Here are some themed submission calls and contests for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. A few calls are: Christmas; performance; Frankenstein; women’s reproductive health; Project Briar Rose; air; love; ghosts; mirrors; machines; dragonesque; game on!; spring into sci fi; South Asian speculative fiction; and home/town. Also see this list for some other themed calls with upcoming deadlines.
THEMED SUBMISSION CALLS
Apparition Lit: Dread
This is a quarterly speculative fiction and poetry magazine. Though their submission period for the Dread theme is closed for general submissions, it’s still open for writers who self-identify as BIPOC in their cover letters.
Deadline: 7 December 2022
Length: 1,000-5,000 words for fiction, up to 5 poems
Pay: $0.05/word for stories, $50/poem
Details here.
(Also see the guidelines page for 2023 prompts for their monthly challenges, which run from 1st to 14th of each month and pay $30 for stories of 1,000 words. For next year, the prompts are based on reality shows, and focus on the speculative. For January, the themes are Antiques Roadshow/Pawn Stars; for February, FBoy Island/Are You the One?/The Bachelor/ette; for March, Taskmaster/Would I Lie to You?; for April, Amazing Race/Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. There are other themes listed. These are open for all writers. Please submit to each challenge/prompt only within its specific reading period.)
Humour Me: Christmas
This is a monthly comedy magazine and they publish humour of all kinds – silly, slapstick, satire, and dark horror-based. They want Christmas-themed work, fiction and nonfiction. “These can be any sub-genre. Western Santa Claus? Zombie reindeer? Go for it as long as they have a humour/satirical element! We will also accept cartoons/comic strips as long as they meet the Christmas/humour theme.” While in general submissions are unpaid, submissions for the Christmas issue will be paid, and also, their favourite accepted submission will be paid £40.
Deadline: 10 December 2022
Length: 1,000-3,000 words
Pay: £25
Details here (general guidelines) and here (theme details).
(The Fabulist is also open for speculative fiction, nonfiction, and poetry submissions on holidays and seasonal celebrations from December 4th to 10th. They open every month for a limited period for themed submissions, and pay $25; details here, here, and here.)
The Alchemy Press Book of the Unknown
They want dark fantasy stories, “set in the real world (preferably the modern one, but we are flexible) which take an askance view of life. Tales which twist reality. Tales which alter a life (or many lives) forever – for good or ill, and in the strangest way. With a hint of horror. We do not want sword and sorcery, heroic fantasies, quest fantasies. We do not want stories set in out-and-out SF worlds, planets, or spaceships. We do not want stories that focus on horror – and certainly nothing intended to gross out the reader.”
Deadline: 14 December 2022
Length: 3,000-7,000 words (see guidelines)
Pay: £0.01/word
Details here.
Neon Hemlock Press: Baffling Magazine – Performance
They want speculative fiction with a queer bent; submissions are open to all. They are reading on the ‘Performance’ theme, as well as unthemed stories.
Reading period: 1-15 December 2022
Length: Up to 1,200 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.
(Neon Hemlock is also open for a couple of anthologies, We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction, a reprint anthology, and The Crawling Moon: Queer Tales of Inescapable Dread; details here.)
Cloaked Press: Spring into SciFi
““Spring Into SciFi” will contain stories of Space Exploration, Advanced Technology, AI, Cloning, Robotics and of course, Aliens.” They will accept all sub-genres of science fiction for this anthology.
Deadline: 15 December 2022
Length: 2,500-9,000 words
Pay: $15 or print author copy
Details here.
(And Martian magazine is accepting science fiction drabbles, originals and reprints. They want to see more of cyberpunk, sci-fi horror, stories with tech, starships, holograms, stories involving other planets, dark sci-fi, and characters making a decision. Stories have to be exactly 100 words, and pay is $0.08/word for originals. The deadline is 15 December 2022. Details here.)
Eye to the Telescope: Frankenstein
This is a speculative poetry magazine. They have extensive guidelines, including, “After more than 200 years, the shadow of Dr. Frankenstein and his creature continues to loom large over science fiction, and it’s not difficult to understand why, especially considering the questions it raises: What does it mean to be a person, or a monster? How much of our actions are our own choice and how much is the influence of others? How do we develop our own identity while maintaining a connection to the past? What responsibilities do we owe each other and other beings? What is the price for progress and how far is too far? … Follow the Creature’s example: be fearless, and therefore, powerful.” They also accept translations.
