Writing Competitions

UK Short Story Competitions

UK Poetry Competitions

Short Story Competitions

Here is a list of short story competitions currently running in the UK. I'll present them in closing-date order, but I strongly advise you not to submit your stories until you have first written to the contact address (or visited the appropriate website) for further details. Other restrictions in length and subject matter may apply.

The PrimeProse Flash Fiction Award A quarterly competition for original, previously unpublished fictional works of less than 500 words, in English, in any style or genre. The winners will receive cash prizes, but each and every entrant will receive a critique of his or her work. Details: www.primeprose.co.uk

The Global Short Story Competition Organised by Certys Limited, supported by Darlington Arts Centre in Darlington, County Durham, England. Cash prize for the winner of each monthly competition. Entry: £5 per story. Details: www.globalshortstories.net

Txt Lit Txt Lit is a new literary genre of creative writing using a mobile phone texting system, or SMS (Short Message System). A single mobile phone text message contains just 160 characters, including spaces and punctuation. Each entry costs £1 plus the normal cost of a text message as charged by your network provider. You can enter each competition as many times as you like. First prize: at least £50. Competitions every month. The theme for September is romance. More details on website at http://www.txtlit.co.uk

Writers' Billboard Bi-monthly writing competitions in various formats, including poetry. Website: http://writersbillboard.net

Scribble Open Short Story Competition Length: up to 3000 words. Prizes of £75.00, £25.00, and £15.00, will be awarded for the best three stories in each issue. For other published stories, a complimentary copy will be given. Annual subscribers will also receive a credit voucher to the value of £4.00. Stories from non-subscribers are welcome but must be accompanied by the entry fee. Entry fee for the competitions is £3.00 (cheques payable to Park Publications). Free unlimited entry for subscribers. Scribble is published in March, July, October, and December. More details HERE

Monthly Writers' Forum Short Story Competition Any genre, but stories must be original and previously unpublished. Aim for a word count between 1,500 to 3,000. Stories may embrace crime, mystery, romance, sport, humour, fantasy, erotica or science-fiction. The competitions are held monthly and there is also £1,000 for the best short story of the year. Monthly prizes of £250 for the best story published and two prizes of £150 for runners up. All stories not selected for publication are returned to authors with a grid assessment. Text should be type-written or word-processed, printed in double spacing. Entries should be accompanied with a short biography and colour photograph of the writer. Please submit a saved copy of the ms on disk as a Rich Text File (RTF) or Microsoft Word 5.1a (for Apple Macintosh). Send complete ms and contact details to: Writers International Ltd, PO Box 3229, Bournemouth BH1 1ZS Tel: 01202 589828 Fax: 01202 587758 Website www.writers-forum.com

Secret Attic - Need to flex those literary muscles? Enter their monthly short story competition. Entry is free and you can win a prize. The top twenty entries will be published in a printed booklet. Website: http://www.secretattic.com

The Seventh Quark Runs three separate competitions, a Quarterly Story Prize (2000-4000 words), a Bi-Monthly Shorter Story Prize (under 2000 words), and the wild excitement of a regular simultaneously written Frantic Flash Competition. Please see details of dates and entry fees on the website www.7thquarkmagazine.com or email seventhquark@tribe13.co.uk

Pulse and Cocktails Looking for budding writers of fun, adult erotic short stories. All entries that are published will receive a £5 voucher to spend, with two runner-up prizes of £25, and the overall winner receiving a £100 voucher. A monthly competition, currently looking for entries before the end of this month. Website: http://www.pulseandcocktails.co.uk/stories/competition.php

Dark Tales Flash Fiction Ongoing contest with a deadline date of the first of the following months: September, November, January, March, May, July. For horror and speculative fiction. Maximum 500 words. First prize £25, second £5. Winner and runner-up - plus best shortlisted - published in Dark Tales magazine. Entry fee £1.25. See website for full details: http://www.darktales.co.uk/

Invisible Ink Short Story Competition Twice yearly ongoing competition: Closing dates 31 March and 30 September. Prize: £1,000 + publishing opportunity. Entry fee: None. Short stories (2000 - 4000 words) in general fiction suitable for a mainstream audience. Open to unpublished prose writers. Winner is chosen by reader votes and short-listed entrants receive feedback from readers via the website. Entrants are invited (but not required) to support fellow writers by purchasing the current competition anthology - all proceeds go to fund future competitions and other ventures in new writing. Full details and online entry form: www.invisibleink.org.uk/competition.html

Momaya Press Short Story Competition Submit your short story (2,500 word limit) by 30 April 2008 in order to compete for prize money and publication in the Momaya Annual Review 2008. First prize: $200 (£110). Details: www.momayapress.com

Segora Short Story Competition Closing date: 29th May 2008. First prize £100 and publication on website. 1500 – 3000 words.  The theme is open. Entry fee £5 (7.50€) Details and entry form: www.poetryproseandplays.co.uk

Frome Festival Short Story Competition 2008 For stories on any theme, 1000 to 2200 words. Judges – best selling authors Katie Fforde and Steve Voake. Prizes - £300, £150, £75 and prizes for local authors. Deadline: May 31st 2008. Please see www.fromefestival.co.uk for full details.

Leaf Books Micro-fiction 2008 Closing date 31st May 2008 Leaf invites micro-fiction up to 300 words on any subject. Enter online or by post. £3 per single submission £10 for four submissions. Winner receives £200. Runner up receives ten free Leaf Books. All selected entries to be published in a competition anthology. Winner will be announced end of June 2008. Website: http://www.leafbooks.co.uk/writers/comps.html

The Bridport Prize 2008 Anyone can enter the Bridport Prize 2008. Short stories: 1st prize =£ 5000. Poems: 1st Prize = £ 5000. Closing date: 30th June 2008. Entry fee: £6 per poem or story (you can send as many entries as you like). Details: http://www.bridportprize.org.uk/index.htm

Jacqui Bennett Writers Bureau Win £150. Closing date 30 June 2008. Click here for details.

