We found 20 excellent free poetry and prose contests with deadlines between July 15-August 31. In this issue, we bring you Julian Peters' illustration of "The Radiant City" by Vincenzo Mascolo. Annie Mydla grapples with a persistent beast that throttles good books: bad cover design.
Agents might not always be your best path to publication, says subscriber Steve Bernstein in this month's tip. That's ok. There's another way...
If you have a tip, recommendation, or warning, please email it to info@winningwriters.com.
Open Now
TOM HOWARD/MARGARET REID POETRY CONTEST
23rd year. We will award $3,500 for a poem in any style or genre and $3,500 for a poem that rhymes or has a traditional style. Ten Honorable Mentions will receive $500 each (any style). The top 12 entries will be published online. The top two winners will also receive two-year gift certificates from our co-sponsor, Duotrope (a $100 value). Length limit: 250 lines per poem. Entry fee: $25 for a submission of 1-3 poems. Multiple submissions welcome. Final judge: Michal 'MJ' Jones, assisted by Briana Grogan and Dare Williams. Deadline: October 1.
Submit online here.
Free PDF Download
Live and Let DEI Anthology
It gives us great pleasure to present Live and Let DEI. We invite you to download and share the PDF freely. Enormous thanks to our contributors, Annie Mydla and her administrative staff in Poland, and Laura Duffy for the handsome book design. Editor Jendi Reiter reports, "We received over 650 submissions for this anthology, from which I selected the 34 poems and text-image hybrids you are about to read. Some are comical, others are poignant, tragic, or righteously angry. They share a commitment to keep our language and our country from becoming corrupted."
Get the free book.
Coming next month: We'll announce the winners of our Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest!
View past newsletters in our archives. Need assistance? Let us help. Join our 61,000 followers on Facebook and our newest social media channel on Bluesky. Advertise with us, starting at $20.
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Now through July 31, save $600 on our publishing packages and take the next step toward making your publishing dreams a reality.
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Request your free quote at Gatekeeper Press.
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Congratulations to Diane Elayne Dees (featured poem: "After"), Maureen Sherbondy, Robbie Gamble, Lauren Singer, pine breaks, Tamara Kaye Sellman, Carol D. Marsh, Charles Sartorius, Angela Paolantonio, Grace Amani, Rick Lupert, and Terri Kirby Erickson.
Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter was a finalist in the 2025 Gemini Magazine Poetry Open for their poem "Shane Says He Didn't Consent to Be in My Poems". The most recent deadline for this $1,000 award was in January. Gemini offers several writing contests annually; their Flash Fiction Contest is currently open till September 2.
Learn about our subscribers' achievements and see links to samples of their work.
Have news? Please email it to jendi@winningwriters.com.
Do you use TikTok or Instagram? Send your news to the @winningwriters account so we can share it!
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Deadline: July 15, 2025 (11:59pm EDT)
The annual Rattle Poetry Prize celebrates its 20th year with a 1st prize of $15,000 for a single poem. Ten finalists will also receive $500 each and publication, and be eligible for the $5,000 Readers' Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber and entrant vote. All of these poems will be published in the winter issue of the magazine.
With the winners judged in an anonymized review by the editors to ensure a fair and consistent selection, an entry fee that is simply a one-year subscription to the magazine—and a large Readers' Choice Award to be chosen by the writers themselves—we've designed the Rattle Poetry Prize to be one of the most inspiring contests around.
Past winners have included a retired teacher, a lawyer, and several students. It's fair, it's friendly, and you win a print subscription to Rattle even if you don't win.
We accept entries online via Submittable. See Rattle's website for the complete guidelines and to read all of the past winners.