Deadline: 15 December 2022
Length: Up to 3 poems
Pay: $0.04/word (up to $25)
Details here.
Fulcrum Publishing: Women’s Reproductive Health Anthology
They want creative nonfictional personal essays (open to various structures and hybrid forms) on reproductive health for this anthology. “Women’s reproductive health is at the forefront of many issues today, whether political, cultural, or personal. The recent Supreme Court decision on abortion is top of mind for most of us. But abortion is only the tip of the iceberg. Our culture has created a system in which women’s health is treated differently than men’s health. … Our wish list: creative nonfiction personal essays on abortion, contraception, menstruation, infertility, miscarriage, IVF, perimenopause/menopause, pregnancy, fibroids, PCOS, endometriosis, and any other topic we may have missed. We are open to broad interpretations. The most important thing is that your essay be well-written. While this is a predominantly woman-centered collection, men, we know, are affected by womens’ health issues too. We are open to their submissions as well.” They also accept reprints. They do not want reported news stories or academic articles, fiction, or poetry.
Deadline: 17 December 2022
Length: Up to 2,000 words
Pay: $150
Details here.
Tasavvur: South Asian speculative fiction
This is a new speculative fiction magazine for South Asian and BIPOC writers, and they accept fiction submission, and pitches (not unsolicited submissions) for nonfiction. For fiction, “Give us your dreamscapes and nightmares, your soaring fantasies, your futuristic miasmas. Give us also your unstructured ramblings, where a story exists at the edges, dripping with lush, brilliant prose. We are not sticklers for the usual 3-act, 5-act structures, because great storytelling is so much more than that. So send us your lores written in reverse, written in verses, written in the form of email exchanges across multiverses, or haphazard POVs. Which is not to say we won’t accept a story with a usual structure. A good hero’s journey is a good hero’s journey.” Their nonfiction guidelines say, “While we are welcome to any pitches you may have that pertain to South Asian spec fic in any manner, we are particularly interested in publishing the following type of work:
Critical essays of South Asian speculative fiction, such as through a feminist, queer, and/or post-colonial lens
Translations of non-English spec fic stories from South Asia (both traditional and contemporary)
Deep dives into the speculative fiction traditions of different regions of South Asia, particular under-represented regions”.
Deadline: 19 December 2022 for fiction; nonfiction pitches accepted on an ongoing basis
Length: 1,000-5,000 words for fiction; 250-500 words for nonfiction pitches
Pay: 2.5c/word for fiction, $100 for commissioned nonfiction
Details here.
Rough Cut Press: Move
They publish work by LGBTQ+ artists and their allies – fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They are open year-round, with cut-off dates for themed issues. They are reading submissions on the ‘Move’ theme. According to their website, “We seek personal, lyrical, critical, and experimental work in under 650 words.”
Deadline: 27 December 2022
Length: Up to 650 words
Pay: $25
Details here.
Manawaker Studios: Project Briar Rose
This is a science fiction anthology. They have extensive guidelines, including, “The book will be a sci-fi retelling of the first half of Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty), as it was told by the Grimm Bros.
In Galilean Space, a Spincity administrator is bringing a new Android online. It is his plan that this android, codenamed Briar Rose and in a mechanical body resembling a young woman, will succeed him one day in running the city. He invites the most accomplished AI experts from 12 of the spincity’s 13 districts to a dinner party in celebration of Briar Rose; leaving out the expert from the 13th district because she is an unpleasant person. At the dinner, the experts, all women, each approach the android in turn, and program her with a personality trait that she will need to be a good person, and eventually also a good administrator of the city. As they do this, they each tell a story about a person who succeeded, thrived, or overcame adversity due to possessing this trait. When they are finished, the 13th expert shows up uninvited, imbues the android with one unpleasant trait, and tells a story in which such a trait would be needed. There will be a bit more, but that’s the context you’ll need to submit. … I want thirteen stories from thirteen different authors, each one showcasing one of the traits imbued upon Briar Rose in the framing story. The stories should be some form of speculative fiction, but any of the sub-genres of spec fic, or even some parallel genres, are acceptable.” See guidelines for each trait they want stories for. They also accept reprints.
Deadline: 31 December 2022
Length: 1,500-5,000 words
Pay: $0.01/word
Details here.
