Please post links to Writing Contests and Competitions here. Then go win one and when you do, tell us all about it.
I got one next month, but I gotta keep a lid on it for now. When it's up I'll post something.
btw - I haven't sent that copy of W&B on yet, but I will soon.
The only contest that I've ever entered that had a fee was for The Collagist. The majority of them have fees and I feel like it's a waste of money and submitting fiction to publications is pretty much the same thing as contents minus the fees and the cash prize that's larger than the publication's pay rate, assuming they actually pay. But I guess winning a writing contest gives you bragging rights and something to add to your resume.
The international Writers of the Future contest is the largest and most venerable writing contest of its kind. I've entered seven consecutive quarters since my first entry in March 2010, and I've gotten three Honorable Mentions along the way. Past winners include Stephen Baxter, Karen Joy Fowler, Carl Frederick, Jim C. Hines, Jay Lake, Robert Reed, Patrick Rothfuss, Steven Savile, Dean Wesley Smith, Sean Williams, Dave Wolverton/David Farland, and Tobias S. Buckell.
The contest is judged by Kevin J. Anderson, Dough Beason, Gregory Benford, Algis Budrys, Orson Scott Card, Hal Clement, Eric Flint, Brian Herbert, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Larry Niven, Anne McCaffrey, Tim Powers, Robert J. Sawyer...you get the idea. There are plenty more who judge it, including a lot of past winners like Star Wars author Sean Williams and Runelords author Dave Wolverton.
Here are the rules. There is no entry fee, and it is open to any writer who doesn't qualify for membership in the SFWA.
Prizes include up to thousands of dollars' worth in publication payment and prize money (1st place, 2nd place, and 3rd place prizes are award every quarter) and a workshop taught by the likes of On Stranger Tides author Tim Powers and Kevin J. Anderson.
@Brandon. I know you have been taking it out drinking, eh? Getting it involved in threesomes? Just remember Amanda is waiting!
Here is another contest. Lidia Yuknavitch is on the Board. This contest yields writers who go on to bigger and better things:
They have two contests a year. The deadline for the next one is November 1!
This site, the one FC2 is also found on, is a database:
So, it would be great if you guys could share these by submitting them to our resources section... RIGHT HERE
Cool, I was wondering where that went.
All I can say about writing contests is that I will never pay to enter one. I believe that when they make money out of it, it is not something that is in the true spirit of writing. When a legitimate publisher seeks manuscripts, it doesn't charge you for them. They choose the best ones and then reward the winners with a contract and maybe even an advance on royalties. To me, writing contests are more like lotteries. The return (reward) is far less than what they take in in "reading fees" so they are doing it first for profit. Then you get published in some obscure journal that probably wouldn't exist if not for the contests that pay its way.
I am not talking sour grapes. I have been published numerous times and that is the reward I want for writing, not a blue ribbon, an honorable mention or even first prize in a contest and a check for $25.00. Writing isn't a competition. Every piece is judged against a standard of publishability and those that deserve to be published, eventually will be. Those that don't...won't. If Shakespeare gets published, it is not at the expense of Hemingway who also gets published. They both have literary merit.
I would prefer the rigors of a writing group as a test ground. There, you get evaluated and get suggestions for improvement rather than one wins and eveyone else loses.
Most use the entry fee to pay the judge and the winners (so they don't necessarily make money from it, but they don't lose money). Although I think sometimes journals do contests to get some money to finance themselves. Regardless, I don't think most contests (and the great majority of them have fees) are worth the money that they ask to enter.
The Missouri Review wanted $30 or something like that for their last contest. I remember them actively complaining about how they needed more entries on their Facebook, but a lot of people felt it wasn't worth it.
Sometimes contests don't get enough entries and they call it off without returning the entry fees (or sometimes the judge doesn't like any entrees, so he or she doesn't choose a contest winner).
For about five minutes I thought about entering because the prize was $1,000 but I've already been shot down by those guys four times so far.
I've only entered one contest with a fee, but that was because I thought highly of the journal and the judge. Although I was annoyed that my entry didn't get an honorable mention while so many other entries had.
You can all apply for the Jay Slayton-Joslin Literary Award for £3.
$25. But, it's judged by Hempel. Deadline is Nov. 15th. So...
http://www.tennesseewilliams.net/article.php?story=2012-fictioncontest
(I didn't see where to put a link for a contest on the resources section - and it expires in 10 days)
You probably would need to write like her or how "the Gordon Lish school" (or however you want to call it) taught writers to write to win. The most prominent author who was edited by Lish was Raymond Carver, whose writing is fairly conventional, but most of the other writers are pretty nontraditional/experimental. I think Palahniuk may have taken a few classes as well.
For those young writers in Australia, there's the John Marsden Prize for Young Australian Writers.
It's over for this year but it'll be back next year. I came third a couple of years back with a short story of mine. http://expressmedia.org.au/express_media/prizes-grants-money-for-writers...
I would love to create an online zine but I suck at web graphics and setup.
It's sad to see an important thread like this just sit and die!
While you're waiting for the Volume III submission period to open for Spark: A Creative Anthology, did you know we also host a quarterly writing contest?
It's true!
There's still a few days left to enter Contest Two: “Una Mujer,” with guest judges you already know and love: Mark Vanderpool and James Bernard Frost.
Cash? Yes.
Publication? Yes.
Other amazing prizes for writers? Yes, yes, yes.
