Tag Archives: writing competitions

Enter the Fractured Lit Ghost, Fable and Fractured Fairy Tales prize

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The Fractured Lit team urges you to dig into the darkest recesses of your imagination to write stories of ghosts, fables, and fractured fairy tales in 1,000 words or fewer.

The deadline is 4th February 2024.

Guest Judge Aimee Bender will choose three prize winners from a shortlist. The winner of this prize will receive $3,000 and publication, while the 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive publication plus $300 and $200, respectively. All entries will be considered for publication.

They say: “Whichever tradition you choose, make sure you find a new way to approach it, to twist and discombobulate it, so it pushes us away from the mundane and into the strange or uncanny. Transport us from the here and now to a new land of discovery, a fresh way of being entertained that embraces all of the ways we show our humanness.”

A $20 reading fee allows you up to two stories of 1,000 words or fewer each per entry.

Aimee Bender is the author of six books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (1998), which was an NY Times Notable Book; An Invisible Sign of My Own (2000), which was an LA Times pick of the year; Willful Creatures (2005), which was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of the year; The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010), which won the SCIBA award for best fiction, and an Alex Award; The Color Master (2013), a NY Times Notable Book for the year; and her latest novel, The Butterfly Lampshade (July 2020), which was longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Award. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ, Harper’s, Tin House, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, and more, as well as heard on PRI’s “This American Life” and “Selected Shorts.”

Find full details of how to enter here: https://fracturedlit.com/fractured-lit-ghost-fable-and-fractured-fairy-tales-prize/ 

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Enter The SmokeLong Grand Micro Competition

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MerryGoRound cr Judy DarleyUntil Tuesday 10th November 2023, the SmokeLong editors invite you enter the SmokeLong Grand Micro Competition (The Mikey), a biennial competition that celebrates and compensates the best micro fiction and nonfiction online.

Prizes:

The grand prize winner of The Mikey is automatically nominated for The Best Small Fictions and other prizes. There are also some substantial cash prizes.

  • The grand prize winner receives $1,500
  • The second place winner receives $500
  • The third place winner receives $300
  • Finalists receives $100

All finalists and placers will be published in the winter ’23 issue of SmokeLong Quarterly.

Entry Fees

This year entrants in The Mikey receive discounts for the we are autumn Afterglow webinars (a series of live or recorded webinars, peer-review workshops, and feedback). If you’re planning to do both, take advantage of this discount.

Up to 2 Micros: $13
Up to 4 Micros: $19
Up to 4 Micros with 1 Afterglow webinar (attendance only): $30
Up to 4 Micros with 3 Afterglow webinars (attendance only): $48 (best value)

Guidelines:

Your entry must be 400 words or fewer, excluding the title. There is no minimum word count.

Enter as many times as you like, but make sure the right entry fee accompanies each one. If you submit multiple entries at the same time, they must all be in the same document.

Fiction, non-fiction, and hybrid narratives are considered. While the line between prose and poetry is often blurry, you need to take into consideration that SmokeLong does not consider poetry.

Judging

All entries are read blind by a team of 15 SmokeLong editors from around the world. You must remove all identifying information from the story document itself. Please make sure you remove your name from the page number heading and the filename as well. Your name should appear ONLY in your cover letter, which the judges will not see.

You will probably receive a reply within two weeks if they decide to pass on your entries. If they take longer than two weeks, be encouraged. This means that at least one of your stories has made it through the first round of judging. Due to the blind nature of the judging process they aren’t able to communicate regarding which micro we are still considering.

If you’re unable to pay an entry fee, don’t give up hopes of entering – email editor@smokelong.com.

Before you enter

I highly recommend that before submitting your words, you devote some time to reading the kind of stories SmokeLong publishes. The editors have a very specific tastes in micro tales – sharp edges polished thin enough to see sunlight through are definitely preferred.

I recommend “Fistful of Blue” by Lindsey Pharr, which won the CNF competition of A SmokeLong Summer 23.

