Details

Details

UK Writing Competitions (currently 81)

Writers’ Forum Short Story Competition.  There is a new contest in each issue of this writers’ mag.  All types of stories are accepted, from horror to romance, with a length of between 1,000 and 3,000 words.
    Closing: Monthly.  Entries arriving too late for one comp go into the next.
    Prizes: £300, £150, £100 in each issue.
    Entry Fee: £10, or £7 for subscribers to the magazine.  Includes a free tick-box critique if you enclose sae.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Writers’ Forum Poetry Competition.  This monthly contest from the glossy magazine Writers’ Forum is for poems of up to 40 lines.
    Closing: Monthly.  Entries arriving too late for one month go forward to the next.
    Prizes: 1st - £100.  Runners-up - A Chambers Dictionary.
    Entry Fee: £5 each for the first three, £3 each thereafter.  Enclose sae for free critique.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Forward Press Animal Antics Competition.  This is for poems of up to 30 lines about your pet.  In addition to the poem, you are expected to send a photo (of the animal, not you, you vain fool).
    Closing: Anually.
    Prize: £1,000.
    Entry Fee: None.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Whidbey Writing Competition.  This contest from Whidbey Writers Workshop in the USA is open worldwide and is for fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and writing for children or young adults.  Up to 1,000 words.  I should point out that they have a rather strange - and if I may say so lazy - way of selecting a winner for this one.  The judge reads submissions until he or she finds one that ‘knocks his/her socks off’.  Never mind that the next one might have divested the judge of his/her pants and woolly vest, the remaining entries are tossed aside without so much as a glance.  However, you can submit you entry again if it isn’t selected (try to get it in early, as entries are read in order of submission).
    Closing: Monthly.
    Prize: $50.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Global Short Story Competition.  This contest, which is supported by the Darlington Arts Centre in County Durham and renowned author Bill Bryson, is for stories of up to 2,000 words on any theme.
    Closing: End of each month.
    Prize: 1st - £100.  Runner-up £25.  After a year the monthly winners will be considered for an annual cash prize.
    Entry Fee: £5.
    Website: Click Here.

Books to Improve Your Writing Skills  

Cazart Short Story & Flash Fiction Competition.  Well I’ll be ******.  They allow swearing in this one.  However, I don’t suppose expletives alone will be enough to win.  For the short story category, entries should be between 400 and 3,000 words.  Flash fiction can be up to 400 words.
    Closing: 26th of each month.
    Prize (in each category): A cash amount based on the number of entries received.  The winning stories will be published on the Cazart homepage for two months.
    Entry Fee: £3.
    Comp Page: Click Here .

Cinnamon Press Poetry Collection Award.  Entries for ths one should comprise 10 poems of up to 40 lines.
    Closing: 30.6.10, 30.11.10.
    Prize: £100 and your collection published.
    Entry Fee: £16 per batch of ten (includes a free copy of the winners’ anthology).
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Cinnamon Press Short Story Award.  This is for stories of between 2,000 and 4,000 words.
    Closing: 30.6.10, 30.11.10.
    Prize: £100 and publication.
    Entry Fee: £16 (includes a free copy of the winners’ anthology).
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Cinnamon Press Novel/Novella Award.  To enter this you submit the first 10,000 words of your novel or novella.
    Closing: 30.6.10, 30.11.10.
    Prize: £400 and your novella published.
    Entry Fee: £16.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Words Magazine Short Story Competitions.  Words Magazine seems to have been around for a long time and for most of that time it’s been running competitions. They close quarterly and have different themes.  This year’s are Kids (stories for children), No theme, No theme.
    Closing: 30.4.10, 30.6.10, 31.12.10.
    Prizes: £100.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Website: Click Here.

WriteOnSite Writing Competition.  This, they say, could be described as literary open mic.  The competition opens at 5.30pm GMT every Saturday, at which point three themes are given.  You choose your theme, pay your entry fee and then write.  You have just 20 minutes to complete your story.  Three entries are then chosen to be read and judged by all the other entrants during the following week.  Only for the brave.
    Closing: Every Saturday.
    Prize: £40.
    Entry Fee: £3.
    Comp Page: Click Here .

                                       A Reader Writes ...
Dear Michael Shenton,
     I would just like to say ‘thanks’.  I entered a writing competition that I saw on your website. I didn’t win but still thought the story was OK. I re-wrote it and submitted it to The Lady. It was published! This was the first story that I have had published and I was very happy. Also ecstatic, giggly, smug, cheerful, optimistic and generally jolly pleased with myself. I would not have written that particular story if it had not been for your entertaining, helpful and inspirational website.  -  Patsy Collins.

Dark Tales Short Story Competition.  Yarns of up to 5,000 words are required here, and it should be obvious from the name of the contest that the yarns we are talking about are not fluffy romances ... unless something nasty happens on the honeymoon.  Winners will be published in the magazine (Dark Tales).
    Closing : Quarterly (this year’s dates: 30.9.10, 31.12.10).
    Prize: £500, £250, £100.
    Entry Fee: £3, or £6 with tick-sheet critique.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Story Feedback Competition.  Although this one is being run by the editor and publisher of the magazine Dark Tales it is for stories in any genre.  You are allowed up to 3,000 words.  The contest is open worldwide.
    Closing: End of every other month (31.8.10, 31.10.10, 31.12.10).
    Prizes: £100, £50, £25.  The best three stories will be published on the website and in an anthology.
    Entry Fee: £3.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Complaint Letter Competition.  All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning this one is write a complaint about something - bad service, shoddy goods, people who sneeze their flu bugs all over you in supermarkets, etc - and post it on the website.  Your entry must have at least 250 words.  A winner will be chosen each month based on the quality of the writing and the letter’s popularity with other visitors to the site.
    Closing: Monthly.
    Prize: £30.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Telegraph ‘Just Back’ Travel writing Competition.  If you are just back from somewhere a little more interesting than the local park, the Telegraph Online would like the gripping details in up to 500 words.  You can read previous winners on the website.  A ‘voyage’ across the Mersey is one of them - proving that you don’t have to write about anywhere exotic to scoop the prize.
    Closing: Monthly.
    Prize: £200 in the currency of your choice.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

