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Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we’ve published in the Grants & Awards section of Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it in the Writing Contests database, the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.

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Creative Writing Contests & Grants

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Winning a writing contest can bring you recognition and help get your work noticed by agents and editors. Our  Writing Contests, Grants & Awards database  offers a year’s worth of listings from  Poets & Writers Magazine , and connects poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers with the most comprehensive selection of contests that provide publication and/or funding for writers.

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5 Creative Writing Contests to Look Out For in 2023

4-minute read

• 31st December 2022

Whether you are a published or unpublished writer, creative writing contests are a great way to get your work to a larger audience while also taking home some cash prizes and getting published in top creative writing magazines and websites along the way. 

While there are many options for submitting your creative writing to contests around the globe , this article will look at 5 creative writing contests you can enter your original work into in 2023. 

1. Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2023 

Deadline: August 31, 2023.

Who may enter: Open to anyone.

Contest description:

●  The competition is organized by the international art and culture magazine Aesthetica .

●  The competition accepts works of fiction and poetry.

●  Fiction entries should be no more than 2,000 words.

●  Poetry entries should be no more than 40 lines.

●  You may submit work on any topic or theme.

●  All work should be in English.

Entry fees:

●  Poetry entries are £12.

●  Short fiction entries are £18.

●  The poetry winner receives £2,500.

●  The short fiction winner receives £2,500.

●  Both winners will have their works published in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual.

Official website:

Please visit the contest’s official website for more information on entry submission and requirements.

2. 2023 Bristol Short Story Prize 

Deadline: April 26, 2023.

Who may enter: Published and unpublished writers over the age of 16.

●  Your short story should be more than 4,000 words.

●  You may write your short story on any subject or theme and in any style.

●  Your short story must be in English.

●  The work you submit must not have been published, whether online or in print, or broadcast, or have won a prize in any other writing competition.

Entry fee: £9.

●  First prize £1,000.

●  Second prize £500.

●  Third prize £250.

●  Each of the 17 remaining shortlisted writers will receive £100.

●  20 stories will be published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology, Volume 16.

For more information on the contest’s submission guidelines and requirements, please visit the official website .

3. The Masters Review Winter Short Story Award for New Writers

Deadline: January 31, 2023.

Who may enter: All emerging writers.

●  The Masters Review , an American literary magazine and book publisher, is the organizer of this contest.

●  There is no theme.

●  Your short story should not exceed 6,000 words.

●  Your work should be unpublished.

●  Your work should be in English.

Entry fee: $20.

●  First place $3,000.

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●  Second place $300.

●  Third place $200.

●  All winners receive publication and agency review.

For more information regarding submission guidelines and requirements, please visit the Masters Review ’s official website .

4. Scottish Arts Club Short Story Competition 

Deadline: February 28, 2023.

●  This contest is organized by the Scottish Arts Club in Edinburgh, Scotland.

●  Your work must be in English.

●  Your submitted work must be unpublished in any format.

Entry fee: £10 per story.

●  First prize £3,000 (open to writers worldwide).

●  Second prize £500 (open to writers worldwide).

●  Third prize £250 (open to writers worldwide).

●  Isobel Lodge Award £750 (open to unpublished writers living in Scotland).

●  Write Mango Award £300 (open to writers worldwide).

●  Publication is offered to authors of the top 20 stories (or more) in the Club’s next anthology.

Please visit the Scottish Arts Trust’s official website for more information.

5. The Bridport Prize 2023 International Creative Writing Competition 

Deadline: May 31, 2022.

Who may enter: Anyone over the age of 16.

●  This contest is organized by the Bridport Arts Centre in Bridport, England.

●  This contest has five categories: poetry, short story, flash fiction, novel, and memoir.

○  Short story entries must be no more than 5,000 words.

○  Flash fiction entries must be no more than 250 words.

●  Your submitted work must be unpublished in any format, and must not have won or been placed in another writing competition.

Short story: £14 per short story.

Flash fiction: £11 per flash fiction.

●  Short story first place receives £5,000.

●  Short story second place receives £1,000.

●  Short story third place receives £500.

●  Highly commended 10 x £100.

●  Flash fiction first place receives £1,000.

●  Flash fiction second place receives £500.

●  Flash fiction third place receives £250.

For more information on all categories and submission guidelines and requirements, please visit the official website .

Be sure to check out Proofed’s writing blog for information on writing novels , poetry and fiction , and how to overcome writer’s block to make sure your writing is ready for submission.

If you need help with proofreading your creative writing, Proofed will proofread your first 500 words for free !

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Best Non Fiction Writing Contests in 2024

Showing 85 contests that match your search.

A Very Short Story Contest

Gotham Writers Workshop

Genres: Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Humor, Memoir, and Non-fiction

Write a great short story in ten words or fewer. Submit it to our contest. Entry is free. Winner of the bet gets a free Gotham class.

📅 Deadline: May 31, 2024

Solas Awards

Best Travel Writing

Genres: Essay, Non-fiction, and Travel

Extraordinary stories about travel and the human spirit have been the cornerstones of our books since 1993. With the Solas Awards we honor writers whose work inspires others to explore. We’re looking for the best stories about travel and the world. Funny, illuminating, adventurous, uplifting, scary, inspiring, poignant stories that reflect the unique alchemy that occurs when you enter unfamiliar territory and begin to see the world differently as a result. We hope these awards will be a catalyst for those who love to leave home and tell others about it.

Additional prizes:

Publication

💰 Entry fee: $25

📅 Deadline: September 21, 2024

Writing MAGIC

Sadie Tells Stories

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, and Young Adult

Are you an author who loves magic? Do you have an idea for a super short story that needs to be shared with the world? If you answered yes to both of those questions this contest is for you! The story can be about anything magical. Maybe it’s something that you’ve experienced in real life or it’s something you’ve created. Maybe it’s the start of a great idea. Maybe it’ll be the thing that inspires you to finally publish your book.

💰 Entry fee: $10

📅 Deadline: April 01, 2024 (Expired)

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Plan, write, edit, and format your book in our free app made for authors.

Learn more about Reedsy Studio .

The Porter Fleming Literary Competition

The Morris Museum of Art

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Script Writing

Welcome to the 2024 Porter Fleming Literary Competition, now in its twenty-ninth year of recognizing outstanding writing and writers. The competition honors the memory of Porter Fleming, one of Augusta, Georgia’s leading citizens and foremost philanthropists. The competition is administered, with the support of the Porter Fleming Foundation, by the Morris Museum of Art, the first museum in the country to focus on the art and artists of the American South. Writers, ages 18 and older, who reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington, D.C are invited to apply.

2nd place: $500 & 3rd place: $250 in each of the four genre categories

💰 Entry fee: $15

📅 Deadline: February 16, 2024 (Expired)

Crossings Travel Writing Competition

Intrepid Times

Genres: Non-fiction, Short Story, and Travel

Write an original, factual, first-person travel story that centers on a crossing of some kind. Your travel story should, as always, grow around the context of a place or experience; we want to see the theme being used in a way that enhances both. Editors will be looking for originality, voice, and a satisfying story arc that captures attention and makes use of imagery to pull the reader along at every step.

Publication in Intrepid Times

📅 Deadline: April 30, 2024

AWP Prize for Creative Nonfiction

Association of Writers & Writing Programs

Genres: Non-fiction

AWP sponsors the Award Series, an annual competition for the publication of excellent new book-length works. The competition is open to all authors writing in English regardless of nationality or residence, and is available to published and unpublished authors alike.

Publication by the University of Georgia Press

💰 Entry fee: $30

📅 Deadline: February 28, 2024 (Expired)

True Story Flash

FanStory.com Inc.

Genres: Flash Fiction and Non-fiction

Share your flash fiction story. But for this contest we aren't looking for fiction. Rather share your true story with only 100 words. Cash prize!

📅 Deadline: May 27, 2022 (Expired)

Clash of the Query Letters

Darling Axe Editing

Genres: Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, Novel, Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Novella, Romance, Science Fiction, Thriller, and Young Adult

Our judge, Michelle Barker, will be asking herself one question: does this query letter convince me that I'm in the hands of an adept novelist with a unique and engaging story to tell?

CAD $200 for 2nd place, $100 for 3rd place

💰 Entry fee: $4

📅 Deadline: January 31, 2024 (Expired)

South Warwickshire Literary Festival Writing Competition

South Warwickshire Literary Festival

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Short Story

Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction 800 words, Poetry 40 lines, any genre any style. Over 16s only

Read entry at literary festival, September 2024 UK

💰 Entry fee: $5

📅 Deadline: March 29, 2024 (Expired)

Mark Lynton History Prize

Columbia Journalism School

The Mark Lynton History Prize, in the amount of $10,000, is awarded to a book­-length work of history on any topic that best combines intellectual distinction with felicity of expression. Books must have been published in the United States between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023.

💰 Entry fee: $75

📅 Deadline: December 07, 2023 (Expired)

Climate Change Writing Competition

Write the World

Genres: Essay, Memoir, and Non-fiction

This month, dear writers, ahead of COP27, help us raise the voices of young people in this urgent fight. In a piece of personal narrative, tell the world’s leaders gathering in how climate change impacts you. How has this crisis changed your environment, your community, your sense of the future? Storytelling, after all, plays a critical role in helping us grasp the emergency through which we are all living, igniting empathy in readers and listeners—itself a precursor to action.

Runner-up: $50

📅 Deadline: October 18, 2022 (Expired)

Red Hen Press Women's Prose Prize

Red Hen Press

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, Short Story, Essay, Memoir, and Novel

Established in 2018, the Women’s Prose Prize is for previously unpublished, original work of prose. Novels, short story collections, memoirs, essay collections, and all other forms of prose writing are eligible for consideration. The awarded manuscript is selected through a biennial competition, held in even-numbered years, that is open to all writers who identify as women.

Publication by Red Hen Press

Narrative Prize

Narrative Magazine

The Narrative Prize is awarded annually for the best short story, novel excerpt, poem, one-act play, graphic story, or work of literary nonfiction published by a new or emerging writer in Narrative. The submission system is open all year.

💰 Entry fee: $27

📅 Deadline: June 15, 2024

Journalism Competition 2024

Genres: Essay and Non-fiction

What are the most important issues taking place close to home? Perhaps a rare bird sighting near your town? Or a band of young people in your province fighting for access to higher education? This month, immerse yourself in a newsworthy event inside the borders of your own country, and invite us there through your written reporting.

Runner up: $50 | Best peer review: $50

📅 Deadline: July 22, 2024

High School Academic Research Competition

Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal

The High School Academic Research Competition is where talented students from around the world compete to publish high-quality research on any topic. SARC challenges students to sharpen their critical thinking skills, immerse themselves in the research process, and hone their writing skills for success.

