By S. Kalekar
These are contests/grants for fiction, non-fiction, playwriting, and journalism. The awards range up to $30,000. They’re loosely divided geographically. A couple of deadlines are in April.
Waterston Desert Writing Prize
This is for a proposed book of literary non-fiction that illustrates artistic excellence, sensitivity to place, and desert literacy – with the desert both as subject and setting. A writing sample is part of the submission requirement. “The Prize provides financial and other support to writers whose work reflects a similar connection to the desert, recognizing the vital role deserts play worldwide in the ecosystem and the human narrative.“ Apart from the cash award, there is also a reading and reception at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon.
Value: $3,000
Deadline: 1 May 2025
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
The Ralph Angel Poetry Prize
This is for a poetry broadside; you can read about the prize here. Send one poem. The winner will receive a cash prize and publication of a limited-edition run of letterpress broadsides of the winning poem designed by Foundlings Press.
Value: $250
Deadline: 1 May 2025
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
CINTAS Foundation: Fellowship in Creative Writing
This is a creative writing fellowship for writers having Cuban citizenship or direct lineage (having a Cuban parent or grandparent). Applications can be in English or Spanish. Fellows who are not U.S. citizens and who are living abroad must provide a U.S. taxpayer identification number when they accept the fellowship to receive payment. The foundation also offers fellowships for other disciplines – architecture & design, music composition, photography, and visual arts. A work sample is part of the submission requirement.
Value: $25,000
Deadline: 1 May 2025
Open for: Writers having Cuban citizenship or direct lineage
Details here (scroll down), here, here.
Singapore Unbound: Singapore Poetry Contest
This is an international poetry contest. They are looking for poems that use the word “fable” in imaginative ways.
Value: $300, $200, $100
Deadline: 15 May 2025
Open for: All poets
Details here.
(See all their contests and submission calls, fee-free and fee-based, here.)
The Cave Canem Prize
This is for Black poets submitting their debut poetry manuscripts; the manuscript will be published by Graywolf Press. “The Cave Canem Prize supports the work of Black poets to overcome the obstacle of publishing their first book of poems. Awarded to one poet annually, the Prize recipient receives a monetary award, as well as having their manuscript published by one of our partner publishers, Graywolf Press; University of Pittsburgh Press; or University of Georgia Press.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Cave Canem Prize, which was launched in 1999. To commemorate this historic milestone, Cave Canem has increased the monetary award to $10,000.” (While this prize is for a debut poetry collection, Black authors of chapbooks and self-published books with a maximum print run of 500 copies are also eligible to apply.)
Value: $10,000
Deadline: 8 May 2025
Open for: Black poets
Details here and here.
The Africa Institute: Global Africa Translation Fellowship
The fellowship welcomes applications from across the Global South for a grant to complete translations of works from the African continent and its diaspora, into English or Arabic. This is a non-residential fellowship. Projects may be retranslations of old, classic texts, previously untranslated works, poetry, prose, or critical theory collections. The project may be a work-in-progress, or a new project feasible for completion within the timeframe of the grant. Application includes a translation sample.
Deadline: 15 May 2025
Value: $1,000-5,000
Open for: Translators in the Global South
Details here.
Defenestration.net Short Story Contest
This contest will soon open for entries. 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.” For this cycle, they also say, “Might be a good year to get political with it. And angry.” There will voting by the judges for this contest, with fan voting counting as an additional judge vote.
Value: $75, two runner-up prizes of $30 each
Reading period: 1st – 25th May 2025
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Livingston Press Changing Light Prize for a Novel-in-Verse
This is an annual prize run by Livingston Press, affiliated with the University of Alabama. It is for a novel-in-verse; the recommended length is 90-160 pages.
Value: $500, standard contract, 20 copies
Deadline: 30 May 2025
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
The Irene Adler Prize
The competition is now open to women worldwide, commencing or continuing to pursue a bachelor’s, master’s, or Ph.D degree in journalism, creative writing, or literature at a recognized post-secondary institution in 2025-26. Applications include a 500-word essay on one of these five topics on the website:
— Who – in any field of endeavor – inspires you with their combination of talent and hard work?
— What is the biggest life lesson you have personally learned from the 2020’s so far?
— Write about an event from your life and show why it means a lot to you.
— What brings you happiness, peace, or a sense of focus and direction in our turbulent world?
— Write a fictional short story that is gripping, memorable, or surprising – or all three at once.
The prize is intended to be applied to educational expenses such as tuition fees – please see the rules.
