Upcoming Contest Deadlines

G&A: The Contest Blog
3.31.23

Tomorrow may be April Fools’ Day, but these contests with deadlines of April 13, 14, and 15 are no joke! Prizes include five $25,800 fellowships from the Poetry Foundation; $1,500 and publication for a single poem or group of poems, a short story, or an essay; a weeklong residency at an Italian castle for a short fiction writer; and more. All contests offer an award of at least $1,000, and one has no entry fee. Good luck, writers!

Desperate Literature
Short Fiction Prize
A prize of €1,500 (approximately $1,581), a weeklong residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation’s castle in the Umbria region of Italy, and publication in Desperate Literature’s prize anthology is given annually for a work of short fiction. Winners will also receive a consultation with literary agent Charlotte Seymour (Johnson & Alcock Literary Agency), an editorial meeting with the Literary Consultancy, and the opportunity to give readings at Desperate Literature in Madrid and Burley Fisher Books in London. Mariana Enríquez, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Tiffany Tsao will judge. Deadline: April 15. Entry fee: €20 (approximately $21) for first entry, €10 (approximately $11) for each additional entry, with a maximum of five entries per person.

Florida Review
Editor’s Prizes
Three prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Florida Review are given annually for a poem or group of poems, a short story, and an essay. The editors will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: April 15. Entry fee: $25, which includes a subscription to Florida Review.

New Ohio Review
Literary Prizes
Three prizes of $1,500 each and publication in New Ohio Review are given annually for a poem or group of poems, a short story, and an essay. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: April 15. Entry fee: $22, which includes a subscription to New Ohio Review.

Omnidawn Publishing
Single Poem Contest
A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a single poem. The winner also receives 10 copies of a letterpress broadside of the winning poem. Nathalie Khankan will judge. Deadline: April 13. Entry fee: $25 ($15 for each additional poem).

Poetry Foundation
Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships
Five fellowships of $25,800 each are given annually to U.S. poets between the ages of 21 and 31. Deadline: April 14. Entry fee: none.

Spoon River Poetry Review
Editors’ Prize
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Spoon River Poetry Review, prefaced by a judge’s introduction, is given annually for a single poem. Multilingual submissions accompanied by translations are eligible. Deadline: April 15. Entry fee: $20, which includes a subscription to Spoon River Poetry Review.

University of Arkansas Press
Etel Adnan Poetry Prize
A prize of $1,000 and publication by University of Arkansas Press is given annually for a first or second poetry collection by a writer of Arab heritage. Series editors Hayan Charara and Fady Joudah will judge. Deadline: April 15. Entry fee: $25.

Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translation.

Giving Thanks

The Time Is Now
3.30.23

In “Dedications and Acknowledgments: The Art of Giving Thanks,” published on the Poets & Writers website in 2019, author Sloane Tanen discusses ways to offer gratitude to the people who help writers make books. Although some acknowledgment pages take the form of demonstrating how well connected a writer is, the pages can also be a space for writers to look back on how writing a book is more than just a solitary act. As an exercise, try making a list of all the writers, teachers, friends, family members, and favorite foods that contribute to your betterment as a writer. Then, write an essay that gives thanks and digs into the details of how these specific people and things have helped you become the writer you are today.

Whiting Award Winners Announced

G&A: The Contest Blog
3.29.23

At a ceremony held this evening at the New-York Historical Society in New York City, the Whiting Foundation announced the ten winners of the 2023 Whiting Awards. The awards, now in their thirty-eighth year, celebrate exceptional emerging literary talent. Each winning writer receives a prize of $50,000 in support of their work.

This year’s winners are poets Tommye Blount and Ama Codjoe; poet and dramatist Emma Wippermann; fiction writers Marcia Douglas, Sidik Fofana, and Carribean Fragoza; nonfiction writers Linda Kinstler and Stephania Taladrid; dramatist Mia Chung; and graphic novelist R. Kikuo Johnson, who is the first graphic novelist to be recognized with the award.

The winners will read together at an event at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday, March 30 at 6:30PM. The event is free and open to the public and will also be livestreamed.

“Every year we look to the new Whiting Award winners, writing fearlessly at the edge of imagination, to reveal the pathways of our thought and our acts before we know them ourselves,” said the foundation’s director of literary programs Courtney Hodell in a press release. “The prize is meant to create a space of ease in which such transforming work can be made.”

