We found over three dozen excellent free poetry and prose contests with deadlines between February 15-March 31. In this issue, please enjoy "The World Is Too Much With Us" by William Wordsworth, illustrated by Julian Peters.
We are thrilled to announce the results from our tenth annual North Street Book Prize for self-published and hybrid-published books. We read 1,930 entries in eight categories!
Dr. Linda I. Meyers of New York, New York won this year's Grand Prize across all genres for The Tell, a literary memoir-in-essays that is both a New York Jewish family saga and the story of a feminist awakening. Catalyzed by her mother's suicide, the author left a stifling marriage, began college, shepherded her three young sons through a show business career that included co-starring with Woody Allen in Annie Hall, and became a psychologist and psychoanalyst. Dr. Meyers received $10,000, a marketing analysis and one-hour phone consultation with Carolyn Howard-Johnson, a $500 credit at BookBaby, three months of Plus service (a $207 value) and a $250 account credit from Book Award Pro, a book cover
consultation from Laura Duffy Design (a $1,100 value), and 3 free ads in the Winning Writers newsletter (a $525 value).
We further congratulate our category winners: Jeff Shelton (art book), Trevor Ostfeld and Iryna Chernyak (children's picture book), Bryan Wiggins (genre fiction), Sven Siekmann (graphic novel & memoir), Michael Demaray (mainstream/literary fiction), Rob Mermin (creative nonfiction & memoir), Angelino Donnachaidh (middle grade), and Stephen C. Pollock (poetry).
Mindy Blumenfeld and Marc Lumer, Leah Campbell, Dr. Mary Jumbelic, Aiden Woosol Lee, Michelle Mae, Jessica McCann, Jeremy Sherr, Beth SKMorris, Jessica H. Stone, and Irene Young earned Honorable Mentions. We awarded extra Honorable Mentions in the categories of children's picture book and genre fiction.
We also recognize these finalists: Sherry Roseberry, Shari Schwert, Joel Shoemaker, Blas Telleria, D.C. Emerson, Esteban Guillermo Zanetti, Bonnie Bley, Sarah Hickner, Carla Solomon, Charles B. Warren, River 瑩瑩 Dandelion , Rick Lupert, Nita Penfold, and Phlaurel Nen.
Final judge Jendi Reiter was assisted by Annie Mydla, Sarah Halper, and Lauren Singer. We would also like to recognize the heroic work of Annie and her staff in Poland, Paweł Zagawa and Ewa Stachyra, to administrate the contest and prepare feedback for all the entries submitted online. Grace LeClair helped us return the books for those who requested that service. Read excerpts from all the winning entries and the judges' remarks.
$21,000 was awarded in all, making this one of the world's most generous contests for self-published and hybrid-published books. Our new competition opens today, with a deadline of July 1. This year we're bumping up the cash award for Honorable Mentions from $300 to $500 each. We also welcome new co-sponsors Atmosphere Press and Gatekeeper Press, which means more gifts for all entrants and more prizes for the winners. (Gatekeeper is also
offering a 10% discount to all our readers. Use code NSBP.)
Submit to the 2025 North Street Book Prize here.
This month, Annie Mydla's column features an interview with Hannah Jacobson, the founder of Book Award Pro. Learn what BAP's monster database of 11,000 opportunities can do for your book!
We also have a tip to share from a fellow subscriber. Mary Connaughty-Sullivan shares critical knowledge she gained by soliciting bids from publishers and later working with Amazon as a self-publisher. If you have a tip, recommendation, or warning, please email it to info@winningwriters.com.
Open at Winning Writers, co-sponsored by Duotrope
WERGLE FLOMP HUMOR POETRY CONTEST - NO FEE
Free to enter, $3,750 in prizes, including a top award of $2,000. Deadline: April 1.
TOM HOWARD/JOHN H. REID FICTION & ESSAY CONTEST
$12,000 in prizes, including two top awards of $3,500 each. $25 entry fee. Deadline: May 1.
View past newsletters in our archives. Need assistance? Let us help. Join our 60,000 followers on Facebook and our newest social media channel on Bluesky. Advertise with us, starting at $20.