Value: $1,000; up to two prizes of $250 each
Deadline: 30 May 2025
Open for: Women writers worldwide – see above
Details here (download 2025 submission guidelines and rules).
The Black Orchid Novella Award
This is an international contest for novellas (15,000-20,000 words) that confirm to the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series (see guidelines). They should focus on the deductive skills of the sleuth. They are not looking for derivatives of the Nero Wolfe series, or the milieu. Apart from a cash prize, winner also gets publication in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Submission is via a form.
Value: $1,000
Deadline: 31 May 2025
Open for: All writers
Details here (also download the flyer from here).
Humane Education Network: A Voice for Animals
This is an international essay contest for students in two categories: for 14-15-year-olds, and for 16-18-year-olds. “For 2025, there is a special topic category, “Protecting Marine Life from Human Impact”, which may be applied across all eligible age groups and submission types. This is option is in addition to the standard categories: Companion Animals, Farm Animals, Wildlife on Land, Wildlife in the Oceans.”Participants must currently be attending middle or high school, or be home-schooled, and less than 19 years of age (see guidelines). Entries can be essays, essays with photos, or videos. They have extensive guidelines. Also, “We reserve the right to adjust the number of prizes and the amounts of the prizes based on the entries received.”
Value: Total prize purse up to $5,900
Deadline: 31 May 2025
Open for: All 14 to 18 year old students
Details here.
Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
This is an international fiction contest. While the story should appeal to the audience of this magazine, all themes will be considered. Their readers have interests in music, social history, literature, politics, art, film and theater, particularly that of the counter-culture of mid-twentieth century America. Ideally, stories should not exceed 3,000 words, but those up to 4,000 words will be considered.
Value: $150
Deadline: 31 May 2025
Open for: All writers
Details here.
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 2 haiku for this contest.
Value: $200, $100, $50
Deadline: 1 June 2025
Open for: All poets
Details here.
PEN/Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History
These grants are for literary works of nonfiction 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 2025
Open for: Unspecified
Details here and here.
PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants
This international grant is to support the translation of book-length works of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, 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 translation sample of 8-10 pages.
Value: $2,000-4,000
Deadline: 1 June 2025
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
The PEN/Bare Life Review Grants
These are new grants, which recognize literary works by immigrant and refugee writers. Foreign-born writers based in the U.S., and writers living abroad who hold refugee/asylum seeker status, are eligible to apply. The project must be a work of a literary nature: fiction, creative non-fiction, or poetry, and translated works (in case of translated works, the grant will be conferred to the original author). A writing sample is part of the submission requirements — up to 40 pages for poetry, and 75 pages for other genres. For the 2025 grant cycle, they will confer two grants. The project must be an unpublished work-in-progress (see guidelines), as the grants are intended to support the completion of a manuscript.
Value: $5,000 each
Deadline: 1 June 2025
Open for: Foreign-born writers based in the U.S., and to writers living abroad who hold refugee/asylum seeker status
Details here and here.
The PEN/Phyllis Naylor Grant for Children’s and Young Adult Novelists
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. Candidates must have published one or more novels for children or young adults that have been warmly received by literary critics, but have not generated significant sales. The writer’s previously published book(s) must be published by a U.S. trade publisher; self-published works are ineligible. The submitted work must be a novel-in-progress (see guidelines).
Value: $5,000
Deadline: 1 June 2025
Open for: Published YA/children’s writers (by a US trade publisher)
Details here and here.
The Dream Foundry Emerging Writers Contest
This is a contest for emerging writers of speculative fiction (it is for writers who are relatively new to paid or incoming-earning publication of speculative short fiction in English; please check detailed eligibility rules on their website). Send a speculative fiction story of up to 10,000 words. They want short speculative fiction only (science fiction, fantasy, weird fiction, etc.); do not send stories that have no speculative element. Submission is via a form on their website.
Value: $1,500, $750, $400
Deadline: 2 June 2025
Open for: Emerging writers of speculative fiction
Details here.
BBC World Service: The International Audio Drama Competition “Writers from around the world are invited to submit their scripts for the 29th International Audio Drama Competition (previously the International Playwriting Competition) which is now open for entries. The global competition, hosted by BBC World Service and the British Council, offers the unique opportunity for writers from outside the UK to use the medium of audio drama to tell stories for an international audience. Writers can enter in one of two categories: English as a First Language and English as a Second Language. Winners will receive a cash prize, be invited to attend an award ceremony in the UK in 2026, and to participate in the recording of their dramas for a world premiere on BBC World Service platforms. Flight and accommodation expenses are covered by the BBC.”