     Thank you, Michael, for bothering to put your website together. Encouraged by your words I sent off a piece to the Daily Telegraph Travel Writing Competition but didn't win. Third time lucky, and after considerable honing and editing, I have just been informed by the deputy editor that my piece will be published this Saturday (17th July) and I have won £200.
     I am now inspired to go on to bigger things.
     Thanks again.
                                                                                 -  Liz Cleere

Writing Spirit Award 2010.  This international contest from the Irish writers’ website Writing4all is for short fiction of up to 4,000 words, and poetry collections of between 4 and 10 poems, each poem running to no more than 20 lines.
    Closing: 30.6.10, 30.9.10, 30.11.10.
    Prizes: In each category - 1000 euros, 200 euros, 100 euros.  Winners and 17 others will be published in an anthology.
    Entry Fee: 7 euros.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Hi Michael
     Well, you told me to let you know if I won anything, and who'd imagine I'd be writing so soon? I started sending to writing contests last month, fully expecting everything to fail dismally (bit of a pessimist that way). And this week I found out I have won the Biscuit Flash Fiction comp for 2009 ! To be honest, I had never even heard of flash fiction till I looked at your site. I sent a weird little thing I wrote in 1995 and it came first! That means publication and a 1000 prize! So a big lovely thankyou to you and your site for pointing me in the right direction.
                                                                             -  Cheryl Latter

Bloomsbury 247 Competition.  Here is a contest from the publishers of Harry Potter for tales of up to 247 words written by children between the ages of 8 and 16.
    Closing: Monthly (next is 28.7.10).
    Prize: £75 worth of Bloomsbury children’s books, publication on the website and a framed copy of your story.
    Entry Fee : None - free to enter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Dear Michael,
     I just wanted to tell you that I won first prize in the Charnwood Arts' miniWords Poetry Competition (£250), so thank you very much for that!
                                                                               -  Mary Whitsell 

The Priory Ryan McKay Prize.  Are you between 13 and 18?  If so you are eligible to enter this annual contest for essays related to mental and physical health among young people, who are most at risk of eating disorders.  This year’s theme is ‘Eat to Live, Live to Eat’.  Limit your entry to 1.200 words.
    Closing : 30.7.10.
    Prize: £1,000.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.  Only one entry per person.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Automotive Blog Competition.  For this one you write a feature article of up to 500 words on some subject connected with the automotive industry.  This could be a car review, an automotive experience (the day your grandmother ran you down in her vintage Bentley, for instance), or general news on a new model or manufacturer.
    Closing: 30.7.10.
    Prize: A Ferrari Thrill voucher, enabling you to drive a Ferrari 360 Modena round the Silverstone racing circuit (voucher to be used within six months).
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

The John Betjeman Young People’s Poetry Competition.  This contest in honour of one of Britain’s best-loved poets is open only to youngsters aged between 11 and 14.  Poems should be about the entrant’s local surroundings or any aspect of them (such as your house, street, local park, town/city, etc).  The idea behind this theme is to encourage ‘an understanding and appreciation of the importance of place’.
    Closing: 31.7.10.
    Prize: £1,000, of which half goes to the English department of your school (assuming it has one, innit?).  The winner and two runners-up will receive £50 in book tokens.  Commended entrants will be awarded books.  The prize-giving is to take place on St. Pancras International station, hopefully before the rush hour.
    Entry Fee : None - free to enter.  Only one entry per person.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Essex Poetry Festival Open Poetry Competition.  This is the tenth of these annual contests from Chelmsford in Essex, and as usual the line limit is 40.  The judge has changed, however.  This year it’s Kathryn Simmonds.  Winners will be invited to read their poems at the Festival in October.
    Closing: 30.7.10.
    Prizes: £1,000, £500, £250.  Runners-up (3) - £50.
    Entry Fee: £6 each, £20 for five.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2010.  This is said to be Britain’s most prestigious poetry prize for writers between the ages of 11 and 17.  Are there any others?  Can’t say I’ve come across any.  But hey, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.  Let’s assume there are hundreds and this is the Big One.  There are two age categories: 11 to 14, and 15 to 17.  Poems can be any length and on any subject, and you can enter as many times as you like.
    Closing: 31.7.10.
    Prizes: 11 to 14 category (x 5) - A short residency at your school by some obscure, sorry leading poet.  15 to 17 (x 15) - A week long residential course at one of the prestigious Arvon writing Centres (more studying - just what any school kid dreams of).  Fifteen of the prizewinners will have their entries published in the winners’ anthology.  There are also prizes of books for schools which inspire the most entries (look out, kids: enter or die).
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Dreamquest One Poetry and Writing Contest.  The requirement for this US contest is for poems of up to 30 lines and short stories of up to five pages, any style or theme.
    Closing: 31.7.10.
    Prizes: Stories - $500, $250, $100.   Poetry - $250, $125, $50.  Winners will be published on the website.
    Entry Fee: Stories - $10.  Poetry - $5.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Norman MacCaig Centenary Poetry Competition .  This contest celebrates the centenary of the birth of Scottish poet Norman MacCraig whose work will no doubt be as familiar to you as it is to me.  Your poem should run to no more than 50 lines.  Alan Riach, professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow, will be one of the judges, as will Sandy Moffat, one-time head of the Glasgow Arts School.
    Closing : 31.7.10.
    Prizes: 1st - A week-long creative retreat at Glencanisp Lodge in Assynt, a sprawling metropolis/town/village/hamlet/couple of cottages (delete as appropriate) in the north-west Highlands of Scotland.  2nd - £200.  3rd - £100.  Runners-up (10) - £10 in book tokens.
    Entry Fee: £5 each, £12 for three.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Catherine Howard Short Story Competition.  This one from writer Linda Lewis (aka Catherine Howard) is for stories of between 500 and 5,000 words with a twist.  Any theme, but stories must be aimed at adults ... so go easy on the sex, drugs and swearing.
    Closing: 31.7.10.
    Prizes: 1st - £100 plus £50 to your chosen charity.  2nd - £50.  3rd - £20.  These prizes may increase depending on the number of entries.
    Entry Fee : £5.   Optional critique: £5.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Guildford Festival Short Story Competition.  This is for stories that can be read in their entirety during a return train commute from Guildford to London.  Bet you can’t work that one out.  Fear not, for they have worked it out for you.  The journey takes 90 minutes with a bit of luck, and this equates to approximately 7,000 words, which is the maximum length for entries.
    Closing: 31.7.10.
    Prize: Your story will be converted into an ‘App’ so it can be downloaded from the Apple iTunes store for use on various electronic gadgets such as iPhone, iPod, iPad, iPud, iPass, etc.  You get an e-publishing contract and royalties from sales.
    Entry Fee: £5.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