Find the full contest guidelines and enter here.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Writers! Enter Mslexia Fiction Competitions 2023

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Mum's eye view cr Judy DarleyThe Mslexia Fiction Competitions are open for entries.

There are threecategories this year: Novel for Adults, Short Story, and Flash Fiction. The deadline for each is 18th September 2023.

Submit the first 5,000 words of your novel for adult, or young adult, readers; a complete short story of up to 3,000 words; and a flash fiction no more than 300 words.

Prizes include manuscript feedback and agent introductions, plus publication.

Mslexia Novel for Adults competition – everything you need to know

  • Judged by author Sophie Hannah, Natasha Onwuemezi of the Bookseller) and Sophie Lambert, literary agent and MD of the C&W Literary Agency, will choose the winner. This competition is open to women who are not yet published as novelist – self-published authors are eligible providing you’ve had fewer than 500 sales.
  • Submit first 5,000 words only in the first instance. Longlisted entrants will be asked to submit finished manuscripts later in the judging process
  • Your novel must be at least 50,000 words long
  • Entry fee: £26
  • 1st prize £5,000.
  • Finalists receive manuscript feedback from The Literary Consultancy and personal introductions to literary agents arranged in partnership with New Writing North.
  • Previous winners and finalists include Imogen Hermes Gower with The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, Polly Clark with Larchfield, Frances Perkins with The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr, Laura McVeigh with Under the Almond Tree, and many more.
  • Read an extract from the 2021 winning novel, Taint, here.

Mslexia Short Story competition 2023 – everything you need to know

  • Judged by Deborah Moggach, this competition is for unpublished complete short fiction of up to 3,000 words in any genre and on any theme.
  • The entry fee is £12.
  • 1st prize £3,000.
  • Three additional finalists will each receive £100
  • The winning entry and three finalists will be published in Mslexia.
  • The winning entry and finalists will be published in Issue 100 of Mslexia, with eight additional finalists, along with the four winners, appearing in Mslexia’s ebook anthology Best Women’s Fiction 2023.
  • Find out how 2022 winner Mónica Ibarra Parle did it here

Mslexia Flash Fiction Competition 2023 – everything you need to know

  • Judged by Tania Hershman, this competition is for unpublished complete short fiction of up to 300 words in any genre and on any theme
  • Entry fee: £6
  • 1st prize £500
  • Three additional finalists each receive £50
  • All four winning entries will be published in Issue 100 of Mslexia
  • Winning entries plus eight more shortlisted entries will be published in Mslexia’s ebook anthology Best Women’s Short Fiction 2023.
  • Find out how 2022 winner Karen Arnold did it here

Visit Mslexia’s entry instructions for a more comprehensive guide on how to enter.

Find full details at www.mslexia.co.uk. Good luck!

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

A new inclusive nature-writing prize

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Tiny snail cr Judy DarleyThe Nan Shepherd Prize is accepting submissions until 10th September 2019. This new competition launched by Canongate aims to find the next major voice in nature writing. It intends not only to celebrate nature writing but provide an inclusive platform for new and emerging nature writers from underrepresented backgrounds.

The competition has been established in memory of Nan Shepherd. The organisers say:  “While her classic of nature writing The Living Mountain took three decades to first find a publisher, today the book is recognised as a masterpiece and Nan is inspiring a new generation of writers. We felt that a prize named after her was a fitting way to honour her legacy.”

The winner of The Nan Shepherd Prize for Nature Writing will receive a book deal with Canongate, including editorial mentoring and an advance of £10,000, as well as the option of literary representation with Jenny Brown Associates.

During the submissions period, the Canongate team will publish resources intended to demystify the publishing process.

The competition judges are Amy Liptrot, Chitra Ramaswamy, Jenny Brown and Nick Barley.

Applications are open to previously unpublished writers based in the UK and Ireland, who consider themselves underrepresented in nature writing, whether through ethnicity, disability, class, sex, gender, sexuality or any other circumstances. This means that entrants must not have published full-length books of fiction or non-fiction (including children’s books) with a trade publisher. Full details of eligibility and how to submit can be found here.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at JudyDarley(@)ICloud(dot)com.