Over the last few months I’ve been gathering the details of as many novel, full length works, short story and poetry writing competitions as I can find, mostly for my own use because I thought I might like to start entering some of them. I’ve been diligently adding them to a spreadsheet as I come across them and it suddenly occurred to me that this might actually make a good subject for my blog too.
Although these competitions are based in the UK many of them are actually open to authors and poets of any nation as long as they are submitted in English, so even if you are from ‘over the water’ they may be worth checking out to see if you are eligible.
I have now made them available for everyone through a separate file hosted on Box.Net. From this file, you’ll see all the competitions I’ve added and be able to follow the links to more information about each one. https://www.box.com/s/6pk5fe9ptlpzis0ibkbm
I will keep all the details even of those that have now closed (you never know, they may re-run something similar next year!). The exception to this will be the competitions in Writers Magazine and Writers Forums which run every month and so have their own entries here:
- Writers Magazine: Competition Home Page: writers-online.co.uk/Writing-Competitions/Writing-Magazine/
- Writers Forum Competition Home Page: writers-forum.com/comps.html
- You can also find a list of competitions to enter here: www.kudoswritingcompetitions.com
Please keep an eye on the closing date …. some of these competitions have already closed! I have also now listed them with the longest entry dates listed first, hopefully that will help you to scoot through the list and find the ones you want to enter easily.
At the end of this post you can find the details of each months updates too:
Writing Competitions
As this post was getting a bit unwieldy I have decided not to include the details of all the competitions here; instead I have a shared document which you can view here: UK & International Writing Competitions. You are free to peruse, and download at your leisure.
Competition Updates
- Novel, Short Story and Poetry Writing Competitions Update – April 2013
- Novel, Short Story and Poetry Writing Competitions Update – March 2013
- Novel, Short Story and Poetry Writing Competitions Update – February 2013
- Novel, Short Story and Poetry Writing Competitions Update – January 2013
- Novel, Short Story and Poetry Writing Competitions Update – December 2012
- Novel, Short Story and Poetry Writing Competitions Update – November 2012
- Novel, Short Story and Poetry Writing Competitions Update – October 2012
- Novel, Short Story and Poetry Writing Competitions Update – September 2012
- Novel, Short Story and Poetry Writing Competitions Update – August 2012
- Novel, Short Story and Poetry Writing Competitions Update – July 2012
- Novel, Short Story and Poetry Writing Competitions Update – June 2012
- Novel, Short Story and Poetry Writing Competitions Update – May 2012
- Novel, Short Story and Poetry Writing Competitions Update – April 2012
Hi! I’ve been reading your web site for a long time now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Lubbock Tx! Just wanted to tell you keep up the fantastic job!
Thanks for all the info! Only just signed up to receive updates from you and you’ve just saved me lots of time with the comp listings-I pasted a link to you from my website for others to see too!
Fizzykid xx
You’re welcome and I’m glad to have helped you out time wise – thanks for link from your website as well
Lots of useful stuff on your site! So glad I found you! I’ve posted a link from my site to yours (I think!) New to this website/blogging business thing!
Fizzykid
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an very long comment but after
I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m
not writing all that over again. Regardless, just wanted to say
fantastic blog!
Why thank you very kindly Kate
Wonderfully informative post!
Why thank you very kindly
Your research and generosity are astounding. I’m a Canadian tracking and posting a list of writing and poetry contests open to authors and poets of any nation. I’ve downloaded your spreadsheet THANK YOU. See if any of these interest you: http://cherylandrews.wordpress.com/open-season-2013 and if you like edit my link out of this comment. Great stuff!
I wouldn’t dream of editing out the link Cheryl and it’s really nice to meet you – I’m glad you found the post helpful too