62 Writing Contests in April 2025 - No entry fees

This April there are more than five dozen free writing contests for short fiction, novels, poetry, CNF, nonfiction, and plays. Prizes range from $60,000 to publication. None charge entry fees.

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. Many of these contests are offered annually, so even if the deadline has passed, you can prepare for next year.

Good luck! 

(Image: Wikimedia)

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The Great American Think-Off. Genre: Essay on the theme: “Is there only one truth, or are there many truths?” Entrants should take a strong stand agreeing or disagreeing with this topic, basing their arguments on personal experience and observations rather than philosophical abstraction. Essay should be no more than 750 words. Prize: One of four $500 cash prizes. Deadline: April 1, 2025.

The Maya Angelou Book Award was founded in 2020 to honor the legacy of Missouri-born author Maya Angelou by celebrating contemporary authors whose work has demonstrated a commitment to social justice in America and/or the world. Restrictions: Entrants must be U.S. Citizens and reside within the United States. Entrants must be at least 18 years of age. Prize: $10,000. Deadline: April 1, 2025.

EACWP Flash Fiction Contest. Restrictions: The contest is open to any participant living in Europe (including countries culturally linked to Europe such as Russia, Turkey, and Israel). Eleven different European languages will be leading this year’s competition: Arabic, Catalan, Czech, Dutch, English,, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish. Genre: Flash fiction. Length: 100 words. Prize: €600 top prize. Deadline: April 1, 2025.

Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize. Genre: Pieces of any genre up to 2500 words on the theme (See website for theme). Prize: £3,000 cash prize. Deadline: April 1, 2025.

Alpine Fellowship Poetry Prize. Genre: Poetry on theme (See website for theme). There is a maximum of 500 words per entry. Prize: £3,000 cash prize. Deadline: April 1, 2025.

Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest. This contest seeks today's best humor poems, published and unpublished. Please enter one poem only, 250 lines max. Prize: $3,500 in prizes, including a top prize of $2,000, and publication on Winning Writers. Deadline: April 1, 2025.

The Marguerite and Lamar Smith Fellowship for Writers. Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians awards fellowships for writers to spend time in McCullers' childhood home in Columbus, Georgia. The fellowships are intended to afford the writers in residence uninterrupted time to dedicate to their work, free from the distractions of daily life and other professional responsibilities. Award: Stipend of $5000 to cover costs of transportation, food and other incidentals. Fellowship recipients will be required to introduce or advance their work through reading or workshop/forum presentations. The Fellow will work with the McCullers Center Director to plan a presentation near the end of the residency. Deadline: April 1, 2025.

PEN America’s U.S. Writers Aid Initiative. Restrictions: Applicants must be professional writers based in the United States, and be able to demonstrate that this one-time grant will be meaningful in helping address a short-term emergency situation. Prize: Grant, amount not specified. Deadline: April 1, 2025.

Natan Notable Books Award. Genre: Nonfic­­tion book on Jew­ish themes pub­lished for the first time between October 1, 2024 and September 30, 2025. Prize: $5,000. Deadline: April 1, 2025.

Woodrow Hall Top Shelf Award. Genre: Full-length poetry collections that were published or self-published in the previous calendar year. Prize: $500. Deadline: April 1, 2025.

Creative Capital Award. Restrictions: Entrants must be US citizens or permanent residents, aged 25+, with 5+ years' professional writing experience, and not be full-time students. Genre: Visual arts, performing arts, literature, technology, and film. Grant: Up to $50,000. Deadline: April 3, 2025.

Eye Contact Award in Genre Flash Fiction. Genre: Historical flash fiction, 1000 words max. See theme. Prize: $250. Deadline: April 4, 2025.

Chief Minister's Northern Territory History Book Award. Restrictions: You must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident to enter. Genre: The Chief Minister's Northern Territory History Book Award recognises the most significant historical book about the Northern Territory published in the previous 12 months. To apply, your book must be a work on Northern Territory history, written in English or one of the First Nations languages of the Northern Territory, available for general sale, and published between 1 January and 31 December 2024. Prize: Recognition. Deadline: April 7, 2025.  

Write the World Competition. Restrictions: Young writers ages 13-19. Genre: Poetry. Length: 50-500 words. Prize: Best Written Poem and Best Spoken Word Performance will each receive $100. Best Peer Review will receive $50. Deadline: April 14, 2025.  (Note: This is a monthly contest.)

