No-entry-fee writing contest (poem): Donn Goodwin Prize | $100 top prize

Deadline: 17 July 2023

The Milwaukee Irish Fest poetry award for the Donn Goodwin Prize will be given to the entry that best reflects Irish or Irish-American poetry traditions. Although the poems do not necessarily need to have direct Irish or Irish-American themes, the winning entry should have a cultural or literary relation to either Ireland, Irish-America, or to Irish poetry.

The person with the winning submission as determined by our panel of adjudicators will receive a $100 honorarium and will be invited to read their poem at Milwaukee Irish Fest (if available).

 
The Donn Goodwin Prize is named after a Wisconsin poet, linguist, and educator who was active in supporting poetry events at Irish Fest. This contest is open to all.

2022 Poetry Contest Winner - Andrea P.
Click here to read last year's winning poem.

RULES FOR SUBMITTING ENTRIES

• Please read all instructions before submitting your form.
• Each contestant may submit no more than one poem.
• Each entry should be the poet's original work and should not have appeared previously in publication.
• Entries will be accepted until 11:59 pm (CT) on July 17, 2023. They must be received by July 17 to be considered.
• All entries must be emailed or snail mailed.
• Email your entry to: poetry@irishfest.com
• Or mail your entry to:
• POETRY CONTESTS
• Milwaukee Irish Fest
• 1532 Wauwatosa Ave
• Wauwatosa, WI 53213
• Each entry should have a cover document that contains
• The poet's name, address, telephone number and e-mail address
• The poem's title
• The poet's name or other identifying information should appear only on the cover sheet..

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Questions/submissions: poetry@irishfest.com

Website: https://irishfest.com/Participate/Contests

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No-entry-fee writing contest (short story, poem, nonfiction): Swamp Pink Prizes for Indigenous Writers | $500 top prize

Deadline: 15 July 2023

From July 1st to July 15th, submit fiction and nonfiction of up to 25 pages or a set of 1-3 poems. Winners in each genre will receive $500 and publication.

THIS YEAR’S JUDGES

• Tacey M. Atsitty, Poetry
• Toni Jensen, Nonfiction
• David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Fiction

Submit

Guidelines: There is no entry fee. Submissions are open to Indigenous writers in the U.S. Before submitting, please remove your name and any other identifying information from your manuscript. Writers may submit work to multiple categories, but please limit submissions to 1 per genre. We accept simultaneous submissions. Please contact us promptly should the work be accepted elsewhere.

CLMP CONTEST CODE OF ETHICS

CLMP’s community of independent literary publishers believe that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines—defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.

SWAMP PINK PRIZES FOR INDIGENOUS WRITERS SELECTION PROCESS

1st Round of Judging: Blind read by genre editors. Finalists (approximately 10 poems, 10 pieces of fiction/prose, and 10 pieces of nonfiction) will then be forwarded to the contest judges for the 2nd round of judging.

2nd Round of Judging: Blind read by contest judges. Judges change on an annual basis.

Winners and runners-up will be announced by November 1st.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Submissions: Via Submittable

Website: https://swamp-pink.cofc.edu/prizes-for-indigenous-writers/

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[5 days left] No-entry-fee writing contest (short story): The Stony Brook Short Fiction Prize | $1,000 top prize

Deadline: 14 July 2023

Only undergraduates enrolled full time in United States and Canadian universities and colleges for the academic year 2022-2023 are eligible. This Prize has traditionally encouraged submissions from students with an Asian background, but we urge all students to enter.

GUIDELINES

• Entrant's identity and academic institution will not be revealed to judges.
• Submissions of no more than 7,500 words.
• All entries must be accompanied by proof of current undergraduate enrollment, such as a photocopy of a grade transcript, a class schedule or payment receipt showing your full-time status. The institution's name and address must be clear.
• Manuscripts will not be returned. Submission assumes the right of Stony Brook to publish the winning story on its Web site.
• No fax submissions will be accepted.