Android Press: Best of Utopian Speculative Fiction
This is a reprint anthology of utopian speculative fiction that was previously published in 2022. Stories should not be dystopian, and should be hopeful, focus on solutions, and should be speculative.
Deadline: 31 December 2022
Length: Up to 19,000 words (reprints only)
Pay: $0.01/word
Details here.
Eerie River Publishing: Elementals Series – Air
They are reading horror stories for the last of their elemental series. The theme they’ll read during December is Air – stories can be about tornadoes, dust storms, wind power, and air-borne viruses. R-rated stories are welcome.
Deadline: 31 December 2022
Length: 1,500-7,000 words
Pay: CAD0.01/word
Details here.
Zombies Need Brains: Four themes
They are open for four fiction anthologies.
— Dragonesque: “you’ll experience an anthology of fantasy and science fiction stories told from, or through, or with, the dragon’s point of view. High fantasy, sword & sorcery, urban fantasy, dark fantasy, magical realism, and of course science fiction…DRAGONESQUE will feature a wealth of genres that even a dragon would be tempted to horde.”
— Game On!: “Games played in fiction often symbolize more than winning and losing. Games represent risk and reward, wealth and class, strategy and blind fortune. In science fiction and fantasy, games can be matters of cosmic importance and of literal life and death… we’re looking for unique science fiction and fantasy takes on games, game playing, and games in culture. A game or games—real or imagined—should be central to the story in some fashion. Please note anything considered a ‘sport’ (i.e.: baseball, soccer, rollerball, etc.) won’t be a fit for this anthology. Games used in stories must also not infringe on real-world trademarked names or third-party copyrights.”
— Artifice & Craft: “Our drive and ability to create for the sake of creativity defines us as a species and enriches our cultures, our societies, our lives. The best of these works of art, from novels to paintings to statues to music, are imbued with a special kind of magic. But when that magic is literal—when Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray ages instead of the actual man, and Mozart’s Magic Flute plays its protective song—art takes on a whole new meaning. .. we invite writers of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and other speculative fiction to spin their own tales of works of art that have been enchanted, hexed, charmed, or cursed.”
— Solar Flare: “Imagine a Solarpunk future where societies value cooperation over consumerism, where technology solves ecological challenges rather than creating them. SOLAR FLARE will envision a future where humanity has embraced the Earth and learned to co-exist with it, not simply on it, where sustainability is a way of life, not merely a catch phrase.”
Deadline: 31 December 2022
Length: Up to 7,500 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here and here.
Workers Write: Tales from the Club
They want stories and poems from nightclubs, discotheques, cabarets, pubs, or any nightlife spot. “We’re looking for fiction and poetry about club/bar owners, managers, bartenders and barbacks, servers, bouncers, promoters, and entertainers (comedians, DJs, strippers), anyone who makes money in a club or bar.
One more thing: We’d like to see submissions about nightlife jobs from different eras.”
Deadline: 31 December 2022, or until filled
Length: 500-5,000 words
Pay: $5-50
Details here.
Book XI: A Journal of Literary Philosophy – Superstitions
This magazine is associated with Hamilton College’s Arthur Levitt Center for Public Affairs. They publish personal essays, memoir, fiction, science fiction, humor, and poetry with philosophical themes. They are reading work on the ‘Superstition’ theme. They will close submissions when their Submittable cap is reached.
Deadline: 31 December 2022, or until filled
Length: Up to 5 poems; 2,000-7,000 words for prose (can read shorter or longer – see guidelines)
Pay: $200 for fiction and essays, $50 for poetry
Details here.
The Sun: Two themes
The Sun charges for electronic, but not mailed general submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They also have a nonfiction section called Readers Write, for which they have a new theme each month. Payment for Readers Write is a year’s subscription to the magazine; and upcoming themes for this section are:
— Coffee: “Are you a one-cup person? A four-cup person? Don’t touch the stuff? Do you dream about sipping a caffè macchiato on a tree-lined terrace in Venice, but mostly end up sucking down gas-station brew on your way to work? Tell us what’s brewing.” Deadline 1 January 2023.
— Idols: “Who did you look up to but don’t anymore? Who took their place? What teacher, pop star, family member, or religious leader has been a guiding light in the darkness? Or was it all smoke and mirrors? Tell us your true story.” Deadline 1 February 2023.