The Light Bill Incubator Microgrant. Restrictions: Open to Black and/or Indigenous writers. Genre: Shapbook in progress. Prize: $500, a slot in Sundress’s reading series, a one-week residency at the Sundress Academy for the Arts in Knoxville, TN, and the potential for digital publication. Deadline: April 15, 2025.

Toyin Falola Prize. Restrictions: Open to Africans between the age of 15 and 35. Genre: Prose (fiction or nonfiction) on theme of Freedom. Prize: $2,500 share between winner and 5 short listed stories.  Deadline: April 15, 2025.

Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction. Restrictions: The writer must be Canadian, and an entry must be the writer's first or second published book of any type or genre and must have a Canadian locale and/or significance. Genre: Print books and ebooks of creative non-fiction published in the previous calendar year. Prize: C$10,000.00. Deadline: April 15, 2025.

The F. Sean Hodge Prize for Poetry in Medicine. Restrictions: Open to current medical students, residents, or fellows or physicians who have completed post-graduate training. Genre: Poetry. Prize: $250. Deadline: April 15, 2025.

Prose Poetry Contest. Genre: Prose poem. Length: 150 words max. Prize: First place: £50 plus publication; Second place: £25 plus publication; Third place: £15 plus publication; Honorable mention: £10 plus publication. Deadline: April 15, 2025. (Pay-if-you-can format for submissions)

53-Word Story Contest. Genre: Flash fiction of exactly 53 words. See prompt. Prize: Publication and a free book. Deadline: April 15, 2025.

The Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Art Grants (AWAW EAG). Genre: Environmental art projects led by women-identifying artists in the United States and U.S. Territories. Prize: A total of $520,000 in funding—up to $20,000 per project. Deadline: April 15, 2025.

Daisy Utemorrah Award for Indigenous Authors. Restrictions: Open to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writer currently residing in Australia. Genre: Junior/YA full-length fiction manuscript intended for readers aged 8-18. Length: 40,000 and 100,000 words. Prize: A$15,000 and possible publication. Deadline: April 16, 2025.

Casa Africa: Purorrelato. Genre: Micro-stories related to Africa. Length: 1500 characters max. The micro-stories can be submitted in Spanish, English, French or Portuguese. Prize: First award: 750 euros, Second award: 375 euros, Third award: 225 euros. Deadline: April 16, 2025.

The Africa Institute: Global Africa Translation Fellowship. Restrictions: Open to Translators in the Global South. Genre: Translations of works from the African continent and its diaspora, into English or Arabic. This is a non-residential fellowship. Projects may be retranslations of old, classic texts, previously untranslated works, poetry, prose, or critical theory collections. The project may be a work-in-progress, or a new project feasible for completion within the timeframe of the grant. Prize: $1,000-$5,000. Deadline: April 17, 2025. 

Giller Prize. Restrictions: Open to books published in Canada in English. Books must be published in Canada in English between March 1, 2025, and April 30, 2025 to be eligible for the 2024 Prize. Must  be nominated by publisher. Genre: Fiction. Full-length novel or collection of short stories published in English, either originally, or in translation. Prize: $100,000 to the winner and $10,000 to each of the finalists. Deadline: April 17, 2025.

Collaborature. Restrictions: Submissions must be written by more than one author or include a collaboration of two people (i.e., art and poetry). Genre: Poetry, prose, art. Prize: $20. Deadline: March 17, 2025. Note: This is a monthly contest.

Havok. Genre: Flash fiction. See themes. Payment: $50 via PayPal for each story selected for an Anthology. No payment for online publication. Deadline: April 18, 2025.

Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes. Restrictions: Open to writers of Taiwanese heritage (or writers with other significant connections to Taiwan), or have subject matter otherwise relevant to the Taiwanese or Taiwanese American experience. Submissions will be considered in four categories: Middle School (enrolled in 6th-8th grade as of the deadline), High School (enrolled in high school as of the deadline), College (enrolled in community college or as an undergraduate as of the deadline), Adult (in any stage of life beyond college). Genre: Any literary genre including fiction, poetry, personal essays or other creative non-fiction. Prize: Grand Prize Winner: $500 – one selection per age category. Finalist: $200 – three selections per age category. Honorable Mention: $75 – at judge’s discretion per age category. Deadline: April 18, 2025.

Royal Institute of Philosophy Essay Prize: Think. Topic: Essay on themes. Prize: Publication. Deadline: April 22, 2025.

