By S. Kalekar
These are contests / awards / grants / fellowships for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, journalism, playwriting, and scriptwriting, up to $70,000. They are, very loosely, divided geographically. A couple of the deadlines are in May.
INTERNATIONAL CONTESTS
The Heron’s Nest: Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards
This poetry contest is run by The Heron’s Nest, a quarterly online journal of haiku. Submit up to 2 haiku for this contest.
Value: $200, $100, $50
Deadline: 1 June 2025
Open for: All poets
Details here.
PEN/Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History
These grants are for literary works of nonfiction that use oral history to illuminate an event, individual, place, or movement. They are to help maintain or complete ongoing projects. Oral history must be a significant portion of the work and its research. Writers have to send in writing samples and transcripts as part of the application.
Value: Two grants of $15,000 each
Deadline: 1 June 2025
Open for: Unspecified
Details here and here.
PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants
This international grant is to support the translation of book-length works of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or drama that have not previously appeared in English in print or have appeared only in an outdated or otherwise flawed translation. Works should be translations-in-progress, as the grant aims to provide support for completion. The works must be translated into English. Projects may have up to two translators. There are various submission requirements, including a translation sample of 8-10 pages.
Value: $2,000-4,000
Deadline: 1 June 2025
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
The PEN/Bare Life Review Grants
These are new grants, which recognize literary works by immigrant and refugee writers. Foreign-born writers based in the U.S., and writers living abroad who hold refugee/asylum seeker status, are eligible to apply. The project must be a work of a literary nature: fiction, creative non-fiction, or poetry, and translated works (in case of translated works, the grant will be conferred to the original author). A writing sample is part of the submission requirements — up to 40 pages for poetry, and 75 pages for other genres. For the 2025 grant cycle, they will confer two grants. The project must be an unpublished work-in-progress (see guidelines), as the grants are intended to support the completion of a manuscript.
Value: $5,000 each
Deadline: 1 June 2025
Open for: Foreign-born writers based in the U.S., and to writers living abroad who hold refugee/asylum seeker status
Details here and here.
The PEN/Phyllis Naylor Grant for Children’s and Young Adult Novelists
This is for an author of children’s or young-adult fiction. The fellowship is for helping writers whose work is of high literary caliber and is designed to assist a writer at a crucial moment in his or her career to complete a book-length fiction work-in-progress. Applicants must have already published one work for children or young adults that was warmly received by literary critics, but whose work has not yet attracted a broad readership. Candidates must have published one or more novels for children or young adults that have been warmly received by literary critics, but have not generated significant sales. The writer’s previously published book(s) must be published by a U.S. trade publisher; self-published works are ineligible. The submitted work must be a novel-in-progress (see guidelines).
Value: $5,000
Deadline: 1 June 2025
Open for: Published YA/children’s writers (by a US trade publisher)
Details here and here.
The Dream Foundry Emerging Writers Contest
This is a contest for emerging writers of speculative fiction (it is for writers who are relatively new to paid or incoming-earning publication of speculative short fiction in English; please check detailed eligibility rules on their website). Send a speculative fiction story of up to 10,000 words. They want short speculative fiction only (science fiction, fantasy, weird fiction, etc.); do not send stories that have no speculative element. Submission is via a form on their website.
Value: $1,500, $750, $400
Deadline: 2 June 2025
Open for: Emerging writers of speculative fiction
Details here.
BBC World Service: The International Audio Drama Competition
“Writers from around the world are invited to submit their scripts for the 29th International Audio Drama Competition (previously the International Playwriting Competition) which is now open for entries. The global competition, hosted by BBC World Service and the British Council, offers the unique opportunity for writers from outside the UK to use the medium of audio drama to tell stories for an international audience. Writers can enter in one of two categories: English as a First Language and English as a Second Language. Winners will receive a cash prize, be invited to attend an award ceremony in the UK in 2026, and to participate in the recording of their dramas for a world premiere on BBC World Service platforms. Flight and accommodation expenses are covered by the BBC.”