Deadlines: See above
Length: Unspecified
Pay: A year’s subscription for Readers Write; starts at $300 for general prose submissions
Details here (themes for Readers Write) and here (general guidelines)
(Apart from these, they are reading essay pitches on the Family dynamics theme – the pitches have to be sent to the concerned editor on DM via Twitter; see the Twitter thread dated 20 November here.)
The Fairy Tale Magazine: Love
This magazine was formerly called Enchanted Conversation. They are reading fairy tales and poetry on the theme of Love for their 2023 issues; romance is preferred, but love between friends, family members, pets and their humans, etc., will be considered too. The theme doesn’t have to be a big part of the story, but it does need to be present. “We are also very open to the stories and poems focusing on seasonal holidays, like solstice celebrations, Halloween, Hanukkah, etc. However, while holiday based stories and poems are very welcome, you still need to include the theme. … Content definitely does not have to feature the traditional white, princess and prince love story. … Do bear in mind that all fairy tale related fiction and poetry needs an element of the supernatural—as well as transformation. Transformation is a huge deal for the 2023 publishing year.” Stories must be PG, though this is not a children’s magazine. The essence of classic fairy tales should be maintained. They plan to have one more reading period for 2023 issues, in May. They will publish four issues next year.
Deadline: 2 January 2023
Length: 1,000-5,000 words for fiction, up to 500 words for poetry
Pay: $50
Details here.
Amazing Stories – Sol System
They are reading fiction for a special Sol System edition. “We are interested in stories set in the future and revolving around Sol, including planets, moons, asteroids, Oort and Kuiper, you name it!”
Deadline: 2 January 2022
Length: Up to 1,500 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.
Room Magazine: Ghosts
They publish work from people of marginalized genders only, including but not limited to women (cisgender and transgender), transgender men, Two-Spirit and nonbinary people.
They want fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art on the ‘Ghosts’ theme; “…poems full of folklore, creative nonfiction on rattling encounters, transient fiction, and other such spirited words. Send us writing and visual art that is acutely aware of the apparitions around us. Show us the spectres, the relationships with revenants, the ancestries of time and place, the imprints, and the echoes. We want your best work in any genre, work that breaks with traditional form”.
Deadline: 5 January 2023
Length: Up to 3,500 words for prose, up to 5 poems
Pay: CAD50/page, up to CAD150
Details here (see top right for theme details).
Cosmic Horror Monthly
This magazine will open for a week in January. They want cosmic horror – for fiction, they want cosmic horror, Lovecraftian, and weird stories. “At this time, we are strongly favoring stories with a contemporary narrative style. Lovecraftian themes and mythos works are welcomed but try to avoid Lovecraft pastiche and styles mimicking that of his writer circle from the early 20th century.” For nonfiction, they want essays that explore the state of horror as well as the philosophies that are often found in cosmic horror, existentialism, nihilism, etc. Do not submit any work before the reading period.
Reading period: 1-7 January 2022
Length: 1,000-5,000 words for fiction
Pay: $0.06/word for fiction
Details here.
The Fantastic Other: Mirrors
They publish fiction and poetry. They’re reading work on the ‘Mirrors’ theme for the Winter 2023 issue. “Fiction has always been a means to hold a mirror to ourselves, our environment, and the society in which we inhabit. In the realms of fantasy and science fiction, the mirror has the capacity to grow darker and more twisted. What will you see when you gaze into these reflections?” Writers can interpret the theme as they like. Also, “All submissions should follow the core code of the magazine: write or illustrate something fantastic. We are interested in all things fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, surrealist, fabulist, and magical realist. Show off your weird!”
Deadline: 7 January 2023
Length: Up to 50 lines for poetry; up to 3,500 words for fiction
Pay: $5
Details here.
Ploughshares: Look2 essays
Apart from submissions for the literary magazine, Ploughshares is also accepting pitches for the Look2 essay series. “This series seeks to publish essays about underappreciated or overlooked writers. The Look2 essay should take stock of a writer’s entire oeuvre with the goal of bringing critical attention to the neglected writer and his or her relevance to a contemporary audience. … The writer can be living or dead and from anywhere in the world (if there are good English translations available). Essays should make note of biographical details that are pertinent to the writer’s work.” They accept only pitches, not completed work, for this series. While there is a fee to submit to Ploughshares electronically for non-subscribers, there is no submission fee for Look2 essays.
