Some of these contests have age and geographical restrictions, so read the instructions carefully.
If you want to get a jump on next month's contests go to Free Contests. Most of these contests are offered annually, so even if the deadline has passed, you can prepare for next year.
(Image: PxHere)
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53-Word Story Contest. Genre: Flash fiction of exactly 53 words based on monthly theme. Prize: Publication and a free book. Deadline: September 15, 2023.
Earth's Final Chapter. Genre: All fiction genres and cross genres. Prize: $700. Deadline: September 24, 2023.
Stories Out of School. Genre: Flash fiction. The story’s protagonist, or its narrator, must be a K-12 teacher. Stories must be between 6 and 749 words and previously unpublished. Prize: First-prize winners receive $1000; second-prize winners, $500. Deadline: September 1, 2023.
Women's Prize for Fiction. Genre: Published novel by a woman. Entrants must be writing in English and must be published in the UK. All subject matters and women of any age, from any nationality or country of residence are eligible. Prize: £30,000.00. Deadline: September 1, 2023.
Owl Canyon Press – Short Story Hackathon 5. Genre: Short fiction (any genre) written by two writers. Prize: $500 - $2000. Deadline: September 1, 2023.
John Glassco Translation Prize. Sponsored by Literary Translators' Association of Canada. Restrictions: Open to Canadian citizens or permanent residents only. Genre: The work submitted must be the translator's first published book-length translation into English or French. Prize: $1000. Deadline: September 1, 2023.
The Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year will be given to a poet whose previously unpublished series of poems brings most powerfully, to a wide readership, the subject of the environment and the place of the human within it. Prize: The Environmental Poet of the Year will have their short portfolio of poems published in a pamphlet that will be sold by Wordsworth Grasmere and the British Library. They will also receive £1,000, and be invited to read at a winner’s event at Wordsworth Grasmere. Deadline: September 1, 2023.
On The Premises Short Story Contest. "For this contest, write a creative, compelling, well-crafted story between 1,000 and 5,000 words long based on the photograph below. For instance, specific details about the picture can inspire your story. A second approach is to have this photo represent a location where at least part of your story takes place. A third possibility is, one or more of your characters see a digital display, printout, painting, drawing, or other representation of the contents of this photo, and the image itself is somehow important to your story. Any of these approaches will work fine, as long as the judges can tell how the photo below relates to your story." Prize: Winners receive between US$75 and US$250, and publication. Deadline: September 1, 2023.
AILACT Essay Prize. Genre: Papers related to the teaching or theory of informal logic or critical thinking, and papers on argumentation theory. Prize: $700 top prize. Deadline: September 1, 2023.
American-Scandinavian Foundation Translation Prizes. Genre: English translations of poetry, fiction, drama, or literary prose originally written in Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, or Swedish by a Scandinavian author born after 1800. Prize: $2,500. Deadline: Sept 1, 2023.
Mavis Batey Essay Prize. Restrictions: Open to any student, worldwide, registered in a bona-fide university or institute of higher education, or who has recently graduated from such an institution. Genre: Nonfiction. Scholarly essay on gardening history.Prize: £250, free membership of the Gardens Trust for a year and consideration for publication. Deadline: September 3, 2023.
Shoreline of Infinity Flash Fiction Contest. Genre: Science fiction story about a pet. 1000 words max. See theme. Prize: £50. Deadline: September 3, 2023.
Furious Fiction. Genre: Flash fiction, 500 words max. "On each competition weekend, we’ll reveal a set of story prompts and you’ll have 55 hours to submit your best story of 500-words (or fewer)." Prize: $500AUD. Deadline: September 3, 2023.
Terrain.org Editor’s Prize. Genre: Nonfiction, fiction, and poetry focusing on place, climate, and justice. Prize: $500. Deadline: September 4, 2023.
Debra E. Bernhardt Labor Journalism Prize. Genre: Article that furthers the understanding of the history of working people. Articles focused on historical events AND articles about current issues (work, housing, organizing, health, education) that include historical context are both welcome. The work must be published in print or online between August 31, 2022 and August 30, 2023. Prize: $1000. Deadline: September 5, 2023.
Canning Dock Flash Fiction Competition (UK). Genre: 500-word stories about the history of the Canning Graving Docks. Age categories: under 11, 11 - 17, 18+ Prize: National Museums Liverpool membership for a year, a book bundle from Writing on the Wall and a voucher to spend at NML shops and cafes. Deadline: September 5, 2023.
KSP Short Fiction Competition. Restrictions: Open to Australian residents and citizens. Genre: Short fiction. Prize: $100 first place prize for youth. Deadline: September 6, 2023. (Free entry for youth only)
Spectator Competition No. 3316: Take Five. Genre: "You are invited to recast Rishi Sunak’s five pledges in verse form. Please email entries of up to 16 lines to lucy@spectator.co.uk" Prize: £30. Deadline: September 6, 2023.
