31.8.24.
    Prize (in each category): £2,500 plus other writing related prizes.  Finalists will be published in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual.
    Entry Fee : £18 for fiction, £12 for poetry.
    Comp Page: Aesthetica Award.

Hammond House International Writing Competitions .  This annual offering from Hammond House Publishing at University Centre Grimsby is for short stories of between 1,000 and 5,000 words, poems of up to 40 lines, scripts (theatre, radio, short film or TV) of up to 10 pages (approx. 10 minutes duration), and Songwriting in the form of just lyrics or complete songs.  In all categories the theme is Time.
    Closing: 30.9.24.
    Prizes: Short Story - £1,000, £100, £50.  Poetry - £250, £50, £25.  Script - £500.  Songwriting - £100 in each sub-category, plus the song will be played at the 2025 Literary Festival and released worldwide on the Hammond House record label.  All shortlisted entries in the Story and Poetry categories will be published in the anthology, as will the scriptwriting winners.  There will be a televised awards ceremony (so get your politically correct, virtue signalling acceptance speech ready - and don't forget to thank the train/taxi driver, etc, without whom you wouldn’t be there).
    Entry Fee: £10.
    Comp Page: HH Lit Prize

Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Prize.  This regular visitor from the USA has now become two competitions in one: the Tom Howard Prize and the Margaret Reid Prize.  The former is for poems in any style, while the latter is for traditional verse as defined on the competition page.  In both cases the line limit is a very generous (some might say extravagant) 250.
    Closing: 30.9.24.  Opens for entries 15.4.24.
    Prizes: Tom Howard Prize (any style) - $3,500 + gift certificate.  Margaret Reid Prize (traditional verse) - $3,500 + gift certificate.  In addition there will be ten Honourable Mention awards of $300.  The Dishonourable Mention awards have been dropped this year following several suicides.  I wrote that last bit on April 1st.
    Entry Fee: $22 per submission (one submission can contain up to 3 poems).
    Comp Page: TH & MR Poetry.

Hi Michael
     I spent a year or so reading all those comments on your website from people who, since consulting your list, seem have won just about every competition going. I read it and thought it must be too good to be true – but worth a try. Then, on my third submission, I have actually gone and won the Yeovil Literary Prize for Poetry. I am absolutely over the moon, unable to believe it, etc.  Thank you so much.
                                                                                   -  Andy Miller

*********************************************************************************
Notes: Unless otherwise stated in the rules, poetry should be single-spaced.  It is sometimes the case that your name shouldn’t appear on the manuscript. Check the rules.  If you put your name on there after being told not to, you’re out.  Don’t use coloured paper or fancy fonts.  The colour and pizzazz to make you stand out from the crowd should be in the words.  Plain white A4 80gsm paper is the stuff to use, with plain black typing or print.  My preferred font for poetry manuscripts printed on an inkjet or laser printer is Gill Sans in 12 point (13 if I’m not pressed for space).  This gives a clear, dark print that’s easy to read.  Although publishers and agents sometimes demand the feeble Courier font, which comes out on my printers like something produced by a typewriter with an antique ribbon, I’ve never known competition organisers to express any preference.  But as always, check the rules.  Finally, write on one side of the sheet only - unless asked to put your address, etc, on the back.
 

Finally, as you sift through the remnants of your shattered dreams and wonder if it’s worth going on ... www.samaritans.co.uk/

Disclaimer

   
For other types of writing contests see the full list on my Writing Comps page.