These are contests, grants and fellowships for writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translators, journalists, playwrights, and for student writers. Prizes range from $25 to $54,000… – S. Kalekar
The Howard Foundation Fellowships
These are funds for rotating disciplines. For the 2020-21 cycle, the fields are fiction, poetry, and playwriting and theatre studies. These fellowships are to buy writers time for their work, and are often used to supplement a sabbatical leave. They are for early mid-career writers based in the US.
Value: $35,000
Deadline: 1 November 2019
Open for: Early mid-career US-based writers
Details here.
Malice Domestic Grants for Unpublished Writers
This is given to an unpublished writer (see guidelines) in the Malice Domestic genre at each year’s Malice Domestic convention. The grant may be used to offset registration, travel, or other expenses related to attendance at a writers’ conference or workshop within a year of the date of the award. In the case of non-fiction, the grant may be used to offset research expenses. The Malice Domestic genre is loosely described as mystery stories of the Agatha Christie type—i.e. “traditional mysteries.” These works usually feature no excessive gore, gratuitous violence, or explicit sex. See guidelines for additional details and submission requirements. Apart from the cash award, the prize covers a comprehensive registration for the upcoming convention and two nights’ lodging at the convention hotel, but does not include travel to the convention or meals.
Value: $2,500, and other expenses – see above
Deadline: 1 November 2019
Open for: Unpublished writers in the Malice Domestic genre
Details here.
New Writing North: Climate Emergency Writer-in-Residence
New Writing North and Newcastle University have created a new residency post for an exceptional writer for writers of poetry, fiction, or non-fiction. Writers can be based anywhere but will need to spend some time in the North East working with New Writing North, Newcastle University and with organisations and communities based there. The writer will play a key role in defining how their organisations can harness the power of arts and culture to respond to the challenge of the climate crisis. They will not only generate new creative work in response to the issue, but will interrogate the role of writers in relation to the crisis. They expect the writer to undertake a period of research and consultation, which will include engaging with scientists, activists, thinkers, students, young people, communities, and fellow writers. This work will manifest in newly commissioned work and the organizers will work with the writer to devise further commissions, events, and actions that make best use of their assets to debate, lobby, and enable positive change.
Value: £10,000
Deadline: 1 November 2019
Open for: Writers with a strong track record of public work and engagement who are excellent public speakers
Details here.
Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship
This fellowship is for an early-career writer of fiction who has not yet published a book and is not currently nor has ever been enrolled in an MFA program. They are seeking writers whose work speaks to issues and experiences related to inhabiting bodies of difference. This means writing that explores being in a body marked by difference, oppression, violence, or exclusion; often through categories of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, religion, illness, disability, trauma, migration, displacement, dispossession, or imprisonment. All applicants must be at least 21 years of age on January 1st, 2020. Apart from the stipend and tuition to attend One Story’s July 2020 week-long summer writers’ conference in Brooklyn, it offers free tuition for all One Story online classes and programming in 2020; a full manuscript review & consultation with One Story Executive Editor Hannah Tinti (story collection or novel in progress up to 150 pages/35,000 words). A fiction writing sample of 3,000-8,000 words is part of the submission requirement.
Value: Travel stipend ($2,000) and tuition to attend writers’ conference in Brooklyn, and others – see above
Deadline: 1 November 2019
Open for: All writers
Details here.
The Haven Foundation Grants
This foundation, established by Stephen King, gives financial assistance to help established freelance artists and writers who have suffered disabilities or a career-threatening illness, accident, natural disaster or personal catastrophe.
Value: Unspecified
Deadline: 1 November 2019
Open for: Legal US residents
Details here.
Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize
This is for writers in the Commonwealth regions of Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Caribbean, and Pacific. Translated entries are also eligible, as are stories written in the original Bengali, Chinese, French, Greek, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Tamil and Turkish.
Value: £5000; £2,500 for regional winners
Deadline: 1 November 2019
Open for: Writers in the Commonwealth (see guidelines for the list of countries)
Details here.
Academy of American Poets: Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize
This prize is given to honor exceptional poems that help make real for readers the gravity of the vulnerable state of our environment at present. It is for US writers (see guidelines). In addition to the prize money, all three poems will be published in the popular Poem-a-day series.
