We found over four dozen excellent free poetry and prose contests with deadlines between January 15-February 28. In this issue, please enjoy an excerpt from "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley, illustrated by Julian Peters.
Technical alert! We are upgrading the Winning Writers server. Starting on Friday, January 17, there may be a few days of brief service interruptions at winningwriters.com as we transition from the old server to the new one. Thanks for your understanding.
This month, Annie Mydla's column examines staying focused on your book's premise. Drawing on the categories in our North Street Book Prize, Annie describes how books in genres from literary fiction to children's picture books can dilute their main idea by including too much secondary material.
We also have a tip to share from a fellow subscriber. Irene Cooper links to a "small but fierce writing group" that provided critical support for her feminist noir thriller. 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.
Coming next month: We'll announce the winners of our 2024 North Street Book Prize.
View past newsletters in our archives. Need assistance? Let us help. Join our 59,000 followers on Facebook and our newest social media channel on Bluesky. Advertise with us, starting at $20.
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Deadline: January 31 (midnight GMT)
For the opportunity to have your short memoir published in the Fish Anthology 2025, enter the Fish Short Memoir Prize. Ten memoirs will be selected for publication.
Judge: Ted Simon (author of memoirs, including Jupiter's Travels)
Word Limit: 4,000
Results: 1 April '25
Anthology Published: July '25
Entry Fees: €20 for first entry (€14 each additional)
€20 equates approximately to US$21 or £17
Optional critique €56
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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Lisa Weinert invites you to join her on an online creative journey to uncover the stories that you carry within.
Lisa Weinert, acclaimed author, yoga teacher, and Merit Scholar Award recipient currently pursuing a master's in social work, will lead a vibrant community of writers through a 7-module program combining interactive and self-paced learning. Designed as a companion experience to Lisa's book, Narrative Healing, this course offers a unique mind-body approach to storytelling.
Together, the cohort will delve into mindfulness-based techniques for writing and listening, and gain insights from top experts in writing, publishing, trauma-informed yoga, and literary life. You learn how storytelling can be a powerful form of activism and radical self-care.
In this course, you will:
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Learn how writing can support trauma healing and alleviate symptoms of burnout and other challenging emotions
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Embrace a unique and powerful approach to writing that begins with somatic practices and mindfulness meditation
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Discover how writing and sharing stories fosters personal growth and community connection
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Deepen your compassionate listening for yourself and those around you
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Access cutting-edge research in narrative therapy and tools to integrate this work into your own writing and care practice
Learn more and register now.
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Deadline: January 15, 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time
The annual Rattle Chapbook Prize gives poets something truly special. Every year, three winners will each receive: $5,000 cash, 500 contributor copies, and distribution to Rattle's ~8,000 subscribers. In a world where a successful full-length poetry book might sell 1,000 copies, the winning book will reach an audience eight times as large on its release day alone—an audience that includes many other literary magazines, presses, and well-known poets. This will be a chapbook to launch a career.
And maybe the best part is this: The $30 entry fee is just a standard subscription to Rattle, which includes four issues of the magazine and three winning chapbooks, even if one of them isn't yours. Rattle is one of the most-read literary journals in the world—find out why just by entering! For more information, visit our website.
We congratulate our three winners from our 2024 contest:
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Eric Kocher, Sky Mall (Fall 2024)
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Denise Duhamel, In Which (Winter 2024)
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Kat Lehmann, no matter how it ends a bluebird's song (Spring 2025)
Please enjoy this poem by the very first Rattle Chapbook Prize winner, Zeina Hashem Beck. It appears in 3arabi Song, published by Rattle in 2016.
Ghazal: Back Home
for Syria, September 2015
Tonight a little boy couldn't walk on water or row back home.
The sea turned its old face away. Again, there was a no, no, back home.
Bahr* is how we were taught to measure poetry,
bahr is how we've stopped trying to measure sorrow, back home.
"All that blue is the sea, and it gives life, gives life," says God to the boy
standing wet at heaven's gate—does he want to return, to go back home?
My friend who hates cooking has made that eggplant dish,
says nothing was better than yogurt and garlic and tomato, back home.
On the train tracks, a man shouts, "Hold me, hold me," to his wife,
bites her sleeve, as if he were trying to tow back home.
Thirteen-year-old Kinan with the big eyes says, "We don't want to stay in Europe."
"Just stop the war," he repeats, as if praying, Grow, grow back, home.
Habibi, I never thought our children would write HELP US on cardboard.
Let's try to remember how we met years ago, back home.
On our honeymoon we kissed by the sea, watched it
rock the lights, the fishing boats to and fro, back home.
* Bahr is Arabic for sea. Also, in Arabic poetry, bahr means meter.
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Deadline: February 14
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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Want to impress agents, publishers, and contest judges? Focus your book on your premise. Trim away the other stuff.
Fiction, memoir, poetry, children's books, middle grade, art books, graphic novels…almost any book can fail if it gets distracted. Why does that happen so often? What are the signs to look out for?
