{"id":6782,"date":"2019-05-29T05:56:44","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T12:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/?p=6782"},"modified":"2019-05-29T05:56:45","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T12:56:45","slug":"25-free-writing-contests-with-cash-prizes-up-to-50000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/uncategorized\/25-free-writing-contests-with-cash-prizes-up-to-50000\/","title":{"rendered":"25 Free Writing Contests with Cash Prizes (Up to $50,000)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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These are awards for writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, for translators, journalists, playwrights, scriptwriters, as well as writers of graphic fiction and non-fiction. They range from $75 to $50,000. Deadlines are approaching quickly. \u2013 S. Kalekar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div>

Creative Future Literary Awards
\n<\/strong>This is for underrepresented<\/a> UK writers. Entries can be poetry or short stories. This year, the theme is \u2018Home\u2019. Poems can be up to 300 words and fiction can be up to 2,000 words.
\nValue: Four cash prizes ranging from \u00a3100 to \u00a325 each for poetry and prose, as well as non-cash prizes including mentorship, workshops and magazine subscriptions
\nDeadline: 2 June 2019
\nOpen for: UK writers
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n—
\n<\/div>

\nGuardian and BAME Short Story Prize
\n<\/strong>This is for black, Asian, minority ethnic writers living in the UK and Ireland. Submit a story of up to 6,000 words.
\nValue: \u00a31,000, Publishing workshop
\nDeadline: 7 June 2019
\nOpen for: UK BAME authors
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n—
\n<\/div>
\nThe Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting
\n<\/strong>This is for anyone residing in the UK or Ireland or British Overseas Territory or with a British Forces Post Office address, and some playwrights from other countries. They want a play script of 1 hour or above. Their guidelines also say, \u201cAn International Award of \u00a38,000 \u2013 open to international playwrights invited to anonymously apply via our named international partners: The BANFF Centre in Canada; Belvoir Theatre and Melbourne Theatre Company in Australia; Berkeley Rep and Playwrights Horizons in the USA. We are afraid that no other international submissions can be considered at this time.\u201d
\nValue: First prize \u00a316,000, Judges\u2019 Award of \u00a38,000, Original New Voice Award of \u00a38,000, an International Award of \u00a38,000
\nDeadline: 5 June 2019
\nOpen for: UK playwrights; some international playwrights (see guidelines)
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n—
\n<\/div>
\nSapiens Plurum: Better Futures \u2013 What Comes Next?
\n<\/strong>Sapiens Plurum conducts an annual short fiction contest, opening on Earth Day of each year. The purpose of the contest is to entice authors to conceive of the future in terms of desirable outcomes, and imagine how we might get there. The topic of this year\u2019s contest is, \u2018Better Futures \u2013 What Comes Next?\u2019 Their guidelines say, \u201cEach of us contributes to the future, through our work, our creations, our children, even our DNA. Imagine a being or entity that exists in the future because of your existence on Earth today. Is this entity your descendant in a traditional sense? Have beings evolved? Is your \u201cdescendant\u201d still biological? Is your \u201cdescendant\u201d a grandchild or a clone? Have we merged with technology or uploaded DNA to create new cyber-beings? Is your \u201cdescendant\u201d something completely different?<\/p>\n

Things to consider as you write your story: Let the reader see this future world through your eyes. Let us see how people — whatever that means \u2013 try to live in harmony with the natural world and society, how they maintain their own health and happiness, how they overcome challenges. But most of all, tell a good story, with characters we care about, setting, conflict, and resolution.\u201d Submissions should be 1,500-3,000 words.
\nValue: $1,000, $500, $300
\nDeadline: 9 June 2019
\nOpen for: All writers
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n\n—\n<\/div>


\nEleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award
\n<\/strong>This grant is for supporting the recipient in crime fiction writing and career development activities. She or he may choose activities that include workshops, seminars, conferences, and retreats, online courses, and research activities required for completion of the work. An unpublished writer is preferred, however publication of several pieces of short fiction and\/or up to two self-published or traditionally published books will not disqualify an applicant. The application process includes a writing sample of 2,500-5,000 words \u2013 an unpublished piece of crime fiction, written with an adult audience in mind.
