These are 26 contests, grants, and fellowships for fiction, non-fiction, and poetry; they range from $75 to $75,000. They’re very roughly divided by geography. None of them charge an entry fee. – S. Kalekar
PRIZES OPEN FOR INTERNATIONAL SUBMISSIONS
The Heron’s Nest: Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards
This poetry contest is run by The Heron’s Nest, a quarterly online journal of haiku. Submit up to five haiku for this contest.
Value: $150, $75, $50
Deadline: 1 June 2021
Open for: All poets
Details here.
PEN America: Three grants
PEN America is currently accepting submissions for three grants/ fellowships.
— PEN/Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History
These grants are for literary works of non-fiction that use oral history to illuminate an event, individual, place, or movement. They are to help maintain or complete ongoing projects. Oral history must be a significant portion of the work and its research. Writers have to send in writing samples and transcripts as part of the application.
Value: Two grants of $15,000 each
Deadline: 1 June 2021
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
— PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship
This is for an author of children’s or young-adult fiction. The fellowship is for helping writers whose work is of high literary caliber and is designed to assist a writer at a crucial moment in his or her career to complete a book-length fiction work-in-progress. Applicants must have already published one work for children or young adults that was warmly received by literary critics, but whose work has not yet attracted a broad readership.
Value: $5,000
Deadline: 1 June 2021
Open for: Published YA/children’s writers (by a US trade publisher)
Details here.
— PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants
This international grant is to support the translation of book-length works of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, or drama that have not previously appeared in English in print or have appeared only in an outdated or otherwise flawed translation. Works should be translations-in-progress, as the grant aims to provide support for completion. The works must be translated into English. Projects may have up to two translators. There are various submission requirements, including a 10-12 page translation sample.
Value: $2,000-$4,000
Deadline: 1 June 2021
Open for: All translators
Details here.
Atlanta Review: Dan Veach Prize for Younger Poets
The Dan Veach Prize for Younger Poets solicits poems from college-age students, aged 18-23, on any subject or style. Poems with an international focus are especially welcomed, but all poems must be written in English. Students may submit up to two poems (40 lines or fewer for each poem). A letter of recommendation from a teacher or other person well-acquainted with the student’s writing must accompany the poem(s). The recommendation letter should affirm that these poems are the student’s original work.
Value: $100
Deadline: 1 June 2021
Open for: College-age poets (18-23 years)
Details here.
Defenestration.net Short Story Contest
They want a short story which should include an incident of defenestration – the art or –ism of throwing people out of windows. This need not be literal. Their team defines such an incident as follows – “a sudden, immediate, even violent shift, change, or seismical event between the beginning and the end.” There will voting by four judges for this contest, with fan voting counting as an additional judge vote.
Value: $75, two runner-up prizes of $30 each
Deadline: 7 June 2021
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest
This is for junior and senior division (11-14 and 15-18) students worldwide. The theme for this ocean awareness contest is ‘Water Rising’- it invites students to respond to one of the five prompts on the theme, given on their website. Apart from creative writing, and poetry & spoken word, the categories are: visual art, film, interactive & multimedia, and performing arts: music & dance. Students may submit one entry per category, meaning they may enter up to six pieces, one in each category.
Value: Senior division – $1,500, $1,000, $500, $100 in each category; Junior division – $1,000, $750, $250, $50 for each category
Deadline: 14 June 2021
Open for: Students ages 11-18
Details here.
A&U — America’s AIDS Magazine: Christopher Hewitt Awards
This is an award for fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and drama. All submissions must be HIV/AIDS-related. Writers may submit more than one work. Send up to 1,200 words for fiction and non-fiction, and up to 1,400-1,600 words for drama.
Value: $75 in each category
Deadline: 15 June 2021
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
The Norton Writer’s Prize
This is a non-fiction prize for undergraduates who are enrolled in an accredited 2- or 4-year college or university, enrolled during the 2020-21 year, and aged 17 or above. They will accept literary narratives, literary and other textual analyses, reports, profiles, evaluations, arguments, memoirs, proposals, mixed-genre pieces of 1,000-3,000 words. Entries require nomination by an instructor.
Value: Three prizes of $1,000 each
Deadline: 15 June 2021
Open for: Undergraduates
Details here.