[read more]
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Deadline: February 15
Kansas poets with book-length works published in the past three years (2022–24) are eligible to win the $1,000 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Poetry. The annual award, rotating between poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, is sponsored by the Thomas Fox Averill Kansas Studies Collection at Washburn University in Topeka and the Friends of Mabee Library. Poets with a connection to the state of Kansas through birth, residence, education, employment, or some other significant circumstance are eligible. There is no fee to enter.
This year's judge will be 2022 HHKBA Poetry winner Michael Kleber-Diggs, author of Worldly Things (Milkweed Editions, 2021), which also received the Max Ritvo Prize and the Balcones Prize.
See the complete guidelines.
The 2024 Hefner Heitz Book Award in Literary Nonfiction went to Brian Daldorph for Words Is a Powerful Thing: Twenty Years of Teaching Creative Writing at Douglas County Jail. In 2023, Catherine Browder won the award in fiction for her story collection Resurrection City.
The Thomas Fox Averill Kansas Studies Collection—sponsor of the competition—is an eclectic, inclusive set of materials dedicated to the study of Kansas literature through the state's folklore, history, geography, flora, fauna, and culture.
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Registration now open 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: writingworkshoplol@gmail.com or schwartz0505@gmail.com.
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Tip from a Subscriber
A Supportive Writing Group
Irene Cooper
I have the good fortune of having a small but fierce writing group that provided enormous support for my feminist noir thriller, Found. I and my husband, Mike Cooper, and creative partner, Ellen Santasiero, run a 10-month writing program called The Forge. My experience with the group has been wonderful—being read and acknowledged is rocket fuel for a writing practice and the writing life.
Irene's novel Found won First Prize for Genre Fiction in our 2023 North Street competition.
Have a tip, recommendation, or warning? Please email it to us at info@winningwriters.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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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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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
Narrative Magazine High School Writing Contest. Narrative Magazine will award $500 and publication to high school students worldwide for an unpublished story or essay of up to 600 words or a poem of 10-50 lines. This year's theme is "What I Cannot Say, I'll Say Here". Entries should be submitted by the student's English teacher. Must be received by February 5 (new deadline).
Intermediate Writers
Zocalo Public Square Poetry Prize. Zocalo Public Square, a unit of Arizona State University Media Enterprise, will award $1,000, publication online, a published interview, and the opportunity for a public reading of the winning poem at an award ceremony. US authors may submit unpublished poems that evoke a connection to place. "Place" may be interpreted by the poet as a location of historical, cultural, political, or personal importance; it may be a literal, imaginary, or metaphorical landscape. Must be received by January 24 (new deadline).
Advanced Writers
Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. The Institute of Advanced Studies at University College London will award 3,000 pounds for the best book of political fiction first published in the UK or Ireland between June 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025. In addition, a Special Prize may be awarded at the judges' discretion. Entries may be novels, collections of short stories, graphic novels, or YA. The publisher, agent, or editor should make the submission. Author may be from any nation, and the book may also have been published first in another territory. Must be received by January 27 (new deadline).
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.
• Rattle: Ekphrastic Challenge Artwork
(submit artwork to be used as poetry prompts - January 15)
• Splinter Journal
(poetry, fiction, essays, criticism - January 25)
• Bending Genres
(experimental and hybrid-genre poetry and short prose - February 1)
• Sundress Publications: Prose Manuscript Reading Period
(literary novels, memoirs, story and essay collections, hybrid work - February 28)
• Brain Mill Press: Mystery and Horror Novellas
(mystery theme is "Beyond the Grave" and horror theme is "Ashes, Bones, Relics" - June 1)
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Here are some of our favorite newly added resources at Winning Writers. For a full list, see our Resource pages.
American Diary Project
Scanned archive of ordinary people's diaries for historical research
Brawl
Energetic, quirky online poetry journal with progressive politics
Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute
Visual lexicon of pop-culture visual styles from the 1970s onward
Georgia Poetry Society
Writers' group with online open mics and courses, contests, and website listings for members' books
Jay Wurts, Writer and Editor
Developmental editing, ghostwriting, and marketability coaching
The Lynx Watch
Nonprofit distributes banned books to Florida community organizations
PodMatch
Digital marketplace matches podcasts with guests on various topics
Printed Matter
Leading nonprofit dedicated to promoting artists' books and zines
Public Domain Image Archive
Searchable digital library of 10,000+ free-to-use vintage illustrations and photographs
Quick Start Guide to Children's and Young Adult Publishing
Overview of the submission process for juvenile literature, from Authors Publish
Rebel Ever After
Novelist Ella Dawson's podcast discusses progressive politics in the romance novel, with guest authors
The StoryGraph
Independently owned social network for sharing book reviews and recommendations
Too Much Horror Fiction
Pulp horror collector Will Errickson's blog reviews his favorites from the 1960s-90s
Valparaiso Poetry Review
Established online lit mag publishes poetry, reviews, and criticism
We Are Not Numbers
Emerging writers from Palestine tell their stories and advocate for their human rights
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Julian Peters has kindly allowed us to reprint this illustration of "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Here is an excerpt from the complete poem at the Academy of American Poets.
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Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawakened Earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
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