Value: £2,500
Deadline: 4 June 2025
Open for: All audio drama writers outside the UK
Details here, here, and here.
Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest
This is for junior and senior division (11-14 and 15-18) students worldwide. The theme for this ocean awareness contest is Connections to Nature: Looking Inside, Going Outside (see guidelines). There are various categories: Visual Art (handcrafted and digital); Poetry & Spoken Word; Creative Writing; Film; Performing Arts: Music & Dance; and Interactive & Multimedia. Please also see their various special awards, including (but not limited to) the We All Rise Prize – five prizes of $500 each, in each category – for young underrepresented writers in the US.
Value: Awards ranging from $1,000 to $100 in each category; various special prizes (see here)
Deadline: 9 June 2025
Open for: Students ages 11-18
Details here.
(They also have a True Blue Fellowship – where they provide funding and mentorship for emerging youth creative leaders worldwide, ages 13-24, to utilize creative arts as the primary method for awareness and/or action; the awards are $2,500 each, deadline is 1 September, details here and here.)
Drue Heinz Literature Prize
This is for previously published writers (see guidelines). The prize is for a manuscript – they want a short story collection, or two or more novellas. “Eligible submissions include an unpublished manuscript of short stories; two or more novellas (a novella may comprise a maximum of 130 double-spaced typed pages); or a combination of one or more novellas and short stories. Novellas are only accepted as part of a larger collection. Manuscripts may be no fewer than 150 and no more than 300 pages.” And, “Translations are not eligible if the translation was not done by the author.”
Value: $15,000, publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press under its standard contract
Deadline: 30 June 2025
Open for: All published writers (see guidelines)
Details here, here, and here
Preservation Foundation Contest: General non-fiction
This is an international contest for unpublished writers (see guidelines). Their upcoming deadline is for the general non-fictioncategory: “Any appropriate nonfiction topic is eligible. Stories must be true, not semi-fictional accounts. So-called “creative nonfiction” will not be considered.” Entries should be 1,000-5,000 words. Please note, they want all entries, regardless of whether or not they win, to be on their website for as long as the foundation exists (see guidelines). Also see contests in other genres, which have deadlines later in the year.
Value: $200, $100
Deadline: 30 June 2025
Open for: Unpublished writers
Details here (scroll down).
The Writers College: My Writing Journey Competition
This is an international contest, open to all writers. They want a 600-word essay on the theme, The worst writing mistake I’ve ever made.
Value: NZ$200 (R2000 or £100)
Deadline: 30 June 2025
Open for: All writers
Details here.
The Writers College: Short Story Competition
This is a short fiction contest for emerging writers (open to unpublished writers or those with fewer than four publications in any genre, fiction or non-fiction, from any country), and the theme is All the things we didn’t learn. Send a story of up to 2,000 words. Writers are free to interpret the theme as they like; the exact phrase “All the things we didn’t learn” must appear somewhere in the story; and writers must create their own title. They have an early bird deadline at end-June, for which there is no entry fee; if submitting later, there is an entry fee attached.
Value: NZ1,000, NZ500, NZ250
Deadline: 30 June 2025
Open for: Unpublished / emerging writers
Details here.
Last Stanza Poetry Journal
They want poetry on the Conversations theme. “Conversations, painful or joyful discussions, debates, gossip, pillow talks, or conversations you’ve always wished you could have had.” And, a single $100 award will be given for an outstanding poem. Poems can be any style; they prefer non-rhyming. Send up to 3 poems.
Value: $100
Deadline: 30 June 2025
Open for: All writers
Details here.
The BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest for Caribbean Writers
This is a short story contest for Caribbean-descended writers, by Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival (BCLF). For 2025, they say, “This year’s BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest seeks new fiction that speaks to the urgent need for grounding and healing. Whether it is a tale of migration and return, an act of quiet rebellion, an ancestral recipe passed through generations, a rewilding of grief, or the reclaiming of forbidden memory, we are calling for stories that prescribe survival, illuminate resilience, and offer prayers for what endures.” There are two categories, with different eligibility requirements:
— The BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer’s Prize is open to unpublished writers of Caribbean heritage. Self-published writers may apply. This prize seeks to unearth hidden storytellers in the United States and Canada; Details here and here; and
— BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean is open exclusively to Caribbean writers of all levels who reside and work in the Caribbean or are on temporary assignment overseas.
Writers should send short stories of up to 3,000 words. Details here and here.
Prizes: $1,750 each
Deadline: 1 July 2025
Open for: See above
Details here.
Richard J. Margolis Award
The award is for non-fiction writers of social justice journalism. It is for a promising new journalist or essayist whose work combines warmth, humour, wisdom and concern with social justice. Applications should include 2-3 non-fiction writing samples, up to 30 pages. At least one sample should be non-memoir material. Apart from a cash prize, the winner also gets residency at Blue Mountain Centre artists’ colony.
Value: $5,000, residency; $1,000 for runners-up
Deadline: 1 July 2025
Open for: Non-fiction writers of social justice journalism
Details here and here.
The International Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation: Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Award
This is an opportunity for young non-American TV scriptwriters. “Each year, The Foundation administers the Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Award. The competition is designed to motivate non-American novice writers under the age of 30, and offer them the recognition and encouragement that might lead to a successful career in television scriptwriting. Entrants are asked to create a completed half-hour to one-hour English-language television drama script.” Please note, you have to create an account and log in to enter this contest. The applicant must be a non-U.S. citizen (non-U.S. citizens currently studying/residing in the U.S. are eligible.) Please note, entries from Russia are ineligible this year.
The winner will be flown* to New York City to be presented with an award and a $2,500 USD prize at the International Emmy® World Television Festival on November 22, 2025, and will be invited to take part in the red-carpet festivities at the 53rd International Emmy® Awards Gala on November 24, 2025.
Value: $2,500, other non-cash prizes
Deadline: 1 July 2025
Open for: Non-American TV scriptwriters under the age of 30
Details here.
Hubert Butler Essay Prize
This is a themed essay contest, of up to 3,000 words, for writers who are UK or European Union citizens. “The Hubert Butler Essay Prize is intended to encourage the art of essay-writing with a European dimension and to expand interest in Butler’s work. … The subject for the 2025 essay prize is: ‘‘Men must endure / Their going hence, even as their coming hither’ – King Lear. Have we no more active rights over life, birth and death?’“
Value: €1,500; two second prizes of €500 each
Deadline: 4 July 2025
Open for: UK or EU citizens
Details here – also download the entry form.
The Orchards Poetry Journal: Grantchester Award
In each issue, two poems will be eligible for The Grantchester Award. Regarding submissions they say, “While we encourage rhymed verse in traditional forms, we also accept finely wrought free verse.” Send up to 3 poems, preferably unpublished. They do not have a deadline listed, but they do say, “We are now OPEN for submissions for the Summer 2025 issue. The journal is released biannually (usually in July and December), in print and online.”
Value: $50, $30
Deadline: Open now
Open for: All poets
Details here.
(A couple of contests with later deadlines are:
— The H G Wells Short Story Competition: This is an international short story contest; they want short fiction of 1,500-5,000 words on this year’s theme, The Middle Ground (see FAQ). There is no fee for The Margaret and Reg Turnill Competition for young writers, i.e. for those under 21 years, and the prize for that is £1,000. The deadline is 8 July 2025. Details here and here.
— Yale Drama Series – David Charles Horn Prize: This international contest is for an full-length play in English, of at least 65 pages, and is meant for emerging playwrights. Translations, musicals, adaptations, and children’s plays are not accepted. Apart from a cash prize, there will be publication of their manuscript by Yale University Press, and a celebratory event. The prize is $10,000, and the submission period opens on 15th June and closes 8th September 2025. Details here.)