The Women’s Prize for Playwriting. Restrictions: Open to female or non-binary residents in the UK, Republic of Ireland or in a British Overseas Territory, or have a British Forces Post Office address. Genre: Play. Prize: £12,000 top prize. Deadline: April 22, 2025.

Whiting Foundation Creative Nonfiction Grant. Restrictions: Open to US citizens and residents only. Genre: Creative nonfiction. Whiting welcomes submissions for works of history, cultural or political reportage, biography, memoir, the sciences, philosophy, criticism, food or travel writing, and personal essays, among other categories. Writers must be completing a book of creative nonfiction that is currently under contract with a publisher. Prize: $40,000. Deadline: April 23, 2025.

Harper-Wood Creative Writing & Travel Award for English Poetry and Literature. Restrictions: Open to any student who has graduated from any university in the UK, Ireland, the Commonwealth or the USA. Genre: The Award Holder is expected to engage in a course of study or research, and produce a piece of original fiction, drama or poetry. Prize: £19,000 is provided to cover accommodation and living expenses during the course of the year. Deadline: April 23, 2025.

The Sophie Coe Prize. Genre: Informative article or essay on any aspect of food history relating to any period, place, people or culture  Prize: £1,500 top prize. Deadline: April 25, 2025. 

Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers. Restrictions: The author must be a UK resident who is not currently represented by an agent. The author must self-identify as working class and not have been published commercially in any form. The work submitted must not have been previously published digitally or in book form. Genre: Fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Length: 1000 words max. Prize: The winning writer will receive 3 one-hour mentoring sessions with a Gaia commissioner and 1 one-hour mentoring session with a publishing agent, a commissioned piece in a nature-related outlet, two online Arvon masterclasses and one online Arvon writing day, plus a book bundle from Octopus Publishing Group. Deadline: April 25, 2025. 

Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors Contest. Genre: Poetry, short fiction, essay, and photography, plus publication in annual anthology from Northwest Missouri State University's GreenTower Press. Prize: $250 in each category. Deadline: April 26, 2025.

Friends of Falun Gong, Poetry Contest. Genre: Poem. Submit one or two poems of no more than 50 lines each. Poems must encompass at least one of the following themes: Advocate for Falun Gong practitioner’s fundamental human rights. Expose the crimes against Falun Gong perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party. Share in the beauty, peacefulness and good nature of Falun Gong. Prizes: $500, $250, $100. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Fieldstone Review. Genre: Creative nonfiction/literature & book reviews, fiction, poetry, and reviews on theme: Colour. Prize: $100. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Jericho Prize. Restrictions: Open to unpublished and self-published Black-British children's writers. Genre: Picture book. Prize: A guaranteed publishing contract from Scholastic UK, with a £1250 cash prize. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Native Voices Award. Restrictions: Open to Indigenous storytellers, such as from Native American, First Nation Australian, and Polynesian communities. Genre: Original, unpublished work in English; short story, flash fiction, nonfiction essay, script, poetry, or visual art collection. Prize: Up to $500 USD. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Writers' Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers. Restrictions: Open to Canadian LGBTQ+ writers. Genre: Debut book for books published between February 27, 2025 and April 29, 2025. Prize: $10,000. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Iridescence Award. Restrictions: Open to literary or visual artists of the Black, Indigenous, or People of Color Community. Genre: Fantasy, folk mythology, science fiction, and the paranormal. Short fiction, poetry. Prize: Up to $500. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-Fiction. Genre: Literary non-fiction. Restrictions: Titles must be published in Canada and written by Canadians. Prize: $60,000 will be awarded to a literary nonfiction book published between February 26, 2025 and April 29, 2025. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Student Prizes in Short Fiction and Poetry. Restrictions: Applicants must be 18-25 years old at the time of submission, legal residents of South Carolina, and enrolled full time at a private or public South Carolina institution of higher education. Genre; Short fiction, poetry. "There is no restriction on content, but submissions may not exceed 15 pages double-spaced and must be either one original, unpublished short story or one excerpt from a longer, unpublished work. Submit up to 5 unpublished poems (totaling no more than 10 pages)." Prize: $250 and an invitation to be honored at the SCAA Induction Ceremony. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Genre: Fiction. Restrictions: Titles must be published in Canada and written by Canadians. No self-published works. Prize: $60,000 will be awarded to a novel or short-story collection published between February 26, 2025 and April 29, 2025. Prizes of $5,000 will be awarded to each of the finalists. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Baen Fantasy Adventure Award. Genre: Adventure fantasy, 8K words max. Prize: Winner will be published as the featured story on the Baen Books main website and paid at industry-standard rates for professional story submittals. The author will also receive a handsome engraved award and a prize package containing $500 of free Baen Books. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Erbacce-prize for Poetry (UK) Genre: Poetry collection. Prize: Winner will be given a publishing contract with erbacce press who will publish a perfect-bound collection of the winner's book. "We will pay all costs including the legal registering of the book and supplying copies to the major libraries. The book will be sold through our sales/shop pages and the poet will be paid 20% royalties." Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Contest for Canadian Youth. Restrictions: Open to Canadian citizens or residents attending junior high or high school. Genre: Poetry. Prize: C$400 in each of two age categories: Junior (grades 7-9) and Senior (grades 10-12). Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Author of Tomorrow. Restrictions: Open to children and youth up to age 21. Genre: Adventure writing. Prize: 11 and Under | 500 words | Prize: £100 plus £150 book tokens for your school; 12-15 years | 1,500 - 5,000 words | Prize: £100 plus £150 book tokens for your school; 16-21 years | 1,500 - 5,000 words. Prize: £1,000. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