Value: £2,500
Deadline: 4 June 2025
Open for: All audio drama writers outside the UK
Details here, here, and here.
Poetry Bulletin Submission Fee Support
This is a confidential, poet-to-poet fee support for “Poets who cannot otherwise afford to submit their manuscripts to publishers. Poets who face barriers of time, access, or energy. Poets who have historically been underrepresented.” They cover submission fees for poetry chapbooks and full-length poetry manuscripts only. They grant a maximum of three submissions per poet annually.
Value: Submission fee for poetry chapbooks/full length poetry manuscripts
Deadline: Ongoing
Open for: See above
Details here.
Pulitzer Center: Global Reporting Grants
“The Pulitzer Center’s global reporting grants support in-depth, high-impact reporting on critical issues that are often overlooked in the media. This is our “catch-all” grant, so there are no restrictions on topic or reporting location. Staff and freelance journalists are eligible worldwide.” And, “There is no deadline for applications; grants are awarded on a rolling basis. Awards cover reporting costs and are based on reasonable, detailed budgets. Most awards for international travel are between $5,000 and $10,000, but may be more or less depending on circumstances. … We support projects across all media platforms and encourage ambitious proposals that combine print, photography, audio, and/or video for one or more news outlets. … Grants are open to reporters, photographers, radio/audio journalists, television/video journalists, and documentary filmmakers.”
Value: Up to $10,000
Deadline: Ongoing
Open for: Journalists worldwide
Details here.
(A couple of contests with later deadlines:
— The Norton Writer’s Prize: This is a non-fiction prize for undergraduates in the US, who are enrolled in an accredited 2- or 4-year college or university, enrolled during the 2024-25 year, and aged 18 and above. They will accept literacy narratives, literary and other textual analyses, reports, profiles, evaluations, arguments, memoirs, proposals, multimodal pieces, and other forms of original non-fiction pieces of 1,000-3,000 words. Entries require nomination by an instructor. There are three prizes of $1,000 each, and the deadline is 15 June 2025; details here (you can download rules).
— 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. The prize is $5,000 and residency at Blue Mountain Centre artists’ colony; $1,000 for runners-up. The deadline is 1 July 2025; details here and here.)
WRITERS IN THE US/CANADA
(Also see the Waterston Desert Writing Prize, the CINTAS Foundation Fellowship for Cuban writers, the PEN/Bare Life Review Grants for immigrant and refugee writers, the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Grant for Children’s and Young Adult Novelists and the Norton Writer’s Prize in the international section above.)
EastOver Prize for Debut Short Story Collection
They are open for a prize for a debut short story collection. The prize is for writers in the US. Manuscripts, between 125 and 250 pages, should contain a collection of short stories, which can include flash fiction, and may include one novella. They offer a cash prize and publication, and they’ll close submissions on 1 May 2025, or when they reach their submission quota, whichever is earlier. See the relevant category on their Submittable page for details.
Value: $2,000
Deadline: 1 May 2025, or until filled
Open for: US writers
Details here.
ABA Journal / Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction
This is a fiction contest for US writers (see guidelines). The ABA Journal is the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association. Send a story of up to 5,000 words that illuminates the role of the law and/or lawyers in modern society.
Value: $5,000
Deadline: 1 May 2025
Open for: US writers
Details here.
PEN America: US Writers Aid Initiative
This is intended for fiction and non-fiction authors, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, translators, and journalists. To be eligible, applicants must be based in the United States, be professional writers, and be able to demonstrate that this one-time grant will be meaningful in helping them to address an emergency situation. Various deadlines are listed for 2025.
Value: Unspecified
Deadline:2 May 2025
Open for: US writers
Details here.
Fund for Investigative Journalism Grants
They are accepting applications for regular grants for investigative journalism stories based in the U.S./with a strong U.S. angle. The Fund provides grants for print and online articles, television and radio stories, documentary films, podcasts and books. Foreign-based story proposals must come from U.S.-based reporters or have a strong U.S. angle involving American citizens, government or business; all stories must be published in English, in a media outlet in the United States.
Value: Up to $10,000
Deadline: 5 May 2025
Open for: Investigative journalism stories based in the U.S./with a strong U.S. angle
Details here.
(Fund for Investigative Journalism is also accepting applications for seed grants, for $1,000-2,000, and the deadline for those is in 9 May; for these too, journalists must be U.S.-based or working on a story with a very strong U.S. angle; details here.)
RBC PEN Canada 2025 New Voices Award
This is a prize for new Canadian writers, ages 17 and over; unpublished writers (see guidelines) are encouraged to submit short stories, creative nonfiction, journalism, and poetry.