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Deadline: February 28 (midnight GMT)
The Fish Flash Fiction Prize is an opportunity to attempt one of the most interesting and rewarding tasks—to create, in a tiny fragment, a completely resolved and compelling story in 300 words or fewer.
Tania Hershman, flash fiction writer from Manchester, England, is the judge for 2025. Tania will be selecting the 10 flash stories to be published in the FISH ANTHOLOGY 2025.
Results: 10 April '25
Anthology Published: July '25
Entry Fees: €16 for first entry (€11 each additional)
€16 equates approximately to US$17 or £14
Optional critique €42
The ten published authors will each receive five copies of the Anthology and will be invited to read at the launch during the West Cork Literary Festival in July 2025.
SUBMIT ONLINE OR BY MAIL
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Deadline extended to February 21
Entries are now being accepted for the 2025 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the most exciting and rewarding book awards program open to independent publishers and authors worldwide who have a book written in English and released in 2023, 2024, or 2025 or with a 2023, 2024, or 2025 copyright date. The Next Generation Indie Book Awards are presented by Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group.
There are 80+ categories to choose from, so take advantage of this exciting opportunity to have your book considered for cash prizes, awards, exposure, possible representation by a leading literary agent, and recognition as one of the top independently published books of the year!
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Winner, 2024 North Street Book Prize, First Prize for Genre Fiction
Author Bryan Wiggins' writing took a thrilling turn when a client asked him to step aside from his day job as a brand strategist to take a stab at writing the medical thriller he had in mind. Noted Maine neurosurgeon Lee Thibodeau had the germ of an idea for a tale of illegal kidney transplants run by a Mexican cartel and gave Bryan access to the team of medical professionals who provided the technical details that granted plausibility for Wiggins' novel.
The story's first-place win of the North Street Book Prize follows its "Top Pick" status for Killer Nashville's Silver Falchion Award, its finalist placement for the Maine Literary Awards, and a "Recommended" Kirkus review.
Discover the story behind the story, watch a TV interview, and explore Wiggins' novels at Brywig.com.
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Deadline: February 27
Entries are now being accepted for the 2025 Next Generation Short Story Awards, a not-for-profit international awards program for authors of short stories. The Short Story Awards offers 30+ categories to choose from and accepts original, unpublished stories (5,000 words or fewer) written in English by authors in the US, Canada, or internationally.
Take advantage of this exciting opportunity to have your story considered for 30+ cash prizes, gold medals, complimentary gold digital stickers, literary exposure, and recognition as one of the top stories of the year! Winners will have their story published in an annual Anthology of Winners (you maintain copyright) and will receive a complimentary copy of the Anthology of Winners. Enter today.
The Short Story Awards program is brought to you by the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the largest international book awards program in the world for independent and self-published authors.
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Deadline: February 28
I-70 Review offers the Bill Hickok Humor Award for a single unpublished poem. Allison Joseph will judge. Winner will receive $1,000. Winning poem will appear in the 2025 issue of I-70 Review. Submit 1-3 unpublished poems with a $15 entry fee.
All submissions will be eligible for publication in I-70 Review. See the complete guidelines and enter.
The Humor Award was created and funded by the N.W. Dible Foundation in honor of Bill Hickok, past president of the Foundation. Our interests are in writing grounded in fresh language, imagery, and metaphor. Although we tend to prefer free verse, we want the writer to pay attention to the sound and rhythm of the language. We like poetry with individual voice. We like a good lyric or a strong narrative. We like topics that are different and interesting or common topics with a different perspective or approach.
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Limit spots remaining! Save 10% when you register by February 28 for our multi-genre workshop for writers working in the disciplines of memoir/personal essay and fiction.
May 4-10
Taught by bestselling, award-winning author Leslie Schwartz. Daily classes include comprehensive craft discussions, workshop, and private conferences with the instructor.
Sponsored by List og Land Artists and Writers Residency, Westfjords, Iceland, offering beautiful, comfortable accommodations on a remote fjord at the intersection of inspiration and creativity.