Young Lions Fiction Award. Restrictions: Open to US citizens 35 years of age or younger. Genre: Novel or a collection of short stories. Each year, five young fiction writers are selected as finalists by a reading committee of Young Lions members, writers, editors, and librarians. Submissions by publisher only. Authors may not submit their own work. Prize: $10,000.00. Deadline: September 8, 2023.
International Booker Prize. The International Booker Prize for fiction translated into English is awarded annually by the Booker Prize Foundation to the author of the best (in the opinion of the judges) eligible novel or collection of short stories. The work must be published by a UK or Ireland publishing house. Authors are not permitted to enter their own works. Prize: £50,000 divided equally between the author and the translator. There will be a prize of £2,000 each of the shortlisted titles divided equally between the author and the translator. Deadline: September 8, 2023.
The Russell Freedman Award for Nonfiction for a Better World. Genre: Any nonfiction book published for children or young adults, released between January 1 and December 31, 2023, is eligible. If both an author and illustrator are listed on the book cover, the prize will be split between them. Prize: $2500 plus $1000 to purchase copies of the winning book for distribution to schools and libraries. Deadline: Opens September 12, 2023.
NorthBound Book Award. Restrictions: Open to writers living in the North of England at the time of entering and planning to remain here for at least another 12 months. Genre: Completed full-length work of fiction or narrative non-fiction. Prize: Advance against royalties of £5000, publication with Saraband and access to the Northern Writers’ Awards Network. Royalties will be paid on Saraband’s standard terms. Deadline: September 12, 2023.
Texas Teen Book Festival Fresh Ink Fiction Contest. Restrictions: Open to Texas residents enrolled in grades 6 -12. Genre: Fiction, no more than 2,000 words in length. Prize: $150. Deadline: September 13, 2023.
Apparition Lit. Genre: Speculative fiction; under 1,000 words based on prompt. Prize: $30. Deadline: September 14, 2023. See theme
Washington State Book Awards. Restrictions: Open to Washington State writers. Genre: Published book, fiction, nonfiction, poetry: adults or children. Prize: Recognition (?) Deadline: September 15, 2023. (For books published June 1-Aug.15, 2023.)
Changing Skies Climate Change Contest. Genre; Art and prose on theme: Climate Change. Prize: $200 - $500. Deadline: September 17, 2023.
Green Stories Short Story Writing Competition. Genre: Short story on Microbes to the Rescue. Prize: £500 prize (or local currency equivalent). Deadline: September 21, 2023.
Starry Eyed Press’ First Drabble Contest. Genre: Drabble. Theme: The theme of this contest will be science fiction featuring one or more of the following elements: time travel, robots, colonization, military or western elements. Length: Exactly 100 words. Prize: "Cool prizes." Deadline: September 21, 2023. (Or when full)
Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlets. Restrictions: Only pamphlets published in the United Kingdom are eligible. Genre: Poetry pamphlet. Prize: £5,000. Deadline: September 22, 2023.
Michael Marks Illustration Award. will recognise outstanding illustration of a poetry pamphlet published between September 18th 2021 and the closing date of September 23rd 2022. The judge will consider illustration in any medium and will be looking for a subtle and sustained relationship between image and text, as well as the overall quality of the images. Prize: £1,000. Deadline: September 22, 2023.
Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction. Restrictions: Open to residents of UK. Genre: Short stories between 2000-6000 words on the theme "The Uncanny." Prize: £500 and 10 shortlisted authors will be published in an ebook anthology. Deadline: September 22, 2023.
Savage Science Fiction/Fantasy Writing Contest. Genre: Science fiction or fantasy short story. Prize: Winning stories are published in Toasted Cheese. If 50 or fewer eligible entries are received, first place receives a $35 Amazon gift card & second a $10 Amazon gift card. If 51 or more eligible entries are received, first place receives a $50 Amazon gift card, second a $15 Amazon gift card & third a $10 Amazon gift card. Deadline: September 24, 2023. Opens September 22, 2023.
International Booker Prize. The International Booker Prize for fiction translated into English is awarded annually by the Booker Prize Foundation to the author of the best (in the opinion of the judges) eligible novel or collection of short stories. The work must be published by a UK or Ireland publishing house. Authors are not permitted to enter their own works. Prize: £50,000 divided equally between the author and the translator. There will be a prize of £2,000 each of the shortlisted titles divided equally between the author and the translator. Deadline: September 29, 2023.
Cullman Center Fellowships. Fellowship. The Cullman Center’s Selection Committee awards up to 15 fellowships a year to outstanding scholars and writers—academics, independent scholars, journalists, and creative writers. Foreign nationals conversant in English are welcome to apply. Award: A stipend of up to $70,000, an office, a computer, and full access to the Library's physical and electronic resources. Deadline: September 29, 2023.