Please enjoy this finalist poem by Demetrius Buckley, published in Rattle #86, Winter 2024:
The We
after Gwendolyn Brooks
we cars, we jewelry. we hey hey
at shorties who are often forward.
we unbelievable, two tone, cut
with or can't be cut from.
we prisoner. we congress. we
just don't care about answers from mouths
—woman answer it's 2 o'clock I need my money.
we sick. we need her to bow our heads
and say gracious things to the courts.
we adults, we a force of infinite white lies
cuz a black one will get you whacked.
we Cesar, Moses, Imhotep. we ain't
colors in your coloring books. we ain't
ammo or pawns.
we easy on the eyes. we wise man
once said. we
painting pink panties to pull it off,
we magic a cell left for ceremony.
we Caine we Caine. we don't complete
the scale. we open dreams
like tuna packs, mix that shit
in a plastic bowl and bang it. we, honestly,
if you keep getting me mixed up
with a fake activist, power to the—what
I stand for is what I stand on.
we introduce ourselves like transformers.
we turn into things that they have to house
the housed.
we many boxes you have a hard time opening.
we born again and again
until your cash app is flagged. we don’t
know much about telling folks
where to hide their marbles. we
all scramble. we first time
caregivers, foster dads, a bad advice,
poor leaders. we dummy enough
to kill over a 36-cent noodle.
we first responders.
we peeking out the clouds, down
on mother's house. we trees
we trees we trees we trees. we ain't
letting it go. we can't move a muscle
so we spiritual. we all essence of life
anecdoting scriptures.
we the people don't stand for no fucking day job,
lack of housing,
education, reform, so hurry up and pass that damn bill.
we know Bill in Angola corrections
baling hay for 3 hots and a box.
Michigan slave ship 34,000 plus.
we out-of-time a global tel-link tribute.
we please try your call again or repeat after me.
we make a full room.
we the number that has been disconnected.
we bad signal through a storm
after visitation. we just wanna say
we brother of struggle who
is too far away to make the drive.
we brother of struggle we brother of struggle.
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Submission Period: June 1–July 31, 2025
Prize: 100 Copies of a perfect-bound chapbook, distributed by Ingram
Reading Fee: $10
Final Judge: Thomas A. Thomas, author of My Heart Is Not Asleep (MoonPath Press, 2024)
Submission Eligibility: Any poet writing in English with a continental U.S. UPS deliverable address.
 Submission Guidelines
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24 to 36 pages of poetry
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Do not include any identifying information or acknowledgments in the manuscript
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All entries must be submitted online via Submittable.
For copies of our previous publications, see our publications page.
Simultaneous and multiple submissions okay. If you need more info, visit the Concrete Wolf Press website or email ConcreteWolfPress@gmail.com.
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So you've written your book. The long slog is over...or is it?
Not quite. Without a standout cover to get readers' attention, your book might have a hard time getting off the ground.
Readers are picky. They need to know at a glance what a book's genre, tone, and main ideas are before they commit to a purchase.
Contest judges are even pickier. In the North Street Book Prize, perhaps 1% of our 1,000+ annual submissions will win an award. So, while we don't judge books solely by their covers, an attractive, professional-looking cover can make the difference between books that are equally strong in other ways.
Read on.
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Happy one-year book birthday to Jendi Reiter's second novel, Origin Story, from Saddle Road Press!
Somatic healer Rebecca Green writes in her 5-star Goodreads review:
"This is a complex and well-rendered story dealing with trauma and recovery from sexual abuse. The story of Peter's healing journey was so well rendered. It's not easy to depict those liminal states of awareness where memories first make themselves known. And I love the use of 'The Poison Cure' comic book as myth, a way to hold the overview of a truth that is difficult to speak."
Learn more about Origin Story / Buy at Amazon
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Submission Period: July 15–August 31, 2025
The 69th Chicagoland Poetry Contest is open to all. Electronic entries only.
Ten categories (includes Free Verse, Formal Verse, Humorous, Nature, Miniature, Betrayal, Birds, Pets, Social Justice/Social Conscience, and Strangers). Cash prizes of $50, $30, $20, plus three Honorable Mentions in each category. Entry fee is $12 for members, $15 for non-members, and covers one poem per category. You can submit up to two more poems per category for an additional fee—$1 per additional poem for Poets & Patrons members, and $3 per poem for non-members. Maximum three poems per category for each poet.
Visit the Poets & Patrons website for all the details and guidelines.