Pitch deadline: 15 January 2023
Length: Unspecified
Pay: $45/page, up to $450
Details here.
Neon: Two themes
This is a UK-based literary magazine, and they publish prose, poetry, photography, and comics. Their website says, “Neon is a magazine of slipstream fiction, poetry, and artwork. We publish creative work that is fantastic or surreal, and which crosses the boundaries between science-fiction, horror and literary fiction.” They prefer darker pieces, especially those with an element of the surreal or speculative, but are open to anything and like to be surprised. They also publish images, comics, and graphic poems, and self-contained extracts. They’re reading on two themes – Machines (deadline 15 January 2023), and Childhood (deadline 15 June 2023).
Deadline: See above
Length: Up 5,000 words for fiction, up to 6 poems
Pay: £0.02/word for prose, £0.20/line of poetry, £5/page for comics
Details here.
Qwerty: Home/Town
They’re reading fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry on the ‘Home/Town’ theme. “Though Qwerty has primarily published literary fiction and fine art, we have no qualms with publishing genre fiction that subverts convention, experimental work that inverts tradition in pursuit of innovative storytelling, or images that play on the senses in unusual ways.”
Deadline: 11 February 2022
Length: Up to 5,000 words for prose, up to 6 pages for poetry
Pay: CAD15
Details here and here.
(And Sojournal is also open for submissions. They want one black and white image, taken by contributor and/or free from any form of copyright, and an accompanying non-fiction travel story/poem of no more than 800 words. There is no payment. Details here.)
Barrelhouse: New Beginnings
They are open to flash fiction submissions on the ‘New Beginnings’ theme. “What does it mean to start over? To begin again or to discover someplace new? New Beginnings can be depicted as the birth of a child, moving someplace new, a new relationship, or leaving the familiar behind. Consider all the ways you might reimagine this New Beginning. Middleschoolers–united because their names were drawn from a hat–become the proud parents of an egg. A kidney prepares to move out and into a new body. Capture the budding relationship between an alien and their final test subject or go meta, having a character abandoning their story for a completely different genre. What does a New Beginning mean to you? Experiment with point-of-view and form. Have fun.” They will close submissions when their Submittable cap is reached.
Deadline: Until filled
Length: Up to 1,000 words
Pay: $50
Details here.
Armoured Fox Press: F/F Anthology
This is a non-erotic, furry f/f fiction anthology. “The story must focus on a female/female couple, and one or more of the protagonists or central characters must be furry (anthropomorphic animals).
We would like to showcase a variety of stories that involve women loving women, so any genre is allowed. Would you like to write about two raccoon ladies in love while trying to survive a zombie apocalypse? A human knight falling in love with the dragon princess she’s sworn to protect? Two cat girl sleuths solving a steampunk mystery? We want to see your best and most creative stories centered around women who love women.” They will close submissions when they have enough stories.
Deadline: Until filled
Length: 2,500-10,000 words
Pay: Half a cent per word
Details here.
THEMED CONTESTS
(Apart from the contests below, there are also some unthemed fellowships/grants open, with awards up to $72,000: the Cove Park Residencies for writers and translators, deadline 5 December, details here and here; Grist Fellowships for US-based early-career journalists, deadline 19 December 2022, details here; PEN America’s US Writers Aid Initiative for US-based writers, deadline 1 January 2023, details here; Steinbeck Fellowships for fiction, creative nonfiction, biography, drama, and Steinbeck studies, deadline 3 January 2023, details here; The Leon Levy Centre for Biography’s Biography Fellowships, and the Sloan Fellowship, deadline 4 January 2023, details here.)
Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Awards
Two awards are given for non-fiction works in progress which deal with a topic of American political or social concern, to aid their completion. Writers must already have a contract with a US-based publisher. There is no fee for the work-in-progress award. The prizes are run by Columbia Journalism School – they also have other awards, which charge entry fees.
Value: $25,000
Deadline: 8 December 2022
Open for: Unspecified
Details here and here
Washington College: Patrick Henry Fellowship
Those working on American history and/or legacy may be interested in the Patrick Henry Fellowship, which supports outstanding work on the subject by both scholars and non-academics in many genres – a book, film, oral history archive, podcast series, museum exhibition, or similar work.