\nValue: $2,000; the winner can choose from a range of activities
\nDeadline: 9 June 2019
\nOpen for: Writers of color
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n—
\n<\/strong>\n<\/div>
The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Literature
\n<\/strong>These are for US-based (see guidelines) writers who have demonstrated outstanding achievement early in their careers. Writers should be under 38 years of age, born outside the US, and have published a book. The application requirements include a CV, essay questions, and writing sample of up to 20 pages \u2013 which can be from all forms of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, including novels, novellas, short stories, graphic novels, memoir, history, book-length journalism, creative non-fiction, graphic non-fiction, and more.
\nValue: $50,000 each for three writers
\nDeadline: 10 June 2019
\nOpen for: US writers
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n—
\n<\/div>
\nPortenier Human Rights Bursary
\n<\/strong>This bursary is for freelancers engaged in news coverage and gives independent documentary-makers and other freelance journalists of any nationality, working on significant projects about human rights abuses, a chance to win a bursary for hostile environment training. The competition recognizes that some of these investigative projects can put independent journalists at considerable risk, which can be lessened by appropriate safety training. The bursary cannot be used to fund the project itself. It is to help the winner attend a hostile environment and first aid training (HEFAT) course run by one of their approved course providers. These courses are currently available in Canada, the US, Britain, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
\nValue: CAD3,000
\nDeadline: 12 June 2019
\nOpen for: Journalists and documentary makers
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n—
\n<\/div>
The Society of Authors: The Sunday Times\/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year
\n<\/strong>The prize is for a published or self-published book or e-book of fiction, non-fiction or poetry of high literary merit. It is for UK\/Ireland based authors between the ages of 18 and 35.
\nValue: \u00a35,000; three awards of \u00a3500 each
\nDeadline: 15 June 2019
\nOpen for: Young UK\/Irish writers
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n—
\n<\/strong>\n<\/div>
The Norton Writer\u2019s Prize
\n<\/strong>This prize is for undergraduates who are enrolled during the 2018-2019 academic year in an accredited 2- or 4-year college or university. They will accept literary narratives, literary and other textual analyses, reports, profiles, evaluations, arguments, memoirs, proposals, mixed-genre pieces of 1,000-3,000 words. Entries require nomination by an instructor. Each instructor may make one nomination.
\nValue: $1,500, two prizes of $1,000 each
\nDeadline: 15 June 2019
\nOpen for: Undergraduates
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\n\nGoi Peace Foundation: International Essay Contest for Young People
\n<\/strong>This essay is for people aged up to 25 years, in two categories \u2013 children and youth. The theme is \u2018Creating a Society Full of Kindness\u2019 for their 20th<\/sup> anniversary special edition. Their guidelines say, \u201cWhat does \u2018Kindness\u2019 mean to you? How do you think we can create a kinder society? Carry out ten acts of kindness, then use your experience as inspiration in writing your essay (your essay does not need to be about your acts of kindness). Entries can be in English, French, Spanish or German (up to 700 words), or Japanese (up to 1,600 characters). This is an activity of the UNESCO Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development.
\nValue: For each category, the first prize is JPY100,000 (about $900) and a sponsored trip to the award ceremony in Tokyo and a Minister of Education award; JPY50,000 (about $450); five third prizes, and 25 honorable mentions
\nDeadline: 15 June 2019
\nOpen for: People aged up to 25 years
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\n\nAmerican-Scandinavian Foundation Translation Awards
\n<\/strong>The American-Scandinavian Foundation annually awards two translation prizes for outstanding translations of poetry, fiction, drama, or literary prose written by a Scandinavian author born after 1900. The Leif and Inger Sj\u00f6berg Award is for those whose translations from a Nordic language have not been previously published. There is also the Nadia Christensen Prize. The application includes 50 pages of prose or 25 pages of poetry.
\nValue: $2,500 (Nadia Christensen Prize); $2,000 (Leif and Inger Sj\u00f6berg Award)
\nDeadline: 15 June 2019
\nOpen for: Unspecified
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\nDefenestration.net Short Story Contest
\n<\/strong>They want a short story which should include an incident of defenestration \u2013 the art or \u2013ism of throwing people out of windows. This need not be literal. Their team defines such an incident as follows \u2013 \u201ca sudden, immediate, even violent shift, change, or seismical event between the beginning and the end.\u201d Read the terms and conditions carefully \u2013 there will voting by four judges for this contest, with fan voting counting as an additional judge vote.
