Writing Contests & Book Contests
NewPages Classifieds

Deadline: December 31, 2021
The second annual Memoir Prize awards Memoir and Creative Nonfiction book-length works of exceptional merit in the categories of traditional, self-published, and previously unpublished prose. Submit your full-length memoir on any subject matter for a chance to win cash and a feature in Memoir Magazine. The only contest of its kind dedicated exclusively to the Memoir genre accepts full-length books of memoir or narrative creative nonfiction, essay collections, or graphic narratives for consideration. No restrictions on length, type of publisher, or year of publication. Deadline: December 31, 2021. Enter at memoirmag.com.

Deadline: January 31, 2022
From January 1st to January 31st, Crazyhorse will accept entries for prizes in fiction, nonfiction, & poetry. Winners receive $2,000 and publication; all manuscripts entered will be considered for publication. The $20 entry fee includes a one-year subscription. For more information and to see our judges, visit: crazyhorse.cofc.edu/prizes/.

Deadline: January 31, 2022
Ethos Literacy—a nonprofit literacy program—announces its 3rd Annual Short Short Story Contest. 100 word limit on one of these topics: chewing gum, horror movies, skyscrapers, or tubas. Cash prizes: Best in Contest: $250; Best Youth Prize (14 years or younger): $100; 4 Best of Category: $100; People's Choice $100. Publication in a digital magazine + webcast of winners reading their stories. Submission fee: $10. Proceeds support literacy programs for teens and adults.

Deadline: April 1, 2022
The 2022 Orison Prizes in Poetry & Fiction offer $1,500 and publication by Orison Books for a full-length manuscript in each genre. Judges: Rajiv Mohabir (poetry) & Tania James (fiction). Entry fee: $25. Entry period: December 1, 2021 - April 1, 2022. For complete guidelines visit bit.ly/36jQDob.

Deadline: February 4, 2022
Event Date: March 26, 2022
Event Location: Muskegon Community College
MCC now accepting submissions for its 2022 10-Minute Play Festival Competition. We are accepting comedic or dramatic plays fitting this year’s theme: “Brains and Beauty.” Six winning plays will be selected for live staged reading. One play, as voted by the audience in attendance at the festival, will be selected as the Audience Favorite and will receive a $100 cash prize. To get more information, click on the submissions guidelines.

Deadline: March 14, 2022
$2,500 honorarium and publication in the Fall/Winter issue of Colorado Review: Submit an unpublished story between 2,500 and 12,500 words by March 14, 2022 (we will observe a 5-day grace period). $15 reading fee (add $2 to submit online). Final judge is Ramona Ausubel; friends and students (current or former) of the judge are not eligible to compete, nor are Colorado State University employees, students, or alumni. Complete guidelines at nelliganprize.colostate.edu or Nelligan Prize, Colorado Review, 9105 Campus Delivery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-9105.

Deadline: December 31, 2021
The Society of Classical Poets is accepting entries to the 2022 Poetry Competition with a first prize of $2,000. Submit one to three poems. Poems must contain meter (beginners and students may simply count syllables). See website for tutorials. Rhyme and other traditional techniques are encouraged as well, but not required. Submission fee: $20. High School Prize: $200. Submission fee $5. Translation Prize: $100. No submission fee. visit www.ClassicalPoets.org for full details.

Deadline: December 31, 2021
2021 WaterSedge Poetry Chapbook Contest: $500; publication of poetry chapbook in print and e-book formats; Amazon distribution; 25 free print copies. Page count: 24 – 48 pages. Judge: Maryfrances Wagner, Missouri's Poet Laureate, co-editor of I-70 Review, and 2020 Missouri Individual Artist of the Year, serving on The Writers Place Board of Directors. Contest ends: 12/31/2021. Entry fee: $20. Sponsored by Writer’s Relief, Inc.

Deadline: January 14, 2022
$2,500 honorarium and book publication: Submit book-length collection of poems to the Colorado Prize for Poetry by January 14, 2022 (we will observe a 5-day grace period). $25 reading fee (add $3 to submit online) includes subscription to Colorado Review. Final judge is Gillian Conoley; friends and students (current or former) of the judge are not eligible to compete, nor are Colorado State University employees, students, or alumni. Complete guidelines at coloradoprize.colostate.edu or Colorado Prize for Poetry, Center for Literary Publishing, 9105 Campus Delivery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-9105.

Deadline: December 31, 2021
Press 53 Award for Short Fiction: First Prize $1,000, publication, and 50 copies (ten hardcover and 40 softcover) awarded to an unpublished collection of short stories. Press 53 Short Fiction Editor, Claire V. Foxx, will judge. Enter online through Submittable. Deadline: midnight, December 31, Eastern Time. Winner and finalists announced before May 1, 2022. Reading fee: $30. Complete information, plus a list of past winners at www.press53.com/award-for-short-fiction. Questions should be directed to Kevin Morgan Watson, Publisher and Editor in Chief at or 336-770-5353

Deadline: January 15, 2022
Background: The contest is in honor of Emma Howell who was born in Portland, Oregon, and died in 2001, at the age of twenty. She left behind a single volume of poetry: Slim Night of Recognition. This prize is an effort to promote the publication of young poets, to honor Emma’s memory, as well as honor the time and effort her father, Christopher Howell, former Director of Willow Springs Books, has put into our press. Prize: $2000 + manuscript publication. Eligibility: Poets 35 years old and younger who have not yet published a book-length poetry manuscript. Submit: bit.ly/3aE00R3.