P.S. It's the final day to enter our Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest. No fee, two categories (Traditional and Modern). Prizes for both categories: First Prize: $50. Second Prize: $30. Third Prize: $20. Three Honorable Mentions per category, ranked.
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Rockvale Writers' Colony, a not-for-profit organization, exists to support, promote, and educate writers of all backgrounds who write in any genre. We provide a safe, comfortable, and inspiring environment where resident writers can work on a writing project. Learn more about our affordable retreats in College Grove, Tennessee:
Art Journaling is a creative combination of art and writing. Both creative genres call upon the heart and soul to invest in expressing emotion and revealing personal truths. In this retreat, we will start by making our own journals. The rest of the retreat will be spent filling that journal with everything that feels true to our hearts. We will offer many art journaling examples and give you new techniques to try. We will experiment with color, texture, shape, image, and infuse that with language. We will have art-specific studio sessions and writing-specific journaling sessions. If you are a writer new to art, this retreat is for you. If you are an artist new to writing, this retreat is for you. If you are an artist and writer both, this retreat is for you. If you have no experience (yet!) with art and writing, this retreat is definitely for you. All experience levels are welcome.
Learn more about the Art Journaling retreat.
"A poem is never finished, only abandoned" is W.H. Auden's well-known paraphrase of Paul Valéry's comment that "[a] poem is never finished; it's always an accident that puts a stop to it—i.e. gives it to the public." A poem is always in motion, ever evolving: from its inception to its rough draft, through its many revisions to its "finished" form.
Poetry allows us to express ourselves through a carefully chosen engagement of language and soundscape that creates powerful emotions, ones that can intoxicate readers and invite them to accompany the poet through a poem.
Retreat facilitator, KB Ballentine, will guide workshop participants from creating new poems to working on the craft of poetry to revising poems to their (publishable) best. Participants have the option of having a 10-15 minute one-on-one conversation with KB to ask questions. Also, every retreater is invited to send one finished poem for (gentle) critique, as long as the poem is received by the deadline. Learn more about the Poems in Motion retreat.
Drawing upon the principles of Shinrin-yoku, a Japanese wellness practice that can be translated as "taking in the forest atmosphere", forest bathing involves connecting with nature using all five senses. Through the relational and ecological practices of forest bathing, we come into deeper contact with ourselves and the more-than-human world that we inhabit.
During this weekend retreat, we will meander, sit, breathe, move, play, and rest in the beautiful forest surrounding Rockvale. In addition to several forest bathing sessions, there will also be integrative conversations in which we will consider various ways in which a forest bathing practice can impact the embodied processes involved in writing. Unstructured time for wandering alone in the woods and writing freely will also be included in the schedule for the weekend. Learn more about the Forest Bathing retreat.
This retreat is for writers, readers, dreamers (hey! that's you!) who seek a weekend of stillness, solitude, and reflection. This is not a retreat of "doing". It's a retreat of "being". There are no workshops, no readings, no schedules (other than for meals). There are no expectations for participation in anything other than your own renewal. Retreaters may choose to write, journal, draw, color, read, knit, meditate, nap, think, or pray. The key is to bask in stillness, to let the quiet soak into your skin and into your heart.
Participants will stay in private bedroom/bathroom suites and will have access to common spaces such as the library, reading room, and writing porch. If they wish, participants can hike within the 65 acres of colony property and explore the winter gardens. All meals are provided. Learn more about the Peace Retreat.
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A Subscriber Tip
Tired of Chasing Agents? Maybe You Should Self-Publish
Steve Bernstein, author of Stories from the Stoop: A Memoir of the 1960s Bronx (Skyhorse, 2023), is one of those rare authors whose Amazon KDP self-published book was solicited by a traditional publisher for reissue. He recommends perseverance and trusting your instincts about the people you encounter in the writing world. It's better to self-publish than to chase after agents who are dismissive of certain types of stories based on superficial factors. Read about one such encounter on his blog.
Have a tip, recommendation, or warning? Please email it to us at info@winningwriters.com.
