These prizes for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have awards up to $176,000. They are, very loosely, categorized geographically. A couple of the awards have August deadlines. – S. Kalekar
INTERNATIONAL CONTESTS
Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Scholarship
These are for various disciplines, including art and literature. There are no age limit restrictions for applying.
Value: €1,500 per month (less rental and operational cost), residency at Schöppingen, Germany
Deadline: 31 August 2022
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
Penguin Random House UK: Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize
This is for translators aged 18-34 years, who have had no more than one full-length translation published. This year the focus language is Indonesian and entrants will translate an excerpt from the novel Dua Muka Daun Pintu by Triskaidekaman into English.
Value: £1,000, mentorship
Deadline: 31 August 2022
Open for: Translators of Indonesian
Details here.
Planet New Writers’ Competition
This is an essay contest for new writers (those who have never published a book), on any subject. Entries for the contest run by this Welsh magazine should be 1,500-2,000 words. Their guidelines say, “We would welcome creative and unconventional ways of exploring the essay form as well as a more traditional style. Planet features writing which is in-depth, yet sufficiently accessible for a non-specialist readership. What we are looking for most are lively, well-crafted essays which leave a lasting impression. We would especially welcome submissions that relate to Wales in some way, however obliquely.” There is no age restriction.
Value: £200
Deadline: 1 September 2022
Open for: All new writers
Details here.
The Academy for Teachers – Stories Out of School Flash Fiction Contest
They want honest, unsentimental stories, of 6-749 words, about teachers and schools. The story’s protagonist or narrator must be a K-12 teacher. Sentimentality is discouraged and education jargon is forbidden.
Value: $1,000, and publication in A Public Space
Deadline: 1 September 2022
Open for: All writers
Details here.
American-Scandinavian Foundation Translation Awards
The American-Scandinavian Foundation annually awards translation prizes for outstanding translations of poetry, fiction, drama, or literary prose written by a Scandinavian author born after 1900. The Leif and Inger Sjöberg Award is for those whose translations from a Nordic language have not been previously published. There is also the Nadia Christensen Prize, and the Wigeland Prize (this is for the best translation by a Norwegian). The application includes 25-50 pages of prose or 15-25 pages of poetry.
Value: $2,500 (Nadia Christensen Prize); $2,000 (Leif and Inger Sjöberg Award); $2,000 (Wigeland Prize)
Deadline: 1 September 2022
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
On the Premises: Objects in Motion
They want short fiction, and the theme is ‘Objects in Motion’ – “For this contest, write a creative, compelling, well-crafted story between 1,000 and 5,000 words long in which the story’s main character(s) spend most (even better, all) of the story’s time in constant motion. For instance, they could spend the whole story in a moving vehicle. There are plenty of other ways to do it, too. (Just being on the Earth, which is spinning and moving around the sun, doesn’t count.)” They do not want children’s fiction, exploitative sex, over-the-top grossout horror, or stories that are obvious parodies of existing fictional worlds/characters created by other authors.
Value: $250, $200, $150, $75
Deadline: 2 September 2022
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
Surface Dweller Studios: Pets, Pets, PETS!!!
This is a short fiction contest. “Theme is “Pets, Pets, PETS!!!” Stories should engage with the literal or conceptual idea of “Pets,” whatever that means to you.” Surface Dweller Studios are also the publishers of a shared-word multimedia anthology. For this contest, “Stories do NOT need to be set in the fictional town of Los Suelos, but compatibility with the world will be a small factor in judging. References to the existing stories, the game, Hollow Earth occultism, etc., will be viewed as “kinda rad.” Send stories of up to 2,000 words. And “All genres, mixes of genres, or literary approaches that defy genres are equally welcome. Interactive, visual & multimedia pieces will be considered as long as the length is approximately similar to a 2,000 word prose story.”
Value: A minimum of $150
Deadline: 5 September 2022
Open for: All writers
Details here.
The Blackness on Sea Poetry Prize
Their website says, this “is a quest to find a poem of genuine literary merit to become a lasting legacy for The Lobster Pot Pub and this delightful Village on the Firth of Forth. (The prize) will be awarded for the poem judged to be of most literary merit containing a reference, not necessarily complimentary, to “The Lobster Pot” and “Blackness on Sea” somewhere in the composition. … Remember the poems do not need to be about the Pub or the Village, just a fleeting mention of these to give a point to the competition.”