Indigo Research Intensive Summer Program

📅 Deadline: March 20, 2024 (Expired)

Reader Views Literary Awards

Reader Views

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

The Reader Views Literary Awards program helps level the playing field for self-published authors, recognizing the most creative and exciting new books in the industry. Our awards program is recognized industry-wide as one of the top literary awards programs for independent authors.

Several marketing prizes (e.g. book review)

💰 Entry fee: $89

📅 Deadline: December 15, 2024

The Restless Books Prize For New Immigrant Writing

Restless Books

Genres: Fiction and Non-fiction

The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing was created in 2016 to honor outstanding debut literary works by first-generation immigrants, awarded for fiction and nonfiction in alternating years. The winner receives $10,000 and publication by Restless Books.

Publication by Restless Books

📅 Deadline: May 31, 2025

Stories of Inspiration

Kinsman Avenue Publishing, Inc

Nonfiction stories of inspiration wanted (between 500 to 2,000 words). Submissions should highlight the struggle and resilience of the human spirit, especially related to cultures of BIPOC or marginalized communities. Stories must be original, unpublished works in English. One successful entry will be awarded each month from April 2024 and will be included within Kinsman Quarterly’s online journal and digital magazine. Successful authors receive $200 USD and publication in our digital magazine. No entry fee required.

Publication in Kinsman Quarterly's online magazine

📅 Deadline: December 31, 2024

Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction

Lambda Literary

Genres: LGBTQ and Non-fiction

Lambda Literary’s Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction, in memory of the beloved activist and author, honors lesbian/queer-identified women and trans/gender non-conforming nonfiction authors. The award will go to a writer committed to nonfiction work that captures the depth and complexity of lesbian/queer life, culture, and/or history.

Storytrade Book Awards

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Script Writing, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

The Storytrade Book Awards recognizes excellence in small and independent publishing. Open to all indie authors and publishers including self-published authors, university presses, and small or independent presses, our annual awards program spotlights outstanding books in a number of fiction and nonfiction categories.

Medal, Book Stickers, Digital Seal

📅 Deadline: June 30, 2024

F(r)iction Contests

Brink Literacy Project

Genres: Flash Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Short Story

For our contests, we seek writing that pushes boundaries and challenges us to think differently. We like work that features complex characters and strong narratives, and plays with genre, setting, voice, you name it. For Spring 2024, we have Wole Talabi judging Short Story, Sherrie Flick judging Flash Fiction, C. S. E. Cooney judging Poetry, and Marin Sardy judging Creative Nonfiction.

📅 Deadline: November 03, 2024

Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest

Winning Writers

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, and Short Story

Welcome to the 31st annual Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest. Submit published or unpublished work. $9,000 in prizes.

Two-year gift certificate from Duotrope; 10 Honorable Mentions will receive $300 each

💰 Entry fee: $22

📅 Deadline: May 01, 2024

The Letter Review Prize for Nonfiction

The Letter Review

Genres: Essay, Memoir, Non-fiction, Crime, Humor, and Science Writing

2-4 Winners are published. We Shortlist 10-20 writers. Seeking Nonfiction 0-5000 words. Judges’ feedback available. Open to writers from anywhere in the world, with no theme or genre restrictions. Judged blind. All entries considered for publication + submission to Pushcart.

Publication by The Letter Review

💰 Entry fee: $2

100 Word Writing Contest

Tadpole Press

Genres: Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Thriller, Young Adult, Children's, Poetry, Romance, Short Story, Suspense, and Travel

Can you write a story using 100 words or less? Pieces will be judged on creativity, uniqueness, and how the story captures a new angle, breaks through stereotypes, and expands our beliefs about what's possible or unexpectedly delights us. In addition, we are looking for writing that is clever or unique, inspires us, and crafts a compelling and complete story. The first-place prize has doubled to $2,000 USD.

2nd: writing coach package

IndieReader Discovery Awards

IndieReader

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, and Novel

Where talented authors meet publishing professionals with the power to make a difference in the success of their books. Every author who enters a title in the IR Discovery Awards will receive a verdict, written by an IndieReader reviewer and based on their assessment after reading the complete book.

$500, publicist consultation service, Reedsy credit, custom author website

💰 Entry fee: $150

📅 Deadline: February 14, 2024 (Expired)

The Letter Review Prize for Unpublished Books

Genres: Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

Free to enter. Seeking 0-5000 word (poetry: 15 pgs) excerpts of unpublished books (Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction), including most self-published and indie-published works. 2-4 Winners (publication of extract is optional). We Shortlist 10-20 writers. Open to writers from anywhere in the world, with no theme or genre restrictions. Judged blind.

Optional Publication of Excerpt, Letter of Recommendation

Literary and Photographic Contest 2023-2024

Hispanic Culture Review

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, and Poetry

As we move forward we carry our culture wherever we go. It keeps us alive. This is why we propose the theme to be “¡Hacia delante!”. A phrase that means to move forward. This year we ask that you think about the following questions: What keeps you moving forward? What do you carry with you going into the future? How do you celebrate your successes, your dreams, and your culture?

Publication in magazine

📅 Deadline: February 07, 2024 (Expired)

The Letter Review Prize for Reprints

Letter Review

We're seeking Stories, Poems, and works of Nonfiction which have been previously published, and are not currently available to read online. Far too often excellent writing experiences a brief moment in the sun, and disappears for good (either out of print, behind a paywall, or to sit on a dusty shelf). As part of The Letter Review's committment to open access, we are here to celebrate these works, and give them a second chance by republishing them online, hopefully assisting them to shine forever.

💰 Entry fee: $20

📅 Deadline: December 31, 2023 (Expired)

Askew's Word on the Lake Writing Contest

Shuswap Association of Writers

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, Essay, Memoir, and Short Story

Whether you’re an established or emerging writer, the Askew’s Word on the Lake Writing Contest has a place for you. Part of the Word on the Lake Writers’ Festival in Salmon Arm, BC, the contest is open to submissions in short fiction (up to 2,000 words), nonfiction (up to 2,000 words), and poetry (up to three one-page poems).

💰 Entry fee: $11

4th Annual Wine Country Writers' Festival Writing Contest

Wine Country Writers' Festival Society

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, and Poetry

Welcome to the 4th Annual Wine Country Writers' Festival (WCWF) writing contest. Three Categories and Over $1800 total value in cash and prizes to be awarded. Opens April 01/24 and Closes June 02/24 (1159pm PST--Vancouver/Seattle time). Enter your short fiction or nonfiction (2000 words max) or up to 48 lines of poetry. Or purchase the 2 for $25 and enter a poem and a short story or two stories... You decide. Judged blindly by professional writers. Profiles on the website. Winning entries will be published in the 4th Annual WCWF Anthology. Winners will receive a copy. No previously published or winning works. No AI.

Free registration package to the Wine Country Writers' Festival

📅 Deadline: June 02, 2024

The Book of the Year Awards

The Independent Author Network

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Thriller, Young Adult, Crime, and Short Story

The Independent Author Network presents the 10th Annual IAN Book of the Year Awards, an international contest open to all authors with 55 fiction and non-fiction categories. Winners are eligible to receive a share of cash prizes of $6,000 USD. Open to all English language print and eBooks available for sale, including small presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses, and self-published authors.

$6,000.00 USD in total cash prizes

💰 Entry fee: $49

📅 Deadline: August 16, 2024

Book Pipeline Unpublished Contest

Book Pipeline

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Non-fiction, Science Fiction, and Young Adult

Launched in 2014, Book Pipeline connects writers worldwide with publishers, editors, agents, and the film industry. Through two submission platforms—Unpublished and Adaptation—the company seeks both new and established authors. For over 22 years, Pipeline has bridged the gap between up-and-coming writers and the industry through a unique, long-term, hands-on facilitation process. The result thus far has been $8 million in scripts sold to studios and networks since 1999.

💰 Entry fee: $45

📅 Deadline: August 20, 2024

Hispanic Culture Review Contest 2022-2023

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, Short Story, and Flash Fiction

As the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano once said, "the best that the world has is in the many worlds that the world contains." Therefore, this year we invite you to reflect on the following questions: How do you or your community celebrate these connections? How do you value those experiences with those people who leave a mark on your life? 1 work will be awarded in each category: 1) photography & visual arts, 2) poetry, and 3) narrative/essay/academic investigation.

💰 Entry fee: $0

📅 Deadline: February 01, 2023 (Expired)

Young Sports Journalist 2024

The Young Sports Journalist Competition, 2024, seeks well-argued articles from aspiring journalists aged 14-21. Winning entries will be published online and printed in the Summer Issue of Pitch. Critiqued by our panel of accomplished judges, winners will also receive a £50 cash prize and offered work experience here at PITCH HQ. The competition runs from 7 February 2024 to 5 April 2024. And winners will be announced in May.

Publication in magazine and online

📅 Deadline: April 05, 2024

International Voices in Creative Nonfiction Competition

Vine Leaves Press

Genres: Essay, Memoir, Non-fiction, and Novel

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 this writing competition.

Book publication

📅 Deadline: July 01, 2024

Related Resources:

• Nonfiction: 24 Genres and Types of Fact-Based Books (blog post)
• Outlining a Nonfiction Book: 3 Steps to Success (blog post)
• How to Write a Nonfiction Book in 6 Steps (blog post)
• How to Publish a Nonfiction Book: Land a Book Deal in 5 Steps (blog post)

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Looking for a Writing Contest to Enter?

Hannah Yang

Writing contests can be a useful way to send your work out into the world. With a strong submission and a bit of luck, you can win publication, recognition, and even cash prizes.

This article will give you the inside scoop on the most high-quality writing contests to enter.

Are Writing Contests Worth Entering?

What are some writing contests that are free to enter, how can i increase my chances of winning, where can i find more writing contests.

Entering writing contests can be useful for several reasons:

• They give you a deadline and often even a prompt to write about , which many writers find motivating
• The results can help you get a sense of where you are on your writing journey and how you can improve your craft
• Winning a contest can be a fantastic boost to your journey as a writer

On the other hand, it’s important to keep in mind that it takes a lot of luck to win a contest, since there are usually only a few winners chosen from among hundreds of strong contestants.

If your goal is to get your writing published, you’ll likely fare better by submitting to magazines and anthologies than by entering contests.

Download our free eBook on how to publish your writing

If your goal is to make money, you should prioritize freelance writing jobs instead.

With that being said, there are many incredible writing contests out there that can absolutely be worth your while, as long as you enter with realistic expectations.

Many writing contests cost fees to enter, since they give out cash prizes and hire guest judges that they need to pay for their time.

Charging an entry fee doesn’t necessarily mean the contest is a scam. It does mean, however, that you need to be judicious about which contests to submit your work to.

Free writing contests are more accessible to all writers, and there’s nothing to lose from giving them a shot.

We’ve compiled a list of legitimate, high-quality writing contests that charge no entry fees.

Prose Weekly Challenge

Prose, a social network for readers and writers, offers weekly challenges meant to spark your creativity. This is a fun, low-stakes challenge, with a small cash prize to sweeten the deal.