Since its inception in 1985, the Whiting Awards have bestowed a total of $9.5 million on 370 celebrated writers. For many recipients, this financial support enables a “first chance to devote themselves to their own writing, or to take bold new risks in their work.” Previous winners include such luminaries as poets Don Mee Choi, Roger Reeves, and Ocean Vuong; fiction writers Denis Johnson, Ling Ma, Sigrid Nunez, and Colson Whitehead; nonfiction writers Elif Batuman and Jia Tolentino; and playwright Tony Kushner.

There is no application process for the Whiting Awards. Recipients are nominated by a rotating pool of writers, editors, professors, critics, and others working in the literary or dramatic arts. Final selections are made by a panel of “recognized writers, literary scholars, and editors.” The Whiting Foundation’s other initiatives include the Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grants, which support the development of researched nonfiction books and are open for applications through April 25.

A Changed City

The Time Is Now
3.29.23

In response to a series of pension reforms by French president Emmanuel Macron, municipal waste collectors began a strike earlier this month, leaving over 10,000 tons of trash to collect on the streets of Paris. Viral videos have documented the City of Light transformed into a strange landscape of black bags, abandoned toilets, strewn furniture, and cardboard boxes. This week, write a story in which a set of events triggers a city’s landscape to change dramatically. The setting can be based on real events or surrealistic, as with Donald Barthelme’s short story “The Balloon,” published in the New Yorker in 1966.

Lovable Oddities

The Time Is Now
3.28.23

In Ada Limón’s poem “Accident Report in the Tall, Tall Weeds,” which appears in her collection Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions, 2015), the speaker moves through the memories of exes and accidents, including how a friend is obsessed with plane crashes: “He memorizes the wrecked metal details, / the clear cool skies cut by black scars of smoke. / Once, while driving, he told me about all the crashes: / The one in blue Kentucky, in yellow Iowa. / How people go on, and how people don’t.” Write a poem about a specific detail or unexpected obsession of a loved one. How does this trait color the memories you have with that person?

Deadline Nears for Orison Books’ Prizes in Poetry and Fiction

G&A: The Contest Blog
3.24.23

Do you have a poetry or fiction manuscript in need of a home? Try submitting to Orison Books’ Prizes in Poetry and Fiction, which offer $1,500 for a book in each genre and publication by the press.

Using only the online submission system, submit a poetry manuscript of 50 to 100 pages or a novel, novella, or collection of short stories or flash fiction of at least 30,000 words with a $25 entry fee by April 1. Pádraig Ó Tuama will judge in poetry and David Heska Wanbli Weiden will judge in fiction. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Last year’s winner of the Orison Poetry Prize was Hussain Ahmed for Blue Exodus. Judge Rajiv Mohabir said the collection’s “lines ask the reader to interrogate all things in new vocabularies of anguish, born from the inheritor of a war—still being fought in the muscle memory of the people who lived through it.” M. C. Benner Dixon was the winner of last year’s Orison Fiction Prize for her novel, The Height of the Land. Judge Tania James called the book “a refreshing approach to the post-apocalyptic novel, showing us both the possibilities of collective action and the power of a single dissenting voice.”

Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Orison Books is a nonprofit literary press interested in writing that engages “the life of the spirit.” Taking its name from the archaic word for “prayer,” Orison seeks writers who “call us to meditate and contemplate, rather than asking us to adopt any ideology or set of propositions.”

Find a Writing Contest

The Grants & Awards database includes details about every writing contest that we’ve published in Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it, making the Grants & Awards database the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.

Search the database

Nurturing Network

The Time Is Now
3.23.23

In the popular apocalyptic video game and HBO series The Last of Us, a zombifying fungus has destroyed the world. Although there are destructive types of fungi, in forest habitats they can be quite beneficial. Fungi intertwine with the roots of trees underground and connect individual plants to form a network they use to communicate and transfer water, nitrogen, carbon, and other minerals. Older, more seasoned trees in a forest, sometimes referred to as “mother trees,” use these fungal connections to send needed nutrients to younger saplings, much like the ways in which humans care for those in need. Inspired by the interdependence of forest habitats, write an essay that reflects on the metaphorical ramifications of this nurturing relationship. Is there a parallel you can find in your own life?

Self-Image

The Time Is Now
3.22.23

Adam Mars-Jones’s novel Box Hill: A Story of Low Self-Esteem (New Directions, 2020) explores a relationship between two men: naive eighteen-year-old Colin and his decade-older lover Ray. Told from the point of view of Colin, whose self-deprecating remarks diminish his image and idolize his partner, readers are brought into his view of the world. In one scene, Colin refers to his partner’s sweat as “an elixir” and his own as “no more than a waste product.” Mars-Jones uses Colin’s unique voice to develop his character as well as mimic his role in his relationship with Ray, setting up his emotional arc. Inspired by this narrative technique, write a story in which your narrator has an extreme view of themselves, whether narcissistic or self-deprecating. What effect does this have on how your story develops?

