Writing Contests

Writing is not only enjoyable, it can also be quite lucrative! Even if you never make the bestseller's list there are hundreds of writing contests available to enter with cash prizes, vacations, publication and aggressive marketing of your manuscript, and other prizes.  Check out the New Pages Writing Contests log to keep track of the latest contest opportunities.

Just a few of the current contests include:

Tupelo Press Dorset Prize
Deadline: December 31
$3,000 Cash award, publication, book launch, national distribution with energetic publicity and promotion. Final judge: Tom Sleigh; all finalists considered for publication. Results announced April 2012. Open to anyone writing in English, living in the U.S. or abroad, previously published or unpublished. Translations are not eligible. The contest is competitive. Submit a previously unpublished, full-length poetry manuscript, 48-88 pages (of poems). Include $28 reading fee, two cover pages (one with contact info), table of contents, and, if applicable, acknowledgments page. Simultaneous submissions are permitted. Multiple submissions are accepted. Read complete guidelines: www.tupelopress.org/dorset.php

Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Fiction Contest.
Deadline: November 15, 2011
Original short story, up to 7,000 words. Judge: Amy Hempel. Prize: $1500, airfare, French Quarter accommodations, VIP Festival pass ($500 value), publication in Louisiana Literature, reading at 2012 Festival (March 21-25). Deadline: 11/15/11. Entry fee: $25 per submission. Unlimited entries per person. Fiction Contest, 938 Lafayette Street, Suite 514, New Orleans, LA, 70113. Guidelines and online submissions: tennesseewilliams.net/contests

2012 Colorado Prize for Poetry
Deadline: January 14, 2012
$2,000 honorarium and book publication. Submit book-length collection of poems to the Colorado Prize for Poetry by January 14, 2012. Final judge is Elizabeth Willis. $25 entry fee includes subscription to Colorado Review (to US addresses only). coloradoreview.colostate.edu/colorado-prize-for-poetry/