Competitions and Submissions

Deadline: Mon 27 Jul 2026
Location: International

Entries are invited for this year's Ledbury Poetry Competition judged by Andrew McMillan. First Prize is £1000 cash and a week’s poetry course with Arvon, with cash prizes for runners-up. Read more...

Deadline: Wed 29 Jul 2026
Location: Scotland

Looking to take the next step in your writing career? Love the sound of mentoring, tailored support, a bursary and a writing retreat to help you along the way? Applications now open for the 2027 New Writers Awards. Read more...

Deadline: Fri 31 Jul 2026
Location: UK

The Alfred Fagon Award is open to any playwright of Caribbean or African descent, permanently resident in the UK, for the best original, new stage play in English. Read more...

Deadline: Fri 31 Jul 2026
Location: International

Established to recognise and encourage creative writing and provide a platform for publication, the Anthology Short Story Competition is open to original and previously unpublished short stories in the English language by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. Read more...

Deadline: Fri 31 Jul 2026
Location: International

Bending The Arc publishes poems, stories and features that bend the arc of the possible towards a thriving future on earth. Thrutopian writing imagines ways through to a world we could live in and be glad to leave to future generations. Read more...

Deadline: Fri 31 Jul 2026
Location: North of England

Carnyx Press is a new independent publisher from Tyne & Wear, sounding the horn for strange and lyrical fantasy, horror, and science fiction. We are open for submissions of short stories from writers living in the North of England, for our anthology on the theme of sorcery. Read more...

Deadline: Fri 31 Jul 2026
Location: International

Cranked Anvil have reopened their quarterly International Short Story Writing Competition. Any theme/genre, maximum 1500 words. An array of prizes, including cash, publication online and digital anthology, and a professional audio recording which is broadcast on UK radio and around the world online. Read more...

Deadline: Fri 31 Jul 2026
Location: UK

We’re inviting entries from both under 18s and over 18s, in two categories: life writing and fiction. This year’s fiction theme is architecture, interpreted in the widest possible sense. Entrants must be resident in the UK at the time of submission. Read more...

Deadline: Fri 31 Jul 2026
Location: UK, Republic of Ireland

Calling MFL, EAL and English teachers! Bring Creative Translation into the classroom this summer term with the Stephen Spender Prize 2026. Open for entries 1 May to 31 July. Free entry for all young people and teachers in the UK and Ireland. Read more...

Deadline: Fri 31 Jul 2026
Location: International

This year’s prize offers poets worldwide the chance to explore the shadows of language and be recognised for their work with this being our biggest competition yet offering a total prize fund of £1,800 which includes awards for second and third place runners up. Read more...