Contest Database
View our curated results of the best free literary contests!
| Name | Deadline | Type | Status | Top Prize | WW Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| engine(idling Drive Award | 09/30/26 | Individual Poems | Active | $205.58 | Neutral | |
Deadline September 30 (must be received by this date; don't enter before August 15). Neutral free contest gives $205.58 for an unpublished poem on any theme and of any length by an author aged 18 or over. Entrants must have an active Venmo or PayPal account to receive the prize. Submit via sponsor's online form. Sponsored by the engine(idling, an online literary journal. | ||||||
| Jerry Jazz Musician Fiction Contest | 09/30/26 | Short Fiction | Active | $150.00 | Neutral | |
Deadlines January 31, May 31, and September 30 (must be received by these dates). Thrice-yearly free neutral contest awards $150 and web publication for short fiction. The Jerry Jazz Musician reader has interests in music, social history, literature, politics, art, film, and theatre, particularly that of the counter-culture of mid-20th century America. Entries should appeal to a reader with these characteristics. Submit a story of up to 4,000 words (3,000 words is ideal), along with a brief 100-word story synopsis, by email. | ||||||
| L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest | 09/30/26 | Short Fiction | Active | $6,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadlines March 31, June 30, September 30, December 31. Highly recommended free contest for emerging writers of short science fiction, fantasy, and horror awards quarterly prizes of $1,000 plus an annual $5,000 grand prize for one of the four winners. Send only one story per quarter, maximum 17,000 words. See website for eligibility rules. Entrants may not have professionally published a novel or short novel, or more than one novelette, or more than three short stories, in any medium. | ||||||
| Sejong Cultural Society International Sijo Competition | 09/30/26 | Individual Poems | Active | $500.00 | Neutral | |
Deadline September 30 (must be received by this date). Neutral free contest from the Sejong Cultural Society awards a $500 top prize for an English-language sijo poem, 3 lines maximum, on any topic. Be sure to read more about this Korean poetic form in the resources provided on the sponsor's rules page. Submissions must be unpublished and may not have previously won any awards. Limit one sijo per author. Enter online. | ||||||
| Short Story Substack's Monthly Contest | 09/30/26 | Short Fiction | Active | $100.00 | Neutral | |
Deadline January 31 (must be received by this date), subsequent deadlines on the last day of each month. Neutral free contest for short fiction gives a monthly prize of $100 plus 50% of the site's subscription revenue for that month, and publication in their monthly Substack newsletter that is archived on the website. Entries may be published or unpublished, as long as you have the reprint rights. Send one story, 6-10,000 words, by email to shortstorystack@gmail.com as an MS Word or Google Doc file. | ||||||
| VersoFrontera | 09/30/26 | Poetry Manuscript | Active | Neutral | ||
Deadline September 30 (must be received by this date). Neutral free contest from Texas Review Press awards a standard royalty contract for a poetry manuscript in any style or form, 50-100 pages, by any poet writing in English, or a combination of English and Spanish, who has not yet published a full-length collection of poetry. Enter online. Sponsored by Texas Review Press in collaboration with the VersoFrontera Literature and Arts Festival. | ||||||
| Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry | 09/30/26 | Individual Poems | Active | $3,000.00 | Recommended | |
Deadline September 30 (must be received by this date; don't enter before July 1). Recommended free contest gives $3,000 and expenses-paid trip to award ceremony in Oxford, Mississippi for an unpublished poem that evokes the American South. Submit one poem, maximum 60 lines, online. | ||||||
| Willie Morris Awards for Southern Fiction and Southern Nonfiction | 09/30/26 | Published Prose Book | Active | $12,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadline September 30 (must be received by this date; don't enter before July 1). Highly recommended free contest offers prizes of $12,000 apiece for the authors of a novel and a nonfiction book published in the deadline year and about the Southern US. Winners also receive an expenses-paid trip to Oxford, Mississippi. Authors should be "under-recognized, original voices in conversations about the South". Titles must "ask readers to engage with or reflect on the complexities of the American South"; be uplifting, optimistic, and hopeful; and demonstrate a "sense of period, place, and people". Publisher, editor, or author should submit registration form online and then send one hard copy to prize sponsor. | ||||||
| Working Class Writers Grant | 09/30/26 | Fellowship Fellowship | Active | $1,000.00 | Recommended | |
Deadline September 30 (must be received by this date; don't enter before September 1). Recommended free contest awards $1,000 for published or unpublished writing samples (poetry, drama, fiction, or nonfiction) by working-class, blue-collar, financially disadvantaged, and homeless writers. Submit a sample of up to 10 pages of poetry or drama, or 5,000 words of fiction or creative nonfiction. Along with your writing sample, send a 750-word personal statement that addresses both your relevant financial background and what you hope to accomplish with the help of this grant as well as a 1-page bibliography of any previously published work. If sending a segment of a novel or novella, include 1-page synopsis. See website for other submission requirements. Enter online via sponsor's submissions portal. Sponsored by Speculative Literature Foundation. | ||||||
| Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry | 10/01/26 | Published Poetry Book | Active | $1,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadline October 1 (don't enter before May 1). Highly recommended free contest awards $1,000 for the best full-length collection of poetry, 48 pages minimum, published in the previous calendar year by an African national, African resident, or poet of African birth or African parentage. Translations are eligible; self-published books are not. Publisher should send an entry form and 4 copies of each nominated title to the African Poetry Book Fund at Brown University. | ||||||
| John Lewis Writing Grants | 10/01/26 | Fellowship Fellowship | Active | $500.00 | Neutral | |
Deadline October 1 (must be received by this date). Neutral free contest awards up to four fellowships $500 each for fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or screen/playwriting by Black and African American writers who have resided in Georgia for at least one year. Submit a completed grant application, an artist statement of 500 words maximum, and a writing sample up to 10 pages of a published or unpublished piece in the genre in which you are applying. Sponsored by the Georgia Writers Association and the Hawthornden Foundation. | ||||||
| North Carolina State Fiction Contest | 10/05/26 | Short Fiction | Active | $500.00 | Neutral | |
Deadline October 5. Neutral free contest for North Carolina authors with no published fiction books awards $500 for fiction (up to 5,000 words) and $250 for shorter fiction (up to 1,200 words). Authors may enter one story in each category. UNC professors/instructors and previous winners are ineligible. Entries may not have been published previously either in print or online. Enter by mail or email. | ||||||
| Solstice Nature Prize for Young Writers | 10/10/26 | Individual Poems Short Fiction | Active | £100.00 | Neutral | |
Deadline October 10 (must be received by this date). Neutral free contest from Writing East Midlands gives prizes of 100 pounds in each age category (7-11, 12-14, 15-17, and 18-25 years) for unpublished nature-themed poems, stories, or blog posts by young writers residing in the UK. Send one poem, maximum 40 lines, or one prose piece, maximum 500 words, by mail or online. No simultaneous submissions. For 2026, sponsor seeks entries about any aspect of nature. | ||||||
| Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction | 10/11/26 | Short Fiction | Active | £500.00 | Neutral | |
Deadline October 11 (must be received by this date; don't enter before August 13). Neutral free contest gives ebook anthology publication and 500 pounds prize for a previously unpublished short story, 2,000-7,500 words, by a UK resident aged 18+ on a theme that changes annually. For 2026, the theme is "Found Fiction". Complete the entry form online and upload your entry. Co-sponsored by Comma Press and the University of Central Lancashire. Named after founding Comma Press board member, writer Dinesh Allirajah. | ||||||
| Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship | 10/13/26 | Fellowship | Active | $2,000.00 | Recommended | |
Deadline October 13 (must be received by this date; don't enter before September 8). Recommended free contest from One Story literary magazine awards year-long fiction writing mentorship opportunity for an early-career fiction writer aged 21+ who has not yet published a book and has never been enrolled in an MFA program. Fellowship includes free tuition for all of sponsor's online classes and programming, a travel stipend of $2,000 and tuition to attend week-long summer writers' conference, and a full manuscript review/consultation of a story collection or novel in progress with an executive editor. To qualify, writer must not have a book under contract with an agent and/or publisher at time of application, and writer cannot have been published by One Story (or have a forthcoming publication with One Story). Submit a fiction writing sample, 3,000-5,000 words, that "speaks to issues and experiences related to inhabiting bodies of difference" via sponsor's online submissions portal. Also upload personal statement (600-1,100 words), 1-page resume, and contact details of two professional references. Be sure to read sponsor's complete guidelines before entering. | ||||||
| Neal Peirce Foundation Journalism Travel Grants | 10/13/26 | Fellowship | Active | $1,500.00 | Recommended | |
Deadline October 13 (must be received by this date). Recommended free contest offers up to seven travel grants of up to $1,500 apiece to journalists with a professional publication history, to cover "under-told stories about ways to make cities and their metro regions work better for all their people." Travel must be within the US, within three months of award receipt, and the story should be submitted to the pitched outlet within three months of travel ending. See website for application form. | ||||||
| Latino Voices in Children's Literature Writing Contest | 10/14/26 | Prose Manuscript | Active | $1,000.00 | Neutral | |
Deadline October 14 (must be received by this date; don't enter before September 14). Neutral free contest from Free Spirit Publishing awards prizes up to $1,000 for original children's books, written for either ages 0-4 (50-125 words) or 4-8 (300-800 words), by Latino authors residing in the US who have not previously published work for children (self-published authors are eligible). The contest's mission is "to elevate authentic, culturally relevant children's stories written by and about Latino people." Every entry will be considered for publication. Enter online or via postal mail. | ||||||
| Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship | 10/15/26 | Fellowship | Active | $78,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadline October 15 (must be received by this date). Highly recommended free contest awards a fellowship of about $78,000 for US poets, to fund a year of travel outside North America. Entrants must be US citizens by virtue of birth in the US, or birth outside the US to an American citizen parent who was born in the US. While contest is open to all, poets with significant publishing credits have the best chance. Send two copies of application and include 40 pages of poetry OR published book and maximum 20 pages of additional (more recent) poetry. See website for other required materials. | ||||||
| Charles Potts Poetry Award | 10/15/26 | Poetry Manuscript | Active | $1,000.00 | Neutral | |
Deadline October 15 (must be received by this date; don't enter before August 28). Neutral free contest gives publication and $1,000 for the author's first book of poetry, minimum 85 pages in total. Enter via email. Limit one manuscript per author. Sponsored by Hand to Mouth Books, a publishing house established by Charles Potts. | ||||||
| Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards | 10/16/26 | Published Poetry Book Published Prose Book | Active | $30,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadline October 16 (must be received by this date; don't enter before April 15). Highly recommended free contest for published books gives four awards of $30,000 each: one for a book of fiction, one for a poetry collection, one for a book of nonfiction, and one for a memoir or autobiography. This award honors books that have made important contributions to the understanding of racism or the appreciation of cultural diversity. Books must have been published in the current calendar year. Plays, screenplays, e-books, unpublished, print-on-demand, and self-published works not eligible. Author, publisher, editor, or publicist should submit the entry form online and then send 6 hard copies of the book. Sponsored by The Cleveland Foundation, the world's first community foundation. | ||||||
| Zocalo Public Square Book Prize | 10/16/26 | Published Prose Book | Active | $10,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadline October 16 (must be received by this date). Highly recommended free contest gives $10,000 for the best US-published nonfiction book, published or forthcoming in the current calendar year, that best enhances our understanding of community and the forces that strengthen or undermine human connectedness and social cohesion. Books may be scholarly or general-interest nonfiction from a variety of disciplines including philosophy, history, journalism, and political science. Submit by mail. | ||||||
| Manchester Cathedral Poetry Competition | 10/21/26 | Individual Poems | Active | £200.00 | Neutral | |
Deadline October 21 (must be received by this date; don't enter before August 20). Neutral free contest gives prizes up to 200 pounds for unpublished poems, 30 lines maximum. The 2026 theme is "Unsung City". The first entry is free, additional entries 5 pounds each. Enter by email. This was formerly a contest for religious poetry but that is no longer required. | ||||||
| Bukhman International Booker Prize | 10/22/26 | Published Prose Book | Active | £50,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadlines July 23, September 24, October 22 (must be received by these dates; don't enter before July 2). Highly recommended free contest awards 50,000 pounds each for author and translator of an English translation of a novel or collection of short stories published in the UK or Ireland between May 1 of the deadline year and April 30 of the following year by an established UK/Ireland imprint. Author and translator need not be UK/Ireland citizens or residents, but entries must be submitted by an established UK/Ireland publisher. E-books and self-translated works welcome, but self-published titles are ineligible. Submit completed entry form, 10 copies of the work, a PDF of the text, and other required materials specified in the contest's full rules of entry by July 23 (if slated for publication between May 1 and November 30, 2026) or September 24 (if slated for publication between December 1, 2026 and April 30, 2027). Any imprint that has more than 3 books to submit may nominate additional titles as call-ins; all call-in nomination forms and other required application materials must be submitted by October 22. Sponsored and coordinated by the Booker Prize Foundation. | ||||||
| Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses Literary Prize | 10/31/26 | Published Prose Book | Active | £2,000.00 | Recommended | |
Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date). Recommended free contest from the Society of Authors gives 2,000 pounds for a published or self-published novel which is by a disabled or chronically ill author in the UK or Ireland and which includes disabled or chronically ill characters. Books must have been published in the UK between November 1 of the calendar year before last and October 31 of the current year. | ||||||
| Betty Trask Prize | 10/31/26 | Published Prose Book Prose Manuscript | Active | £10,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date; don't enter before August 28). Highly recommended free contest awards top prize of 10,000 pounds for a first novel (published or unpublished) of "a romantic or traditional nature", i.e. not experimental. Author must be a British national or a resident of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or the Commonwealth for at least 3 years. Author must be under 35 as of the deadline date. If published, the work must have been published between November 1 of the previous year and the deadline date. Send 5 copies of book (if published), or upload the manuscript online (if unpublished). Complete entry form online. Sponsored by the Society of Authors. | ||||||
| Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize | 10/31/26 | Poetry Chapbook | Active | $500.00 | Recommended | |
Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date). Recommended free contest awards $500 and chapbook publication by Northwestern University Press for a poetry manuscript, 25-35 pages, by an emerging poet of color who is a US citizen and has not previously published a book-length volume of poetry. Winner also receives 15 copies of their book. Simultaneous submissions to other contests should be noted. See sponsor's guidelines online for details. Email MS and submission form. Co-sponsored by Northwestern University’s Poetry and Poetics Colloquium and Northwestern University Press to celebrate and publish works of lasting cultural value and literary excellence by minority poets. | ||||||
| Eric Gregory Awards | 10/31/26 | Individual Poems | Active | £4,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date; don't enter before August 28). Highly recommended free contest gives prizes totaling 20,000 pounds for a collection of up to 30 poems, drama-poems, or belles-lettres, maximum 50 pages total, by a writer who will be under age 30 as of the deadline date. The author must be a British national or a resident in Great Britain and Northern Ireland for at least three years. Previously published work accepted. Submit your application and poems online. | ||||||
| Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence | 10/31/26 | Published Prose Book | Active | $15,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date; don't enter before April 1). Highly recommended free contest for a book of fiction (novel or short story collection) by an emerging African-American US citizen published during the current calendar year gives $15,000 and travel-expenses-paid trip to Baton Rouge, LA for award ceremony. Winner must participate in educational activities and small creative writing workshops with local students during the week of ceremony. No self-published books. Send entry form and 8 copies of book (or galleys if necessary). Sponsored by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. | ||||||
| Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize for Fiction | 10/31/26 | Published Prose Book | Active | £2,000.00 | Recommended | |
Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date; don't enter before August 28). Recommended free contest from the Society of Authors awards prizes up to 2,000 pounds for a full-length, English-language novel focusing on the experience of travel away from home by a UK or Irish writer that was first published in the UK or Ireland between November 1 of the previous year and the deadline date. Publisher must complete sponsor's online entry form; limit two entries per imprint. | ||||||
| Lex:lead Essay Competition | 10/31/26 | Scholarly Essay | Active | $500.00 | Neutral | |
Deadlines October 31 (must be registered online by this date) and December 31 (must be received by this date; don't enter before December 1). Neutral free contest awards up to 15 one-time scholarships of $500 each for English-language essays on a law and economic development topic that changes annually, written by law students who are studying in and citizens of the world's least developed countries, across Africa, Asia, and the Americas. See list of eligible nations in sponsor's downloadable rules document. For 2026, the question to be addressed is "How can artificial intelligence (AI) be regulated to reduce poverty and support economic development?" Although any and all references used by the writer must be cited within the essay, sponsor is "looking for insight and ideas that solve the problem posed; not a review of academic literature on the subject". Send your essay, maximum 5 single-spaced pages, via email. Based in New York City, Lex:lead is a nonprofit organization of lawyers seeking to create greater economic advancement and development worldwide. | ||||||
| Marfield Prize/National Award for Arts Writing | 10/31/26 | Published Prose Book | Active | $10,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date). Highly recommended free contest awards $10,000 for a nonfiction book first published in the US in the current calendar year about an artistic discipline (e.g., visual, literary, performing, or media arts). Publishers, agents, or authors should complete the entry form and submit 3 copies of the book. Winner will participate in a short, all-expenses-paid residency in Washington, DC. Sponsored by the Arts Club of Washington. | ||||||
| McKitterick Prize | 10/31/26 | Published Prose Book Prose Manuscript | Active | £4,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date; don't enter before August 28). Highly recommended free contest awards 4,000 pounds for a first novel by an author over age 40 as of the deadline date. The work must either have been first published in the UK between November 1 of the previous year and the deadline date (and not first published abroad), or be unpublished. Publisher or author must submit application online; send 5 copies of the published book and upload a digital version of the book, OR upload the first 30 pages of the manuscript. Sponsored by the Society of Authors and named after Tom McKitterick, the former editor of Political Quarterly. | ||||||
| Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest | 10/31/26 | Individual Poems | Active | $350.00 | Recommended | |
Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date). Recommended free poetry contest for female/female-identified US high school sophomores and juniors (grades 10-11) gives top prize of $350, a $5,000 annually renewable scholarship if winner enrolls at Hollins, publication in Cargoes (Hollins' student literary magazine), as well as expenses paid to the summer creative writing program. No simultaneous submissions permitted; entries must not be under consideration elsewhere. To enter, student must have a faculty sponsor at her high school or preparatory school. Submit up to 2 poems of any length online. | ||||||
| New York Historical Children's History Book Prize | 10/31/26 | Published Prose Book | Active | $10,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date). Highly recommended free contest gives $10,000 for the best book of nonfiction history or historical fiction for middle-grade readers that was published in the US in the current calendar year. Send 6 copies to the director of the DiMenna Children's History Museum at the New York Historical. | ||||||
| Preservation Foundation Essay Contest for Unpublished Writers | 10/31/26 | Creative Nonfiction | Active | $200.00 | Neutral | |
Deadlines April 30, June 30, August 31, October 31 (must be received by these dates). Neutral free contest gives prizes up to $200 and web publication for essays, 1,000-5,000 words, by unpublished writers, defined as those whose creative writing has never produced revenues of over $250 in any single year. Nonfiction categories are General, Biographical, Travel, and Animal. April 30 deadline is for entries in the Animal Nonfiction category; June 30 deadline is for entries in the General Nonfiction category; August 31 deadline is for entries in the Biographical Nonfiction category; and October 31 deadline is for entries in the Travel Nonfiction category. The Preservation Foundation is a Tennessee-based nonprofit with the goal of preserving the extraordinary stories of ordinary people. "Since our object is to preserve these stories for future generations, not to put them up one year and take them down the next, all contest entries will be posted on our website and must remain on the site for as long as the Preservation Foundation exists." Submit up to 2 entries in each of the 4 nonfiction categories via email. | ||||||
| Queen's Knickers Award | 10/31/26 | Published Poetry Book Published Prose Book | Active | £5,000.00 | Recommended | |
Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date; don't enter before August 28). Recommended free contest from the Society of Authors awards 5,000 pounds top prize to the author and illustrator of a children’s illustrated book for ages 0-7 (any combination of words and/or pictures, or just pictures) that "strikes a quirky, new note and grabs the attention of a child ... [via] curiosity, amusement, horror, or excitement". Work must have been first published in the UK and Republic of Ireland between September 1 of the previous year to August 31 of the deadline year. Submissions must be made by the print publisher, and publisher may submit no more than three titles per imprint. Publisher should complete the online entry form and upload a digital version of the book, then send 4 hard copies of the title by post. | ||||||
| Short Story Substack's Monthly Contest | 10/31/26 | Short Fiction | Active | $100.00 | Neutral | |
Deadline January 31 (must be received by this date), subsequent deadlines on the last day of each month. Neutral free contest for short fiction gives a monthly prize of $100 plus 50% of the site's subscription revenue for that month, and publication in their monthly Substack newsletter that is archived on the website. Entries may be published or unpublished, as long as you have the reprint rights. Send one story, 6-10,000 words, by email to shortstorystack@gmail.com as an MS Word or Google Doc file. | ||||||
| Somerset Maugham Awards | 10/31/26 | Published Poetry Book Published Prose Book | Active | £4,000.00 | Recommended | |
Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date; don't enter before August 28). Recommended free contest for published books of poetry and prose gives a stipend for foreign travel. Prize amounts vary from year to year, but have been approximately 4,000 pounds. Entrants must be British nationals or have resided in Great Britain or Northern Ireland for at least 3 years; authors also must be under age 30 as of the deadline date. Book must have been first published in Britain during the current calendar year. The work submitted may be poetry, fiction, criticism, biography, history, philosophy, belles-lettres, or a travel book; dramatic works are not eligible. Publisher must complete entry form online, and send four copies of the book. Limit two entries per imprint. Sponsored by the Society of Authors. | ||||||
| USNI General Prize Essay Contest | 10/31/26 | Scholarly Essay | Active | $6,000.00 | Highly Recommended | |
Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date). Highly recommended free contest from the US Naval Institute gives top prize of $6,000 for previously unpublished essays, maximum 3,000 words, on a topic that "advances the understanding of sea power (Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard) and other issues critical to global security". See website for this year's specific theme. Open to active-duty military, reservists, veterans, and civilians. Essays must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere; no simultaneous submissions. Enter via sponsor's online submissions portal. | ||||||