Prize: Each week’s winner receives $100. Guidelines: Submit a short piece of writing (up to 500 words) related to the weekly prompt. Deadline: Weekly.

Prime Number Magazine 53-Word Story Contest

Press 53’s Prime Number Magazine hosts a monthly micro-fiction contest based on a theme.

All stories must be exactly 53 words long. There’s no cash prize, but this can be a fun and low-stakes contest to participate in if you’ve got some spare time and are looking for a writing prompt.

Prize: Publication, a free book from Press 53. Guidelines: Submit a 53-word story based on a monthly prompt. Open to writers around the world who write in English. Deadline: Monthly on the 15th of each month.

Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction

The Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction is an annual short story contest co-hosted by Comma Press and the University of Central Lancashire.

If you live in the UK and are interested in crime stories, this is a great contest to consider, with a £500 for the winner and publication for the runners-up.

Prize: £500 ($692) for first place, and publication for 10 shortlisted authors. Guidelines: Submit a short story (between 2,000 and 6,000 words). The theme for the 2022 Prize is "Crime Stories." Only residents of the UK age 18 or older are eligible. Deadline: October 29, 2021.

Commonwealth Short Fiction Prize

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is an annual short fiction contest administered by the Commonwealth Foundation.

If you’re a short story writer and a citizen of a Commonwealth country, this contest is a fantastic option, with a generous £5,000 cash prize for the winner.

Prize: £5,000 ($6,922) for the overall winner and £2,500 ($3,461) for regional winners. Guidelines: Entrants must be citizens of a Commonwealth country and age 18 or over. Submit a short story (between 2,000 and 5,000 words). As well as English, stories are accepted in the Bengali, Chinese, French, Greek, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Tamil, and Turkish languages. Translated entries from any language into English are also eligible. Deadline: November 1, 2021.

ServiceScape Short Story Award

ServiceScape is a platform that matches freelance writers, editors, and graphic designers with clients. They offer a yearly Short Story Award with a $1,000 prize.

Prize: $1,000 for first place and publication on the ServiceScape blog. Guidelines: Accepts original, unpublished work (5,000 words or fewer) in any genre, fiction or non-fiction. Writers must be age 18 or older. Deadline: November 29, 2021.

The Roswell Award

The Roswell Award is an annual science fiction contest with a $500 prize, co-presented by Sci-Fest L.A. and the Light Bringer Project.

This is a great option if you like using your writing to unite the worlds of science and art.

Prize: $500 for first place, $250 for second place, and $100 for third place. Guidelines: Submit a science fiction story. Open to writers around the world age 16 or older. Writers are encouraged to explore scientific, social, technological, environmental, and philosophical themes in their writing and always, at the core, to master the art of great storytelling. Deadline: December 21, 2021.

L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest

The Writers of the Future Contest is the most enduring and influential contest in the history of science fiction and fantasy.

The contest is held once every three months, with a generous $1,000 prize.

Prize: $1,000 for first place, $750 for second place, and $500 for third place. Guidelines: Submissions must be short stories or novelettes (up to 17,000 words) in the genre of science fiction or fantasy. Open to new and amateur writers around the world. Deadline: Quarterly on December 31, March 31, June 30, and September 30.

Find Out More

Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award

The Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award is an annual contest, co-hosted by the National Space Society and Baen Books, for stories about manned space exploration.

If you’re interested in the role that science fiction plays in advancing real science, this is a great option that pays professional rates.

Prize: Professional paying rates (8 cents per word). The winner’s story will be published as the featured story on the Baen Books main website. The winner will also receive free entry into 2020 International Space Development Conference and a prize package with various Baen Books and National Space Society merchandise. Guidelines: Submit a short story (up to 8,000 words) that shows the near future (no more than about 50-60 years out) of manned space exploration. The judges want to see moon bases, Mars colonies, orbital habitats, space elevators, asteroid mining, artificial intelligence, nano-technology, realistic spacecraft, heroics, sacrifice, and/or adventure. Open to writers around the world who write in English. Deadline: TBD 2022 (the previous year’s deadline was February 1, 2021).

The Fountain Essay Contest

Fountain Magazine holds an annual contest for essays related to the personal challenges you’ve faced in your life.

Challenges can span from moving across the country and starting at a new high school or getting out of bed in the morning while undergoing depression. There are generous cash prizes for the winners.

Prize: $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place, $300 for third place, and $150 each for two honorable mentions. Guidelines: Submit a personal essay (between 1,500 and 2,500 words) on the annual theme. All writers worldwide are eligible. Deadline: TBD 2022 (the previous year’s deadline was March 1, 2021).

The Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize

Every year, The Alpine Fellowship awards writing, visual arts, and theater prizes related to an annual theme.

This is an extremely competitive fellowship, with global recognition for the winner and a whopping £10,000 first place prize.

Prize: £10,000 ($13,840) for first place, £3,000 ($4,150) for second place, and £2,000 ($2,770) for third place. Guidelines: Submit a piece of writing related to the annual theme (2021’s was "Untamed: On Wilderness and Civilization"). Entries must be unpublished and a maximum of 2,500 words. Poetry, prose, or non-academic essays welcome. Deadline: TBD 2022 (the previous year’s deadline was April 1, 2021).

Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest

The Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest is a contest for humor poems. This is a really fun contest if you like wordplay and witticisms, and you might even win $2,000.

Prize: $2,000 for first place, $500 for second place, and $100 each to 10 honorable mentions. Guidelines: Writers of all ages can submit an original, humorous poem with 250 lines or less. The poem you submit should be in English. Inspired gibberish is also accepted. Deadline: April 1, 2022.

Parsec Short Story Contest

Parsec Ink holds an annual contest for science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories from non-professional writers, with a small cash prize for the winners.

Prize: $200 for first place, $100 for second place, and $50 for third place. Guidelines: Submit a short story (up to 3,500 words) based on the annual theme. The 2022 theme has not yet been announced. (The 2021 theme was "Still Waters, Deep Thoughts"). Deadline: TBD 2022 (the previous year’s deadline was April 15, 2021).

Bacopa Literary Review Contest

Bacopa Literary Review is an international journal published by the Writers Alliance of Gainesville. They hold an annual contest that welcomes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.

Prize: $300 for first place and $100 for second place in each of four genres: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, and Prose Poetry. Guidelines: Submit a piece of writing in one of the four genres. You can find detailed guidelines for each genre on the website. Deadline: TBD 2022 (the previous year’s deadline was May 31, 2021).

Stony Brook Southampton Short Fiction Prize

The Stony Brook Southampton Short Fiction Prize is a short story contest specifically for college students.

If you’re an undergraduate and want to try a writing contest, this is a fantastic option because you have a smaller set of competitors.

Prize: $1,000, a scholarship to the 2021 Southampton Writers’ Conference, and consideration for publication in TSR: The Southampton Review . Guidelines: Only full-time undergraduates in United States and Canadian universities and colleges are eligible. Submissions must be short fiction (7,500 words or less). Deadline: June 1, 2022.

Insecure Writer’s Support Group Annual Anthology Contest

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group holds an annual contest for short stories based on a theme.

There’s no cash prize, but all winning stories are published in their anthology, and you can receive royalties from sales.

Prize: Winning stories will be edited and published, and authors will receive royalties from the anthology. Guidelines: Submit a short story (between 5,000 and 6,000 words) related to the annual theme. Deadline: TBD 2022 (the previous year’s deadline was September 1, 2021).

Hektoen Grand Prix Essay Contest

Hektoen International, an online journal dedicated to medical humanities, holds an annual contest for essays related to medicine, with a generous $5,000 cash prize.

Prize: $5,000 for the winner and $2,500 for the runner-up. Guidelines: Submit a short essay (up to 1,500 words) on any topic so long as it has a relation to medicine. The essay can include art, history, literature, education, and more. Writers must be age 18 or older. Deadline: TBD 2022 (the previous year’s deadline was September 15, 2021).

Owl Canyon Press Short Story Hackathon

Owl Canyon Press holds an annual “ hackathon ” for 20-paragraph stories, with a $1,000 prize.

The contest provides the first and last paragraph and the short story writer crafts the rest.

Prize: $1,000 for first place, $750 for second place, and $500 for third place. Publication in a short story anthology for 24 finalists. Guidelines: Writers are invited to create and submit a short story consisting of 20 paragraphs. The contest provides the 1st and 20th paragraphs, and the short story writer crafts the rest. There is no entry fee for submissions received during the first month of the contest. Deadline: TBD 2022 (last year’s deadline was September 30, 2020).

Transitions Abroad Expatriate and Work Abroad Writing Contest

The Transitions Abroad Writing Contest is an annual contest for essays related to your experience abroad. If you’ve ever lived and worked abroad, this is a great contest with a $500 cash prize.

Prize: $500 for first place, $150 for second place, $100 for third place, and $50 for all finalists. Guidelines: Submit a practical and inspiring essay or mini-guide (between 1,200 and 5,000 words) that provides in-depth descriptions of your experience moving, living, and working abroad (including any form of work such as teaching English, internships, volunteering, short-term jobs, etc.). The contest is open to writers from any location around the globe. Deadline: TBD 2022 (last year’s deadline was October 15, 2020).

Writing Battle Summer Flash Fiction

Writing Battle is a quarterly contest where writers are assigned prompts and have 2 days to write 1000 words. You are guaranteed feedback from you writing peers, plus you can win some money

Prize: $5,000 split between the four winners and publication.

Guidelines: Accepts original, unpublished work that matches the prompts and genre assigned. Writers must be aged 18 or older.

Deadline: August 7, 2022

Atlas Shrugged Novel Essay Contest

The Atlas Shrugged novel essay contest is open to all students globally. Atlas Shrugged is a heroic mystery novel written by Ayn Rand. Choose a prompt and write a 800-1,600 word essay in English. First prize: $10,000; 3 second prizes: $2,000; 5 third prizes: $1,000; 25 finalists: $100; 50 semi-finalists: $50.

Prize: First prize: $10,000, 3 second prizes: $2,000, 5 third prizes: $1,000, 25 finalists: $100, 50 semi-finalists: $50.

Guidelines: Choose a prompt and write an 800–1,600 word essay in English. All students globally can apply.

Deadline: Annually on November 6

Each of these contests has different requirements. What works for one probably will not work for another.

But what will increase your chance in every contest is good grammar and a solid structure. This is where ProWritingAid can help.

We may not be able to write your story for you, but we can help you submit your best work.

ProWritingAid’s 25 reports provide personalized, in-depth feedback on everything from grammar and spelling to pacing, word choice, passive voice, and more.

Sign up for a free account to see how ProWritingAid can help you.

There are many resources for writers that compile lists of writing contests. You should check these regularly, as different writing contests have different submission periods.

Some of my favorite resources include:

• Poets & Writers
• Winning Writers

With many writers’ sites, you can filter for free contests specifically, and you can also filter by the type of work you want to submit.

