185 Short Story Writing Contests Available in 2019
Do you enjoy writing short stories? Why not enter a short story competition and see how your skills stack up against others? Winning a writing competition could be the spark you need to ignite a career as a famous author. It all starts with entering your first contest, pick one of the 5 mentioned below and get to work on your masterpiece!
1. The Weekly Reedsy Short Story Contest
Do you enjoy writing short stories? Visit Reedsy.com and sign up for their email newsletter. Every Friday, Reedsy publish guidelines for their weekly short story contest. Select of five themes offered by Reedsy and create your short story based on those guidelines.
Weekly winners have their work published on the Reedsy Medium blog, which has thousands of unique visitors every day, including famous writers and editors that may like your work! Reedsy also offers a cash prize of $50 to the winner.
This contest is for young writers aged 13 to 18. This kiddies contest helps sharpen their skills by providing them with a mini writers boot camp. Contestants are allowed to submit the first draft of their project for editor feedback. After receiving their editor notes, the kids have the chance to make adjustments before submitting their final piece.
The winner receives a cash prize of $100, and the runner-up gets a $50 prize, with the winner of the editor’s award receiving $50 as well. All three winners have their work published on Write the Worlds blog, with comments from a judge run alongside them. This monthly contest features new prompts for every competition.
3. African Poetry Book Fund Prizes
The APBF awards prizes annually in three different categories. The Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets awards $1,000 and a publication contract to the winner. African authors must submit an unpublished book-length collection of poetry to enter.
The Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry awards $5,000 for a book of authentic African poetry published in the year before the competition.
The Brunel University African Poetry Prize is the latest addition to the contest; A £3,000 prize awarded to an unpublished poet of African descent. Submissions must include 10 unpublished poems.
Prose offers a weekly writing competition for short story-tellers. The focus of the contest is on creativity and fun. Prizes are anywhere between $100 to $200 with low word counts between 150 and 500-words.
The judges aren’t concerned with length; they want to see quality, not quantity. This contest is a fantastic platform for storytellers looking to enter their first competition, visit their website for further details.
5. To Hull and Back
This annual free contest is open to writers from around the world. The competition praises works of fiction and non-fiction told with humor and a light-hearted feel. You’ll need to be imaginative if you want to impress the judges with your work.
The maximum word count for submissions is limited to 2,500, and the deadline for entries is July 31st, 2018. A small entrance fee of £11 is required to process your contest application.