Your Ultimate Guide To Writing Contests For 2025
I first published a writing competition guide in 2022 and it was so popular, I've updated it for 2025 for this week's article. If you're a planner like me, I love outlining my year ahead, not just in terms of writing goals but also for literary events, writing competitions, authors I'd like to meet and so on - I love having stuff to look forward to!
Writing competitions are an incredible opportunity to get your work in front of industry professionals so in this week’s blog post I’ve curated a list of contests - most of which are an international competition - that you may want to consider as part of your author journey.
In fact you may (or may not) know that my own author career started as a result of winning a writing competition in 2016 which led to a 3-book deal. While it can be nerve-wracking to submit your work, the benefits far outweigh any discomfort, helping you understand where you need to improve, who the competition is, and what the publishing industry is looking for.Â
If you win, there’s often a cash prize along with the prestige that comes from winning first place. However, even if you're not a grand prize winner taking home prize money, coming in second place, third place, or having an honorable mention in a literary magazine is a fantastic confidence boost. Imagine how good it would feel to share your winning story on social media!
So if you’re serious about your writing and becoming a published author, check out my round up of upcoming writing competitions, many of which have submissions open now. As many of you are from all around the world these are not just United States based; the majority of these are open to international entries.Â
While this blog mainly focuses on adults entrants, for writing contests for college students, high school students, and young writers, I would suggest looking at the New York Times student contest calendar .
There are lots of student writing contests to choose from, many of which are open to young people all around the world and they cover lots of submission types including personal essay contests, short story competitions, science fiction, letters, flash fiction, diary entries, songs, raps, and even visuals such as graphic novels and illustrations. Check out this link to see which might work best.Â
The competitions covered below mainly focus on a work of fiction although in some cases you can compete with non-fiction or a poetry collection. Most writing contests require unpublished work and I'm sure I don't need to add that it must be your original work!Â
When reviewing these competitions, please do check the terms and conditions carefully, focusing on requirements such as word count, minimum and maximum length, and what contact information should be added and where it should be included (usually, judges of an annual contest prefer to read submissions anonymously.) I've added entry fees in local currency and there are often options for fee reductions depending on your circumstances.Â
So, here’s a list of writing contests for you to enter - best of luck!
Prize: $5,000 in cash. There are also cash prizes for second, third, and fourth places.
Entry fee: Early-Bird $30, Final $35
Final Deadline: June, 2, 2025
About: Writer’s Digest has been shining a spotlight on up-and-coming writers in all genres through its Annual Writing Competition for over 90 years. Enter the 94th Annual Writing Competition for your chance to win and have your work be seen by editors and agents. Almost 500 winners will be chosen.
Prize: A place on the Arvon Residential Writing Week (worth £850) as well as seeing your story published on the Writers’ and Artists’ website.
Entry fee: Free
Deadline: February 14, 2025
About: This short story competition requires 2000 words or less of your story which should be aimed at adults. The judge is Vanessa Onwuemezi whose award-winning work has appeared in literary and art magazines, including Granta, Frieze and Prototype.
Prize: First prize - £1000 plus a trophy and five runners up will receive £100 and a paperweight.
Entry fee: £20 (or £120 with appraisal)
Deadline: January 1, 2025
About: The competition is open to everyone, living anywhere in the world, published, self-published or yet to be published, who does not have representation by a literary agent, and who does not receive a contract from a commercial publisher by the closing date.
Prize: $1,000 advance and an optional/standard contract from Unleash Press for one winning manuscript.Â
Entry fee: $35
Deadline: December 1, 2024
About: The Unleash Book Prize offers the chance at publication. Novels, poetry collections, short story collections, and creative nonfiction manuscripts are accepted.
Prize: 1st place: £1000, Shortlist Prize: £500
Entry fee: £25
Deadline: Submissions will open February 1, 2025
About: The First Novel Prize aims to discover a powerful new voice in fiction writing, across the English language world. Prizes are available for unpublished or independently published novelists.Â
Prize: £1,500 top prize; £500 for Highly Commended novel; free place on a writing course at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre for the writer of the best novel from the UK and Ireland.
Entry Fee: £28
Deadline: To be announced but likely accepting entries between May and October 2025.
About: Add this to your calendar for May 2025. This competition has a well-established reputation for encouraging, supporting and providing a platform for debut novelists. They select and work closely with experienced literary agents who are as dedicated to finding new voices, and invite them to help judge your work.Â
Prize: One grand prize winner will receive a full scholarship, accommodations, and travel stipend to attend the tenth annual DISQUIET International Literary Program in Lisbon (June 22-July 4, 2025).Genre winners will receive a tuition waiver for DISQUIET 2025 in addition to publication. Winners who are unable to attend the program in Lisbon may elect to receive a $1000 cash prize in lieu of the tuition waiver.
Entry fee: $15
Deadline: January 6, 2025
About: The DISQUIET Prize is open for submissions in fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. ​ One winner in each category will be published in Granta.com (fiction), NinthLetter.com (non-fiction) or The Common (poetry).
Prize: Write or Flight, the world’s first reality competition for writers, offers one lucky winner a publishing deal and a $10,000 advance.
Entry fee: Free
Deadline: February 28, 2025
About: Seven contestants will be selected from the pool of applicants and will be flown to Cusco, Peru to shoot the series, scheduled from May 1 to May 16, 2025. To apply, applicants must submit a writing sample of less than 2000 words and a short personal video.
As more annual awards are announced, I will add the details to this post so do check back occasionally and in the meantime, I would urge you to work on your unpublished manuscript - you just never know, your idea could be a winning entry and lead you to becoming one of the many published authors who have cemented their writing career this way.
Best of luck!
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I'm Karen, a best-selling novelist who left her corporate life to pursue my dream of becoming a writer. Since then, I've written everything from travel articles to web copy before winning a novel writing competition which led to a 3-book deal.
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©2023 Karen Osman, New York, USA