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

Cooldog Publications Poetry & Short Story Competition.  They’ve been hounding me to list this one, so here goes.  It’s for stories of up to 3,000 words and poems of up to 40 lines.  The theme is open for both categories.
    Closing: 31.7.10.
    Prizes (in each category): £100, £50, £25.
    Entry Fee: £3.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Sussex Playwrights’ Club One-Act Play Competition .  The theme for this stage play contest is Anniversaries.  Plays should have a performance time of between thirty and fifty minutes.
    Closing: 31.7.10.
    Prizes: £150, £100, £75.  There will be a reading of the winners at a club meeting.
    Entry Fee: £5.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Slingink Prize 2010.  Here’s another contest from Slingink, this time with six categories.  The adult categories require stories of up to 3,000 words and poems of up to 40 lines.  Juniors, possibly because they are reckoned to have a shorter attention span, are limited to 1,500 words for stories and 20 lines for poems.
    Closing: 31.7.10.
    Prizes: Adults (in each category) - £80, £40, £20.  Juniors (in each category) - Amazon vouchers to the value of £20, £15, £10.  There will be a competition anthology.
    Entry Fee: Adults - £5.  Juniors - Free.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Unbound Press Creative Non-Fiction Competition.  This latest contest from Unbound Press of Glasgow (‘Intelligent books for intelligent people’) is for essays and first chapters of up to 3,000 words.  If you are wondering about the precise nature of creative non-fiction there is a definition on the website.  This features the words, ‘... shaped in a way that reads like fiction.’.  Subjects that work well in this genre, they say, include personal essay, memoir, cultural criticism, nature writing, literary journalism and history.
    Closing: 31.7.10.
    Prizes: Essay - £100, £50.   First Chapter - £75, £25.  Winners will be published in the Unbound Press Journal.
    Entry Fee: £5.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

TXTLit Micro Story Competition.  For this contest you need a mobile phone.  Well, everyone’s got one, haven’t they?  No.  There’s still one person in the UK who hasn’t.  Me.  I don’t like phones of any sort.  I have one that plugs into the wall but I never answer it when it rings.  I think: ‘They’ll ring again if it’s important.’  They seldom do, and if they do I never answer it and they never ring again - which proves they were just time-wasters.  Now, I may seem to be rambling a bit here, but hey, what do you know, this turns out to be relevant because you mustn’t ramble in this competition.  Limit your stories to 154 characters (letters and spaces, not people), and while you’re about it, refrain from using abbreviated TXT gibberish, as this is not welcome.  At last - someone is fighting back on behalf of the English language!  There is a different theme each month.
    Closing: 31.7.10.
    Prize: £50.
    Entry Fee: £1 plus the normal cost of sending a text message (no use asking me what that is).
    Website: Click Here.

Just thought I would share my good news with you.  I recently entered the U-Star Novels* Competition I found on your web site, and won first prize! Not only did I win £100, but I was also commissioned to write a 40,000 word romantic novel, which I managed to do in just over 3 weeks. It is now with the publisher, and will be available online by the end of January 2010.
     Many thanks Michael for providing such an excellent web site.  It is one that I am constantly recommending to members of my local writers circle here in sunny Eastbourne. Well done, and long may you be sufficiently enthusiastic to continue. Best of luck with your own writing career, and I really hope you have the success you undoubtedly deserve.    -  Harry Pope

* U-Star novels have the purchaser’s details, or those of anyone nominated, inserted into the story so that they become the main character(s).   -  MWS

Malahat Review Creative Non-Fiction Prize.  This international contest from Canada’s premier literary magazine is for non-fiction (essay, memoir, cultural criticism, nature writing, etc) of between 2,000 and 3,000 words.
    Closing: 1.8.10.
    Prizes: $1,000 plus publication in the mag.
    Entry Fee: $45.  All entrants receive a one-year subscription to The Malahat Review.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Tony Lothian Biographers’ Club Prize 2010.  Here’s one for uncommissioned first-time writers working on biographies.  To enter you submit a proposal of up to 20 pages, these to include a synopsis, 10-page sample chapter, CV and a note on the market for the book.
    Closing: 1.8.10.
    Prize: £2,000.
    Entry Fee: £10.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Over The Edge New Writer of the Year Competition .  Cheerful Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop in Galway, Ireland is again sponsoring this contest from Irish literary organisation Over the Edge.  As in previous years the requirement is for stories of up to 3,000 words and 3 poems of up to 40 lines each (or one poem of up to 100 lines).
    Closing: 3.8.10.
    Prize: Fiction - 300 euros.   Poetry - 300 euros.  One of the category winners will be chosen as the overall winner and will receive a further 400 euros.
    Entry Fee: 10 euros.  Multiple entries will be charged at 7.50 euros each.
    Comp Page: Click Here .