We offer a geothermal hot spring, pool and sauna on List og Land's 4,200 acres of wild Iceland, plus whales, foxes, curious seals and endless hiking.
Includes a sightseeing tour to Reykjarfjörður hot pool and the A House in Fossfjorður plus more.
For information and details on cost, classroom instruction, accommodations and registration, please visit List og Land.
Email inquiries: writersworkshopslol@gmail.com or schwartz0505@gmail.com.
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Book Award Pro, now in its seventh year, curates opportunities for book authors. A lot of opportunities: 11,000! BAP tracks more than 70 unique data points for each one to gauge its quality and decide which authors would be well served by it. Authors subscribe to the service and are matched with the most appropriate opportunities. BAP will even perform the submissions for an additional fee. We trust the value of the service enough that BAP is a co-sponsor of our North Street Book Prize.
In this interview with Hannah Jacobson, founder of Book Award Pro, Annie Mydla explores how awards can benefit authors and how BAP has developed its unique offering. The interview is available as a 28-minute YouTube video. We also provide a transcript.
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Deadline: March 7
The 2025 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize will be judged by Ottessa Moshfegh, author of Lapvona and My Year of Rest and Relaxation. The winning work will be performed by an actor in spring 2025 and published on Electric Literature. The winning writer will receive $1,000 and a free 10-week course with Gotham Writers.
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Entries should be 750 words or fewer.
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Stories can be on any theme.
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Fee: $25 per entry.
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Writers of all ages and nationalities are eligible.
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We do not accept work that has been previously published in print, online, or any other medium.
Submit here.
The Prize is sponsored by the stage and radio series Selected Shorts. This long-running series at Symphony Space in New York City celebrates the art of the short story by having stars of stage and screen read aloud the works of established and emerging writers. Selected Shorts is recorded for Public Radio and heard nationally on both the radio and its weekly podcast.
Read the 2024 contest winner, "What I Could Have Given" by Esther Hayes.
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Deadline: March 9
In commemorating Tennessee Williams's 114th Birthday, the Tennessee Williams Museum in Key West is convening short story and poetry contests.
Williams traveled across the United States and Europe, but was most successful in his career and happy personally while living and writing in Key West. During his time on the island, he wrote many of his notable works including A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Drawing from the 2025 Festival theme, writing contest entries must in some way reference A Streetcar Named Desire. Poets and authors should loosely make reference to the play whether it be Williams during the writing process, one of the play's characters, or one of the actors/actresses who played a role in the film.
The cost is $10 per submission. One entry per person. The first-place winner in each contest will be awarded $300 while the second-place winners will receive $150.
Submissions must not have been previously published. Poems may have up to 30 lines. Short stories should have 1,500-4,000 words.
The winners will be announced on March 26, 2025 at a special Birthday Party at the Tennessee Williams Museum and published online on the Tennessee Williams Key West Festival website.
Learn more and submit.
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March 9, 12:30-2:30pm Eastern Daylight Time; $133.25
This online workshop is open to writers of all genres and all levels. We're approaching the end of winter, and setting our clocks forward to return to daylight saving. In that spirit, we will draw on a variety of prompts to spring forward in our writing. These include randomness, set forms, and techniques drawn from other creative arts. We shall use short writing sprints to generate new work and/or revise a draft of what we're working on, and take it in an unexpected direction. We shall look at brief examples, and share our own efforts, as well as talk about how writing with prompts can help us to surprise ourselves.
Learn more and buy your ticket now.
Cheryl J. Fish’s debut novel Off the Yoga Mat, the story of three characters coming of middle age, was published by Livingston Press/UWA in 2022. She is the author of The Sauna is Full of Maids, poems and photographs celebrating Finnish sauna culture, the natural world, and friendship, and Crater & Tower, poems reflecting on trauma and ecology after Mount the St. Helens Volcanic eruption and the terrorist attack of 9/11, which will be re-issued in Fall 2025. Visit her links on Linktree.
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Deadline: March 15
The Perkoff Prize is a tri-genre contest that awards $1,000 and publication each to writers of the best story, set of poems, and essay that engage in evocative ways with health and medicine as judged by the editors.