PRIZE

The author of the winning story will receive $1,000 and a scholarship to the 2024 Southampton Writers Conference Additionally, the winning story will automatically be considered for publication in TSR: The Southampton Review.

DEADLINE

Submissions open March 1, 2023. The deadline to submit material is July 14, 2023. Applications received after the deadline will not be read. The winner and runners-up will be notified in November 2023.

SUBMIT ONLINE:

We encourage online submissions.

Online submissions are FREE. Go to the Stony Brook Short Fiction Prize Submittable website at: https://stonybrookshortfictionprize.submittable.com. Please follow directions on the Submittable website to upload your story and proof of undergraduate student status.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Submissions: Via Submittable

Website: http://stonybrook.edu/fictionprize

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[6 days left] No-entry-fee writing contest: Let There Be Light Poetry Competition | $500 top prize

Deadline: 15 July 2023

Call for Submission: 2023 Poetry Competition

Let there be Light!

Submission period: June 10 - July 15.

Valiant Scribe calls for poetry submissions written from a hopeful perspective, insinuating there's light at the end of the tunnel. We welcome entries focusing on faith and social issues.

Submissions must be previously unpublished.

Each poet is limited to one submission of no more than five poems.

Submissions should be in English. Submissions in other languages are also welcome but should be accompanied by an English translation.

Only digital submissions are accepted. Kindly indicate "Poetry Competition" in the subject line of your e-mail. Please send a single Word document attachment containing* a brief cover letter with your name, 100-word third-person bio, and submission(s) to contactvaliantscribe@gmail.com.

*Please note that we want a single Word document. An introductory note in the body of your e-mail is welcome but not required. We will not consider your submission if you do not follow these guidelines.

Judgement will be blind. Valiant Scribe volunteers will de-identify entries.

Submission fee: None.

Compensation:

• The author of the winning poem will be awarded 500 Canadian dollars.
• Payment will be made through PayPal or TransferWise. Entrants must ensure they can receive payment through either option.

We will also shortlist up to ten runner-ups for honourable mention.

Notifications: We will notify the winner and runner-ups by e-mail in September.

Publication: The winning poem and shortlisted poems will be featured on a dedicated page on our website. See sample here.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Questions/applications: contactvaliantscribe@gmail.com
 
Website: https://www.valiantscribe.com

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No-entry-fee writing contest: LSUA Flash Fiction Contest | $250 top prize

Deadline: 15 July 2023

 

LSUA's Department of English and Humanities Annual FLASH FICTION Writing Contest 

All creative writers are cordially invited to write a piece of Flash Fiction. Tell a short-short story with a title. In a minimum of 6 words and a maximum of 1,500 words, tell a story about what happened, who it happened to, and why. Learn the power of telling a story. 

SUBMISSION DETAILS  

• Poetry and essays will not be considered. 
• No more than 2 submissions per person. 
• Please include a cover letter with name and address, but do not place any personal information in your story document (convert to a pdf). 
• The stories will be blind-reviewed by a panel of three judges from LSUA. 
• First, second, and third place finishers will be awarded $250, $150, and $100 respectively, and the stories will be published on the LSUA website. 
• Email your submission in a pdf by July 15, 2023 to: flashfiction@lsua.edu. 
• Winners will be announced on August 15, 2023. Take advantage of the opportunity to earn award money for your writing! 

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Questions/submissions: flashfiction@lsua.edu

Website: https://www.lsua.edu/about-us/university-publications/lsua-flash-fiction-contest

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No-entry-fee writing contest (short story): ArabLit Story Prize | $500 top prize

Deadline: 15 July 2023

Submissions to the 2023 ArabLit Story Prize are open today. They close on July 15, 2023 at midnight in the submitter’s timezone.

The ArabLit Story Prize is an annual, crowdfunded award for the best short story, in any genre, newly translated from Arabic into English. Except for works that have fallen into the public domain, translators must demonstrate permission to publish the work in English translation, and translations must have been previously unpublished.