Value: $1,000, $750, $500
Deadline: 1 November 2019
Open for: US poets (see guidelines)
Details here.
Weird Christmas Fiction Contest
This is a contest for winter holiday short fiction of up to 350 words. Stories should be weird or strange or odd. According to guidelines, “It can be “Haha!” weird or “Oh, Jesus, no!” weird. It can be genre (sf, fantasy, horror/weird, bizarro, etc.) or it can just be off-kilter. Sentimental is fine, but it better be sentimental in a way that leaves me feeling…uncomfortable. As long as it’s something about the holidays we aren’t expecting, it fits.” Try to avoid evil Santa (or monster Santa or Cthulhu Santa or diabolical Santa) stories. Stories will be published on the website and as a podcast.
Value: $50, $25
Deadline: 2 November 2019
Open for: All writers
Details here.
PEN/Robert J Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers
This award recognizes 12 emerging fiction writers for their debut short story published during a given calendar year in a literary magazine or cultural website, and aims to support the launch of their careers as fiction writers. Work must be submitted by editors of eligible publications. Participating publications may be cultural websites, online magazines, or print magazines distributed in the US and the work must be the writer’s debut short story. Stories must have been published or forthcoming in 2019.
Value: $2,000 each
Deadline: 15 November 2019
Open for: Debut short story writers
Details here.
One Teen Story Contest
This short story contest is for writers aged 13-19 about the teenage experience; issues of identity, friendship, family, and coming of age. Stories should be 2,000-4,500 words and can be in any genre.
Value: $500 each for 4 writers
Deadline: 15 November 2019
Open for: Writers ages 13 to 19
Details here.
Gaius Charles Bolin Dissertation and Post-MFA Fellowships
This is for US writers who must be PhD or recent MFA graduates. Their guidelines say, “Fellows devote the bulk of the first year to the completion of dissertation work—or in the case of MFA applicants, building their professional portfolios—while also teaching one course as a faculty member in one of the College’s academic departments or programs. The second year of residency (ideally with degree in hand) is spent on academic career development while again teaching just one course.” For post MFA writer applicants, 2-3 short stories, 10-15 poems, or novel passages not to exceed 50 pages is part of the application requirements. The Bolin Fellowships are awarded to applicants from underrepresented groups.
Value: $50,000, additional $4,000 for research, other benefits; Residency at Williams College
Deadline: 15 November 2019
Open for: US writers
Details here.
The Bellagio Center Arts & Literary Arts Residency
This residency, by the Rockefeller Foundation, is for composers, fiction and non-fiction writers, playwrights, poets, video/filmmakers, dancers, musicians, and visual artists who share in the Foundation’s mission of promoting the well-being of humankind and whose work is inspired by or relates to global or social issues. There is also space for the writers’ spouses/life partners. Also look at their Practitioner Residency for a variety of people, including journalists.
Value: Room and board at the Bellagio Center in Italy, travel grants on a need basis
Opens on: 15 November 2019
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Washington College: Patrick Henry Writing Fellowship
This is a full-time residential writing fellowship, for writing on American history and culture. Applicants should have a book currently in progress. Their guidelines say, “The project should address the history and/or legacy – broadly defined – of the American Revolution and the nation’s founding ideas. It might focus on the founding era itself, or on the myriad ways the questions that preoccupied the nation’s founders have shaped America’s later history. Work that contributes to ongoing national conversations about America’s past and present, with the potential to reach a wide public, is particularly sought.”
Value: $45,000, other allowances, residency
Deadline: 15 November 2019 (extended)
Open for: Published writers
Details here.
Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize
The Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize recognizes outstanding work by student writers in the 11th grade in the US or abroad. Contest judges are poets on the Princeton University Creative Writing faculty.
Value: $500, $250, $100
Deadline: 29 November 2019
Open for: Student writers in the 11th grade
Details here.
Dappled Things: The J. F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction
Dappled Things is a space for emerging writers to engage the literary world from a Catholic perspective. For this contest, they want stories of up to 8,000 words “with vivid characters who encounter grace in everyday settings—we want to see who, in the age we live in, might have one foot in this world and one in the next.”
Value: $500, $250
Deadline: 30 November 2019
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Brunel International African Poetry Prize
This is for poets born in Africa, or who are nationals of an African country, or whose parents are African, and who have not yet had a full-length poetry book published. Writers need to submit 10 poems exactly. These poems, though, may have already been published.