Wrekin Writers 2008 Doris Gooderson Short Story Competition Maximum 1200 words. Entry fee: £3 or £10 for 4 entries. Prizes: £80, £40 and £20. Closing date: 15th July 2008. Full rules and entry forms: www.wrekinwriters.co.uk  

Winter Witch Books Nightmares and Dreams Competition: short stories and poems. Maximum length of story: 5000 words. Maximum length of poem: 50 lines. Closing date: 31st July. Winners will be announced 30th September, 2008. Entry fee: £4.00 per story or poem. Details on website.

Kenneth Grahame Society - Short Story Competition As part of the Kenneth Grahame Society's celebration of the centenary year of The Wind in the Willows, a short story competition is being held to echo some of beauty of Kenneth Grahame's classic. Prizes: 1st £500, 2nd £150, 3rd £100. No entry fee. The length of the short stories should be approximately 5000 words - similar to the average length of the chapters in The Wind in the Willows. (Entries of 4500-6000 words will be accepted.) The cover page should clearly state the title and number of words, and provide essential contact details - name, address, email address and phone number. Entries should be printed on A4 paper with double line spacing and wide margins. (No handwritten entries, please.) After the judging of the entries, authors of the winning short stories will be asked to submit their story in MS Word format and append a brief biography. Entries will be judged for their plausibility and continuity as a Willows sequel (or prequel or countertext), as well as for the quality of their storyline and style. Entries must be received by July 31st 2008. The winning entry will be announced and read at the Kenneth Grahame Society's Willows celebrations in Fowey, Cornwall, on September 6th-7th 2008. Entries should be posted to: Nigel McMorris, Kenneth Grahame Society, 37 Ashtree Hill, Tandragee, Co Armagh, Northern Ireland BT62 2HP. Website: www.kennethgrahamesociety.net. Email: badger@kennethgrahamesociety.net

Wellington Town Council (Shropshire) Short Story Competition Open to all. 1st prize: £150. Closing date: 31 August 2008. Entry fee: £3 per story. Details HERE

Mostly Life Competition Mostly Life invites you to submit humorous material in any publishable medium imaginable: writing (fiction or non-fiction, including comic verse), videos (live-action or animated), audio files, cartoon strips, still pictures, games and anything else that comes to mind. All original, previously unpublished and non-offensive material will be considered. Video/audio material should ideally be no longer than five or six minutes - remember that it has to quickly capture and then maintain its audience's attention. Similarly, writing should ideally not go beyond a couple of pages. Entry fee: £3 per entry, £10 for four entries. One winning entry will receive £200 and publication on the Mostly Life website. Closing date: Sept 30 2008. Website: http://www.mostlylife.com

Southport Writers Circle Open Short Story Competition 2008 Prizes:  £150, £75, £25 Fee: £3 per entry. Length up to 2000 words, unpublished original story, any subject (single spacing welcome). No name on entry, no entry form required. Send cover sheet with title, word count, name and contact details. Close date: 31 October. Results: early December. Send to: Short Story Competition, Southport Writers Circle, 16 Ormond Avenue, Westhead, Lancashire L40 6HT

Ballista Magazine 2008 Short Story Competition 1st prize: £60.00; 2nd prize: £30.00; 3rd prize: £20.00. Winning entries also included in issue 6. £4.00 entry fee. Closing date: 31 October 2008. Max words: 3,500. Full details at: www.mucusart.co.uk/ballista.htm

International Aeon Award 2008 short fiction contest Albedo One is Ireland’s premiere magazine of speculative fiction. The contest is open to submissions of up to 8000 words (no minimum word limit) in any speculative fiction genre, from Fantasy and Science Fiction to Horror or anything in-between or unclassifiable. The grand prize is 1000 euro and publication in Albedo One. The contest will run in four rounds from January 1st 2008 to November 30th 2008. Submissions can be made at any time between those two dates, and stories making the shortlist will be announced shortly after the end of each of the rounds, which end on March 31st, June 30th, September 30th and finally November 30th. After the last round, the top six stories from the shortlist will be chosen and passed on to respected science fiction, fantasy and horror author, Ian Watson, who will act as Grand Judge and pick the winner and second and third place stories. Full details: http://www.albedo1.com/html/aeon_award.html

If you want to win short story competitions, get the best possible help. Join Jenny's Mini Short Story Course

Competitions Bulletin (formerly Writing Competitions Monthly)

The ONLY magazine of its type on the market today. Lists details of all current UK writing competitions - and there are more than you think! Up to £100,000 of prize money in each issue. POETRY - SHORT STORIES - ANTHOLOGIES PLAYS - NOVELS - NON-FICTION COMPILED AND EDITED BY CAROLE BALDOCK Subscribe to any number of issues @ £2.50 each UK postpaid. Write to Carole Baldock, 17 Greenhow Avenue, West Kirby, Wirral CH48 5EL, stating how many issues of Competitions Bulletin you'd like at £2.50 per issue. (Also, please state which month - Competitions Bulletin is published in January, March, May, July, September, November.) Enclose Cheque/PO payable to Carole Baldock - and don't forget to include your name and address. Queries: carolebaldock@hotmail.com

Poetry Competitions

Here is a list of poetry competitions currently running in the UK. I'll present them in closing-date order, but I strongly advise you not to submit your poems until you have first written to the contact address for further details. Other restrictions in length and subject matter may apply.

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