FOR WRITERS IN NEW ZEALAND
Sargeson Prize
This is New Zealand’s richest short story prize. Only New Zealand citizens or permanent residents can enter. There are two categories, Open (for those 18 and over, send a story up to 5,000 words), and High School (high school students ages 16-18, send a story up to 3,000 words); those in the latter category also win a one-week summer residency at the University of Waikato, and mentoring.
Value: $15,000, $1,000, $500 for the Open category; $2,000, $1,000, $500, and residency for the High School category (NZ dollars)
Deadline: 30 June 2025
Open for: New Zealand citizens or permanent residents
Details here (see the various tabs on this page)
FOR WRITERS IN US/CANADA
(Also see the special awards in the Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest including the We All Rise Prize foryoung underrepresented writers in the US; and The BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer’s Prize for writers of Caribbean heritage in the US and Canada, in the international section above.)
Nova Media Fellowship
These are fellowships for US-based healthcare journalists. They want applications from “print, broadcast, and digital journalists proposing to immerse themselves in the health field and complete media projects that acknowledge and explore the many factors that promote well-being, prevent disease, contribute to healing, and increase an individual’s ability to flourish and live a fulfilling life.” And, The Media Fellowship program aims to give recipients the time, space, and resources to research, write, and speak about issues that validate and show the importance of an expansive health framework.” They do not want book proposals. About who can apply, they say, “Ideal applicants are full-time journalists with established records of publication or broadcast in local, regional, or national markets or among targeted audiences or constituencies and have relevant full-time experience. Proposals may cover international issues and involve international travel, but … we are accepting applications from U.S.-based journalists only.” They encourage applications from historically marginalized communities.
Value: $60,000 each (additional $7,500 for travel – see guidelines)
Deadline: 19 May 2025
Open for: US Journalists
Details here.
The Bard Fiction Prize
This is an annual fiction prize for young US-based writers. Their website says, “The Bard Fiction Prize is awarded to a promising emerging writer who is an American citizen aged 39 years or younger at the time of application. In addition to a $30,000 cash award, the winner receives an appointment as writer in residence at Bard College for one semester, without the expectation that he or she teach traditional courses. The recipient gives at least one public lecture and meets informally with students.” Also, “To apply, candidates should write a cover letter explaining the project they plan to work on while at Bard and submit a CV, along with three copies of the published book they feel best represents their work. No manuscripts will be accepted.”
Value: $30,000, residency
Deadline: 1 June 2025
Open for: Young US writers
Details here.
Fraser Institute Student Essay Contest
For this year’s essay contest, the theme is, “What would the Essential Scholars say about Canadian economic prosperity today?” (See their guidelines for details). Essays should be 1,000-1,500 words. The contest is open for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students studying in Canada and Canadian students studying abroad.
Value: Prizes ranging from CAD1,500 to CAD250 each in high school, undergraduate, and graduate categories
Deadline: 5 June 2025
Open for: Canadian students
Details here (download rules and FAQ) and here.
Associates of the Boston Public Library Writer-in-Residence
The fellowship aims to provide an emerging children’s/YA writer with the financial support and office space needed to complete one literary work for children or young adults. The year-long fellowship also entails working at the library. Eligible projects include fiction, non-fiction, a graphic novel, script, memoir, or poetry intended for children or young adults. About who can apply, they say, “There is NO residency restriction to apply, but you must be able to spend at least nineteen (19) hours per week at the Boston Public Library’s Central Library in Copley Square. Must be legally eligible to work in the US, as a U.S. citizen or green card holder.” Applicants cannot have prior professional book publications. Application includes a writing sample and a proposal.
Value: $70,000, can request an additional $2,500 for training or hiring a professional (see guidelines); use of a private office (see guidelines)
Deadline: 6 June 2025
Open for: Those eligible to work in the US, as a US citizen or green card holder
Details here and here.