I usually check these sites once a season (fall, winter, spring, summer) to compile a list of the contests I want to submit to.

Do you have a favorite writing contest? Let us know in the comments.

FREE WEBINAR: How to Improve Your Chances of Winning the Debut Dagger , Nov 11, 2pm ET / 7pm UK

Have you been thinking about entering your story for the CWA Debut Dagger this year? The deadline isn’t until the end of February but we want to help you prepare.

We’ve invited Dea Parkin, Secretary of the Crime Writers’ Association, and Leigh Russell, Chair of the Debut Dagger judges, to come and share their insider information. Learn what the judges are looking for and how to give your story the best shot at winning.

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Hannah Yang is a speculative fiction writer who writes about all things strange and surreal. Her work has appeared in Analog Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, The Dark, and elsewhere, and two of her stories have been finalists for the Locus Award. Her favorite hobbies include watercolor painting, playing guitar, and rock climbing. You can follow her work on hannahyang.com, or subscribe to her newsletter for publication updates.

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7 Tips That Can Help You Win A Creative Writing Contest

by Writer's Relief Staff | Other Helpful Information , Submit A Short Story Or Essay , Submit Your Writing , Submitting Your Poetry , The Writing Life , Writing Contests | 3 comments

Review Board is now open! Submit your Short Prose, Poetry, and Book today!

Deadline: thursday, february 22nd.

Writing contests can be intimidating. Some writers think, “I’ll never win,” and ignore contests completely. But— surprise! —some writing contests are easier to win than others, but only if you know how to put the odds in your favor. Writer’s Relief manages our clients’ submissions to writing contests, and guess what? They regularly place or even win.

Here Are Some Strategies Our Clients Use To Win Creative Writing Contests In All Genres!

Exploit your niche. There’s a specialized creative writing contest out there for just about every writer and every subject. And the more specialized, the better! When you enter a contest that has a limited number of entrants due to restrictions, you increase your odds of scoring a win. The key is knowing which contests are open to your particular type of writing (and that’s where Writer’s Relief’s submission management comes in handy!). Hint: You can find a fantastic list of creative writing contests here.

Choose an emotional topic.  Judges get bleary-eyed reading page after page of the “same old, same old” work that’s typically submitted to writing contests. So make your readers’ hearts race. Make them laugh or weep with misery. Keep in mind: Sometimes, the most deeply emotional moments of our lives are subtle and quiet…but sometimes they’re as noisy as an 18-wheeler full of sea lions crashing into a gong shop! Whatever tactic you choose, go for the judge’s emotional jugular.

Proofread. You’d think this tip goes without saying, yet here we are saying it—again! At Writer’s Relief, we’re very selective about our client list. All applicants must submit a writing sample prior to admission, which means we read a LOT of submissions. Believe us when we say, a little proofreading will go a LONG way toward impressing the right people. You’d be surprised how many writers overlook this step.

Follow the submission guidelines. Again, this tip should be a no-brainer. But because writing contests tend to have submission guidelines that are a bit persnickety, some writers deliberately overlook the “little things” when it comes to following the rules. Keep in mind: Submissions that DON’T follow the guidelines are usually disqualified right from the start. If your writing contest submission meets the guidelines, pat yourself on the back for a job well done. The odds are in your favor!

Enter a wide range of writing contests. While it would be great to win a “big name” writing contest , smart writers know not to ignore contests that are less well-known. Winning a small contest could mean big things for your writing career—exposure, connections, and of course, prize money! Submitting to a range of contests maximizes the likelihood that you’ll win one of them.

Enter writing that is appropriate for the contest. While there are many no-fee writing contests out there, most contests require writers to pay an entry fee. So it doesn’t make sense to enter a contest that isn’t a very good fit for your particular submission. But— but! —there’s a caveat to avoiding contests that don’t seem like a “perfect” fit. If you’re on the fence, submit anyway (after all, you can’t intimately know the judges’ tastes!). Just be realistic: Don’t submit a poem about dogs to a writing contest about cats.

Surprise your readers. Take risks. Go out on a limb. Do something unexpected and refreshing . When it comes  to creative writing submissions, editors have “seen it all.” Show them something new and you’ll be ahead of the pack.

Remember: Submissions Are a Numbers Game

If you don’t win the first few writing contests that you submit to, don’t lose hope. Judges base their decisions on subjective responses—so keep sending submissions! The only way to win a creative writing contest is to enter. And if you follow our tips, you’ll be ahead of the game.

I’ve read somewhere that it’s important to get as close to the max word count without going over. I’ve won several awards and I always do that. Thanks for your help.

I’ve run small writing contest in the past and the one thing I can tell you is a lot of skilled writers play it too safe. If you want your writing to stand out over 100 other entries you need to take risk. Even if you don’t win, your entry will stand out. Trust me!

What risk do you really mean?

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How to win a creative writing competition - top tips

Joe Craig, author of the Jimmy Coates spy series and judge of the National Short Story Week young writer competition, has some tips for budding young writers on avoiding common creative writing pitfalls and how to stand out from the crowd

Read The Promise, the winner of the National Short Story Week young writer competition 2015

Standing out is hard. Sometimes you just want to blend in and stick with whatever everybody else is doing. Creative writing competitions are not those times.

I’ve judged a lot of competitions for young writers, which means I’ve read through thousands of stories, each one trying to stand out. But so many of them fall into the same traps. So often I spot a promising story and wish I could give the writer just a couple of simple pointers that would take their writing above the competition.

Here are the tips I find myself screaming into my hands as I read those entries. Each one is an understandable mistake, and most of them don’t come up in English lessons at school.

Standing out will still be hard, because it takes a little extra time and extra thought to create something original. But if you follow these tips, you’ll give yourself the best chance of finding a spark of something special. Good luck.

(Oh, and the most important one is number 6…)

1. Don’t start with the weather

It’s an easy way to start, isn’t it? A lovely warm-up for the mind and typing fingers to ease yourself into the story, like spewing out “once upon a time” yet again.

It was a bright, sunny day… It was a dark and stormy night… It was rather chilly with a brisk easterly and a 50% chance of precipitation…

Nobody cares. I don’t even pay attention to weather reports in my real life, let alone take an interest in what’s happening in the sky above fictional characters I haven’t met yet. Start with one of two things, and preferably both: People and conflict. Those two things are the essence of any story. People and conflict. That’s all the reader (your judge) cares about. People and conflict will drive your story forward, will be the essence of everything you write. So start with people and conflict.

(The only possible reason to start with the weather is if your story is ABOUT the weather – perhaps it’s a disaster story about a big storm, or a survival story where extreme conditions threaten an expedition. But even if you think your story is about the weather, it’s really about the people, isn’t it? People in conflict with their environment. So don’t start with the weather.)

2. Cut your first paragraph

It’s amazing how many stories are instantly improved by simply covering up the first paragraph. Try it. Your first paragraph is probably about the weather, anyway.

Or your brain found some other way of warming up. Or you were so excited you just had to tell me some crucial information in the first few lines. Well, that information is not as crucial as you thought it was. It can wait. The right moment will come up later in your story for you to SHOW me that information about your world. Or, even better, I’ll have worked it out for myself from the way you’ve written everything else.

Readers are two things: bright but impatient. It’s OK to plunge us straight into your story without explaining – straight into the conflict (see point one). So once you think you’ve finished your story, go back and see what happens if you cover up your first paragraph. Or cover up your first two paragraphs. Or three. Or scan your first page looking for the most arresting opening line. It’s there somewhere. You might not have realised it was the perfect opening line when you wrote it, but you can find it now and cut everything that comes before it.

3. Don’t write a “spooky story”

Spooky stories are wonderful. But for a writing competition they give you a lot of problems. First, everybody thinks they can write them. But you should want to stand out. Second, it’s very hard to come up with anything spooky that hasn’t already been done a million times. So how can you make your story unpredictable?

But the biggest problem is going to be your ending. Spooky things are usually spooky because they can’t be explained – the supernatural curse, the face at the window, the ghosts and ghouls from beyond our world… So once you reveal what’s behind the spooky stuff it feels like an anticlimax. And if you don’t reveal what’s behind your spooky stuff, what do you end with? You end with dot, dot, dot of course.

Almost two in three stories by young writers that I read for competitions are spooky stories that ‘end’ with a thrilling moment of danger and then… that’s it. No resolution, no explanation, no fun of seeing how the character fights back (or fails to) just the dreaded dot, dot, dot… I can usually guess from the first line whether a story is going to “end” with a dot, dot, dot.

Dot, dot dot is not an ending. It’s a beginning. If you really love the spooky situation you’ve come up with, start your story where you’ve written your dot, dot, dot. Develop it from there, then give me a wonderful, satisfying ending that I wasn’t expecting but which makes sense of everything that’s come before.

Setting up a spooky mystery is easy. I, your judge, will give you no credit for it. Setting up a spooky mystery unlike anything I’ve read before is a bit harder. I’ll still give you very little credit for it. I’m mean. Unravelling a mystery in a satisfying, surprising way… that’s hard. You’re going to need a brilliant twist. Try it if you dare…

4. Avoid celebrities or characters that already exist

Recently I was running a writing workshop for a group of students who had all written stories in preparation for the day with me. The first thing I did was to ask them to put up a hand if they’d written a story about a footballer. About a quarter of the room put their hands up. Then I asked them to keep their hands up if their stories were about either Ronaldo or Messi. All the hands stayed up.

This is pretty typical. And it’s understandable too: it’s easy to plug in a celebrity or existing character to your story. Of course it is. You don’t have to do any of the work of creating a character from scratch. You know a bit about the person so you can imagine them in a story. The same applies to characters from fairy tales or from popular stories that already exist.

I was recently judging a creative writing competition for a big network of hundreds of international schools. Thousands of students from all over the world write stories for this competition every year, and every year the organisation compiles a list of the characters or character names that crop up over and over. Most popular this year: Cinderella. Closely followed by, guess who, Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. There were superheroes on the list too, including Superman, Batman, The Hulk and One Direction (yes, of course they count as superheroes). James Bond was there, alongside, for some reason, the Tooth Fairy.

So think twice before grabbing an existing character or personality for your story. Fan fiction is great, and a wonderful way to start out as a writer. It can help you hone your skills and be a launchpad for your own imaginative journeys. But it’s not going to win a creative writing competition.

If you want to write about Harry Potter, or a footballer or superhero or celebrity, it doesn’t take that much extra time and imagination to use someone you’ve heard of as a starting point but then tweak it. Make it your own. Change the name. Change the situation. What are you really trying to say about that character? Try exaggerating an aspect of the personality to make your point bolder. Or, for a quick fix, mash two things together: a footballer superhero. A boy band that goes round after dark collecting people’s teeth. Suddenly, you’re in fresh territory and you won’t see your characters crop up on a list of what everybody else is writing.