Manchester Poetry Prize.  This international contest from Manchester Writing School at the Manchester Metropolitan University celebrates ‘the substantial cultural and literary achievements of Manchester’ of which I am unable to give an example at this time.  My childhood memories of Manchester are centred around Moss Side where my father ran a fast-food business (chip shop, as we called it back then).  I was kept locked in the celler peeling spuds, with a 15-watt light bulb for company.  It was there in that creepy dungeon, while peering into the dark corners, that I developed my vivid imagination - not to mention my nervous twitches.  Culture?  Literature?  Be serious.  But times, I suppose, have changed.  So let us return to the competition. To enter you submit a portfolio of three to five poems running to no more than 120 lines in total.
    Closing: 6.8.10.
    Prize: £10,000.
    Entry Fee: £15.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

The Very Short Story Competition.  This is for one-page stories (400 words max) set in, or about, Chelmsford.  Anyone can enter, but unfortunately you have to go to Chelmsford to receive your prize.  I’m not suggesting that going to Chelmsford is a bad thing in general.  It’s just that the travel costs for most entrants are likely to make it a loss-making enterprise.
    Closing: 16.8.10.
    Prizes: Adult - £100.  Under 18s - £100, £50, £40, £20.
    Entry Fee: Adults - £5.  Under 18s - £2.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Arvon International Poetry Competition.  This contest, founded by acclaimed poet Ted Hughes, is celebrating its 30th year by offering its biggest prize ever.  There is no theme - unless you want to try for the special prize detailed below.  Poems should be no longer than 42 lines.
    Closing: 16.8.10 (5pm GMT).
    Prizes: 1st - £7,500.  2nd - £2,500.  3rd - £1,000.  Commendations (3) - £500.  There is in addition a special prize donated by the Wenlock Poetry Festival for the best poem with the theme: The Pity of War.  If you win this you will be invited to read your entry at the Festival in 2011, so you might like to know that Much Wenlock is a medieval town in Shropshire, described on the tourst site as off the beaten track (therefore expect to have to complete your journey on the back of a mule or similar ... assuming there is any transport at all).
    Entry Fee: £7.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Sentinal Literature Festival Poetry Competition.  This is for poems of up to 40 lines on any subject.  The judge will be Roger Elkin, former editor of Envoi magazine, who is described on the website as legendary.  I’ve never heard of him myself, but I’m sure that in the right circles he needs no introduction.
    Closing: 20.8.10.
    Prizes: £250, £130, £70.  The three winners and seven highly commended poems will be published in the Festival Anthology.
    Entry Fee: £5 each, £13 for three, £20 for five.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Malton Literature Festival Open Creative Writing Competition.  I must confess I’ve never heard of Malton, and when I saw the three leeks on the homepage of the website, I assumed it to be in Wales.  But on further investigation I discovered that it’s in Yorkshire.  Fast becoming a gourmet’s paradise, apparently -  hence the leeks.  Now, you will perhaps be thinking that the theme of the contest is leeks, or at least food of some kind, but in fact there is no theme.  Just write a poem of up to 40 lines on any subject, or a short story running to no more than 2,000 words.  There are categories for young writers, and here the line limit for poems is 30, while stories should be curtailed at 1,000 words.  Award-winning writer Andy Humphrey, who knows his onions if not his leeks, will be the judge.
    Closing: 22.8.10.
    Prizes: In each adult category - £100, £150, £25.  The precise nature and value of the young writers’ prizes are not stated, so brace yourself for a colouring book and some crayons (plus of course the prestige of being a winner at the first ever Malton Literature Festival).
    Entry Fee: Adults - £4.  Young Writers - Free.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

New Eastbourne Writers Short Story Competition.  This one from New Eastbourne Writers, ‘a friendly, informal group’ who hold their meetings in a wine bar opposite the Town Hall, is for stories of up to 1,500 words on the theme of The Journey.  The judges are two well-known authors: Joan Moules and Peter Lovesey , so there’s a worthwhile feather for your cap to be won here.
    Closing: 27.8.10.
    Prizes: £50, £20, £10.  Winners will be published on the website.
    Entry Fee: £5 each, £7 for two.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Grand Words One-Act Play Competition.  This one from the entertainment capital of the north-west, Blackpool, where I lived for a time as a child perfecting a magic act that never reached the stage due to the mysterious disappearance of my props (my sisters were jealous of my impending stardom - draw your own conclusions), is for unpublished and unperformed plays with a running time of up to 30 minutes.  Scripts should involve no more than four actors and one donkey.  Hang on, that was the Animal Rights people on the phone.  Forget the donkey.
    Closing: 27.8.10.
    Prizes: 1st - £100 and production of your play at the studio theatre in Blackpool’s Grand Theatre. There are in addition two discretionary awards of £50 each.
    Entry Fee: £5.
    Details (send email request for entry) - Click Here.