Guidelines:
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All submissions must engage with health and medicine in some way.
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All submissions must be previously unpublished.
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Poetry: up to 10 pages of poetry.
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Fiction and Nonfiction: up to 8,500 words, double-spaced.
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Winners will be published in print issue of TMR.
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Check out the prizewinners and finalists from last year's contest here. Winners will be announced in late 2025.
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All entries will be considered for publication (whether in print, or as part of our Poem of the Week or Blast features).
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Multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions are welcome, but you must pay a separate fee for each entry and withdraw the piece immediately if accepted elsewhere.
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Standard Entry fee: $15. Each entrant receives a one-year subscription to the Missouri Review in digital format (normal price $24).
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"All Access" Entry fee: $30. In addition to the one-year digital subscription to the Missouri Review, the "All Access" entry fee grants access to the last 10 years of digital issues and the audio recordings of each digital issue.
Submit Online
Submit By Mail (short downloadable form in .docx format)
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A Subscriber Tip
Hard-Won Publishing Knowledge
Mary Connaughty-Sullivan
I wrote my first book in 2023 and deliberately waited until I was finished with the manuscript before delving into the murky "art" of getting it published. And am I glad I did! I might have quit writing as soon as I realized how complicated it is for the neophyte! I have two recommendations for the aspiring author:
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Get a minimum of 3 bids from publishers before deciding upon which to go with. I ended up with a hybrid publisher who did a great job with my layout, and who amped up my cover design (for which I recently became a finalist in a cover award contest!), and who provided some basic editing and marketing services as well. Others to whom I spoke offered similar benefits, but their contracts were more restrictive and their share of royalties were also more than the publisher I selected. After 9 months with my original publisher, I decided to re-publish the book as a self-published work, which leads me to tip #2:
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If you go the self-publishing route, be aware that there is a LOT of work involved in getting your book up and running on Amazon and with Ingram Spark. It's a fussy, painstaking process, but in the end, you cut out the middleman and have far more transparency into sales, royalties, etc. IF your book has a subtitle (as mine does), and IF you are re-publishing (i.e. not a first time self-publisher), be aware that KDP (Amazon) will specifically ask you to enter your subtitle when you're uploading the book for publishing. If your original book was entered only with the main title (and there's no way to know this unless you know to specifically ask your original publisher how he/she entered it), and you now enter your subtitle when self-publishing, it will create a break between the two versions and none of your previous reviews will flow over to the newly re-published version. Both versions
of the book will exist on Amazon, but your originally published book will only be available as a used (often expensive) copy. I fell into this trap and it aggravates me to this day. I can fix it by re-publishing a 3rd time and by not entering the subtitle, but then I will lose all the reviews I accumulated after self-publishing the first time. And it's impossible to get anyone with Amazon to actually help with this inane problem!
Good luck!
Mary Connaughty-Sullivan is the author of Nudges From The Other Side. Visit her website.
Have a tip, recommendation, or warning? Please email it to us at info@winningwriters.com.
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Deadline: Friday, March 28, 11:59pm Eastern US Time
Last time we checked, 77% of web-based fiction magazines pay their fiction writers nothing.
So did 60% of print-only fiction magazines!
If you'd like to try getting paid for your fiction, why not consider us? Since 2006, On The Premises magazine has aimed to promote newer and/or relatively unknown writers who can write creative, compelling stories told in effective, uncluttered, and evocative prose. We've never charged a reading fee or publication fee, and we pay between $75 and $250 for short stories that fit each issue's broad story premise. We publish stories in nearly every genre (literary/realist, mystery, light/dark fantasy, light/hard sci-fi, slipstream) aimed at readers older than 12 (no children's fiction).
The premise for our latest contest is "Somewhere Else".
For this contest, write a creative, compelling, well-crafted story between 1,000 and 5,000 words long in which someone or something important to the story is not where it/they always have been, or where it/they would be expected to be located, or is in the process of changing their location from where it/they have always been. The distance someone or something has moved (or is moving) is not important, but the change in location must be important to the story. Whether this new location is an improvement or a problem is up to you.