Goi Peace Foundation: International Essay Contest for Young People
This is an international essay contest for people aged up to 25 years, in two categories – children and youth. The theme is, ‘What is Life? What does life mean to you? Have you had an experience that made you think about the meaning of life? What kinds of things can you do to cherish and invigorate your own life and all life on earth?’ Entries can be in English, French, (up to 700 words), or Japanese (up to 1,600 characters).
Value: For each category, there is one first prize is JPY100,000 (about $900); three second prizes of JPY50,000 (about $450) each; five third prizes, and 25 honorable mentions
Deadline: 15 June 2021
Open for: People aged up to 25 years
Details here.
Wizard of Oz Annual Club Contests
They want writing and art pertaining to L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels, Oz plays, or movies. There are two categories for writing (up to 10,000 words), fiction and non-fiction. For fiction, they want any fictitious story about or pertaining to the Land of Oz; this category also includes poetry and drama. Submissions must be appropriate for a family audience, like a G or PG-rated movie. For the non-fiction category, they want any non-fiction academic or scholarly research paper about or pertaining to the Land of Oz, Oz authors, illustrators, and other portrayals of Oz. There is also an art category. Submissions will also be forwarded to their anthology editors for potential publication (see guidelines).
Deadline: 15 June 2021
Value: $100, $50 each for fiction and non-fiction
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Drue Heinz Literature Prize
This international award is open to authors who have published a novel, a book-length collection of fiction or at least three short stories or novellas in commercial magazines or literary journals. It is for an unpublished manuscript of short fiction, or two or more novellas, or a combination of one or more novellas and short stories. Manuscripts must be 150-300 pages.
Value: $15,000
Deadline: 30 June 2021
Open for: Published writers
Details here.
Preservation Foundation Contest: General non-fiction
This is an international contest for unpublished writers (see guidelines). Their upcoming deadline is for the general non-fiction category: “Any appropriate nonfiction topic is eligible. Stories must be true, not semi-fictional accounts. So-called “creative nonfiction” will not be considered.” Entries should be 1,000-10,000 words. They want all entries, regardless of whether or not they win, to be on their website as long as the Foundation exists (see guidelines). Also see contests in other genres, which will open for submissions later in the year.
Value: $200, $100
Deadline: 30 June 2021
Open for: Unpublished writers
Details here.
Blue Mountain Arts Biannual Poetry Card Contest
Blue Mountain Arts is a greeting card company and this international contest is for poetry for its greeting cards. Poems for this contest can be rhyming or non-rhyming, though they do find that non-rhyming reads better. Writers can enter the contest as often as they like.
Value: $350, $200, $100
Deadline: 30 June 2021
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Richard J. Margolis Award
The award is for non-fiction writers of social justice journalism. It is for a promising new journalist or essayist whose work combines warmth, humour, wisdom and concern with social justice. Applications should include 2-3 non-fiction writing samples, up to 30 pages. At least one sample should be non-memoir material.
Value: $5,000, residency at Blue Mountain Centre artists’ colony
Deadline: 1 July 2021
Open for: Unspecified
Details here and here.
CONTESTS FOR WRITERS IN THE U.S. (AND CANADA)
The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture: Hiett Prize in the Humanities
This prize is aimed at identifying candidates in the early stages of their careers devoted to the humanities and whose work shows extraordinary promise to have a significant impact on contemporary culture. Applications include a Narrative Profile of Accomplishments and Published Work, and a plan for Future Scholarship and/or Project in the Humanities. Applicants must be active and continuing in their work. Age and length of experience are not necessarily limiting factors. Past winners have included writers of columns, nonfiction, poetry and memoir, and journalists.
Value: $50,000
Deadline: 1 June 2021 (for accepting nominations)
Open for: Those resident in the US
Details here.
ABA Journal/Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction
The ABA Journal is the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association. They want short stories (up to 5,000 words) that illuminate the role of the law and/of lawyers in modern society. This contest is for US citizens or legal permanent residents.
Value: $3,000
Deadline: 1 June 2021
Open for: US writers
Details here.
The Stony Brook Short Fiction Prize
This prize is for short fiction of up to 7,500 words. It is for undergraduates enrolled full time in US and Canadian universities and colleges for the academic year 2020-21. This prize has traditionally encouraged submissions from students with an Asian background, but they urge all students to enter.
Value: $1,000, scholarship to the Southampton Writers Conference
Deadline: 1 June 2021
Open for: Undergraduate students from the US and Canada
Details here.