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Sponsored by Winning Writers
TOM HOWARD PRIZE: $3,500 for a poem in any style or genre
MARGARET REID PRIZE: $3,500 for a poem that rhymes
or has a traditional style
The top two winners will also receive two-year gift certificates from our co-sponsor, Duotrope (a $100 value)
Honorable Mentions: 10 awards of $500 each (any style)
Submit published or unpublished work. Top 12 entries published online.
Judged by Michal 'MJ' Jones, assisted by Briana Grogan and Dare Williams.
Recommended by Reedsy as one of The Best Writing Contests of 2025.
Submit 1-3 poems for one $25 entry fee.
Enter via Submittable by October 1
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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
Diverse Writers/Diverse Worlds Grants. The Speculative Literature Foundation will award two diversity-centered grants (Diverse Writers and Diverse Worlds) of $500 apiece for book-length speculative fiction rich in diversity. Diverse Writers is for "underrepresented and underprivileged groups...whose marginalized identities may present additional obstacles in the writing/publishing process"; Diverse Worlds is for "work that best presents a diverse world, regardless of the writer's background". Submit an excerpt of 5,000 words or fewer from an in-progress manuscript. Must be received by July 31.
Intermediate Writers
Granum Foundation Prizes. The Granum Foundation will award a $5,000 top prize to a US resident age 18+ for a writing sample of a work-in-progress (all genres compete together). Authors must not have published more than five books or chapbooks. The prizes are meant to assist writers in "completing substantive literary works (poetry books, essay or short story collections, novels, and memoirs) or to help launch these works". A special Translation Prize of at least $1,500 is also awarded to a US-based writer age 18+ to support the completion of a translation into English. Must be received by August 1.
Advanced Writers
Griffin Poetry Prize. The Griffin Trust will award C$130,000 for English-language poetry books published in the current calendar year, as well as C$10,000 for shortlisted entries and a debut Canadian author. Translations are eligible, with the prize split between author and translator. Publisher should send 4 copies of book plus entry form and a press packet. For the "2026" award, books published between July 1-December 31 of this year must be received by December 19, 2025. (The deadline for books published between January 1-June 30 has already passed.)
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, and literary journals' own newsletters and announcements.
• Sarabande Books: July Open Reading Period
(poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid manuscripts - July 31)
• Barrelhouse: "For What It's Worth" Nonfiction Book Series
(novella-length nonfiction combining memoir and pop-culture criticism - August 9)
• Common Bonds 2: Aromantic Anthology
(sci-fi and fantasy stories with aromantic main characters - August 15)
• Penelle Magazine
(poetry, short prose, translations, reviews, and artwork - September 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.
Internet Archive
Online free library of millions of texts, music, and more
Invisible Histories
Archive and educational resources about queer history in the Deep South
new words {press}
Poetry publisher for trans* and gender-expansive voices
Poems You Need
YouTube series showcasing contemporary poems, with analysis
Sontag Mag
Online literary journal of original and translated poetry
Tertulia
Simple, affordable tool for building an author website
Text Power Telling
Online literary journal for sexual trauma survivors
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Julian Peters presents "La città radiosa" ("The Radiant City"):
"My adaptation in comics of a poem by the Italian poet Vincenzo Mascolo. The poem represents a section of a long poetic cycle (still in progress) titled 'Orphée', which is in turn inspired by the modern classical album of the same name by the Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. Besides the classical myth of Orpheus, the passage I illustrated alludes to T.S. Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock', the 'Ville radieuse' project of Le Corbusier, the three Italian Renaissance paintings of 'The Ideal City', Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, and Dante's Inferno (and possibly others that I didn't pick up on!) All in a few short lines."
See below for English translation.
The Radiant City
Often
we would go
through the streets
soaked
in the sewage
of the night
to seek
in the
construction site
over the border
the remains
of the ideal city
Le Corbusier's
sketches
the detritus
of the common good
liberty
democracy
Marco Polo's
journey
to reach
Tecla
its
starry
night's project
that the darkness
of the underworld
conceals from you
(Based on a translation-in-progress by John Morre and Giorgia Sensi)
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