One entry per author. No fee for entering.
Any genre except children's fiction, exploitative sex, or over-the-top gross-out horror is fine. We will not accept parodies of another author's specific fictional characters or world(s), and we do not accept fan fiction for the same reason. We will accept serious literary drama, crazy farces, and any variation of science fiction and fantasy you can imagine. Read our past issues and see!
You can find details and instructions for submitting your story here. To be informed when new contests are launched, subscribe to our free, short, monthly newsletter.
"On The Premises" magazine is recognized in Duotrope, Writer's Market, Ralan.com, the Short Story and Novel Writers guidebooks, and other short story marketing resources.
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Deadline: May 31
Are you ready to let your poetry shine? Open Kimono Publishing invites poets of all levels to participate in our exciting competition! We're seeking fresh, authentic voices that push boundaries and explore poetry in bold, unfiltered ways. This unique opportunity offers recognition, publication opportunities, and a platform to showcase your talent to a growing audience.
We believe in the power of raw creativity and diverse perspectives. Our mission is to amplify voices that need to be heard and foster a community where originality thrives. Winning poets will be featured in a beautifully curated publication celebrating their work and connecting them to literary enthusiasts worldwide.
Whether you're a new poet or seasoned writer, this is your moment to make an unforgettable impact. Don't wait. Submit your entry today to be part of something extraordinary!
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Some contests are best suited to writers at the early stages of their careers. Others are better for writers with numerous prizes and publications to their credit. Here is this month's selection of Spotlight Contests for your consideration:
Emerging Writers
Iris N. Spencer Poetry Award. West Chester University will award $1,500 to a US college student for an unpublished poem "composed in the traditional modes of meter, rhyme, and received forms". No length limit. Must be received by February 17 (new deadline).
Intermediate Writers
Governor General's Literary Awards. Canada Council for the Arts will award up to C$25,000 to Canadian citizens and permanent residents for the best English-language and French-language books in each of 7 categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Drama, Young People's Literature (text), Young People's Literature (illustrated books), and Translation (from French to English or from English to French). Publisher submits. Deadlines are February 15, May 15, and July 15.
Advanced Writers
Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism. Poetry Foundation will award $10,000 for a book-length work of poetry criticism, including critical editions, biographies of poets, and essay collections published in English in the US during the previous calendar year. Register with the submission portal by February 24. Applications with a 20-page sample of the book must follow by March 3.
See more Spotlight Contests for emerging, intermediate, and advanced writers within The Best Free Literary Contests database.
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Winning Writers finds open submission calls and free contests in a variety of sources, including Erika Dreifus' Practicing Writer newsletter, FundsforWriters, Erica Verrillo's blog, Authors Publish, Lit Mag News Roundup, Poets & Writers, The Writer, Duotrope, Submittable, and literary journals' own newsletters and announcements.
• 3Elements Literary Review
(creative writing and art using the prompts "prophecy, attic, isolation" - February 28)
• The Scythian Wolf: Horror Tales of the Scientific Revolution
(science-based horror fiction set between 1500-1700 - February 28)
• Viridine: "Chaos" Issue
(poetry, fiction, art, drama on selected theme - February 28)
• Steam Ticket
(poetry, fiction, essays - March 1)
• Toronto Journal
(open-theme short fiction, essays set in Toronto - March 1)
• Serving House Books: Poetry Reading Period
(full-length collections - March 31)
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Poems to See By features 24 classic poems with visual interpretations by comic artist Julian Peters. Mr. Peters has graciously allowed us to revisit "The World Is Too Much With Us" from the book (it last appeared here in April 2023; we felt drawn to it again this month). This comic originally appeared in the January 2017 issue of the Italian poetry magazine Atelier, accompanied by an Italian translation by Francesca Benocci.
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February Links Roundup: Monkey Mind Mother
I remember the unnecessary self-doubt that was instilled in me about having boundaries as a "mother". I put the term in scare quotes for gender identity reasons, but also because "motherhood" is a societal idol that eclipses the actual person in relationships with her baby and the world.
[read more]
Jendi Reiter is the editor of Winning Writers. Visit their website.
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