Value: £1,000; £200
Deadline: 7 September 2022
Open for: All poets
Details here.
National Centre for Writing Emerging Translator Mentorship
This is an international mentorship program for emerging translators (there are no residency requirements, barring the one supported by their Visible Communities programme). The programme aims to develop successive new cohorts of literary translators into English, particularly for languages whose literature is currently under-represented in English translation. The scheme matches up experienced translators with emerging translators for a six-month period during which they work together on practical translation projects. The confirmed languages for the 2022 NCW Emerging Translator Mentorship programme are Latvian and Norwegian. There are also 2 x Visible Communities Mentorships: one mentorship for a UK-based Black or Brown literary translator and one for a UK-based literary translator from the diaspora, heritage or community languages of the UK. The mentorship will include a residential weekend as well as access to various (UK) industry events such as International Translation Day and London Book Fair. Samples of mentees’ work will also be published in an anthology. The application includes a sample translation of up to 2,000 words of prose or up to 100 lines poetry or dramatic text along with the corresponding source text.
Value: £500 bursary and reasonable travel expenses associated with the mentorship (see guidelines)
Deadline: 8 September 2022
Open for: Emerging translators
Details here.
Harvard University: Radcliffe Institute Fellowships
These are for various disciplines, including creative writing – poetry, fiction, non-fiction, as well as journalism, playwriting. Their guidelines also say, “Applicants may apply as individuals or in a group of two to three people working on the same project. We seek diversity along many dimensions, including discipline, career stage, race and ethnicity, country of origin, gender and sexual orientation, and ideological perspective. Although our fellows come from many different backgrounds, they are united by their demonstrated excellence, collegiality, and creativity.”
Value: $78,000, additional $5,000 for project expenses, office at Harvard University, additional funds for moving expenses, childcare and housing, etc.
Deadline (for some disciplines, including creative arts): 8 September 2022
Open for: All published writers and journalists (see guidelines)
Details here and here.
University of Bristol: The Secret Life of Data – short story competition
This is an international fiction contest, and they want stories on The Secret Life of Data. “When we think about the security of data on our phones and computers, we might think about passwords and permissions, or about data encryption – but we rarely think about what our data looks like, or what it does as it moves around hidden inside our phones, computers, digital devices, our apps and networks. This secret life of data – the traces, bits, and fragments of personal information that we leave behind us online – is the focus of this short story competition.
We are looking for creative stories that bring to life the secret life of data – perhaps imagining this life as a journey, a quest, a romance, or a tragedy; thinking of a computer’s internal architecture as a house, a jungle, a zoo, or a city; and the data as characters facing danger in the form of various digital threats and vulnerabilities.” Send stories of up to 4,000 words. Stories can be written in any style and can be based on any genre (e.g. Myth, Mystery, Crime, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Horror, Romance, YA, Children’s, etc.).
Value: £1000, 2nd prize – £500, 3rd prize – £250
Deadline: 12 September 2022
Open for: All writers
Details here.
The 2022 Wasafiri Essay Prize
This is an essay prize for early-career researchers. “The Wasafiri Essay Prize aims to discover, encourage, and award innovative critical essays of an exemplary standard, which constitute the most exciting academic work happening today across the field of international contemporary literature (literature published since 1965 from anywhere in the world). Early career researchers from around the world are invited to submit”. Apart from the cash prize, the winner will also receive a mentoring conversation, and other prizes.
Value: £250
Deadline: 12 September 2022
Open for: Early-career researchers
Details here.
(Wasafiri Magazine was also accepts critical articles and essays; they publish creative writing too, though this was closed at the time of writing.)
Princeton Arts Fellowship
This is for artists in many disciplines, including literary, whose achievements have been recognized as demonstrating extraordinary promise in any area of artistic practice and teaching. This is a two-year program and there is a teaching duty attached. Writers do not have to be US citizens to apply. You can apply for this fellowship twice in a lifetime.
Value: $88,000 per year ($176,000 for the two-year fellowship), residency at Princeton
Deadline: 13 September 2022
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Hodder Fellowships
Potential Hodder Fellows are composers, choreographers, performance artists, visual artists, writers or other kinds of artists or humanists who have “much more than ordinary intellectual and literary gifts”; they are selected more “for promise than for performance.” Most writers have had their first book published. The Hodder is designed to provide Fellows with the “studious leisure” to undertake significant new work. One does not have to be a US citizen to apply for this fellowship.