The Norton Writer’s Prize
This is a non-fiction prize for undergraduates in the US, who are enrolled in an accredited 2- or 4-year college or university, enrolled during the 2024-25 year, and aged 18 and above. They will accept literacy narratives, literary and other textual analyses, reports, profiles, evaluations, arguments, memoirs, proposals, multimodal pieces, and other forms of original non-fiction pieces of 1,000-3,000 words. Entries require nomination by an instructor.
Value: Three prizes of $1,000 each
Deadline: 15 June 2025
Open for: US undergraduates (see guidelines)
Details here (you can download rules).
Lee & Low Books: New Voices Award
This award is for writers of color and Native nations who are residents of the US, and have not previously had a children’s picture book published. The work should address the needs of children of color and Native nations, aged 5-12, by providing stories with which they can identify and relate, and which promote a greater understanding of one another. Themes relating to non-traditional family structures, gender identity, or disabilities may also be included. Manuscripts can be fiction, narrative non-fiction or poetry. Only stories with human protagonists will be considered. “New Voices Award winners receive a standard publication contract, including Lee & Low Books’s basic royalties and an advance in the amount of $5,000. Winners are also given close publishing mentorship as they work to develop their first book for publication.”
Value: $5,000 advance, mentorship
Deadline: 30 June 2025
Open for: US writers of color and Native nations
Details here (also click on the Rules and FAQ tabs) and submit here.
Chapter House New Indigenous Fiction Prize
“Chapter House Journal (formerly Mud City Journal) is an online literary journal promoting the ideals and vision of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Low Residency MFA Program. We publish new work on a biannual basis.” The journal offers a new prize for indigenous writers; there is no separate submission process, and all eligible magazine submissions qualify. “Submit one story, or up to 3 shorter stories, of up to 5000 words.
To submit for this annual prize, please go through the general Summer 2025 Fiction submission portal … All fiction submissions from May 1-June 30 2025 written by indigenous writers will be eligible for the Chapter House New Indigenous Fiction Prize, as long as tribal affiliation is specified on the cover letter.” Cash prize of $250 will be awarded to the winner, and the winner and two runners up will be published in Chapter House.
Value: $250
Deadline: 30 June 2025
Open for: Indigenous writers
Details here and 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. Writers do not have to be PEN members to apply. Please apply when the link for this category appears on their Submittable. The other deadline listed for this year is in October.
Value: Unspecified
Deadline:1 July 2025
Open for: US writers
Details here.
WRITERS IN UK/IRELAND
(Also see the Hubert Butler Essay Prize in the international section above.)
Molly Keane Creative Writing Award
This is a short story prize for writers in Ireland. Send stories of up to 2,000 words. Apart from a cash prize, the winner also gets a course in the Molly Keane Writers Retreat, Ardmore in 2026 (see guidelines).
Value: €250, a course in the Molly Keane Writers Retreat, Ardmore
Deadline: 19 May 2025
Open for: Those resident in Ireland
Details here.
Anne Brown Essay Prize
This is an essay prize for Scottish writers. Send an essay of up to 4,000 words, on any subject.
Value: £1,500
Deadline: 6 June 2025
Open for: Scottish writers (see guidelines)
Details here.
The Northern Writers’ Awards
They have various awards through the year for writers in the north of England. They especially welcome submissions from people of colour and those from LGBTQ+, disabled and lower socio-economic backgrounds, who are particularly under-represented in this area of the TV industry. They have three awards with upcoming deadlines. See guidelines for details on eligibility and other submission requirements. At the time of writing, they’d announced the application dates for their Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards – Bonafide Films (16th May to 16th June 2025); for this award, writers should submit a pitch of an idea for an original storyline (up to 400 words) and a sample script of up to 10 pages. The winner will be offered the chance to work closely with Bonafide Films, receive a bursary of £3,000 and mentoring support.
Awards: £3,000, other opportunities
Deadline: 16 June 2025
Open for: Writers in the north of England
Details here (the page also has details of all their awards, including closed ones).
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.