***Please remember: I do my best to make sure that the information contained herein is accurate, but mistakes happen, and sometimes contest listings are modified after I collect information for this blog post. Always visit the competition's website and read the rules for yourself!***
***All quotations are from the competition websites themselves.***
The Dorothy Dunnett Society / HWA Short Story Award 2024
Contest Entry Period: "9am on 9 March 2024 to midnight GMT on 1 July 2024."
Entry Fee: £5 ($8.71 CAD, $6.39 USD)
Special Requirements: Story must be set 35 years in the past, at minimum.
Theme: Historical Fiction
Entry Length: No more than 3,500 words (excluding title).
Age Category(s): 18+ Rights Information: "All entrants (whether author, publisher, agent) will be deemed to have granted the rights for publication and distribution to the HWA and the DDS in Historia Mag (historiamag.com) and The Whispering Gallery should they win the competition. They will also be deemed to have granted the rights for publication and distribution to the HWA and DDS in a collection of the shortlisted stories as an ebook and print on demand collection if they are shortlisted."
Prizes: Please see the top of this page for detailed prize information. Includes publication.
Short story must be previously unpublished, as is the norm for many writing contests.
You can find very detailed submission guidelines here. Read them thoroughly so that you understand what the rules are.
Contest Entry Period: "The closing date is Monday 8th July 2024 and entries will be accepted up to 11pm (BST) on that date."
Entry Fee: FREE entry for those under 21, £10.00 for anyone over 21, and £5.00 for students over 21.
Special Requirements: None found.
Theme: "‘The Fool’ – interpreted any way you wish."
Entry Length: Minimum 1,500 words, maximum 5,000 words.
Age Categories: Two categories; Under 21 and Over 21.
Rights Information: "Entry implies permission for your story to be published in the annual HG Wells Short Story Competition Anthology, and used for Competition publicity purposes."
Prizes: Under 21, "prize of £1,000 for the winning entry"; Over 21, "prize of £500."
You can find the contest site here.
You can find the Competition Rules here, and FAQs here.
Write the World Journalism Competition 2024
Contest Entry Period: July 1st-22nd, 2024
Entry Fee: FREE
Special Requirements: Must create a WtW (Write the World) account to submit.
Theme: "...This month, immerse yourself in a newsworthy event inside the borders of your own country, and invite us there through your written reporting." Entry Length: 400-1,000 words.
Age Category: 13-19.5
Rights Information: "Students who publish their work on Write the World are allowed to republish that work elsewhere, because they retain all ownership rights to their pieces. We do request that the young writers mention in a footnote that it was originally published on Write the World, but we understand that this is not always possible, which is acceptable by our terms. (You can read those terms in full here.)"
Prizes: "The winning entrant receives $100, and the runner-up and best peer reviewer receive $50."
You can find full details for the 2024 WtW Journalism Competition here. Make sure to go read all of the competition details, as there are a few important details I have not mentioned, that you do not want to miss out on.
Briefly Write Poetry Prize
Contest Entry Period: "Entries open 1 June 2024. The closing date is 31 July 2024 @ 23:59 BST. If in doubt about time zones, don’t leave it until the last day!"
Entry Fee: FREE
Special Requirements: None
Theme: None.
Entry Length: 10 lines or less.
Age Category: None
Rights Information: "By entering the Briefly Write Poetry Prize, you are granting us first electronic rights only. Copyright reverts to the author upon publication."
Prizes: "There is a prize fund of £75. An announcement on how this will be split will be made soon."
"Prize and commended poems will be published online. Each winning author will have the chance to be featured on the website."
One entry per person.
"Results will be published online by the end of October 2024. If, for any reason, this needs to be changed, we will provide an update on this page. We will contact all entrants by email before publishing the results online."
You can find out more by following this link.
Morgen Bailey's 50-Word Competition
Contest Entry Period: July 1st-July 31, 2024
Entry Fee: FREE
Special Requirements: None found.
Theme: "Money for nothing." Morgen has picked some interesting themes for the next few months. Put on your thinking cap and get brainstorming!
Entry Length: 50 words exactly (excluding title). EXACTLY 50 words. Don't try to sneak any more or any less than 50 words in.
Age Category: All ages.
Rights Information: Not listed. Winning stories will be published on Morgen's website.
Prizes: "1st prize: free prose critique up to 1,500 words;
2nd prize: free prose critique up to 1,000 words;
3rd prize: free prose critique up to 500 words."
"Each prize will be valid for six months from the closing date (i.e. the prizes for the top three stories for May are valid until end November) so you can combine your ‘winnings’."