Value: $88,000, additional $5,000 for research, residency at Princeton
Deadline: 13 September 2022
Open for: All writers
Details here.
The Forge Competition
The Forge literary magazine holds a flash fiction and non-fiction contest. Send a piece of up to 1,000 words. Submissions for both the fee-free and tip jar categories will be open from 1st September until 14th September, or until they reach 300 submissions.
Value: $500
Reading period: 1-14 September, or until filled
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Last Stanza Poetry Journal: Who are You?
They award one prize to an outstanding poem, from general submissions to their journal. The theme for issue #10 is Who are You? “As with every issue, poems submitted do not need to follow the prompt/theme. … A single $100 award will be given for an outstanding poem. There is never a reading fee. An interview with the prize winner will be published in the same or next issue (optional).
Poems can be any style, but preferably non-rhyming. Submit up to five poems, each no longer than 64 lines”.
Value: $100
Deadline: 15 September 2022
Open for: All poets
Details here.
Ayn Rand Institute: Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest
This is an international essay contest for students. It is for 12th graders, college undergraduates and graduate students. Write an essay of 800-1,600 words on one of three specific topics centred around Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged — click on ‘Topics’ under the ‘Atlas Shrugged’ tab. (Submissions are also open for student contests centered around Anthem and The Fountainhead, with deadlines next year.)
Value: $10,000, $2,500, $500, $100, $25
Deadline: 26 September 2022
Open for: All 12th graders, college undergraduates and graduate students
Details here.
Speculative Literature Foundation’s Working Class Writers Grant
This grant is to help writers of speculative literature. This grant is awarded annually to assist working class, blue-collar, poor, and homeless writers, and writers from these backgrounds, who have been historically underrepresented in speculative fiction due to financial barriers. Unlike their other grants, writers may receive this grant anonymously or pseudonymously. They have other grant submission periods coming up.
Value: $1,000
Reading period: 1-30 September 2022
Open for: All writers from working class background
Details here (Working Class Writers Grant) and here (schedule for upcoming grants).
Bracken Bower Prize
The Financial Times and McKinsey & Company have announced that they are open for the Bracken Bower Prize. This is an international award for young writers – the award will go to the best proposal for a business book “about the challenges and opportunities of growth” by an author, or authors, under the age of 35. The proposal should take the form of an essay or article, of up to 5,000 words, that conveys the argument, scope, and style of a proposed full-length business book and includes the description of the structure of the proposed work. The award is intended to fuel further research leading to publication of a full-length work.
Value: £15,000
Deadline: 30 September 2022
Open for: All writers under 35
Details here and here.
Willie Morris Awards for Southern Writing
These awards are for works that evoke the American South. For fiction and nonfiction, the awards are for published work; for poetry, send a poem of up to 3 pages on the theme.
Value: $3,000
Deadline: 30 September 2022
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
International Human Rights Arts Festival: Two awards
They have two awards for writers.
— Creators of Justice Literary Awards: They want submissions of fiction (up to 2,500 words), essays, and poetry on any human rights theme, “and highlighting the IHRAF values of beauty, sincerity, vulnerability and celebrating diversity” – see guidelines.
Value: $100, $75, $50 each for fiction, essays, and poetry
Deadline: 30 September 2022
Details here.
— Art of Unity Creative Award: They accept literary (poetry; essays and short stories under 2500 words); video; music; dance; performance or visual work around the theme: “Never again: Remembering to heal and overcome. The most important hallmark of Holocaust remembrance and education is the phrase ‘never again.’ Unfortunately, tribal divisions, ethnic cleansing and genocides continue in the 21st Century. We are looking for submissions in any creative media (which can be exhibited online), and which highlight aspects of human unity, and positive cross-pollination between groups, ethnicities, religions and/or nations.” There is also a Youth award for under-18s
Value: $100, $75, $50
Deadline: 30 September 2022
Details here.
Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
They want a short story on any theme. Stories should ideally be up to 3,000 words, though those up to 5,000 words are accepted. Readers of the magazine are interested in music, social history, literature, politics, art, film and theater, particularly that of the counter-culture of mid-twentieth century America. Their newsletter subscribers include publishers, artists, musicians, and fellow writers. Their guidelines say, “While your writing should appeal to a reader with these interests and in these creative professions, all story themes are considered.”
Value: $100
Deadline: 30 September 2022
Open for: All writers
Details here.
