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NewPages Guide to Writing Contests

In the NewPages Guide to Submission Opportunities, find announcements of new and current writing contests, book contests, magazine contests, chapbook contests, broadside contests, and more. Looking for general calls for submissions from literary magazines, anthologies, presses and more? You can find them here.

Would you like to advertise a writing or book contest with NewPages? Learn more and submit your contest here.

Note: Descriptions provided by advertisers. NewPages does our best to vet all opportunities. If there is an issue, please contact us.

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2024 Perkoff Prize Extended flyer
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The Deadline for the 2024 Perkoff Prize from the Missouri Review has been Extended!

Extended Deadline: March 2, 2024

The Perkoff Prize is a tri-genre contest that awards $1000 and publication each to writers of the best story, set of poems, and essay that engage in evocative ways with health and medicine as judged by the editors. New deadline: April 2, midnight PST. See the guidelines and learn more about the prize here: missourireview.com/contests/perkoff-prize/.

The Creative Writing NZ Short Story Prize

Deadline: April 30, 2024

The Creative Writing NZ Short Story Prize is open for international entries until 30th April 2024. Entries can be any theme or genre but must not exceed 3,000 words. They should also be written in English. 1st prize is $1,000, a free creative writing course and publication on our site. Entry fee is $9. The final judge is Lucie Brownlee. Find all the details here.

Kennesaw State University logo for 2024 Anthony Grooms Prize in Fiction

Anthony Grooms Prize in Short Fiction

Deadline: April 15, 2024

The Headlight Review is seeking submissions for its second annual Anthony Grooms Short Fiction Prize. Stories must be 5,000 words or less. The winner will receive $250 and 25 copies of their story. Runners-up will be offered publication in The Headlight Review. All finalists will receive a signed copy of Anthony Grooms’ novel, The Vain Conversation. All entries will be judged by THR editors, and finalists will be sent to our guest judge, Atlanta writer Gray Stewart. Learn more here.

Friends of Falun Gong Poetry Contest 2024 banner
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Help Stand Up to Communist China with This Poetry Contest

Deadline: April 30, 2024

Friends of Falun Gong invites you to learn about the persecution of these peaceful spiritual people in communist China and write about it. Help raise awareness about a human rights atrocity that is going on right now and implicates every one of us, who is undoubtedly using something “Made in China” in our everyday lives. There is no submission fee, and everyone is welcome to participate: fofg.org/competitions/2024-poetry-competition/.

body of a woman wrapped with tap holding a cardboard sign saying "I Have a Voice"

International Voices in Creative Nonfiction Competition! Prize: $1000and Publication.

Deadline: July 1, 2024

Small presses have potential for significant impact, and at Vine Leaves Press, we take this responsibility quite seriously. It is our responsibility to give marginalized groups the opportunity to establish literary legacies that feel rich and vast. Why? To sustain hope for the world to become a more loving, tolerable, and open space. It always begins with art. That is why we have launched the 2025 International Voices in Creative Nonfiction Competition. We would love for you to enter your manuscript! Prize: $1000 and publication in 2026. www.vineleavespress.com/international-voices-in-cnf.html

screenshot of the Able Muse Press flyer for their 2024 writing and book contests
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2024 Able Muse Contests :: Submit Now

Deadline: March 15 (Able Muse Write Prize); March 31 (Able Muse Book Award)

WRITE PRIZE (poetry & fiction): $500 each + publication. Final Judges: Hailey Leithauser (poetry), Nina Schuyler (fiction); $15 entry; deadline: March 15, 2024.
BOOK AWARD (poetry): $1000 + book publication. Final Judge: Timothy Steele; $25 entry; deadline: March 31, 2024. ENTER NOW – go to www.ablemusepress.com for details.

Driftwood Press Contest Deadlines Incoming

Deadline: July 15, 2024 (Adrift contests); Year-round (general submissions)

Driftwood Press is happy to share a plethora of submission opportunities for writers and artists! Our Adrift Short Fiction & Poetry Chapbook Contests, in which every work submitted is considered for publication as winner or runner-up, is ending soon! For our yearly print anthology, we are looking for poems, short stories, comics, and visual art that will wow our readers, accepted as both contest and normal submissions. We are a paying market, and our published writers also get to take part in bespoke interviews about their work! Driftwood is also on the hunt for amazing book-length titles to grow our catalogue, so if you have a novella, poetry collection, comic collection, or graphic novel manuscript, we would love to read it! Visit us here for our Submittable page, and we encourage you to follow us on social media (@driftwoodpress) to learn about even more submission opportunities!

Coltrane painting for Gemini Magazine 2024 Short Fiction Contest

Gemini Magazine $1,000 Short Story Prize

Deadline: April 1, 2024

The winner of our 15th annual fiction competition receives $1,000 and publication for a story of any length, subject or writing style. Traditional or experimental. Second prize: $100. Three honorable mentions: $25 each. Entry fee: $8. All five winners will be published online in our June/July 2024 issue. Read previous winners and enter at gemini-magazine.com/short-story-contest/.

Inception: $500 for Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Graphic Novel, Art

Deadline: March 31, 2024

Beginnings spark passion or curiosity. They might connect a specific place and time with an emotional tone. A poem handles this differently than a flash piece, which handles an opening differently than a novel. The first photo, painting or frame presented in a gallery, series, or graphic novel strives for the same intent. For Sunspot Lit’s Inception contest, send your best opening. No restrictions on theme or category. Opens March 1. Closes March 31. Entry fee: $10. Prize: $500 cash plus publication. See detailed guidelines and enter at Submittable.

