by Clare Girvan
Introductory remarks.
'No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money' - Dr Johnson
My personal belief is that if your story is good enough to publish, it's good enough to be paid for. There are competitions that will put your story in an anthology if you are a runner-up, but only 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizewinners will be paid. If you are happy with that, fine, but bear in mind that once a story has been published, very few competitions will want it thereafter and it hasn't earned its keep.
The only exception is play writing competitions, which I go in for a lot. As a rule, they don't pay, and they often don't give a notification date, but they don't usually charge a fee or seem too bothered if you've touted your play around a bit. There is, however, one current competition which demands that you pay a submission fee of £30, followed by, if your play is chosen, a further £315 for production expenses and you must provide your own company and technicians. All I will say about that is that there are plenty more competitions to choose from. Under normal circumstances, the prize is usually a performance of some sort (and sometimes beyond, depending on the organisation) and it goes on your cv, which the occasional competition wants to see. But beware - sometimes your play will disappear without a trace, and no amount of effort on your part will retrieve it. I don't know why this happens. Maybe it's just mine.
This is a very subjective list, and I have not included absolutely every competition that comes out. The poetry listings are few - there are so many poetry competitions! - and occasionally I will miss out a short story competition because I don't think it's worth going in for (one, for instance, would only give you a certificate and an engraved Thing for the mantelpiece. You can do better than that). I tend to avoid competitions that publish runners-up in their anthology without the benefit of even a small prize, which I think is mean (see 'How to Run a Writing Competition' on my website)., and I've also excluded competitions that charge a fee out of all proportion to the prize. Reluctantly, I have included those that charge £5 for only a £100 prize, because some people might not mind as much as I do.. Smaller fee or bigger prize, I say. Exeter Writers has found that good advertising will bring in enough revenue to make a competition pay, even when the fee is quite modest. Try other listings if you can't find what you want - see lists at end.
Prize money and word count are maximum. Websites given where I can find them, or Google.
Let me know if you encounter "link rot" (i.e. sites gone dead) or any typos in the links.
Opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of Exeter Writers.
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Ongoing competitions
Threepenny Review
Words - 4,000
Prize - $400 and publication
Fee - none
Close - any time, but nothing during autumn
Notification - 2 months from submission
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Global
Words - 2,000
Prize - £100, £250 annual
Fee - £5
Close - 30th every month
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Scribble
Words - 3,000
Prize - £75
Fee - £3
Close - ongoing
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APRIL
Nick Darke - dramaWords - 25 word pitch, 750 word outline and 20 pages.
Prize - £6,000
Fee - none
Close - 29th April
Notification - October
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Tom Howard
Words - 5,000
Prize - $3,000
Fee - $16
Close - 30th April
Notification - 15th September
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Retreat West
Words - 1,500 - 'A walk'
Prize - percentage and discount on retreat
Fee - £3
Close - 30th April
Notification - 31st May
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Kings Cross - drama
Words - full length
Prize - £5.000
Fee - £10
Close - 30th April
Notification - end September
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Bristol
I like this one - winners and runners-up go in an anthology and the runners-up get a prize. There's none of this filling up the anthology without paying all the authors.
Words - 4,000
Prize - £1,000
Fee - £8
Close - 30th April
Notification - end of July
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BBC Wildlife: Nature writer of the year 2013
Words - 800
Prize - publication in BBC Wildlife, plus a place on some kind of wildife expedition/project.
Fee - none
Close - 30th April
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MAY
Lightship
Words - 5,000 - memoir
Prize - £1,000
Fee - £12
Close - 1st May
Notification - 10th July
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Erewash - http://erewashwriterscompetition.weebly.com/2013-buerst-flash-fiction-competition.html
Words - 1,000 - 'Burst'
Prize - £50
Fee - £1.50
Close - 2nd May
Notification - 4th June
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Little Pieces of Gold - drama
Words - 10 minutes, 4 actors
Prize - performance
Fee - none
Close - 13th May
Notification - by June
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Curry Mallett - currymallett.org/events/activities/adult-s-short-story-competition
Words - 2,500 - 'Reunion', 'Journey', 'Letter'
Prize - £100
Fee - £5
Close - 18th May
Notification - 20th June
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Scratch - drama
Words - 10 minutes, 3 actors. Must attend in Hull.
Prize - performance
Fee - none
Close - 30th May
Notification - 5th June
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Lightship - drama
Words - 1st act - (30 pages, 6,000 words)
Prize - year of mentoring, possible performance. A curious arrangement
Fee - £18 - phew, but someone has to pay for the mentoring. I'd check.
Close - 31st May
Notification - 9th August
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Bridport
The one we all want to win. Big prize, big prestige, big entry.
Words - 5,000
Prize - £5,000, £500 for F/F
Fee - £8
Close - 31st May
Notification - October
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Yeovil
Words - 2,000
Prize - £1,000
Fee - £6
Close - 31st May
Notification - September
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Cardiff Women's Aid
Words - 2,000 for story or 40 lines for poetry
Prize - anthology. I don't usually go for this kind of prize, but it's a very good cause.
Fee - £2
Close - 31st May
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Words With Jam
Words - 400, 1st page
Prize - £500
Fee - £6
Close - 31st May
Notification - August
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Fiction Desk
Words - 2-5,000, ghost story
Prize - £500
Fee - £6
Close - 31st May
Notification - July
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Frome
Words - 2,200
Prize - £300
Fee - £5
Close - 31st May
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Try also www.londoncomedywriters.com/opportunities/april.html,
www.theshortstory.org.uk/prizes/ and Michael Shenton's excellent and entertaining website which covers just about every other competition going www.prizemagic.co.uk/html/writing_comps.htm
cg - 5th March 2013
