Have you never made money from your creative writing? Are you new to publishing? Then this contest is designed just for you.

The Preservation Foundation is hosting an essay contest open to all writers around the world who are previously unpublished.

This year, they’ve updated their definition of “previously unpublished.” The rules are now:

For purposes of these contests, unpublished writers are defined as those who have never earned over $500.00 by their writing skills in any single year, whether from a salary, freelance work, editing, royalties, or sale of stories or books.

The spirit of the contest, and the organization running it, is to “preserve these stories for future generations.” They plan on publishing the entries on their website. So, if you submit, you should understand that your work is likely to be published, even if you don’t win a prize.

The contest has four different categories, each with a $200 first place prize, and a $100 second place prize.

The organization itself is a non-profit organization, which does not seem to make any money at all, beyond donations that they accept.

Each prize category has a separate deadline.

• Nonfiction Animal Stories / April 30th, 2022
• General Nonfiction / June 30th, 2022
• Biographical Nonfiction / August 31st, 2022
• Travel Nonfiction / October 31st, 2022

To learn more, and to enter the free writing contest, visit this page.