Fraser Institute Student Essay Contest
For this year’s essay contest, the theme is ‘The Ideas of Joseph Schumpeter: Exploring the Concept of Creative Destruction.’ (See their extensive guidelines for details). The contest is for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students studying in Canada and Canadian students studying abroad.
Value: CAD1,500, CAD1,000, CAD500 each in high school, undergraduate, and graduate categories
Deadline: 1 June 2021
Open for: Canadian students
Details here.
Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship
This award is for an outstanding mid-career editorial writer or columnist to help broaden his or her journalistic horizons and knowledge of the world. The annual award can be used to cover the cost of study, research and/or travel in any field. The fellowship results in editorials and other writings, including books. One of the eligibility requirements is, the candidate must hold a position as a part-time or full-time editorial writer or columnist at a news publication located in the US. Applications also are welcome from freelance opinion writers who devote a majority of their time, or derive a majority of their income, from that pursuit. The application includes five samples of editorials or columns.
(Also see the Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award of $10,000, for a person or persons who have fought to protect and preserve one or more of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment; the entrants need not be journalists.)
Value: $75,000
Deadline: 22 June 2021
Open for: Editorial writer/columnist at a news publication in the US
Details here.
Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award
This award, in three categories – fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry – honors a first published work in that genre by a writer, and published in the US or Canada. Winners are invited to tour several of GLCA’s 13 member colleges for readings, visiting classes, lecturing, conducting workshops and publicizing their books. Entrants must commit to visit member colleges that extend invitations. For this year’s program the NWA will accept entries that bear a publication imprint of 2020 or 2021. Self-published books are also eligible (see FAQ). Copies of the book have to be mailed.
Value: At least $500 for each college visited, travel expenses, stay
Deadline: 25 June 2021
Open for: Writers living in the US or Canada, who have had their first work published in the US or Canada
Details here.
Bard Fiction Prize
This residency and cash award is for a writer who is a US citizen aged 39 years or younger. Submissions should write a cover letter explaining the project they plan to work on while at Bard and submit a CV, along with copies of the published book they feel best represents their work – no manuscripts will be accepted. The winner receives an appointment as writer in residence at Bard College for one semester, without the expectation that he or she teach traditional courses. The recipient gives at least one public lecture and meets informally with students.
Value: $30,000, residency
Deadline: 30 June 2021
Open for: Published US writers
Details here.
CONTESTS FOR WRITERS IN THE U.K./IRELAND
Creative Future Literary Awards
This is for underrepresented (see guidelines) UK writers of both poetry and short stories on the theme of ‘Essential’ – the theme can be explored explicitly or implicitly. Poems can be up to 42 lines and fiction, up to 2,000 words. The competition is open to writers who have not previously published a book/stand-alone publication via an established press/publisher (excluding self-published or as part of an anthology).
Value: £100, £50 each for poetry and prose, as well as non-cash prizes
Deadline: 6 June 2021
Open for: UK writers
Details here.
The Society of Authors: The Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year
The prize is for a published or self-published book or e-book of fiction, non-fiction or poetry of high literary merit. It is for UK/Ireland based authors between the ages of 18 and 35.
Value: £5,000; three awards of £500 each
Deadline: 22 June 2021
Open for: Young UK/Irish writers
Details here.
Society of Authors’ Grants for Works-in-Progress: Two grants
The Authors’ Foundation and K Blundell Trust award grants twice yearly to writers whose book project is for a commercial UK publisher. These grants assist writers with research costs or by buying them time to write. They support writers from a range of genres and styles and at all stages of their literary careers.
— K. Blundell Trust Award: This is a work-in-progress award for young British writers of fiction or non-fiction. The work must contribute to the greater understanding of existing social and economic organisation.
Value: £3,000-£3,500 and occasionally £5,000-£6,000
Deadline: 1 July 2021
Open for: British writers under 40 who have had at least one book published (see guidelines)
Details here and here.
— The Authors’ Foundation Grant: This is for British authors of fiction, non-fiction or poetry who are contracted, or who are published and working on a project that is likely to have interest from a British publisher.
Value: £3,000-£3,500 and occasionally £5,000-£6,000
Deadline: 1 July 2021
Open for: British writers (see guidelines)
Details here and here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She is the author of 182 Short Fiction Publishers. She can be reached here.