\nValue: $75, two runner-up prizes of $30 each
\nDeadline: 15 June 2019
\nOpen for: All writers
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\nBard Fiction Prize
\n<\/strong>This residency and cash award is for a writer who is a US citizen aged 39 years or younger. Submissions should write a cover letter explaining the project they plan to work on while at Bard and submit a CV, along with copies of the published book they feel best represents their work \u2013 no manuscripts will be accepted.
\nValue: $30,000, Residency at Bard College, New York
\nDeadline: 17 June 2019
\nOpen for: US writers
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\n\nBow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest
\n<\/strong>This is for junior and senior division (11-14 and 15-18) students worldwide. The theme is \u2018Presence of Future\u2019. The piece has to be about a coastal\/marine species, place, or system that will be threatened, altered, or lost due to climate change. Apart from prose (all forms) and poetry, the categories are art, film, and music.
\nValue: Ranging from $1,500-$250 for Senior division, $1,000-$100 for Junior division
\nDeadline: 17 June 2019
\nOpen for: Students aged 11-18
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\nInterzone: The James White Award
\n<\/strong>This is a short story award for non-professional writers; the aim is to highlight new writers. Write a short science fiction story of 2,000-6,000 words on any theme.
\nValue: \u00a3200
\nDeadline: 28 June 2019
\nOpen for: Non-professional authors
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\nLouise Meriwether First Book Prize
\n<\/strong>The Louise Meriwether First Book Prize is open to fiction and narrative non-fiction by women of color and nonbinary writers of color in the US. Manuscripts must be 30,000-80,000 words, fiction or non-fiction. They do not accept poetry, plays, or academic texts. Works must follow in the tradition of Meriwether\u2019s Daddy Was a Number Runner. <\/em>
\n<\/em>Value: $5,000 Advance
\nDeadline: 28 June 2019
\nOpen for: US writers
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\nThe McGraw Business Journalism Fellowship
\n<\/strong>The McGraw Fellowship provides editorial and financial support to journalists who need the time and resources to produce a significant investigative or enterprise story that provides fresh insight into an important business, financial or economic topic. They accept applications for in-depth text, video or audio pieces, and they encourage proposals that take advantage of more than one storytelling form to create a multimedia package. This is not a residency Fellowship. All Fellows work from their own offices. It is open to anyone with at least five years professional experience in journalism. Freelance journalists, as well as reporters and editors currently working at a news organization or a journalism non-profit, may apply. Applicants should submit a story proposal of no more than three pages. The applications are open twice annually.
\nValue: Grants of up to $15,000
\nDeadline: 28 June 2019
\nOpen for: Anyone with at least five years of experience in journalism
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\nWords Without Borders Poems in Translation Contest
\nThe contest is open to contemporary international poetry translated from other languages into English. <\/strong>Entries must be submitted by translators and include both original language texts and translations. Only poems translated from languages other than English are eligible. Also, only first English translations will be considered — retranslations of poems already available in English are not eligible. Translators can submit up to three poems, and the authors of the original poems must be living. Four winning translated poems will be co-published on Words Without Borders, and in Poem-a-Day, the popular daily poetry series produced by the Academy of American Poets, throughout September, which is National Translation Month.