Value: £3,000
Contest dates: 4-30 November 2019
Open for: African poets (see above)
Details here.
Green Stories Writing Competitions: TV/Netflix 6-part series
They are looking for TV/Netflix Series that in some way touch upon ideas around building a sustainable society. They will consider all genres – rom-com, literary fiction, science fiction, mystery, crime etc. – but stories must engage with the idea of environmentally sustainable practices and/or sustainable societies. Most stories set in the future are dystopian – for this contest, they encourage writers to imagine more positive settings and practices for their stories. They want 6 episodes 25-60 minutes each. Submit first episode + 3 page outline of the rest of the episodes. Although they only ask for the first episode in the first instance, it’s a good idea to have the rest written as we will probably ask for the whole thing when making decisions about the finalists. Apart from cash prizes, BBC Writers room have agreed to read the top five scripts and follow up with any writers they think have promise. In addition, Red Production Company have agreed to read the winning script and consider it for production. Also see guidelines for upcoming Green Stories contests in other genres.
Value: £500, £100, £50; plus £50 for best student submission (18-25 years) and £50 for best < 18 year submission.
Deadline: 30 November 2019
Open for: All writers
Details here.
ServiceScape Short Story Award
For this award, any genre or theme of short story is accepted. All applicants should submit their original unpublished work of short fiction or nonfiction, 5,000 words or fewer, to be considered. Read the guidelines carefully – they reserve the right to modify (or terminate) the contest at any time without prior notice.
Value: $1,000
Deadline: 30 November 2019
Open for: All writers
Details here.
The Society of Authors: The Betty Trask Prize and The Betty Trask Awards
This is for UK- or Commonwealth-based writers under 35, for a debut novel. Writers can enter a published book or an unpublished manuscript which must be in a traditional or romantic, and not experimental, style.
Value: “Total prize money from £26,250”
Deadline: 30 November 2019
Open for: UK, Ireland, or Commonwealth writers (see guidelines)
Details here.
East Riding Festival of Words Young Poets Prize
This contest is free to enter for children and for adults, there is an entry fee. Write a poem on the theme ‘My Mind, My Thoughts’ of up to 45 lines.
Value: £75 for secondary school, £50 for primary school; one prize of £25 each for primary and secondary school
Deadline: 30 November 2019
Open for: School-aged children (4-16 years)
Details here.
Better than Starbucks Sonnet Contest
This contest accepts metrical sonnets. Their guidelines say, “Your sonnet can be shakespearean, petrarchan, spenserian, rhymed, or slant-rhymed. Blank verse is fine, as long as the sonnet form is clearly identifiable. We’ll consider tetrameter, hexameter, etc. as well as pentameter. Some metrical variation is fine, but don’t forget the volta!” Submit up to two sonnets.
Value: $100, $50, $25
Deadline: 1 December 2019
Open for: All poets
Details here.
Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets
This is a poetry contest for African writers. Manuscripts must be at least 50 pages long.
Value: $1,000
Deadline: 1 December 2019
Open for: African writers (see guidelines)
Details here.
fresh.ink writing contest
This contest is for short stories, novelettes, novellas, and novels. Writers can enter as many times as they like, and entries can be from anywhere in the world. Writers are free to publish already-published stories. Read the guidelines carefully – fresh.ink is a platform that will connect your writing to beta readers for ratings, engagement analytics, and feedback. According to guidelines, “Our judging process works the same way. Rather than using a small team of editors to decide, we’ll match your work with a subset of readers on our fresh.ink mobile reading app.” Writers are rated by the average ‘completion rate’ (the number of readers who finished reading your story) and star rating. All submissions have to be in US English. They do not offer publishing deals.
Value: $3,000 for novels, $2,000 for novellas, $1,500 for novelettes, and $1,000 for short stories
Deadline: 1 December 2019
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Brooklyn Non-Fiction Prize
They want an essay which is set in Brooklyn, is about Brooklyn, and/or Brooklyn people/characters. They want work from writers all backgrounds and ages, “who can render Brooklyn’s rich soul and intangible qualities through the writer’s actual experiences in Brooklyn.”
Value: $500
Deadline: 1 December 2019
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
Author Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