The Furious Gazelle’s 2022 Halloween Writing Contest
The Furious Gazelle literary magazine wants submissions of Halloween-themed poetry, fiction, short plays, and creative non-fiction. Each writer can submit either one short story (max 4,000 words) or up to three shorter pieces (any combination of flash pieces / poems is ok as long as they don’t exceed 3 submissions). Poems shouldn’t exceed one page; flash pieces should be capped at 1,500 words each.
Value: $50; $5
Deadline: 1 October 2022
Open for: All writers
Details here.
The Perito Prize
They want fiction of 1,000-2,000 words, centred around the theme of accessibility, inclusion, diversity & inclusive environments. Apart from the cash prize, the winner will also receive mentoring, as will the runners-up. Commended stories will be included in an anthology. Submission is via the Zealous platform.
Value: £500
Deadline: 1 October 2022
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Bonus: The Iowa Short Fiction Award & John Simmons Short Fiction Award
The awards offer publication for a collection of short stories. Manuscripts must be at least 150 pages. They offer a standard publishing contract. Submissions must be sent by mail.
Value: Manuscript publishing under a standard University of Iowa Press contract
Deadline: 30 September 2021 (postmarked)
Open for: All writers who have not published prose fiction (see guidelines)
Details here.
A couple of contests with later deadlines are:
— The 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize – a contest for writers from the Commonwealth – send a piece of short fiction of 2,000-5,000 words. They take entries in several languages apart from English. The top prize is £5,000, and the reading period is 1 September-1 November 2022. Details here.
— PEN/Robert J Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers – This is an award for 12 emerging fiction writers for their debut short story published during a given calendar year in a literary magazine or cultural website. The prizes are $2,000 each, and the deadline is 1 November 2022. Details here. (PEN America has other opportunities listed, too.)
WRITERS IN THE US
(US-based writers should also see the Willie Morris Awards for Southern Writing in the international section above.)
Fulbright Scholarships
This is a program for US citizens. Their website says, “The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers over 800 awards in more than 135 countries for U.S. citizens to teach, conduct research and carry out professional projects around the world.” There are opportunities for higher education faculty and administrators, professionals, artists, journalists, scientists, and independent scholars outside of the academy. Applicants can opt for teaching, research, teaching/research, and professional projects, in various countries. The opportunities range from a few months to a year. The awards for the 2023-24 cycle can be found here.
Value: Various
Deadline: 15 September 2022
Open for: US Citizens
Details here.
PEN America: US Writers Aid Initiative
This is intended to assist fiction and non-fiction authors, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, translators, and journalists. To be eligible, applicants must be based in the United States, be professional writers, and be able to demonstrate that this one-time grant will be meaningful in helping them to address an emergency situation. Various deadlines are listed for 2022, and the next one is 1st August. Other deadlines are in October and December. Writers do not have to be PEN members to apply.
Value: Unspecified
Deadline: 1 October 2022
Open for: US writers
Details here.
(PEN America has other opportunities listed, too.)
WRITERS IN THE UK/IRELAND
(UK-based writers should also see the National Centre for Writing Emerging Translator Mentorship in the international section.)
The Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year prize
This is an opportunity for UK-based poets; the inaugural Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year prize. They want a poetry portfolio of 150-200 lines of poetry on the environment, and the place of the human within it. This may include the climate crisis directly or indirectly. They have extensive guidelines on the theme. The winning poet will be invited to participate in events (see guidelines).
Value: £1,000
Deadline: 1 September 2022
Open for: UK-based poets
Details here.
OWN IT! New Voices Award
This is in partnership with Amazon Publishing. Writers from traditionally underrepresented voices in publishing in the UK (see guidelines) are invited to submit the first 2,000 words of their manuscript, if these are in the following genres: Crime/Thrillers, Mystery, Romance, Historical fiction, and Book club fiction.
Apart from a cash prize, there is also editorial feedback and mentorship.
Value: £3,500
Deadline: 2 September 2022
Open for: Writers from underrepresented communities in the UK
Details here.
Royal Society of Literature: Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction
This is for UK/Ireland-based writers of non-fiction, to buy them time for completing their first commissioned work. Only works to be published in the UK or Republic of Ireland, or by UK/Ireland-based publishers, are eligible. The award will also take into consideration the author’s financial need.
Value: £10,000, £5,000, £2,500
Deadline: 14 September 2022
Open for: UK/Ireland-based writers
Details here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