Don't Text and Drive Scholarship. Restrictions: You must be a high school freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior or a current or entering college or graduate school student of any level. Home schooled students are also eligible. There is no age limit. You must also be a U.S. citizen or legal resident. Genre: 500- to 1,000-word essay about texting while driving. Prize: $1000 scholarship. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
The César Egido Serrano Foundation: International Flash Fiction Competition. Genre: Flash fiction. Prize: 20,000 dollars is awarded for the best story in any of the languages authorized in the contest: Spanish, English, Arabic or Hebrew. Three prizes of $ 2,000 each will be awarded for the best stories in each of the other remaining languages admitted in the contest, that are not winners of the main prize. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
Last Stanza Poetry Journal. Genre: Poetry on theme: I Never Knew. Prize: $100. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
Shady Grove Literary. Genre: Any style, genre, tone of flash fiction. Length: 300 words max. Prize: $100. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest is held four times a year. Restrictions: The Contest is open only to those who have not professionally published a novel or short novel, or more than one novelette, or more than three short stories, in any medium. Professional publication is deemed to be payment of at least six cents per word, and at least 5,000 copies, or 5,000 hits. Genre: Short stories or novelettes of science fiction or fantasy. Prizes: $1,000, $750, $500, Annual Grand Prize: $5,000. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
Iowa Short Fiction and John Simmons Short Fiction Awards. Restrictions: Any writer who has not previously published a volume of prose fiction is eligible to enter the competition. Genre: Short story collection. The manuscript must be a collection of short stories in English of at least 150 word-processed, double-spaced pages. Prize: Publication by the University of Iowa Press, royalties. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
Jerry Jazz Musician Fiction Contest. Genre: Short fiction. Prize: $100. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
Sejong International Sijo Competition. Genre: Sijo poem. Prize: $500. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
The Willie Morris Awards for Southern Fiction and Nonfiction. Genre: Novels and nonfiction books published in 2022. Book has to be set in one of the original eleven states in the Confederacy. (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.) Prize: $2,500.00. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry. Genre: Poem that evokes the South. Prize: $2,500 and expenses-paid trip to award ceremony in Oxford, Mississippi. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
Kit Sora Flash Fiction Photography Contest. Restrictions: Open to residents in the Atlantic Provinces. Genre: Flash fiction inspired by a Kit Sora photo, 250 words max. Prize: 10 cents/word. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
SLF Working Class Writers Grant. Genre: Speculative fiction. "These grants are awarded annually, since 2013, to assist writers of speculative literature to working class, blue-collar, poor, and homeless writers who have been historically underrepresented in speculative fiction, due to the financial barriers which have made it much harder for them to have access to the writing world. Such lack of access might include an inability to attend conventions, to purchase a computer, to buy books, to attend college or high school, to have the time to write (if, for example, you must work two jobs simply to pay rent and feed a family, or if you must spend all your waking hours job-hunting for months on end). " Prize: $1000. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
Art of Unity Creative Award. Genre: Poetry; essays and short stories (under 2500 words); video; music; dance; performance or visual work around the theme: “Never again: Remembering to heal and overcome.” "The most important hallmark of Holocaust remembrance and education is the phrase ‘never again.’ Unfortunately, tribal divisions, ethnic cleansing and genocides continue in the 21st Century. We are looking for submissions in any creative media (which can be exhibited online), and which highlight aspects of human unity, and positive cross-pollination between groups, ethnicities, religions and/or nations." Prize: First ($100), Second ($75) and Third ($50) place awards, as well as three honorable mentions, in four categories: Poetry, Short Story, Essay. and Youth (18 and under) category. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
International Human Rights Art Festival: Creators of Justice Literary Award. Genre: Poetry, short stories and essays which use the written word to celebrate justice. Prize: First Prize: $150; Second Prize: $100; Third Prize: $50. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is the most prestigious literary award in the US. Restrictions: Authors must be living American citizens. Self-published works not accepted. Genres: Novels, novellas, and collections of short stories. Publishers, literary agents, and authors may submit works of fiction (short story collections, novellas, or novels) published between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023. Prize: $15,000. Deadline: September 30, 2023.
Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge. Genre: Poem inspired by artwork. (See site for image.) Prize: $100. Deadline: September 30, 2023. This is a monthly contest.
Substack runs a monthly short story competition. Their mission is to "revive the art of the short story, support artists, and produce something wonderful." Genre: Short story. Length: 6000- 10,000 words. Prize: $100 plus 50% of subscription revenue to be sent by Paypal, Zelle, or check. Deadline: September 30, 2023. Reprints are ok so long as you still have the rights to distribute.
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