Writing Contests
** SPORTS POETRY & PROSE CONTEST: New! 14 cash prizes totaling $5,000. Top prize for poetry: $1,500. Top prize for prose (fiction and nonfiction): $1,500. Submit an entry of 1-2 poems or one work of prose on a sports-related theme, up to 6,000 words in all. All entries that win cash prizes will be published on WinningWriters.com (over one million page views per year) and announced in the Winning Writers Newsletter, with over 40,000 subscribers. Fee is $15 per entry. Submit online by May 31. Sponsored by Winning Writers, one of the "101 Best Websites for Writers" (Writer's Digest, 2005-2011). Final judge: Jendi Reiter. Guidelines and online submission at www.winningwriters.com/sports
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** GLIMMER TRAIN’S SHORT STORY AWARD FOR NEW WRITERS: Deadline May 31. Results announced July 31. Open to writers whose fiction hasn’t appeared in a print publication with a circulation >5000. First place: $1500 and publication in Glimmer Train. In the current Best American Short Stories of the top "100 distinguished short stories," six appeared in Glimmer Train, second only to the New Yorker. Of the six, two were those authors' first stories accepted for publication. Submit online: www.glimmertrain.org.
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2012 ANDERBO SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK AWARD -- a new writing contest for novels, memoirs, essay-collections, story-collections, autobiographies, and creative nonfiction. For e-books or hard-copies. Entry-fee is $20. Winner will receive a $500 Prize plus a book-excerpt published on the Anderbo.com site. Deadline October 15th. Complete guidelines @ http://www.anderbo.com/anderbo1/anderselfpubbookaward2012.html
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THE BACKWATERS PRIZE IS BACK! Details: Visit website at www.thebackwaterspress.org and to submit your manuscript online. No paper submissions accepted. $25 entry fee. Submission period April 1 through May 31, 2012. Prize: $1,000 cash, publication. Final Judge: David Clewell.
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THE BALTIMORE REVIEW “Heat” Theme contest: Work considered in the fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry categories. 1st place prize $300, 2nd place prize $200, 3rd place prize $100. Submit all contest entries, regardless of genre, through the submission system’s Contest category. $10 entry fee. First-place winner will be published. All entries considered for publication. Deadline: May 30, 2012. Also, see our new regular submission category – Video. For more information: http://www.baltimorereview.org/
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BITTER OLEANDER PRESS LIBRARY OF POETRY BOOK AWARD for 2012. (This Award replaces the 15 year long running Frances Locke Poetry Award) $1000 award plus book publication by THE BOP for best manuscript from any English speaking poet with at least one previous standard book publication. $25 entry, reading & processing fee. Manuscripts must be 48 to 80 pages and be received between May 1st through June 15th. No e-mail submissions. Recommended participants read complete guidelines by requesting with a SASE, or online at www.bitteroleander.com
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CARVE MAGAZINE. Five prizes totaling $2750 and publication is offered in the Carve Magazine Raymond Carver Short Story Contest. Bridget Boland will guest judge. Submit a short story of up to 6,000 words with a $17 online/$15 mailed entry fee between May 1 and June 30. Past winners have come from the
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THE NZ POETRY SOCIETY’s international poetry competition (including both open and haiku sections, junior and general age groups) closes on 31st May. Entry fees range from $1 for junior haiku to $6 for general open verse. Schools receive discounts for multiple entries. There are separate cash prizes for each section, and for different age groups. Competition guidelines, downloadable entry forms and PayPal are available on the NZPS website, at http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/2012competition
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THE RATTLE POETRY PRIZE (deadline: August 1) offers $5,000 for a single poem. Ten finalists will also receive $100 each, and be eligible for the $1,000 Readers’ Choice Award, selected by subscriber and entrant vote. All poems are considered for standard publication. With an entry fee that is simply a one-year subscription to the magazine, we’ve designed the Rattle Poetry Prize to be one of the most writer-friendly contests around. For more information: www.rattle.com/poetry/prize/
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RIVER STYX 2012 INTERNATIONAL POETRY CONTEST. A prize of $1,500 and publication in River Styx is given annually for the best poem. A. E. Stallings will judge. Three poems maximum, up to fourteen pages per entry. $20 entry fee, postmarked by May 31. All entrants receive a one-year subscription to River Styx. River
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SPILLING INK SHORT STORY PRIZE with special Guest Judge: Richard Beard, novelist and Director of the National Academy of Writing inLondon (www.richardbeard.info). Prizes: £500, £250, £125. Publication in our annual print anthology and 1 free copy. Entry fee may be paid securely online and we accept £, $, €. All genres are welcome and there is no theme. 1,500 word max/no min. Visit www.spillinginkreview.com/competitions for more information. Questions? Feel free to contact us: spillingink.email@gmail.com
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UNBOUND PRESS FLASH FICTION AWARD with special Guest Judge: Zoe Strachan (www.zoestrachan.com). Prizes: £500, £250, £125. Publication in our annual print anthology and 1 free copy. Entry fee may be paid securely online and we accept £, $, €. All genres are welcome and there is no theme. 500 word max/no min. Visit www.unboundpress.com/competitions for more information. Questions? Feel free to contact us: unboundpress@gmail.com
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WHIDBEY WRITERS MFA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION EMERGING WRITERS GETAWAY CONTEST. Grand prize: seven-day retreat at a North Carolina Smoky Mountain cabin with daily continental breakfast ($2,000 value), plus $300. Second and third place winners receive cash prizes. Submissions open through May 15, 2012. Pulitzer Prize winner William Dietrich is final judge. Top three finalists’ entries reviewed for possible agency representation. All profits from the contest will go towards creative writing student scholarships. For details: http://www.whidbeymfaalumni.org/.
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