\nValue: $150 each for winning poets and translators
\nDeadline: 28 June 2019
\nOpen for: All translators
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\nUniversity of Southampton: Green Stories Writing Competitions
\n<\/strong>They have writing contests with deadlines throughout the year, in various formats \u2013 play, film, radio, book, tv, interactive fiction \u2013 that in some way touch upon ideas around building a sustainable society. They will consider all genres \u2013 rom-com, literary fiction, science fiction, mystery, crime etc. \u2013 but stories must engage with the idea of environmentally sustainable practices and\/or sustainable societies. Most stories set in the future are dystopian, meaning they have a pessimistic view of society. They will consider all stories, but they encourage writers to imagine a more positive settings and practices for their stories. They also have various resources on their website that writers can refer to and integrate in their stories. Their guidelines say, \u201cThe story doesn\u2019t have to be about sustainability or climate change directly. A rom-com, for example, could be set in a society that replaces ownership with borrowing and the heroine goes to a clothes library to pick up a posh dress and borrow jewellery for her big date; or the hero in a crime drama could use a carbon credit card and hear the news in the background reporting on the wellbeing index instead of GDP; or the characters in a legal drama could live in a city where everyone has gardens on their roofs and generates energy from their own waste.\u201d
\nValue: For each category, \u00a3500, \u00a3100, \u00a350, plus \u00a350 for best student submission (18-25 years) and \u00a350 for best < 18 year submission. If a student or under 18 entry is the best overall then it will win first prize regardless if the entry is from a student and the student prize will go to the next best student entry; also pathways to publishing\/production for each category
\nDeadlines: 30 June for the stage play, 12 July for the radio play drama\/comedy series, 31 August for the full-length novel, September 2019 for the full-length film screenplay, October 2019 for short film, November 2019 for the TV\/Netflix 6-part series, and 1 December 2019 for interactive fiction
\nOpen for: All writers
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\nDrue Heinz Literature Prize
\n<\/strong>The award is open to authors who have published a novel, a book-length collection of fiction or at least three short stories or novellas in commercial magazines or literary journals. It is for an unpublished manuscript of short fiction, or two or more novellas, or a combination of one or more novellas and short stories. Manuscripts must be 150-300 pages.
\nValue: $15,000
\nDeadline: 30 June 2019
\nOpen for: Published writers
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\nBlue Mountain Arts Biannual Poetry Card Contest
\n<\/strong>Blue Mountain Arts is looking for poetry for its greeting cards. Poems for this contest can be rhyming or non-rhyming. Writers can enter the contest as often as they like.
\nValue: $350, $200, $100
\nDeadline: 30 June 2019
\nOpen for: All writers
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\nRichard J. Margolis Award
\n<\/strong>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 two non-fiction writing samples, up to 30 pages.
\nValue: $5,000, residency at Blue Mountain Centre artists\u2019 colony
\nDeadline: 1 July 2019
\nOpen for: Unspecified
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\nCozy Cat Press 2019 Poetry Contest
\n<\/strong>They want a mystery-themed poem of up to two pages for this contest. Writers may submit up to three poems.
\nValue: $100, $50, $25
\nDeadline: 1 July 2019
\nOpen for: All writers
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\nWinter Tangerine Awards
\n<\/strong>This is a contest for emerging writers. They want poetry and prose from writers who have not yet published a collection of poems, a collection of short stories or a novel. Writers may submit up to four poems (totaling no more than eight pages), and\/or two pieces of prose (totaling no more than twelve pages), and may submit one entry in both categories.
\nValue: $250; $50 for finalists
\nDeadline: 1 July 2019
\nOpen for: Emerging writers
\nDetails here<\/a>
\n<\/div>
\nBONUS: Carey Institute for Global Good \u2013 Logan Non-fiction Program
\n<\/strong>They welcome between 10-20 non-fiction writers, documentary filmmakers, photojournalists, podcasters and multimedia creators per class. Fellows are provided lodging, meals, workspace, professional guidance and community. Fellowships range between 5-10 weeks and take place on the Carey Institute for Global Good\u2019s historic 100-acre campus in upstate New York. <\/strong>Applicants must be at work on a long-form project in order to apply (e.g.: an article, book, film, collection, podcast, etc.). They also accept applications from academics and non-professional journalists, as long as the intended audience of the project is the general public. They are particularly interested in supporting projects that examine the most pressing issues of the day, including but not limited to: conflict and security; democracy and governance; education; environment and climate change; food security; gender, race, sexual orientation, disability and intersectionality; globalization; health; inequality and exclusion; media and journalism; social justice; and sustainability and resilience. Small groups (of 2 to 3 journalists wishing to work collaboratively) are encouraged to apply. There are two annual deadlines.
\nValue: Tuition and residency (no grant or reporting stipend)
\nDeadline: 15 June 2019 (for the Fall class)
\nOpen for: All writers
\nDetails here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n