Value: $45,000, and residency
Deadline: 15 December 2022
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
Minotaur Books / Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition
This is an international contest for crime novel manuscripts, for writers who have never been the author of any published novel in any genre and are uncontracted. The writing should be no less than approximately 65,000 words. Authors of self-published works only may enter, as long as the manuscript submitted is not the self-published work.
Value: $10,000 advance against royalties
Deadline: 16 December 2022
Open for: Unpublished writers (see guidelines)
Details here and here
(A couple of other awards for unpublished manuscripts are the Tratt Fiction Award for American writers, for a debut collection of short stories, award is $1,000 and publication, deadline 31 December 2022, details here; and the Two Dollar Radio: Sator New Works Award for writers who identify as trans or nonbinary, for a fiction or nonfiction manuscript; the prize is $3,000 advance and publication, deadline 31 December 2022, details here and here.)
Omega Sci-Fi Awards: Two awards
They have four awards, two of which are open internationally for emerging writers ages 17 and older, with a December deadline. The other two, the Tomorrow Prize and Green Feather Award, are for Los Angeles County high school students, and have a later deadline.
— The Roswell Award: This is an international short science fiction story competition; send a story of 500-1,500 words. “For The Roswell Award, we are seeking stories on diverse topics that explore and connect themes such as social justice, feminism, identity, inequity, environmental sustainability, ethics, and technology.” Apart from a cash prize, the first-place winner also gets UCLA Extension Writers’ Program sponsored 10-week or shorter online course.
— The New Suns Climate Fiction Award: This too is an international short science fiction story competition; send a story of 500-1,500 words. “The New Suns Climate Fiction Award encourages emerging science fiction writers to reimagine new ways of living and depict humanity exploring and overcoming today’s climate and biodiversity crises through an original short science fiction story.”
Value: $500, $250, $100 for the Roswell Award; $500 for the New Suns Award
Deadline: 19 December 2022 for the Roswell and New Suns awards
Open for: All writers
Details here (download theme details and guidelines).
(The Story Unlikely Short Story Contest is also open for submissions of short stories in any genre and also for other genres, like memoir and nonfiction; the prizes are $500; $300, $200, and the deadline is 31 December 2022; details here.)
The Philosophy Essay Prize: Emotions
The Philosophy Essay Prize is run by the Royal Institute of Philosophy. The theme this year is Emotions. “We intend this topic to be understood very broadly, so as to include related issues in any area of philosophy and from any philosophical tradition.” Send an essay of up to 8,000 words.
Value: £2,500 and publication in Philosophy magazine; in exceptional circumstances, the prize may be awarded jointly, in which case the financial component will be divided
Deadline: 20 December 2022
Open for: All writers
Details here.
The Writers College: My Writing Journey Competition
They want a 600-word piece on ‘The best writing tip I’ve ever received’. The contest is open to writers all over the world.
Value: AUD200/£100
Deadline: 31 December 2022
Open for: All writers
Details here
Poetry Society of America: The Four Quartets Prize
This is for a unified and complete sequence of poems published in America in a print or online journal, chapbook, or book in 2022. Poems in the sequence may have been published in different journals provided that they were published in 2022 and that brought together, they form a complete sequence. The minimum requirement is 14 pages of published poems unified by subject, form, and style. Entire books composed of a unified sequence, however long, are also welcome. Submissions will have to be mailed. Self-published work is not eligible. They have other awards also, though these have an entry fee.
Value: $1,000 for three finalists, an additional $20,000 for the winner
Deadline: 31 December 2022
Open for: Unspecified
Details here
(A few other poetry contests are the Blue Mountain Arts’ Poetry Card Contest, the prizes are $350, $200, $100, deadline 31 December 2022, details here; Lyric Magazine’s College Poetry Contest for undergraduates enrolled full time in an American or Canadian college or university, for poems written in English in traditional forms, the prizes are $500, $150, $100, deadline 31 December 2022, details here; the Defenestration.net Lengthy Poem Contest, prize $300, deadline 1 January 2022, details here; and Fourteen Hills’ Stacey Doris Memorial Poetry Award, prize $500, deadline 15 January 2023, details here.)
Lilith Magazine Fiction Contest
This magazine publishes work of interest to Jewish women. They want work with both feminist and Jewish content. Submit fiction up to 3,000 words.
