How to find good writing competitions to enter?
Our website features the most comprehensive list of creative writing competitions, prizes, and awards for writers scheduled for 2021. The list includes mainly short story, poetry, and flash fiction competitions, but there are also many events for essay writers and even prizes for entire novel manuscripts. Each item on our list includes basic information about max word count, entry fees, submission deadlines, and the first place prize. Clicking on an entry opens a new page featuring a more detailed description and a link to the organizer’s submission page. Events that are free to enter are highlighted.
In case of questions about a particular event, please reach out to the event organizer. We do not run any of the events listed on this page, so we will be unable to answer your questions. Please do your research before entering any event.
How do you write a good short story for a competition?
If you’d like to learn more about preparing and submitting your writing to a competition, and some practical tips on how to write, please read our dedicated blog post on the topic. You may also want to check out our great list of books for writers (about writing). If you are looking to get some of your existing writing published, it is worth having a look at our curated list of creative writing journals and literary platforms accepting submissions.
We try to keep this list as up-to-date as possible. If you’d like to add any new writing competitions, please submit the details using our event submission form.
For regular weekly updates, join our dedicated Facebook group.
Would you like to add an event to our list?
Use our online submission form
We need your help
Developing, improving and maintaining our resources takes a lot of time, and donations are a big part of what allows us to keep our calendar as up-to-date as possible. If you’d like to help, please support us with a donation of any amount. It really does make all the difference!