Stories will be judged primarily on the quality of the translated work as a thing-in-itself, although translators must also submit the Arabic original, as this is a prize for translation, and not for loose adaptation nor for work written originally in English.

The prize is $500 to the winner, split between author and translator(s), as well as publication on arablit.org.

This year’s three judges are previous winner Shakir Mustafa, acclaimed author-translator Yasmine Zohdi, and beloved short-story writer Muhammad El-Hajj.

Shakir Mustafa is a previous winner of the ArabLit Story Prize and a professor of Arabic at Northeastern University. Dr. Mustafa grew up in Iraq and taught at Mosul University in Northern Iraq for eleven years. He then taught at Indiana University and Boston University from 1999 to 2008. His book, Contemporary Iraqi Fiction: An Anthology (Syracuse, 2008; AUC 2009), was recognized by The Bloomsbury Review as “one of the most important books in 2008.” His other publications are in the areas of literary translation, Irish drama, and Jewish American fiction.

Yasmine Zohdi is an acclaimed writer, translator, and editor based in Cairo. She holds an MFA in writing from Sarah Lawrence College in New York and is currently working on her first collection of short fiction.

Muhammad El-Hajj is a writer, translator, and digital content creator. His debut collection of short stories, Nobody Mourns the City’s Cats (2018), won the Sawiris Cultural Foundation’s Short Story Prize for emerging writers. El-Hajj is also an AFAC grantee for his “Two Stories on Panicking Masculinity.”

We expect to announce a shortlist on September 15, 2023 and a winner on October 15, 2023.

RULES:

Submissions should be sent, via email, to info+storyprize2023@arablit.org, using the subject line “Story Prize 2023.”

Submissions must include 1) a cover letter in the body of the email, 2) the Arabic original, 3) the English translation, and 4) some form of permission from the author or publisher (a screenshot of a WhatsApp message, an email, a formal letter). These can be sent as separate attachments or a single attachment. We also require a separate cover letter with the names and bios. All files must be sent in .doc, .docx, or .odt document format; no PDFs, please.

The story in translation should be rendered as 4000 words or fewer in English. There is no minimum word count — a 10-word story could potentially win the prize.

This prize is judged blindly, so do not put either author’s or translator’s name on the attached works. If you put your name on the work, it may be disqualified. (Or, more likely, we will email and ask you to remove it.) Your name and the author’s name — and, ideally, a short bio for each — should be in the cover letter only.

Co-translations, self-translations, co-self-translations are all happily accepted.

Anyone who has questions about their submission can send a note to info@arablit.org.

There is no fee for submissions.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Submissions: info+storyprize2023@arablit.org

Questions: info@arablit.org

 
Website: https://arablit.org/2023-arablit-story-prize/

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No-entry-fee writing contest (short stories): Kaidankai | $100 top prize

Deadline: 15 July 2023

Between May 5 and July 15, the Kaidankai podcast is accepting original, unpublished stories with a haunted house theme to be read during August. Two stories will win $25US, one will win $50US and the winning story will win $100US. All prizes will be disbursed through PayPal. There is no fee to enter (but we always take donations).

​August is special for the Kaidankai. The podcast started in August 2021 as 100 days, 100 stories. In 2022, we created Unpleasantville, daily stories about the inhabitants of our fictional town.

This year, I expect the four stories to give you goosebumps and put a little chill in the hot August summer.

Submit your original story by email. The preferred word count is 1000 to 3000 words, but I'l consider stories outside that word count.

 
No reprints, please. And please write the story yourself. No AI stories, please.

Send your story in the body of an email (no attachments) to kaidankai100ghoststories@gmail.com.

Your email must have the subject line: contest (your name) story title
​
If it doesn't have this subject line, it won't be considered for the contest.

​Thanks! Looking forward to reading your work.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Questions/submissions: kaidankai100ghoststories@gmail.com

Website: https://www.kaidankaistories.com/

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