5. Calm down. Keep it simple. Your words are giving me a headache.

When writing competitions are split into age categories, I see a really odd trend in the stories. Writers in the older age groups try to show me how well they can use fancy words. The younger writers are better at telling a story. Which do you think is more important? If you’re in the older age-group category, you might find that a tricky question. It isn’t. The story is ALWAYS more important.

Writing a good story is not the same thing as writing to get ticks from an English teacher. All those fancy words, the complicated constructions, the flowery images… cut them. Pretend you’re still a young kid who just wants to hear a story. Focus on that.

Want an easy way to work out whether you’re overwriting? Count your adjectives. Try to limit yourself to a couple per page. More than one per sentence is definitely not a good idea. Count your adverbs too. Then cut all of them.

There’s always a better way of SHOWING me your story than just TELLING me what to imagine by using an adjective or adverb. And the more syllables there are in your adjectives, the more they’re getting in the way of your story.

So calm down with your thesaurus. Nobody’s trying to break the English language into a new dimension. We just want to hear a story.

6. Write an ending

Remember why I warned you not to write a spooky story? Remember the dreaded dot, dot, dot…? Well, it turns out endings are difficult no matter what kind of story you’re writing. But remember this: if your story doesn’t have an ending, you haven’t written a story. At best, you’ve written a set-up. If you’re entering a story-writing competition, you’re going to need to write a story, and that means you need an ending.

Have you any idea how frustrating it is to read entry after entry, all of them setting up story situations, some of them excellent, but hardly any of them leading anywhere or giving me the satisfaction of a pay-off? Please, I’m begging you: give me that sense of completion that every story should promise – and deliver. Write an ending.

If you’re finding it tough to work out an ending to your story: that’s the way it should feel. Endings are hard. But they’re worth it.

Here are a couple of hints to help you. The great film director Alexander Mackendrick said, “If you’ve got a beginning, but you don’t yet have an end, then you’re wrong. You don’t have the right beginning.” He also said, “There are no wrong endings, only wrong beginnings.”

I suggest you come up with your ending first. Plan that out, then plan how you’re going to get there.

How about writing just an ending? Remember up in point two, when I said you could cut your first few paragraphs? What if you cut the whole of the start of the story and just threw me, your reader, straight into a brilliant ending?

The writer Kurt Vonegut suggested something like that. One of his 8 tips on how to write a good short story is simply: “Start as close to the end as possible”

7. Get out of school

A quick one. A simple one. Most people hear about writing competitions in school. So they look around and they start writing a story set in a school. Break the mould. Think beyond the walls of the space you’re in.

8. Write from an adult’s point of view

Remember I suggested you think beyond the walls around you and write something that isn’t set in a school? How about getting beyond the body you’re in too? Try writing something with an adult as the main character, or from an adult’s point of view. Why not? It might seem difficult at first, but if I can write books starring a genetically-engineered assassin who’s only 12, you can make the leap into an adult’s existence.

Try it. Trust me: nobody else in the competition is doing it.

9. Challenge every word

The best stories are the most re-written stories. It’s that simple. And the more you re-write, the more you’ll stand out from every other entry in a creative writing competition. Find the best bits of your story and hone them to make them better. Change what’s around them to show them off. Find the weaker parts – cut them. Cut and rewrite furiously. Are there sections where you’re rushing? Slapping down too much information at once? Are you explaining when you could be showing?

I could write a whole new piece on how to rewrite. I love rewriting. I don’t write a message in a birthday card without a rough draft I can tear apart and reconstruct into something better.

But it all boils down to this:

Make every line count – for the story, not for its own beauty.

Challenge every word.

Every. Single. Word.

Find out how to enter this year’s National Short Story Week competition here!

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23 Writing Competitions for High School Students

What’s covered:, why should you enter a writing competition, writing competitions for high school students, how do writing competitions affect my admissions chances.

Do you dream of writing the next great American novel? Are you passionate about poetry? Do you aspire to become a screenwriter? No matter what genre of writing you’re interested in—whether it’s fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or something else entirely—there’s a writing competition focused on it.

Writing competitions provide great motivation to put pen to paper (or finger to key). Moreover, they’re an excellent step toward getting published, and can ultimately start you on the path to becoming a professional writer.

One of the best ways to improve your writing is simply to write—and competitions provide an excellent impetus to do so. Writing competitions also serve as an introduction to what life is like for many writers; participants entering writing competitions will receive a prompt or must think of an original idea, compose a piece of work, and submit it for review.

Another benefit of entering a writing competition for high schoolers is that many offer cash awards and scholarships, which can be used to help with the costs of college.

Additionally, many writing competitions are run by colleges and universities, so submitting them is a great way to introduce faculty to yourself and your work. If you win an award—especially a prestigious award—it can significantly improve your odds of college acceptance.

1. The Adroit Prizes for Poetry and Prose

Type: Poetry and Prose

Submission Fee: $15

Prize: $200

Deadline: May 1, 2023

Eligibility:

• All secondary and undergraduate students

Guidelines:

• Each student may send up to five total submissions across the genres of poetry and prose
• Each poetry submission may include up to six poems (maximum of ten pages single-spaced). Each prose submission may include up to three works of fiction or creative nonfiction (combined word limit of 3,500 words; excerpts are acceptable).

Adroit Prizes are awarded to emerging high school and college writers in two categories: poetry and prose. Winning pieces are considered for publication in the Adroit Journal and winners receive an award of $200. The 2023 judges are Natalie Diaz and Ocean Vuong.

2. Ten-Minute Play Contest

Type: Plays

Submission Fee: N/A

Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024

Eligibility: Students in the eleventh grade in the U.S. (or international equivalent of the eleventh grade)

Guidelines: Applicants may submit only one play (10 pages maximum)

The Ten-Minute Play Contest is put on by Princeton University’s Lewis Center of the Arts. Applicants are allowed to submit one play that is no longer than 10 pages. Their submissions are judged by members of Princeton University’s Theater Program faculty.

3. Ayn Rand Anthem and The Fountainhead Essay Contests

Type: Essays

• Anthem: $2,000
• The Fountainhead : $5,000
• Anthem: Grades 8-12
• The Fountainhead : Grades 11-12
• Anthem: Essays must be written in English only and between 600 and 1,200 words in length, double-spaced
• The Fountainhead: Essays must be written in English only and between 800 and 1,600 words in length, double-spaced

In this essay competition, students pick one of three prompts about a topic related to Ayn Rand’s books and write an essay that goes through three stages of grading. Students are graded on their clarity, organization, understanding, and ability to stay “on topic.”

4. Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize

Type: Poetry

Prize: $500-$1,500

Eligibility: Students must be in the 11th grade in the U.S. or abroad

Guidelines: Applicants may submit up to 3 poems

The Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize is another contest run by Princeton University’s Lewis Center of the Arts. Winners are chosen by judges who are both poets and members of Princeton University’s creative writing faculty. Three monetary awards are available.

5. World Historian Student Essay Competition

Prize: $500

Eligibility: Students enrolled in grades K–12 in public, private, and parochial schools, and those in home-study programs

Guidelines: Essays should be approximately 1,000 words

Winners of this competition receive a $500 prize along with a free yearlong membership to the World History Association . To apply, you must submit an approximately 1,000-word essay responding to the following prompt:

• Submit an essay that addresses the following topic and discusses how it relates to you personally and to World History: Your view of a family story related to a historical event or your personal family cultural background, or an issue of personal relevance or specific regional history/knowledge.

6. Jane Austen Society of North America Essay Contest

Prize: $250-$1,000

Deadline: June 1, 2023

Eligibility: Open to high school, undergraduate, and graduate students

• Must be submitted by the student through the official Essay Contest Submission website
• Entries may include a statement about the student’s mentor; however, a mentor statement is not required
• The essay must be 6-8 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page
• The essay must use MLA documentation, including a Works Cited page and parenthetical citations in the body of the text. Use endnotes only for substantive notes. Source material that is directly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized must be cited. Quotations from the Jane Austen work under discussion should be cited as well.

The Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) Essay Contest is an annual writing competition aimed at fostering an appreciation for its namesake’s work. The contest is broken down into three divisions—high school, college/university, and graduate school.

First-place winners are awarded a $1,000 prize along with free registration and lodging for two nights at JASNA’s Annual General Meeting—smaller monetary awards are also given to second- and third-place essayists.

This year’s essay topic:

• In Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen’s other novels, we see proposals and marriages that are motivated by love, as well as those that are better described as arranged marriages or marriages of convenience. Many cultures today also expect arranged marriages (not the same as forced). In your essay, compare and discuss the different types of marriages or courtships found in the novels, whether those relationships are new or longstanding.

7. Bennington College Young Writers Awards

Type: Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction

Deadline: November 1, 2023

Eligibility: Students in grades 9-12

• Poetry: A group of three poems
• Fiction: A short story (1,500 words or fewer) or one-act play (run no more than 30 minutes of playing time)
• Nonfiction: A personal or academic essay (1,500 words or fewer)

Bennington College has a strong history of developing writers—it’s produced twelve Pulitzer Prize winners, three U.S. poet laureates, and countless New York Times bestsellers—and the Bennington College Young Writers Awards celebrate this legacy.

In addition to offering cash awards to winners and finalists in all three categories, winners and finalists who apply and are accepted to Bennington College are also eligible for substantial scholarships.

8. Rachel Carson Intergenerational Sense of Wonder/Sense of the Wild Contest

Type: Poetry and Essays

Deadline: November 16, 2023

• You are required to have a team of 2 or more people
• The team must be intergenerational

Guidelines: Maximum length of 500 words (approximately 2 pages)

This unique writing competition requires that entries must be submitted by a team of two people from different generations—for example, a high school student and a teacher. Contestants can compete in a number of categories and themes, each with unique submission requirements.

9. NSHSS Creative Writing Scholarship

Type: Fiction and Poetry

Prize: $2,000

Deadline: October 2, 2023

Eligibility: Rising high school students graduating in 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, and recently graduated 2023 seniors

• Poetry: Students may submit their original poetry in any style, from formal verse to free verse to experimental. The poem should be formatted as you wish it to appear in the publication.
• Fiction: Students may submit a piece of short fiction, which must be no more than 5,000 words and should not be single-spaced. The entry may be any genre of the student’s choice, including graphic novel or story.
• Must submit educator recommendation, academic resume, and current transcript with application

Winning works for this competition are chosen based on their creativity, technique, expression, and originality. Three winners are chosen in each category and each winner receives a $2,000 prize.

10. John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Contest

Prize: $100-$10,000

Eligibility: The contest is open to United States high school students in grades 9-12, U.S. students under the age of twenty enrolled in a high school correspondence/GED program,  and U.S. citizens attending schools overseas.

• Essays can be no more than 1,000 words but must be a minimum of 700 words. Citations and bibliography are not included in the word count.
• Essays must have a minimum of five sources.

The prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Contest is one of the most recognizable and prestigious writing competitions for high schoolers in the nation. Essays for the contest are required to describe an act of political courage by a U.S. elected official who served during or after 1917. The first-place winner of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Contest takes home a $10,000 award and second place receives a $3,000 prize.

11. YoungArts National Writing Competition

Deadline: Opens June 2023

Eligibility: 15- to 18-year-old visual, literary, or performing artist based in the United States

Guidelines: To be released

YoungArts supports talented young artists between the ages of 15 and 18 (or grades 10-12) in 10 disciplines, including writing. Applicants can submit entries in six genres—creative nonfiction, novel, play or script, poetry, short story, and spoken word.

12. SPJ/JEA High School Essay Contest

Submission Fee: $5

Prize: $300-$1,000

Eligibility: All students enrolled in grades 9-12 in U.S. public, private and home schools within the United States

• The essay should be 300-500 words
• Entries may be typed or handwritten but must be double-spaced

This high school writing contest is presented by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the Journalism Education Association (JEA) to increase awareness of the importance of independent media.

Last year’s prompt was:

• While consumers are drawn toward tweets and sound bites, how can journalists tell more of the story without losing readers’ interest?

13. VSA Playwright Discovery Program Competitions

Eligibility: High school students with disabilities

• 10-minute script
• Entries may be the work of an individual student or a collaboration between two students that includes at least one student with a disability

This writing competition, presented by the Kennedy Center, is open to students ages 15-18 (or enrolled in high school) with disabilities. Writers may submit a “ten-minute” script in any genre, including plays, musicals, multimedia, video, film, TV, and podcasts.

Entries can be the work of an individual or the product of collaboration—provided that at least one of the collaborators has a disability. Multiple winners are chosen and given the chance to work with industry professionals, attend Kennedy Center professional development activities, and participate in networking opportunities.

14. Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest

Prize: $350

Eligibility: Women who are sophomores or juniors in high school or preparatory school

Guidelines: No more than two poems by any one student may be submitted

For almost six decades, the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest has provided recognition, scholarships, and awards to the best female high school sophomore and junior poets. Submissions are reviewed by faculty members of Hollins University’s creative writing program and students enrolled in its M.F.A. in creative writing.

The first-place winner receives a $350 cash prize, a renewable $5,000 scholarship to Hollins University if they choose to enroll there, as well as free tuition and housing at the university’s Hollinsummer creative writing program. Their winning work is also published in Cargoes , the university’s student literary magazine.

15. Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

Type: Various

Submission Fee: $10 for individual entry, $30 for portfolio (can use Fee Waiver Form)

Prize: Varies

Deadline: Opens in September

Eligibility: Teens in grades 7–12 (ages 13 and up)

Guidelines: Varies by category

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is the nation’s longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens. They offer 28 submission categories, including writing, critical essay, dramatic scripts, flash fiction, journalism, humor, novel writing, personal essay and memoir, poetry, science fiction and fantasy, and short story.

Works are judged by famous jurors who look for works that show originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. Students can earn a variety of scholarships through success in these competitions.

Works that celebrate individual differences or personal grief, loss, and bereavement are eligible for $1,000 scholarships. High school seniors submitting winning portfolios of six works are eligible for up to $12,500 in scholarships.

16. Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest

Type: Creative Writing and Poetry

Prize: $100-$1,500

Deadline: June 13, 2023

• Students ages 11-18 from around the world
• Students can participate as an individual or as a club, class, or group of any size
• All students must provide the contact information for an Adult Sponsor (teacher, parent, mentor, etc.)
• Creative Writing: no more than 5 pages (approximately 1,250 words)
• Poetry: no more than 2 pages
• A written reflection is required to accompany your submission, regardless of category. It is like the introduction to a book or an artist’s statement in a museum.

The 12th annual Ocean Awareness Contest is a platform for young people to learn about environmental issues through art-making and creative communication, explore their relationship to a changing world, and become advocates for positive change. Students can participate in six different categories, including poetry and spoken word, and creative writing.

This year’s prompt centers around climate issues:

• Research and choose an inspirational scientist, activist, artist, educator, or other hero who is working to solve climate change issues. Create a piece of art, writing, or media that highlights their efforts, organizations, and/or positive impacts. We are familiar with the amazing work of environmental giants like Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough. We challenge you to introduce the Bow Seat community to a Climate Hero whose work we may not know about yet – but should.

17. John Locke Global Essay Competition

Submission Fee: N/A (unless late entry)

Prize: $2,000-$10,000 toward attending any John Locke Institute program

Deadline: June 30, 2023 (must register by May 31, 2023)

Eligibility: Candidates must be no older than 18 years old on June 30, 2023 (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be no older than 14 on the same date)

Guidelines: Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2,000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, footnotes, bibliography, or authorship declaration)

Students competing in this competition have the opportunity to write an essay in one of seven categories—philosophy, politics, economics, history, psychology, theology, and law. Each category has three prompts, from which students choose and respond to one.

Essays are judged on knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style, and persuasive force.

If you miss the deadline, you can submit a late entry up until July 10. Late entries will be charged a $20 late fee.

18. AFSA National High School Essay Contest

Prize: $2,500

• Students whose parents are not in the Foreign Service are eligible to participate.
• Students must be in grades 9-12 in any of the 50 states, Washington, D.C, the U.S. territories, or—if they are U.S. citizens/lawful permanent residents —attending high school overseas.

Guidelines: Your essay should be at least 1,000 words but should not exceed 1,500 words (word count does not apply to the list of sources)

The AFSA Essay Contest focuses on knowledge of foreign policy and the American Foreign Service. Last year’s prompt was:

• In your essay, you will select a country or region in which the United States Foreign Service has been involved at any point since 1924 and describe, in 1,500 words or less, how the Foreign Service was successful or unsuccessful in advancing American foreign policy goals – including promoting peace – in this country/region and propose ways in which it might continue to improve those goals in the coming years.

The first-place winner receives $2,500, a paid trip to the nation’s capital with their parents from anywhere in the U.S., and an all-expenses-paid educational voyage courtesy of Semester at Sea. The runner-up wins $1,250 and full tuition to attend a summer session of the National Student Leadership Conference’s International Diplomacy program.

19. EngineerGirl Writing Contest

Prize: $100-$500

• The contest is open to individual students in the following three competition categories—Elementary School Students (grades 3-5), Middle School Students (grades 6-8), or High School Students (grades 9-12).
• You can also qualify with corresponding homeschool or international grade levels.
• High school student essays must be no more than 750 words
• You must also include a reference list of 3-10 resources

In this competition, students choose one of four prompts related to the 20 Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century and explore the technologies that have been developed in the last century and technologies that are being developed today. Students are judged based on their presentation and examples of engineering (~35%), their celebration of diversity (~50%), and their quality of writing (~15%).

20. The Blank Theatre Young Playwright’s Festival

Prize: Play is produced

Eligibility: Playwrights must be 19 years old or younger as of March 15, 2023; co-authored plays are welcome, provided all authors are 19 or younger

• Original plays or musicals of any length or genre and on any subject
• Up to three plays per playwright or team

While winners of this theater competition do not receive a cash prize, they have the unique opportunity to be mentored by leaders in the field, then will have their play directed and performed by professional artists during the following summer. The 12 best submissions are produced and professionally performed.

21. Saint Mary’s College of California River of Words Contest

Type: Poetry and Arts

• The contest is open to K-12 students, ages 5-19
• Students must be enrolled in school to be eligible
• Participants may submit up to 5 entries for poetry and 5 entries for art (total of up to 10 entries)
• Poems should not exceed 32 lines in length (written) or 3 minutes (signed)
• Collaborative poems and artwork are accepted, but only one student (chosen as the group representative) will be eligible for any prizes awarded

The River of Words contest aims to promote environmental literacy through the exchange of arts and culture. River of Words has been inspiring educators and students through this competition for over 25 years.

The goal of River of Words is to connect youth with their watersheds—the environments they live in—through engagement with art and poetry related to the idea of “place.” They look for art and poetry that shows the connection between students and the worlds around them.

22. Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest

Prize: $10,000

Deadline: November 6, 2023

Eligibility: Open to all 12th grade, college, and graduate students worldwide

Guidelines: Essays must be between 800 and 1,600 words in length

In this essay competition, high school seniors pick one of three prompts about a topic related to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and write an essay that goes through three stages of grading. Students are graded on their clarity, organization, understanding, and ability to stay “on topic.”

23. Writopia Lab’s Worldwide Plays Festival

Prize: Play produced

Eligibility: Playwrights ages 6 to 18

• 8 minutes maximum
• Any genre or style
• Plays should have no more than three characters
• There can be no narrator of the play who is not emotionally invested in the story
• Students must incorporate at least one of the following props or costumes —blue plates, a yellow blouse, a Valentine’s heart with the word “Love,” a flower crown, a plush hotdog, a Mardi Gras bead with jester heads, a pack of clothespins, Russian nesting dolls, a set of miniature cymbals, a lavender blouse, a lei, or a roll of aluminum foil

Since 2010, Writopia Lab has been producing, designing, and directing one-act plays submitted by young playwrights. These winning plays are then performed by New York City theater professionals. The contest looks for playwrights who embody fearlessness and imagination. Writopia Lab says, “Write deeply! Write fiercely! Write politically and personally! And don’t be afraid to write with a sense of play – they are called plays, after all.”

While we can’t know exactly how activities outside of the classroom will affect your college admissions odds, the 4 Tiers of Extracurricular Activities provide a helpful framework for understanding how colleges view your extracurriculars.

Extracurricular activities in Tiers 1 and 2 are reserved for the most exclusive and acclaimed awards, and can significantly improve your odds of college admission. By contrast, Tiers 3 and 4 are reserved for more common extracurriculars, and have less of an impact on your chances of college admission.

For example, if you place in a nationally renowned writing competition—a Tier 2 activity—this will positively affect your admissions chances. On the other hand, if you receive an honorable mention in your high school’s poetry contest—a Tier 4 activity—your admissions chances will not be significantly affected.

That said, if you are applying to an English Literature or Creative Writing program with a well-developed essay and recommendations that emphasize your commitment to language, participation in Tier 3 and 4 writing competitions could help admissions officers conceptualize your passion for your future career.

Curious how the writing competition you participated in will affect your college admission chances? CollegeVine can help! Our free chancing calculator uses a variety of factors—including grades, test scores, and extracurriculars—to estimate your odds of getting into hundreds of colleges and universities, while also providing insight into how to improve your profile.

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Open Letters: Our New Opinion-Writing Contest

We invite students to write public-facing letters to people or groups about issues that matter to them. Contest dates: March 13 to May 1.

By The Learning Network

What’s bothering you? Who could do something about it? What could you say to them that would persuade them to care, or to make change?

And … what if we all read your letter? How could you make us care too?