Planet of Death Travel Writing Competition.  This one from the website that thinks the world has become far too safe to be worth living in is for a piece of travel writing running to approximately 500 words.  This should be about one of your dangerous, exotic or extreme travel experiences.  Yeah, spoilt for choice, I know.  I once spent a week sailing from Australia to New Zealand on a decrepit tramp steamer called the Oriental Queen.  During rough seas we could hear rivets popping out of the hull, and when it rained, water poured through the bottom of the lifeboats.  We slept in lifejackets and, following rumours about the chef and several unexplained deaths on previous voyages, we drew straws at mealtimes to decide who would be first to taste the food.  I still have nightmares, but hell, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.  Who needs Disneyland?  This round of the contest is for travel experiences in East and South East Asia, but future rounds will cover the entrire globe.
    Closing: 30.8.10.
    Prizes: Well, the fiirst prize was going to be a chance to tightrope-walk across Niagara Falls in a hurricane, but Health & Safety considerations have resulted in this being substituted for cash ($1,500).  There are other cash amounts: $1,000, $700, $600, $300 and 5 x $150.  There is also kudos and sex for the winners, they say.  Details of the latter, and the manner in which it will be presented, are somewhat sketchy.  Winning entries are to be published in a book and online ... assuming the promoters survive that long and manage to escape from their padded cells.
    Entry Fee: $5 each, $10 for three.  The first 100 entries are free.  Despite the dollars, the website is British, although it’s based in Beijing.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Baskalier Publishing Poetry Anthology Competition.  This is for poems of up to 40 lines on the theme of Extinction.  Note that for this contest spaces between stanzas count as lines.  There are two age categories: Schools (11 to 16), and Open (16+).  Traditional styles of poetry are welcome as well as contemporary.
    Closing: 31.8.10.
    Prizes: Open Category - £70, £30, £20.  Schools - £50, £25, £10, in book tokens.  Winners will be published in an anthology and will receive free copies as specified.  Other entries may be published, with the payment being a free copy.
    Entry Fee: £2.
    Comp Page: Click Here

Hi Michael
     I discovered your website last year and entered lots of comps - no prizes in 2008. This year I decided just to enter The Trowell and District Writers Trust competitions - again directed from your site and also in the hope of bettering my marks compared to my entries last year.
     I am delighted to say I went along to the Presentation yesterday and received 1st prize in the Open Poetry competition - a lovely certificate, a shield and some prize money.
     I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon which had a "Stand and Deliver" poetry competition as well as a raffle, refreshments, sales of Members poetry, and time to chat and get to know people.
     The comps are great - all entries receive a mark and a short critique - I found all these helpful and encouraging. I feel I have new friends and a lovely day to look back on.
                                                                                -  Kate Brumby

Town and Village Short Story Competition.  This one from Town and Village, a Dorset community magazine, is for stories of up to 1,200 words on the theme of Misunderstanding.  I hope I’ve got that right.
    Closing: 31.8.10.
    Prizes: £100, £30, £10.
    Entry Fee: £4.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Legend Writing Awards.  This annual contest from Hastings Writers’ Group is for short stories of up to 2,000 words and flash fiction of exactly 100 words.
    Closing: 31.8.10.
    Prizes: Stories - £500, £250, £100.  Runners-up (3) - £50.   Flash Fiction - £50, £30, £20, plus three runners-up prizes of £10.
    Entry Fee: Short Stories - £7 for the first, £5 thereafter.  Flash Fiction - £3.  Twenty per cent of profits will be donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Tenby Arts Festival Writing Competition.  This one from Tenby (boldly billed on the tourist info site as ‘probably the prettiest town in Wales’), is for stories of up to 1,500 words and poems of up to 40 lines.  As you will note when reading the rules (you do always read the rules, right?) you are required to submit two copies of each entry.  Failure to do this will result in rejection.
    Closing: 31.8.10.
    Prizes (in each category): £150, £70, £30.
    Entry Fee: £4 each, £6 for two, £8 for three.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Words with JAM Short Story Competition.  This one from the free writers’ e-mag Words with JAM is for stories of up to 2,500 words.
    Closing: 31.8.10 (noon).
    Prizes: £300, £100, £50.  Winners will be published in the December issue of the mag,
    Entry Fee: £6 each, £10 for two.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Aesthetica Creative Works Competition.  This one from Aesthetica magazine is, they say, an opportunity for new and established artists and writers to ‘nurture their reputations on an international scale’.  Get known, in other words.  The contest has three categories of which only the first two, Fiction and Poetry, need concern us here (the third is Artwork & Photography, in case you are wondering).  Stories should be no more than 2,000 words, while poems are limited to 40 lines.
    Closing: 31.8.10.
    Prizes: £500 in each category.  Winners will be published in the Aesthetica Creative Works Annual.
    Entry Fee: £10.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Nottingham Open Poetry Competition.  This hardy annual from the Nottingham Poetry Society is for poems of up to 40 lines.  You can read last year’s winners on the comp page.
    Closing: 31.8.10.
    Prizes: £300, £150, £75.  Merit Prizes: A year’s subscription to Assent.  Prizewinning poems will be published in the mag.
    Entry Fee: £3 each, £10 for four.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Salopean Annual Poetry Contest.  This one comes courtesy of the Salopian Poetry Society and is for poems of up to 40 lines.
    Closing: 31.8.10.
    Prize: £200, £100, £50.
    Entry Fee: £3 each, £10 for four.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Leaf Books Postcard & Short Travel Writing Competition.  For this you submit a piece of travel writing which reaches its destination in no more than 300 words.  Alternatively you can submit a postcard from an interesting location.  The writing can be micro-fiction, a journalistic piece or a diary entry.
    Closing: 31.8.10.
    Prize: £150 and a free copy of Leaf Writers’ Magazine.
    Entry Fee: £3 each, £10 for four.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Countryside Tales Autumn Poetry Competition.  Poems of up to 40 lines about the countryside in autumn are required for this one.
    Closing: 31.8.10.
    Prizes: £50, £25, £15.  The winning entries will be published in Countryside Tales.  Shortlisted entries may also be considered.
    Entry Fee: £3.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Earlyworks Press Open Short Story Competition.  Here’s something you don’t see every day: a competition that penalises the more wordy writer by charging double the entry fee.  4,000 words will cost you a fiver, while 4001 will set you back ten.  The absolute word limit is 8,000.
    Closing: 31.8.10.
    Prize: £100 and first place in the anthology.
    Entry Fee: £5 for up to 4,000 words.  £10 for between 4,000 and 8,000.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