Rebellious Nature

The Time Is Now
3.21.23

In Charif Shanahan’s poem “Colonialism,” which appears in his second collection, Trace Evidence, out this week from Tin House Books, the poet captures a tense and tender moment of childhood rebellion in which the young speaker runs across a bustling four-lane street in Casablanca as his mother rushes after him, spanks him, and says: “Why / Would you do that to me?” Another poem from the book depicts a child in a department store fleeing and hiding from his mother as she searches and calls out for him. The poet’s rebellious, authoritative voice electrifies scenes from childhood while exploring themes of mixed-race identity, queerness, and belonging. Can you recall a childhood memory that, in hindsight, is tied to your identity? Write a poem that captures this scene in which you see a latent part of yourself on display. Try to draw a line, as Shanahan does, connecting your past self to your present self.

Upcoming Contest Deadlines

G&A: The Contest Blog
3.17.23

Celebrate the upcoming first day of spring by submitting to contests with a March 31 deadline! Opportunities abound for poets, fiction writers, creative nonfiction writers, and translators. Don’t miss the chance to apply for six-month fellowships with A Public Space or to win $10,000 for a debut book of nonfiction by a first-generation immigrant or $5,000 for a manuscript of narrative poetry. All contests offer a cash prize of $1,000 or more and four are free to enter. May your writing bloom this springtime!

A Public Space
Writing Fellowships
Three six-month fellowships of $1,000 each are given annually to emerging poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers who “embrace risk in their work” and have not published a full-length book. The fellows will work with the editors to prepare a piece for publication in A Public Space, receive complimentary access to all A Public Space master classes during the fellowship year, and will also have the opportunity to meet with publishing professionals and participate in a public reading. Entry fee: none.

Banipal Trust for Arab Literature
Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation
A prize of £3,000 (approximately $3,665) is given annually for a book of poetry or fiction translated from Arabic into English and published for the first time in English during the previous year. Translations of Arabic works of poetry or fiction originally published in 1967 or later are eligible. Entry fee: none.

Black Lawrence Press
Hudson Prize
A prize of $1,000, publication by Black Lawrence Press, and 10 author copies is given annually for a collection of poems, short stories, essays, or hybrid work. Collections including multilingual text are welcome, but the primary written language must be English. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $27.

Elixir Press
Antivenom Poetry Award
A prize of $1,000 and publication by Elixir Press is given annually for a first or second poetry collection. John Estes will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $30.

Four Way Books
Levis Prize in Poetry
A prize of $1,000 and publication by Four Way Books is given annually for a poetry collection. The winner will also be invited to participate in readings either virtually or in person in New York City, as public health guidelines allow. Diane Seuss will judge. Entry fee: $30.

Gemini Magazine
Short Story Contest
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Gemini Magazine is given annually for a short story. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $8.

Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature
Paul Engle Prize
A prize of $20,000 is given annually to a writer “who, like Paul Engle, represents a pioneering spirit in the world of literature through writing, editing, publishing, or teaching, and whose active participation in the larger issues of the day has contributed to the betterment of the world through the literary arts.” Poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers are eligible. Self-nominations are not allowed. Entry fee: none.

Laura Boss Poetry Foundation
Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award
A prize of $5,000, publication by New York Quarterly Books, and 25 author copies will be given annually for a manuscript of narrative poetry. The winner and finalists are invited to give a reading in Paterson, New Jersey, in partnership with the Poetry Center of Passaic County Community College. José Antonio Rodríguez will judge. Entry fee: $25 (which may be waived for those experiencing financial hardship).

Restless Books
Prize for New Immigrant Writing
A prize of $10,000 and publication by Restless Books is given in alternating years for a debut book of fiction or nonfiction by a first-generation immigrant. The 2023 prize will be given in nonfiction. Writers who have not published a book of nonfiction in English are eligible. Entry fee: none.

Trustees of the Robert Frost Farm
Frost Farm Prize for Metrical Poetry
A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a poem written in metrical verse. The winner also receives a scholarship to attend and give a reading at the Frost Farm Poetry Conference in Derry, New Hampshire, in June. Alfred Nicol will judge. Entry fee: $6. 

Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translation.

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