CNO Naval History Essay Contest. Genre: Scholarly essay on naval history.  Prize: First Prize: $5,000. Second Prize:$2,500. Third Prize: $1,500. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Furphy Literary Award. Genre: Short stories up to 5000 words, Theme: Australian Life in all its diversity. Prize: First prize of $15,000 in the open category (2nd prize - $ 3,000,  3rd prize - $2,000.  A junior & youth category with a prize pool of $1800 will seek entries for short stories and poetry. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Ralph Angel Poetry Prize. Genre: Poetry. Prize: $250 and publication. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

E-waste 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 e-waste. Prize: $1000 scholarship. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Science Me A Story. Genre: Scientific stories or poems for children (ages 6-12) of up to four pages by authors over age 18. Stories can be in English or Spanish. Prize: £150, £100 or £50. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Toronto Book Awards. Genres: All genres accepted. Restrictions: Submission "must evoke the city itself, that is, contain some clear Toronto content (this may be reflected in the themes, settings, subjects, etc.). Authors do not necessarily have to reside in Toronto. Ebooks, textbooks and self-published works are not eligible. Prize: A total of $15,000 CD will be awarded. Each shortlisted author (usually 4-6) receives C$1,000 and the winning author is awarded the remainder. Deadline: April 30, 2025. (For books published between May 1, 2024, and May 31, 2025) 

Apex Flash Fiction Contest. Genre: Speculative fiction, 1000 words max. Prize: 8 cents/word or $10, which ever is greater. Deadline: April 30, 2025. Note: Apex Magazine’s Flash Fiction Contest is open from the 7th until the final day of each month. The contest is themed.

Al Blanchard Short Crime Story Award. Genre: Crime short story. 5,000 words maximum, with a New England setting (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) or by a New England writer. Mystery, thriller, suspense, caper, and horror genres all welcome. Prize: $100. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Preservation Foundation Essay Contest for Unpublished Writers. Restrictions: The contest is open to writers whose creative writing has never produced revenues of over $250 in any single year. Genre: Animal Nonfiction. “Stories should be factual and true accounts of an encounter or encounters by the author with a wild animal or animals. These include, but are not limited to, birds, fish, butterflies, snails, lions, bears, turtles, wombats, etc., as long as it is not a pet.” Prize: First prize is $200. Runners-up will receive $100. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

October Project. Genre: Poetry. Prizes: To be announced. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Descant. Each year, descant offers four awards:

• the $500 Frank O’Connor Award for fiction (for the best short story in a issue)
• the $250 Gary Wilson Award (for an outstanding story in an issue)
• the $500 Betsy Colquitt Award for poetry (for the best poem or series of poems by a single author in an issue)
• the $250 Baskerville Publishers Award (for an outstanding poem or poems by a single author in an issue

There is no application process or reading fee. All published submissions are eligible for prize consideration. Simply submit your work. Deadline: April 30, 2025.

Claudia Ann Seaman Awards For Young Writers. Restrictions: High school students. Genre: Stories and poems. Prize: $200. Deadline: April 30, 2025. Submissions are capped at 200, so submit early.

#GWstorieseverywhere. Genre: Micro fiction. Your story must be no longer than 25 words, with a max of 280 characters, including spaces and the hashtag. See themes. Prize: Free Gotham class. Deadline: April 30, 2025. 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: April 30, 2025. Reprints are ok so long as you still have the rights to distribute.