Value: $300
Deadline: 31 December 2022
Open for: All writers
Details here
The AIIRA Writing Contest: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Agriculture, and the Future of Food in 2050
They want fiction or creative nonfiction (in the form of a letter describing a meal, menu, or recipe – see guidelines), of up to 3,500 words. They want “writing that imagines the world in the year 2050 and explores the relationship between humans, technology, and their food: what will food look, taste, and feel like; where will it come from; who will produce and transport it; and how will we access and consume it? The world you bring to light should be believable and probe the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the future of agriculture.”
Value: $2,000, $1,500, $1,000
Deadline: 31 December 2022
Open for: Undergraduate students enrolled in a US academic institution
Details here.
The European Society of Literature – The European Writing Prize: Anxiety
This is a prize for writers all over the world. They want a piece of 1,500-3,500 words, and the theme is ‘Anxiety’. Apart from a cash prize for the winner, there will be potential talks with literary agents — they may scout the shortlist and winners.
Value: €50
Deadline: 1 January 2023
Open for: All writers
Details here
Harlequin: Romance Includes You Mentorship
This is an opportunity for a US/Canada based writer from an underrepresented community (see guidelines) who is looking to publish their debut romance book, and is unrepresented by an agent. “We are looking to work with a writer with an interest in writing category romance whose story can be published in one of Harlequin’s 11 romance lines (excluding Carina Press and Carina Adores).” Some of the submission requirements are the first 5,000 words of the novel and a synopsis. They will begin accepting submissions for this mentorship from 1st January 2023, which is also when the Submittable portal for this category will open on the Harlequin website; upload your submission to the “Romance Includes You Mentorship” inbox when it opens up here.
Opens on: 1 January and closes on the 31st of January, 2023
Value: $5,000, mentorship
Open for: Canada and US-based authors (see guidelines)
Details here.
Discoveries 2023
This prize is run by The Women’s Prize Trust, Audible, Curtis Brown Literary Agency, and Curtis Brown Creative writing school. It is for UK- and Ireland-based women writers, for a novel-in-progress in the adult fiction genre – send the first 10,000 words and a synopsis. Apart from a cash prize, the winner also gets literary representation. There are also non-cash prizes for shortlisted and longlisted writers.
Value: £5,000
Deadline: 15 January 2023
Open for: UK- and Ireland-based women writers
Details here
International Young Theatre Playwriting Contest
This prize is for bold and powerful plays for young audiences (no plays for children or adult audiences, or musicals), written in any official European language. Performance time for Category A is 60-120 minutes and for Category B, 30-60 minutes. They accept plays co-authored by more than one writer. The play must be a new and original piece of work. Writers of any age or nationality can enter the contest.
Value: €2,400 for Category A, €1,000 for Category B, €400 for Category C, and other non-cash prizes
Deadline: 31 January 2023
Open for: All playwrights
Details here.
St. Gallen Symposium Global Essay Competition
This is an international contest for young writers; they want a themed essay of 2,100 words, on the best or worst legacy from previous generations: How to preserve or replace it? – see guidelines for details of the two themes writers can submit essays on. To be eligible, writers must be enrolled in a graduate or postgraduate programme (master level or higher) in any field of study at a regular university, and be born in 1993 or later.
Value: CHF20,000, split between three winners; they’ll also cover travel, accommodation, and admission to the symposium in Switzerland
Deadline: 1 February 2023
Open for: See above
Details here.
Deep Wild 2023 Graduate Student Poetry Contest
This is an international contest from Deep Wild: Writing from the Backcountry – they want students currently enrolled in graduate studies to submit work for our 2023 Graduate Student Poetry Contest. “We seek work that conjures the experiences, observations, and insights of backcountry journeys. By “backcountry,” we mean away from roads, on journeys undertaken by foot, skis, snowshoes, kayak, canoe, horse, or any other non-motorized means of conveyance.”
Value: The top prize is $300
Deadline: 1 February 2023
Open for: Students currently enrolled in graduate studies
Details here and here.
Homebound Publications – The Prism Prize for Climate Literature This prize is for UK- and US-based authors. It is for a work of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry manuscript in the genre of climate literature. The final manuscript of up to 75,000 words (for fiction and non-fiction) and a market assessment and/or statement of marketing intentions are part of the submission requirement.
Value: $1,000, and a publication contract
Deadline: 28 February 2023
Open for: UK- and US-based writers
Details here and here (They also have other opportunities, both fee-free and fee-based.)
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