The High Sheriff’s Cheshire Prize for Literature.  This contest, which is open only to writers with some connection to Cheshire, is for poems or collections of poems not exceeding 100 lines.  It is administered by the University of Chester and funded by Bank of America.  To be eligible you must have been born, work or have worked, live or have lived, study or have studied, in Cheshire.  If you lived there for just a fortnight while on holiday in Stockport, I’m afraid this doesn’t count, although you might be in line for a medal of some sort.
    Closing: 1.9.10.
    Prizes: 1st - £2,000.  Addtional prize money of £750 will be awarded to other entrants, and the best entries will be published.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Arvon Foundation Six-Word Story Competition .  This is for stories inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s famous micro story: ‘For sale: baby shoes.  Never worn.’  You can see some of the entries on the website.
    Closing: 1.9.10.
    Prizes: An Arvon Foundation week-long course.  At last, your chance to learn how to arvon.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Hi Michael,
     Just wanted to say thanks for working so hard on your fantastic site. It must take up loads of your time and energy to keep updating it with such enthusiasm and humour! I found it last year, and entered the Global Short Story competition. Although I didn't win, I was shortlisted for the August comp.  I then submitted a short story to the Bridge House Anthology which aimed to raise money for the Born Free Foundation. I remember you saying something like there is no prize money, but it will help your CV if you can say you are published in a book with Richard Adams, author of Watership Down, and a foreword by Virginia McKenna.
     Well guess what - I am! Well, in June anyway. The anthology is a collection of animal stories and is called Gentle Footprints.
     So thanks again, and a plug for charity - all readers of your site are kindly invited to buy a copy!
                                                                                -  Mandy James

Poole Literary Festival New Media Writing Prize.  This one, run in conjunction with Bournemouth University Media School, is for new ways of sharing writing with an audience.  None of that old-fashioned ‘you write, they read’ hardcopy stuff.  Your work has to be delivered by computer, mobile phone, Internet, etc, and should have an element of interactivity.  I used to think hardcopy was interactive.  You had to open a letter or go out and buy a newspaper or magazine to read what the writer had written, and you could drop it on the floor and stamp on it if you didn’t like it.  But interactive, it seems, is when you prod a button on a mobile phone or click a mouse to select some gimmicky option designed to liven things up.  No substitute for lively writing in my view, but I’m hopelessly old-fashioned.  Entries should be complete stories, poems or collections of poems.
    Closing: 15.9.10 (noon).
    Prizes: 1st - £250 and an Apple iPad.  Best Student New Media Writing - £250 plus Apple iPad.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Leaf Books  Micro Fiction Competition.  This is for micro-fiction of up to 300 words ‘on any subject imaginable’.  The unimaginable is not eligible for obvious reasons.
    Closing: 30.9.10.
    Prizes: 1st - £150 and a free copy of the Leaf Writers’ Magazine and the competition anthology.  Runner-up - A free copy of the magazine and anthology.
    Entry Fee: £3 each, £10 for four.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Meridian Writing - Autumn Short Story Competition.  This is for stories on any theme, running to no more than 3,000 words.
    Closing: 30.9.10.
    Prizes: £100, £50, £25.  In addition all winners receive a £10 Firstwriter.com voucher.
    Entry Fee: £5.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Twisted Tails Short Story Competition.  This new contest from Ireland is for stories that surprise the reader.  You could surprise the reader by changing all the characters and the plot in the middle of the story, but the surprise will be mixed with a certain amount of annoyance and is not therefore recommended.  A twist ending is more likely to find favour with the judge, who incidentally is fiction writer and poet Nuala Ni Chonchuir (who was recently on a virtual tour promoting her poetry pamphlet Red Car, according to her website).  Nuala’s latest short story collection goes under the intriguing title of Nude.  However, it’s the thought of that virtual tour that really intrigues me.  I must conduct a virtual investigation.  Entries for the contest should not exceed 3,000 words.
    Closing: 30.9.10.
    Prizes: 100, 75, 50, 25 euros.
    Entry Fee: 6 euros each, 12 euors for three.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

The Write Place Novel Competition.  This contest has now been cancelled by the promoters (The Write Place Creative Writing School) following my comments about the alleged value of the prize (publication) and the nature of the publishing firm (Pneuma Springs Publishing) supplying it.  Although the promoters are blaming me for ruining a worthwhile competition, I consider the cancellation to be their acceptance that my comments were spot on.
     Pneuma Springs Publishing offers services which are deemed by the book trade to be vanity publishing.  If anyone is unclear about the meaning and implications of this term, they should read the free Occasional Paper on Vanity Publishing by the Society of Authors: Click Here.

The Watty Awards.  The U.S. Website Wattpad, ‘the world’s most popular e-book community’, is running its annual awards contest again.  To enter you write a story and upload it to the website, then cast it with movie stars as if making a film.  As in the movies, there are awards for Best Mystery, Best Science Fiction, etc, and other aspects such as Most Imaginative Setting and Best Hero.  Stories, novels and scripts are all acceptable, and they can be any length and any of the specified genres.  Strange, but I like it.
    Closing: 30.9.10.
    Prizes: Individual prizes are not specified but are stated to be worth thousands of dollars.  You also get to be read by a lot of people.  Last year’s winning story, they say, had over five million readers.  Impressive.  That’s almost as many as I get for one of my poems.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Comp Page: Click Here .