Flyer for Storm Cellar's 2024 Force Majeure Flash Contest
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Force Majeure Flash Contest

Deadline: April 30, 2024

Force Majeure: a great and unexpected power. We’re seeking the best small things in any genre, any form. Flash is: under 1000 words & 5 pages, contains any combination of letters, marks, or images, and is inventive affectively, linguistically, formally. Send creative nonfiction, fiction, hybrids, experiments, dreams, fragments, wild things! $500 in prizes; fee $6, no-fee option; all entries considered for publication; all entrants receive prize issue. Full guidelines: stormcellar.submittable.com/submit/72759/

Rubery Book Award flyer
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International Rubery Book Award

Deadline: March 31, 2024

This is the independent and self-publishers’ answer to the Booker Prize. The Rubery Book Award is a prestigious award with a total prize pot of approximately $3500 for Book of the Year and Category winners. Winners also receive reviews and a glass plaque. Shortlisted authors receive reviews. Judged by reputable judges so you can be sure of quality with the Rubery Book Award. For more information on entering and past winners please see our website: www.ruberybookaward.com.

Prime Number Magazine Awards banner
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2024 Prime Number Magazine Awards for Poetry and Short Fiction

Deadline: March 31, 2024

$1,000 first prize in each category plus publication. Two runners-up in each category also published. Reading fee $15. Poetry judge Maya J. Sorini; short fiction judge Dennis McFadden. Open January through March. Submit online through Submittable. Details at www.Press53.com/prime-number-magazine-awards.

$2,100 in Prizes – Flying South 2024 Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction Contest

Deadline: May 31, 2024

$2,100 in prizes. From March 1 to May 31, Flying South 2024, a publication of Winston Salem Writers, will be accepting entries for this year’s contest. There will be three categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. In each of the three categories the awards will be $400 for First Place, $200 for Second Place, and $100 for Third Place. Finalists will be awarded publication in Flying South. For full details, please visit our website: www.wswriters.org/flying-south.

Nimrod 2024 Literary Awards flyer
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$6,000 in Prizes: The Nimrod Literary Awards

Deadline: April 1, 2024

Submissions are open for Nimrod International Journal‘s Nimrod Literary Awards, the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry and the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, with prizes of $2,000 and $1,000 and publication, as well as virtual Awards Ceremony readings. Finalists and selected semi-finalists will be published and paid $10/page. For poetry, submit 3-10 pages; for fiction, one story, 7,500 words maximum. Manuscripts may be mailed or submitted online: nimrodjournal.submittable.com/submit.  Each entry must be accompanied by a $20 entry fee (additional $3 for online submissions), which includes a one-year subscription. Open internationally. Email [email protected] or visit our website for complete rules.

The Orison Prizes in Poetry & Fiction

Deadline: April 4, 2024

The 2024 Orison Prizes in Poetry & Fiction offer $1,500 and publication by Orison Books for a full-length manuscript in each genre. Judges: Ellen Bass (poetry), Kaveh Akbar (fiction). Entry fee: $25. Entry period: December 1, 2023–April 1, 2024. For complete guidelines visit orisonbooks.com/submissions.

Fall for the Book New American Voices Award medal 2024
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New American Voices Award for Immigrant Writers

Deadline: March 29, 2024

The $5,000 post-publication book prize from Fall for the Book and the Institute for Immigration Research recognizes prose works that illuminate the complexity of the human experience as told by immigrants. Two finalists each will receive $1,000. All finalists will appear at the Fall for the Book Festival in October 2024. Past winners are Rachel Heng, Sindya Bhanoo, Patricia Engel, Lysley Tenorio, Melissa Rivero, and Hernán Díaz. $20 entry fee. Website: www.fallforthebook.org/newamericanvoices.

2024 Hudson Prize Deadline March 31 banner

The 2024 Hudson Prize: Open to Poetry & Prose

Deadline: March 31, 2024

The Hudson Prize is open to collections of poetry and prose from debut, emerging, and established writers alike. The winner will receive $1000, publication, publicity support, and author copies. blacklawrencepress.com/submissions-and-contests/the-hudson-prize/

Cloudbank 18 Writing Contest flyer for deadline extension
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New Deadline for Submissions to Cloudbank’s Poetry/Flash Fiction Contest

Extended Deadline: March 10, 2024

March 10, 2024 is the Cloudbank 18 Contest submission deadline. The contest winner receives a $200 prize and publication. Submissions can be poetry or flash fiction. Contest submission fee is $15 which includes a two-issue subscription. The current issue Cloudbank 17 features poems by Albert Garcia, Susannah Lee (who won last year’s contest), Jim Daniels, Laurie Blauner, Philip Sterling, and many others. For full guidelines—and more—visit Cloudbank. Revive us with your fire!

The 2024 Gatewood Prize from Switchback Books

Deadline: March 31, 2024

The Gatewood Prize is Switchback Books’ annual competition for a first or second full-length collection of poems by a woman or non-binary writer. Submit poetry manuscripts by March 31, 2024. This year’s competition will be judged by Emilia Phillips. The contest fee is $20, or $25 with a book of your choice from our catalog. For more information about eligibility requirements and detailed submission guidelines, please visit our website: www.switchbackbooks.com/submissions.