These are some of the questions we’re asking you to ponder for our new Open Letter Contest. An open letter is a published letter of protest or appeal usually addressed to an individual, group or institution but intended for the general public. Think of the many “Dear Taylor Swift” open letters you can find online and on social media: Sure, they’re addressed to Ms. Swift, but they’re really a way for the writer to share opinions and feelings on feminism, or ticket sales, or the music industry, or … the list goes on.

As you might already know if you’ve read Martin Luther King’s famous Letter From Birmingham Jail , an open letter is a literary device. Though it seems on the surface to be intended for just one individual or group, and therefore usually reads like a personal letter (and can make readers feel they are somehow “listening in” on private thoughts), it is really a persuasive essay addressed to the public. This recent letter signed by over 1,000 tech leaders about the dangers of A.I. , this funny 2020 letter addressed to Harry and Meghan , and this video letter from young Asian Americans to their families about Black Lives Matter are all examples of the tradition.

Now we’re inviting you to try it yourself. Write your own open letter, to anyone you like on any issue you care about, as long as it is also appropriate and meaningful for a general Times audience.

Whom should you write to? What should you say? How do open letters work?

The rules and FAQ below, along with our Student Opinion forum and related how-to guide , can walk you through ways to get started.

This is a new contest and we expect questions. Please ask any you have in the comments and we’ll answer you there, or write to us at [email protected]. And, consider hanging this PDF one-page announcement on your class bulletin board.

Here’s what you need to know:

The challenge, a few rules, resources for students and teachers, frequently asked questions, submission form.

Write an open letter to a specific audience that calls attention to an issue or problem and prompts reflection or action on it.

Whether you choose to write to your parents, teachers, school board members or mayor; a member of Congress; the head of a corporation; an artist or entertainer; or a metonym like “Silicon Valley” or “The Kremlin,” ask yourself, What do I care about? Who can make changes, big or small, local or global, to address my issue or problem? What specifically do I want my audience to understand or do? And how can I write this as an “open letter,” compelling not just to me and the recipient, but to the general audience who will be reading my words?

The Times has published numerous open letters over the years, to both famous and ordinary people. You can find a long list of free examples in our related guide .

This contest invites students to express themselves and imagine that their words can lead to real change.

Your open letter MUST:

Focus on an issue you care about and with which you have some experience. You can write about almost anything you like, whether it’s a serious issue like bullying , or something more lighthearted like why bugs deserve respect , but we have found over the years that the most interesting student writing grows out of personal experience. Our related Student Opinion forum and how-to guide can help you come up with ideas.

Address a specific audience relevant to the issue. Choose an individual, group, organization or institution who is in a position to make change or promote understanding about your topic.

Call for action, whether the change you seek is something tangible , like asking Congress to enact a law or demanding a company stop a harmful practice, or something more abstract, like inviting your audience to reflect on something they may have never considered.

Be suitable and compelling for a wide general audience . An open letter simultaneously addresses an explicit recipient — whether Joe Biden or your gym teacher — as well as us, the general public, your implicit audience. Though your letter might seem to be meant just for one person, it is really trying to persuade all readers. Make sure you write it in such a way that it is relevant, understandable, appropriate and meaningful for anyone who might come across it in The New York Times. (Again, our related guide can help.)

Be written as a letter, in a voice and tone that is appropriate for both your audience and purpose. Are you simply taking an argumentative essay you’ve written for school already and slapping a “Dear X” on top of it and a “Sincerely, Y” on the bottom? No. A letter — even an open letter — is different from a formal essay, and your writing should reflect that. Can you be informal? Funny? If that makes sense for your purpose and audience, then yes, please.

Our related guide, and the many examples we link to, can help you think about this, but we hope the format of a letter will let you loosen up a bit and express yourself in your natural voice. (For example, you’ll be writing as “I” or “we,” and addressing your letter’s recipient as “you.”)

Also attempt to persuade a general audience. Though it is written in the form of a letter, it is an opinion piece, and you are trying to make a case and support it with evidence, as you would any argument. Remember that you are trying to change hearts and minds, so you’ll be drawing on the same rhetorical strategies as you might have for our long-running editorial contest . (Again, more on this in the related guide .)

Make your case in 460 words or fewer. Your title and sources are not part of the word count.

Inform with evidence from at least two sources, including one from The Times and one from outside The Times. We hope this contest encourages you to deepen your understanding of your topic by using multiple sources, ideally ones that offer a range of perspectives. Just make sure those sources are trustworthy .

Because this is a letter, not a formal essay, we are not asking you to provide in-text citations, but we will be asking you to list the sources you used — as many as you like — in a separate field that does not contribute to your word count. Keep in mind, however, that if you include evidence from those sources, our readers (and judges) should always be able to tell where it came from. Be careful to put quotations around any direct quotes you use, and cite the source of anything you paraphrase.

In addition to the guidelines above, here are a few more details:

You must be a student ages 13 to 19 in middle school or high school to participate , and all students must have parent or guardian permission to enter. Please see the F.A.Q. section for additional eligibility details.

The writing you submit should be fundamentally your own — it should not be plagiarized, created by someone else or generated by artificial intelligence.

Your open letter should be original for this contest. That means it should not already have been published at the time of submission, whether in a school newspaper, for another contest or anywhere else.

Keep in mind that the work you send in should be appropriate for a Times audience — that is, something that could be published in a family newspaper (so, please, no curse words).

You may work alone or in groups , but students should submit only one entry each.

You must also submit a short, informal “artist’s statement” as part of your submission, that describes your writing and research process. These statements, which will not be used to choose finalists, help us to design and refine our contests. See the F.A.Q. to learn more.

All entries must be submitted by May 1, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time using the electronic form at the bottom of this page.

Use these resources to help you write your open letter:

Our step-by-step guide : To be used by students or teachers, this guide walks you through the process of writing an open letter.

A list of free examples of open letters published both in and outside The New York Times, which you can find in our step-by-step guide .

A writing prompt: To Whom Would You Write an Open Letter? This prompt offers students a “rehearsal space” for thinking about to whom they’d like to write, the reason they’re writing and why they think that issue is important — not only for the recipient but also for a wider audience.

Argumentative writing prompts: We publish new argumentative writing prompts for students each week in our Student Opinion and Picture Prompt columns. You can find them all, as they publish, here , or many of them, organized by topic, in our new collection of over 300 prompts .

Argumentative writing unit: This unit includes writing prompts, lesson plans, webinars and mentor texts. While it was originally written to support our Student Editorial Contest , the resources can help students make compelling arguments, cite reliable evidence and use rhetorical strategies for their open letters as well.

Our contest rubric : This is the rubric judges will use as they read submissions to this contest.

Below are answers to your questions about writing, judging, the rules and teaching with this contest. Please read these thoroughly and, if you still can’t find what you’re looking for, post your query in the comments or write to us at [email protected].

Questions About Writing

How is this contest different from your long-running Editorial Contest? Can we still use those materials?

For a decade we ran an editorial contest , and the students who participated wrote passionately about all kinds of things — A.I. , fast fashion , race , trans rights , college admissions , parental incarceration , fan fiction , snow days , memes , being messy and so much more . You can still write about the issues and ideas that fire you up — it’s just that this time around you’ll be framing your work as a letter to a person who has the power to make change on or bring understanding to that issue.

Our related guide has more about the differences between a traditional opinion essay and an open letter, but the many materials we developed for that earlier contest are also woven into the guide, as concepts like ethos, logos and pathos are still very much relevant to this challenge.

I have no idea what to write about. Where should I start?

Our Student Opinion forum can help via its many questions that encourage you to brainstorm both the audience you might write to and the topics you’d like to address.

Can I actually send my open letter?

You can! Just wait until after you have submitted your work to us to do so. (As always for our contests, you retain the copyright to the piece you submit, and can do whatever you like with it.)

Questions About Judging

How will my open letter be judged?

Your work will be read by New York Times journalists, as well as by Learning Network staff members and educators from around the United States. We will use this rubric to judge entries.

What’s the “prize”?

Having your work published on The Learning Network and being eligible to have your work published in the print New York Times.

When will the winners be announced?

About 8-10 weeks after the contest has closed.

My piece wasn’t selected as a winner. Can you tell me why?

We typically receive thousands of entries for our contests, so unfortunately, our team does not have the capacity to provide individual feedback on each student’s work.

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RULES

Who is eligible to participate in this contest?

This contest is open to students ages 13 to 19 who are in middle school or high school around the world. College students cannot submit an entry. However, high school students (including high school postgraduate students) who are taking one or more college classes can participate. Students attending their first year of a two-year CEGEP in Quebec Province can also participate. In addition, students age 19 or under who have completed high school but are taking a gap year or are otherwise not enrolled in college can participate.

The children and stepchildren of New York Times employees are not eligible to enter this contest. Nor are students who live in the same household as those employees.

Can I have someone else check my work?

We understand that students will often revise their work based on feedback from teachers and peers. That is allowed for this contest. However, be sure that the final submission reflects the ideas, voice and writing ability of the student, not someone else.

Do I need a Works Cited page?

Yes. We provide you with a separate field to list the sources you used to inform or write your open letter. You’re allowed to format your list however you want; we will not judge your entry based on formatting in this section. Internal citations in your letter are not necessary.

Why are you asking for an Artist’s Statement about our process? What will you do with it?

All of us who work on The Learning Network are former teachers. One of the many things we miss, now that we work in a newsroom rather than a classroom, is being able to see how students are reacting to our “assignments” in real time — and to offer help, or tweaks, to make those assignments better. We’re asking you to reflect on what you did and why, and what was hard or easy about it, in large part so that we can improve our contests and the curriculum we create to support them. This is especially important for new contests, like this one.

Another reason? We have heard from many teachers that writing these statements is immensely helpful to students. Stepping back from a piece and trying to put into words what you wanted to express, and why and how you made artistic choices to do that, can help you see your piece anew and figure out how to make it stronger. For our staff, they offer important context that help us understand individual students and submissions, and learn more about the conditions under which students around the world create.

Whom can I contact if I have questions about this contest or am having issues submitting my entry?

Leave a comment on this post or write to us at [email protected].

QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING WITH THIS CONTEST

Do my students need a New York Times subscription to access these resources?

No. All of the resources on The Learning Network are free.

If your students don’t have a subscription to The New York Times, they can also get access to Times pieces through The Learning Network . All the activities for students on our site, including mentor texts and writing prompts, plus the Times articles they link to, are free. Students can search for articles using the search tool on our home page.

How do my students prove to me that they entered this contest?

After they press “Submit” on the form below, they will see a “Thank you for your submission.” line appear. They can take a screenshot of this message. Please note: Our system does not currently send confirmation emails.

Please read the following carefully before you submit:

Students who are 13 and older in the United States or the United Kingdom, or 16 and older elsewhere in the world, can submit their own entries. Those who are 13 to 15 and live outside the United States or the United Kingdom must have an adult submit on their behalf.

All students who are under 18 must provide a parent or guardian’s permission to enter.