Value: CAD3,000 and mentorship
Deadline: 12 May 2025
Open for: Unpublished Canadian writers (see guidelines)
Details here.
Academy of American Poets: James Laughlin Award
This is for a second full-length poetry manuscript by a US poet, contracted by a publisher. Manuscripts have to be 48-100 pages long. Translations and new editions of previously published books are not eligible. Apart from a cash prize, the poet also receives an all-expenses-paid weeklong residency at The Betsy Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.
Value: $5,000, residency
Deadline: 15 May 2025
Open for: US poets (see guidelines)
Details here and here.
The Bard Fiction Prize
This is an annual fiction prize for young US-based writers. Their website says, “The Bard Fiction Prize is awarded to a promising emerging writer who is an American citizen aged 39 years or younger at the time of application. In addition to a $30,000 cash award, 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.” Also, “To apply, candidates should write a cover letter explaining the project they plan to work on while at Bard and submit a CV, along with three copies of the published book they feel best represents their work. No manuscripts will be accepted.”
Value: $30,000, residency
Deadline: 1 June 2025
Open for: Young US writers
Details here.
PRIZES FOR WRITERS IN UK AND IRELAND
The Oxford/42 New Writing Prize
This is a multi-disciplinary storytelling competition organized by 42 in conjunction with the faculty of English at the University of Oxford. It is open to those living, working or studying in the UK. “submit a synopsis (up to 300 words) and an elevator pitch of no more than two sentences for a work of fiction, along with one of the following…
Novel – the first 10,000 to 15,000 words
Stage or radio play – a complete script of between 30 and 90 pages
Screenplays – a script of between 30 and 60 pages for episode one of a TV show or a complete feature-length film script of 90 pages.” Apart from a cash prize, the winner will receive professional representation by 42.
Value: £1,500
Deadline: 30 April 2025
Open for: UK writers
Details here.
Divided Culture Company: Playwriting Prize
This is a prize for playwrights who have an unperformed, full-length play (of 60 minutes or more) and were born and/or live in the North West of England; apart from a cash prize, the winner also gets production.
Value: £1,000
Deadline: 30 April 2025
Open for: Playwrights in the North West of England
Details here.
Creative Future Writers’ Award
This is an award for underrepresented writers in the UK, for fiction, creative non-fiction (prose up to 2,000 words) and poetry (up to 50 lines). Writers can submit one piece of writing. The theme for this year is ‘Wild’; they also say, “The theme is a creative prompt, not a requirement.” Apart from cash prizes, winners also get various non-cash prizes, like mentorship, agent meeting, and manuscript assessment.
Value: £75, £50, £25 (more about the prizes here.)
Deadline: 18 May 2025 (postal submissions must be received by 19th May.)
Open for: Underrepresented writers in the UK
Details here.
RTÉ Short Story Competition
This is a fiction contest from RTÉ Radio 1, for those who live in Ireland, or have an Irish passport. Stories must be 1,800-2,000 words (see rules). All 10 winning/shortlisted stories will be broadcast.
Value: €5,000, €4,000 and €3,000; the other shortlisted authors will each receive €300
Deadline: 23 May 2025
Open for: Ireland-based/Irish authors
Details here, here, here, and here.
The Future Bookshelf: Mo Siewcharran Prize
“The initiative … aims to nurture talent from under-represented backgrounds writing in English. Run as part of Hachette UK’s The Future Bookshelf scheme, the prize was launched in 2019.” The prize is hosted by different divisions of the publisher each year. “For 2025, the prize will be hosted by Trapeze, an imprint of Orion Books, and we are looking for non-fiction writing under the theme Reclaiming History.” And, “We would like to see non-fiction proposals of no more than 10,000 words that explore history and the past in a compelling and unique way….The book must explore historical events; however, it may also include personal narrative, memoir, mythology, legend or polemic writing. The proposal must be aimed at adults.” Apart from the cash prizes, there are various non-cash prizes, including a meeting with literary agents. “The winner’s entry will also be taken forward to a Hodder & Stoughton’s acquisitions meeting and considered for full publication with a competitive advance against royalties. Hodder & Stoughton does not guarantee that the winner will be offered a publishing contract.”
Value: £2,500, £1,500
Deadline: 30 May 2025
Open for: BAME writers in the UK
Details here, here, and here.
Anne Brown Essay Prize
This is an essay prize for Scottish writers. Send an essay of up to 4,000 words, on any subject.
Value: £1,500
Deadline: 6 June 2025
Open for: Scottish writers (see guidelines)
Details here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.