Earlyworks Press Fiction for Children or Teens Competition.  For this you submit up to 5,000 words of your novel plus a synopsis.
    Closing: 30.9.10.
    Prize: 1st - A £100 Advance and a Royalty Contract.  Alternatively, if no entries are deemed to be up to publication standard, £350 cash will be shared between the top ten authors.
    Entry Fee: £14.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Scottish and Northern Equestrian Magazine Writing Competition.  This one from ‘the No. 1 magazine for Scotland and the North of England’ is for fictional tales with an equestrian flavour.  Once you’ve got the bit between your teeth, you can write a story or novella running to at least 5,000 words or, if you bridle at that, trot over to the coffee break category for stories of 1,000 words.  I have many more equestrian puns but I think it’s time to rein them in.
    Closing: 30.9.10.
    Prizes: Long story/novella - £150.  Coffee break - £75.
    Entry Fee: £5.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Tom Howard/John H Reid Poetry Contest .  This annual contest from American website Winning Writers is for poems of any length.
    Closing: 30.9.10.
    Prizes: $3,000, $1,000, $400, $250.  In addition there will be six ‘Most Highly Commended’ awards of $100 each.  The ten winning entries will be published on the website.
    Entry Fee : $7 for every 25 lines submitted.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

H. E. Bates Writing Competition.  This one from Northampton Writers Group is in honour of well-known Northamptonshire short story writer and novelist H. E. Bates who wrote, amongst other things, The Darling Buds of May.  Actually, Shakespeare wrote ‘the darling buds of may’ in a sonnet and H E Bates nicked the phrase (or perhaps I should say ‘paid tribute to it’).  A great writer nonetheless.  The contest, which is open worldwide, is for stories of up to 2,000 words on any subject.
    Closing: 4.10.10.
    Prizes: £150, £100, £50.  Under 18 Prize - £50.
    Entry Fee: Adults - £4.  Under 18s - £1.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Pennine Ink Poetry Competition.  This freebie from Burnley is for UK poets only.  Entries should be limited to 30 lines, any style or subject.
    Closing: 7.10.10.
    Prize: £50.  The top three entries will be published in an anthology.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Details: Email the co-ordinator, Laura Sheridan, at: sheridansdandl@yahoo.co.uk

The Earth Vision Nature Writing Contest 2010.  This US competition is held ‘to support the cause of writing on the subject of nature and deep ecology’.  It is for fiction, creative non-fiction, poetic prose or poetry with some element of nature woven into it.
    Closing: 15.10.10.
    Prizes: 1st - $500.  2nd - $10.  3rd - $100.  Honourable Mentions (2) - An honourable mention.
    Entry Fee: $12.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Poetry Society National Poetry Competition.  In 1983 Carol Ann Duffy won this contest, and 26 years later she became the Poet Lauriate.  So if you’re hoping to become an overnight sensation, this is probably not the ideal contest.  But there are compensations.  The top cash award is one of the best in the business, and the second prize isn’t bad either.  In addition, Carol Ann Duffy is not one of the judges.  The thing that makes me uneasy about this one is that the hardcopy entry form asks for your age and ethnic background.  They say this is for statistical purposes only, but I still don’t think it belongs on a competition entry form.  However, I have no complaints about the line limit which is 40.
    Closing: 31.10.10.
    Prizes: £5,000, £2,000, £1,000.  Runners-up (7) - £100.  Winners will be published on the website and in Poetry Review.
    Entry Fee: £6 for the first, £3 thereafter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

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

Leaf Books Tiny Weeny Writing & Drawing Competition.  The writing can be in any form - poem, story, playlet, tweet - but must not run to more than 140 characters including spaces and punctuation.  Now, wouldn’t it be clever if I’d used exactly 140 characters here?  Ah well, you can’t have everything.
    Closing : 31.10.10.
    Prize: £75 and a year’s subscription to the Leaf Writing Magazine.  Selected entries will be published in the mag.
    Entry Fee: £2 each, £10 for six.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Ragged Raven Poetry Competition.  This is the 13th of these annual contests from Ragged Raven Press of Stratford-upon-Avon.  As usual there is no line limit.  You can ramble on to your heart’s content, confident in the knowledge that a warm welcome awaits you from judges with nothing better to do than spend signifcant portions of their lives battling their way through the obscurities of your endlessly convoluted thought processes.  So you toil mightily, send in your entry and wait, tingling with anticipation.  Then a bell rings.  There’s someone at the door.  It’s a Ragged Raven judge with a shotgun.  Have you perhaps overdone it?
    Closing: 31.10.10.
    Prizes: 1st - £300.  Runners-up (4) - £50.  Winners will be published in an anthology.
    Entry Fee: £3 each, £10 for four.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Segora Poetry Competition.  Poems of up to 40 lines (in English) are required for this one from The International Writers Block based in France.  Roger Elkin, published poet, will be judging.
    Closing: 14.11.10.
    Prizes: £100, £30, £15.
    Entry Fee: £3.50 each, £6 for two, £8 for three, etc.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Bridge House Short Story Competition.  This is for stories of up to 5,000 words about something that might have happened to someone else at the time of some world-stopping event, such as the assassination of JFK, the attack on the Twin Towers or the day some jealous toerag set fire to the first car I ever won in a competition.  All right, this last wasn’t really a world-shattering event, but it certainly shattered me.
    Closing: 30.11.10.
    Prizes: 1st - Six months of one-to-one mentoring by a published writer, editor and creative writing lecturer.  2nd - Written critiques of ten of your short stories or a novel.
    Entry Fee: £5 (one pound of which will be donated the the Born Free Foundation).
    Comp Page: Click Here.