You will not receive email confirmation of your submission. After you submit, you will see the message “Thank you for your submission.” That means we received your entry. If you need proof of entry for your teacher, please screenshot that message.

If you have questions about your submission, please write to us at [email protected] and provide the email address you used for submission.

• Creative Writing Competition Rules and FAQ
• Educator Scholarships
• Newsletter: Gifted Matters

2022-2023 Creative Writing Competition

We are hoping to be even bigger and better this year. Are you a teacher or author who would like to help us judge these talented entries? Please contact Carrie .

15th Annual Creative Writing Competition deadline Friday, December 2, 2022, midnight.

Open to passionate writers in grades 4th —12th.

Open to cisd students and students outside cisd cga membership required only if student does not attend cisd schools., deadline: december 2, 2022 at midnight, click here for:  rules and faqs (includes link for online entry form).

Each entry will be judged based on its artistic expression; however, technical merit will also be a factor. Finalists (evaluated by student grade and category) will be announced in Spring 2023. The winning entries will be published in a book that will be available in the spring. Students need not be identified gifted to participate.

Categories:  

This page was updated September 11, 2022

Interested in what happened in previous competitions?

2021-22 cga creative writing competition.

• Click HERE to see results from the 2021-22 Competition.

2020-21 CGA Creative Writing Competition

• Click HERE to see results from the 2020-21 Competition.

2019-20 CGA Creative Writing Competition

• Click HERE to see results from the 2019-20 Competition.

2018-19 CGA Creative Writing Competition

• Click HERE to see results from the 2018-19 Competition.

2017-18 CGA Creative Writing Competition

• Click HERE to see results from the 2017-18 Competition.

2016-17 CGA Creative Writing Competition

• Click HERE to see results from the 2016-17 Competition.

2015-16 CGA Creative Writing Competition

• Click HERE to see results from the 2015-16 Competition.

2014-15 CGA Creative Writing Competition

• Results are available by clicking here:  RESULTS AVAILABLE HERE.

2013-14 CGA Creative Writing Competition

• Results are available by clicking here: RESULTS AVAILABLE HERE.
• Click here for more information about the book orders and book release party: Books & Party , Party Pics.

2012-13 CGA Creative Writing Competition.

• Results are available by clicking here:  FINAL RESULTS .
• Click here for more information on Book Orders and the Book Release Party:  Book Orders  and  Book Release Party .

2011-2012 CGA Creative Writing Competition

• Click here for Creative Writing Competition RESULTS.
• Click here for Book orders and Book release party

2010-2011 CGA Creative Writing Competition

• For information on the  CGA Book Relase Party  on April 7, 2011 (or the link to pre-order the book), please click  HERE .
• For final results,  CLICK HERE .

. 2009-2010 Creative Writing Competition

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• January 19th – Creative Writing Competition Entry Deadline

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• 2023-2024 Creative Writing Competition
• 2022-2023 Creative Writing Competition Results
• 2020-2021 Creative Writing Competition

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Effective Altruism Forum EA Forum

Creative writing contest: the winning entries.

We received a lot of strong submissions for the Creative Writing Contest , and we’re thrilled to finally announce the winners. (I was the slowest judge — my bad.)

This post lists the winners, and a few other notes.  

Note on private submissions

Some winners originally shared their entries through a private form so that they could submit them elsewhere if they didn’t win a prize. 

I’ve now cross-posted those entries, with the date of their original submission, so that everyone can read them. (I’ve used the Forum Archives account if the author didn’t have a Forum account.) 

These newly available entries include our first-prize winner!

First prize

The $10,000 first prize goes to atb, for The Unweaving of a Beautiful Thing :

It had been eighteen minutes since Death had arrived and the witch had refused to be taken. The spell was like spiderweb, intricate threads woven into the world, and Death had paused to admire it. They’d known that the witch might fight, for the powerful often greeted them with defiance. Fire had been flung at Death in every hue, while others they’d visited had attempted deceit, offering up innocents cloaked in their own guise. One wizard had tried a love spell, not understanding that Death already loved them all. But the witch’s web was something new; it was an attempt to trap Death in its threads. It was elegant and audacious and cunning, and yet… “You are aware,” said Death, “that this approach will fail?”

Second prizes

We had promised that at least one of these prizes would go to a nonfiction entry, but we had two fiction entries in a perfect tie for second. As a result, we’ve added a third “second prize” to account for our highest-scoring nonfiction entry.

These $3,000 prizes go to:

• Do Good Better , by Andrew Kao
• Counting the Living , by apprenticebard
• The Toba Supervolcanic Eruption , by Jackson Wagner

Third prizes

Because of the extra second prize, we’re only awarding three “third prizes”.

These $1,000 third prizes go to:

• The Detection , by Raymond D
• I See Dead Kids , by Eneasz Brodski
• Noumenon , by Ben Stewart  

Honorable mentions

These eight entries earned a $250 Honorable Mention prize:

• The Sorcerer in Chains , by Swimmer
• Brighter than Today , by Raymond Arnold (referred by Dancer)
• 3524 , by Andrew Smith
• A Social History of Shoes , by Lawrence Newport
• Via Negativa , by Anonymous Lemur
• What You Do , by Justis
• Utopia, lol? , by Jamie Wahls (referred by Andrew Clough)
• The Reset Button , by Joshua Ingle  

What’s next for the winners?

I’ve contacted the authors to let them know how they can collect their prizes. If you’re a winner and didn’t get an email, send me a DM.

Because I’m no longer at CEA, I’ll leave detailed plans to the next Content Specialist. But I do think we’ll be widely sharing the entries on social media, and I expect that we may end up using them (with authors’ permission) in some of our online resources.

If you think any of this work should be read more widely, please share it yourself! Let’s get these people the readers they deserve.

Also: If you have any ideas for how CEA could make use of all this great writing, leave a comment or send me a message!

Potentially could these be released as audiobook/podcasts?

Quick thought: I think it might actually be pretty high impact, and clearly worth the relatively low time/money required, for someone to do pretty good human readings of these and release them as episodes in one podcast feed. 

This is based on things like: 

• how successful Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality has been as an outreach tool + my guess that there being a podcast version helped with that
• how successful other podcasts (esp. the 80k podcast) seem to have been as an outreach tool + my guess that it's plausible similar could occur with fiction
• how much I appreciate having things like the Nonlinear Library + my guess that a nontrivial fraction of other potential high impact EAs who haven't heard gotten into EA would be the same + my guess that that would generalise to or is even stronger for fiction than for nonfiction

We could instead have machine-read versions. But I'd guess that, for fiction as an outreach tool, human-read versions would be sufficiently more appealing and engaging that it's worth the extra time/money.

(I haven't tried to verify any of the above, e.g. haven't checked how many high impact people got into EA/rationality via the HPMOR podcast as opposed to reading it.)

EDIT: Also, if that seems to go well, it may well be worth following that with:

• Recording many/all of the entries that aren't mentioned in this post
• E.g., this could update us in favour of running another competition sooner, or having a monthly prize, or just publicly promoting the idea of writing such things and making people feel impactful and high-status for doing this sort of thing

So there may also be some good value of information, rather than just the expected impact of having recordings of these particular entries.

This is something I might give some thought to doing. One question is where it should live — I think the two most obvious options are the Nonlinear Library podcast , or on a new 'EA Fiction' podcast feed (advantage of the latter is that it could continue running if it goes well, disadvantage is it's maybe a couple extra hours to set up).

Incidentally, I also think it would be valuable for someone to produce table reads of some of the conversations MIRI recently published.

Please can anyone let me know if you would like to help read or edit something for either this EA fiction thing, or the MIRI conversations? I expect it would be possible to get a mic sent over, or at least compensation for your time.

If the eventual human-read versions of this creative stuff and/or the MIRI conversations are high quality in my view (see below), I'm willing to personally guarantee (say) at least $500 for a mic (if the person doesn't have one already and it costs that much) and $20/hr for up to 5 times as many hours as the cumulative total run time across all the episodes produced, with the guarantee being capped at $1500 total.  

Fine print:

• Note that EAIF has recently made larger grants for projects that are in some sense smaller, e.g. ~$5k for one relatively short and simple video.
• I haven't checked or thought about how much mics cost; what's a reasonable ratio of hours spent preparing, recording, editing, and publishing to hours of content produced; or what's a reasonable hourly rate. That's among the reasons it's plausible I'd provide a larger amount of compensation, and especially why it's plausible a funder like EAIF would.
• If you haven't done that, it's possible I'll later deem the thing you make insufficiently high quality, which is bad for its impact and also means I probably wouldn't pay up, and that'd also be uncomfortable and awkward.
• In contrast, if you have done that, I might also provide part of the money in advance or something, if necessary.
• I'd definitely count as "high-quality" readings as high-quality as Rob Miles' readings of the Alignment Newsletter and the human-read versions of HPMOR and Rationality: A to Z. I'd probably also count somewhat lower-quality readings as high-quality. I wouldn't count something that's only as high-fidelity and engaging as the Nonlinear Library's machine reading as high-quality, since then there's not much point having humans read it.
• Though it's also plausible I'd top up someone's compensation even if they get some funding elsewhere.
• Although I'm a guest manager on EAIF, I'm writing this in my personal capacity.
• There are many other things I'd also personally guarantee funding for if I thought that would increase the chance that they'd happen and if the topic came up.
• (E.g., I'd probably prefer if Fin doesn't do this himself unless he'd find it engaging enough to not trade off against "regular work hours", since I think the opportunity cost of Fin's time is quite high)

Great! Both the MIRI conversations and the creative writing pieces amount to a bout an audiobook's worth of content, so I think this would be best if multiple people helped record them. Plus it could be useful to have both male and female voices for some.

I would be happy to project manage either of these things if there's enough interest!

I'd quite like to help read some of these. I strongly agree that a table read of the MIRI conversations would be good: given their conversational nature I think a lot of people would find them easier to approach as a recording than as a text log.

Also, my impression is that the Fable of the Dragon Tyrant got a lot out of having a nice video version. If the recordings go well it might be worth considering commissioning an accompanying video for the top prize winner at least.

I hope we can have narrations of these stories, it would be great! (Authors: if you want to read your own work, I could help post it/edit it?)

I read the winning entry into the EA Forum podcast here ... Spotify link here .

I hope more are forthcoming .

oops. some audio issues -- a silence gap. Should be fixed now.

Thanks everyone for all of your work! I look forward to reading these.

If anyone wants to publicise these I made a folder of a load of instagrammable excerpts from each of these - I will be posting them on my EA group account, but feel free to use them as well.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1f7NpfnGRQOJSbCPVXgHF9EMy4G014xqO?usp=sharing

Contests like this seem to generate great content!

Meta note: is there some systematic way to discover and hear about EA forum contests/prizes? My experience is that despite checking the forum front page fairly often, usually when the winning entries show up on the front page. Some page on the forum listing all prizes would be useful – does this exist?

There's the " prize " tag. Any user can tag posts (or suggest new tags actually).