Deadline: January 1, 2022
What happens after Pinocchio becomes a real boy? This autumn, the tiny journal invites you to fall back on past great stories and poems that have inspired societies for centuries. Whether it’s an old fable, classic, parable, or fairy tale, any story can be reinvented. Our submissions are open from September 1st-January 1st. The first place winner receives $50, and the runner-up will be published in issue v. Any change could bring about a completely different small and mighty ending.

Deadline: December 31, 2021
Send us your polished manuscripts of Short stories, Flash Fiction, Novellas or any combination totaling 45K to 75K words. Winner Receives $1,200, publication by Kallisto Gaia Press, and 20 copies. Runner-Up receives $100 and offer of publication under our generous contract. Gabino Iglesias is the final judge. Individual stories may be previously published. Original work. $25 to play. Submissions through Submittable only. All judging is ID concealed. See website for more info.

Deadline: December 31, 2021
Send us your polished manuscripts of original contemporary poetry totaling 28 to 48 pages. Winner receives $1,200, publication by Kallisto Gaia Press, and 20 copies. Runner-Up receives $100 and offer of publication under our generous contract. Guest judge to be announced. Individual poems may be previously published. Original work. $25 to play. Submissions through Submittable only. All judging is ID concealed. See website for more info.

Extended Deadline: January 1, 2022
We’re looking for manuscripts of at least 48 pages that engage the perilous conditions of life in the 21st century, as they pertain to issues of social justice and the earth. Because we believe the truth is always experimental, we’ll especially appreciate books with innovative approaches. Beginning in 2021 and going forward, Interim will be publishing two books in their Test Site Poetry series—one title publicized as the winner of the Test Site Poetry Series and the other as the Betsy Joiner Flanagan Award in Poetry. Both winners will receive $1,000 and publication by the University of Nevada Press. www.interimpoetics.org/test-site-poetry-series

Deadline: December 15, 2021
For this contest, we’re doing things differently. We picked the art first, and those images are the theme for submitting writers. We’re not looking for anyone to write new pieces—rather, we’re looking for finished and polished stories, essays, and poems that are in conversation with the theme images. The winner of each category (poetry and prose) and up to 3 honorable mentions will receive a tiered percentage of the total entry fees plus publication in the contest print issue. Entry fee for the contest is $10. Full contest guidelines and theme images can be seen on our website.

Deadline: January 15, 2021
The Annual Rattle Chapbook Prize offers three winners $5,000 for a chapbook (up to 36 pages), plus 500 author copies, and distribution to Rattle’s 8,000+ subscribers. Entry fee of $25 includes a 1-year subscription to the magazine. Deadline: January 15. For guidelines and to read past winners, visit our website: www.rattle.com/chapbooks.

Deadline: December 15, 2021
The 5th annual Jane Underwood Poetry Prize is accepting submissions! Open to all poets, the prize is awarded for a single poem. For a fee of $15, submit one entry of up to three poems. The prizewinner will receive an award of $250, online publication of the winning poem, and an invitation to do a featured reading. This year's final judge is Vandana Khanna. Full guidelines can be found at www.writingsalons.com/awards-resources/jane-underwood-poetry-prize/.

Deadline: December 31, 2021
The Headlight Review is currently seeking poetry chapbook submissions until December 31, 2021. The winner will receive $500, publication, and 25 perfect-bound copies. Finalists will be announced March 2022. Finalists will be judged by esteemed author Tina Mozelle Braziel, winner of the 2017 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry for her book Known by Salt. The Headlight Review is a student run online journal affiliated with Kennesaw State University’s Master of Arts in Professional Writing Program. See our guidelines for further details.

Deadline: December 31, 2021
Versal is currently accepting submissions for the biennial Amsterdam Open Book Prize. Chapbook-length to full book manuscripts between 25 and 80 pages of different genres and forms, including poetry, fiction and nonfiction prose, and especially experimental, hybrid and collaborative pieces are welcome. Inventive works that create new landscapes visually, sonically or cognitively excite us. Writing that resists and rebels. Work that is humanizing and radical and necessary in the world. Literary expressions that push boundaries. Linguistic gatherings and reckonings. Judge: Raina León. Deadline: December 31, 2021. For full guidelines, please visit: www.versaljournal.org

Deadline: January 31, 2022
Submissions are now being accepted for the 10th Saroyan Prize. The awards, co-sponsored by Stanford Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation, are “intended to encourage new or emerging writers and honor the Saroyan legacy of originality, vitality, and stylistic innovation.” Two prizes of $5,000 each are given for works of fiction and nonfiction. Writers who have published four books or more are ineligible. Submit five copies of your work published between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021, with a $50 entry fee by January 31, 2022. Visit our website for complete eligibility and submission details: library.stanford.edu/saroyan.