International Student Playscript Competition.  Sir Alan Ayckbourn is the patron of this contest from the World Student Drama Trust, which is aimed at student playwrights of all ages and nationalities.  Unusually, there are no restrictions on form, content, length, number of characters or location.  Perfect for that much-rejected 16-hour play of yours with a cast of thousands and 46 scene changes.  Yes, you’re right, I’m joking.
    Closing: 30.11.10.
    Prize: £1,000 and a rehearsed reading at the National Student Drama Festival.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

The New Writer Prose & Poetry Prizes 2010.  There are three categories in this annual contest: Fact (essays, articles, interviews - up to 4,000 words), Fiction (stories - up to 2,000 words; serials/novellas - up to 20,000 words) and Poetry (singles - up to 40 lines, collections - between 6 and 10 poems).
    Closing: 30.11.10.
    Prizes: Fact - £150, £100, £50.  Fiction: Short Stories - £300, £200, £100; Novella - £300.  Poetry Single - £100, £75, £50.  Poetry Collection - £300, £200, £100.
    Entry Fees: Fact - £5.  Fiction - £5 for short stories, £15 for Serials/Novellaa.  Poetry - £5 for two single poems, £12 for collections.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Dear Michael
     Just to let you know I’ve been entering writing competitions for several years and this year came second in the 19^th Feile Filiochta International Poetry Competition. Hurrah! I probably wouldn’t have heard about it but for your site (and I still don’t know how to say it). I don’t even consider it one of my better poems – but it was free to enter. It just goes to show that literary competition judges have to be very subjective in the end, so it’s worth carrying on even when you don’t feel that confident. Anyway, I’m off to spend my winnings of 500 euros (that’s very nearly £375 in real money). Keep up the good work!
     Here’s a link to the poem that won the prize
      All the best - Clare Kirwan

Aeon Award 2010.  Aeon Press publish the Irish sci-fi magazine Albedo One.  Therefore you won’t be surprised to learn that the contest, which incidentally is open worldwide, is for speculative fiction.  The word limit is 8,000.  Author Ian Watson will be judging the shortlisted entries.
    Closing: There are four separate rounds, the first closing on 31.3.10, the last on 30.11.10.  Entries will be selected from each round to go on the shortlist for final judging in December.
    Prize: 1,000 euros, 200 euros, 100 euros.  Winners will be published in Albedo One.
    Entry Fee : 7 euros.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Wyvern Publications Novel Competition.  This one from Wyvern Publications, a ‘small but passionate’ publisher of teen and young adult fiction, is for teen novels in any genre.  To enter, submit the first chapter of your completed story plus a one-page synopsis.  Note that extreme violence, sex and profanity are not welcome.  Ah well, you’ve got plenty of time for a rewrite.
    Closing: 12.12.10.
    Prize: A full novel and synopsis critique plus a publishing contract with Wyvern Publications.
    Entry Fee: £10.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Synergise Travellers’ Tales Competition.  Synergise is a travel website about which I know very little.  They are looking for travel articles of between 1,000 and 2,000 words to publish on-site. The best of the submissions receive prizes as detailed below, while the rest, if deemed good enough, are published without payment.
    Closing: None given.
    Prizes: £100.
    Entry Fee: None.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Competition.  This US contest is open worldwide and is for short stories of up to 17,000 words.  They should be science fiction, fantasy or horror with fantastic elements.
    Closing: Quarterly.
    Prizes: $1,000, $750, $500.
    Entry Fee: None.
    Website: Click Here.

Scribble Quarterly Short Story Competitions. This is run by short story magazine Scribble.  It is for stories on any subject, up to 3,000 words.
    Closing: Ongoing.
    Prizes: £75, £25, £15.
    Entry Fee: £3.
    Comp Page: Click Here .

Envoi International Poetry Competition.  This one, from the well-known though small magazine Envoi, is for poems up to 40 lines.
    Closing : 20th February, June and October each year.
    Prize: Poetry books to the value of £150, £100, £50.
    Entry Fee: £3.00 per poem or 5 for £12.00.
    Comp Page: Click Here .

Hi Michael,
     I won the Prima magazine contest you advertised - I was in the November 2008 issue. Better yet, the prize was not a pair of pink garden shears emboldened with the Prima logo (as you suggested), or even a polyester nightie, but £200 and a year’s subscription to the mag. It might not have given me worldwide fame but it’s encouraged me to continue writing. And since that I’ve placed a short story in the Sunday Express magazine, a venue that ‘rarely accepts unsolictated fiction,’ have had other stories accepted by various websites and an American anthology, and have completed my first novel.
                                                                         -  Louise Beech

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Notes: Unless otherwise stated in the rules, all poetry should be single-spaced.  The rest should be double-spaced (which is to say, double spacing between the lines, not the words!).  It is sometimes the case that your name shouldn’t appear on the manuscript.  Again, 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, and don’t send your manuscript done up like the Queen’s dinner menu with a fancy gold-tooled leather cover.  These things merely announce that you have no confidence in your submission or, worse, that you think the judges are shallow enough to judge on appearance rather than content.  Plain white A4 80gsm paper is the stuff to use, with plain black typing or print.  Write on one side of the sheet only (unless asked to put your address on the back).

            Before you start writing, allow me to introduce you to an old friend

                                       The Typo Goblin

            I am the Typo Goblin, my heart is made of flint,
            My role in life is simply this: to keep you out of print.
            I sneak into your manuscript and do my fiendish work,
           Adding errors guaranteed to make you look a berk.
           And then I cast the ‘Careless’ spell: you say, ‘Ah, what the heck!’
           And pop your script into the post without that final check.
           At length some hapless editor receives your golden wit,
           And after reading fifty words he writes it off as ... unpublishable.

                                                                            - Michael Shenton

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

                                    
My Humorous            This is the Prizemagic website                   Poem:
       Verse                 Email comps@prizemagic.co.uk               Being a
    & Songs            Copyright:  Michael Shenton  2010              Writer