Tin House - Submissions sought.

Tin  House is a terrific magazine of writing based in the Portland, Oregon. It seeks submissions until 31st May but of course you can send earlier.

Guidelines:

• Please submit only one story or essay (ten-thousand-word limit), or up to five poems at a time. 
• Cover letters should include a word count and indicate whether the submission is fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.

Link here with more details

As usual, please get your hands on a few copies first. It's an excellent magazine.

Their blog's worth a visit too here

Yeovil Literary Prize

Get your entry in by midnight (UK/Ireland time!) today, Saturday 31st May

Novel: send your opening chapter(s) and synopsis, no more than 15,000 words in total, for a chance of winning our £1000 first prize.
Short story: maximum 2000 words, first prize £500
Poem: 40 lines maximum, for a first prize of £500

Full details at
www.yeovilprize.co.uk

Hint - with only a short time left, a sense of urgency is needed, but always take time and care on your final editing! It may help to ask a friend to cast an eye over your work for a final check. It's so easy to become blinded to simple errors in punctuation, grammar, plot consistency, etc
.

Send your Limerick to Limerick

I think Limerick's are quite hard to write. But why not have a go. You could win some dosh.

You can print this off or enter online on Facebook
Deadline midnight 31st May
There will be one winning prize of €1,000 plus 2nd and 3rd cash prizes of €200 and €100

Liverpool Hope Playwriting Prize

Liverpool Hope University has partnered with Royal Court Liverpool and the Liverpool Echo to launch a major new competition to find the UK's next great playwright. This exciting new national competition is a chance for a playwright to win a cash prize of £10,000 and have their work considered for staging by one of the most prolific producing theatres in the North West.
Established and new writers are eligible to enter the competition providing they enter a script that has not been professionally performed.

The winning plays will be considered for production by Royal Court Liverpool.

in addition to the main cash prize of £10,000, there are two Highly Commended prizes of £1,500 to be awarded at the judges discretion in the Over 21 category. There will also be an 21 and Under category with a £2,500 prize for the best submission by a young writer and two Highly Commended prizes of £500 each, again awarded at the judge's discretion. Writers under 21 will be eligible for the main prize.

In addition to possible production by Royal Court Liverpool, one of the winning texts will have a rehearsed reading as part of the Cornerstone Arts Festival 2014 at Hopes Creative Campus.

The competition is open to any UK resident over the age of 18 and as such, we anticipate a high level of interest.

Submission Fees

• 21 and Under £15 
• Over 21 £20 

Deadline 5:00PM BST on 30th May 2014

See more at: http://www.hope.ac.uk/pwprize/#sthash.Mb2O8AEW.dpuf

Listowel Competition - twitter

Are you a tweeter, if so, why not try this competition from Listowel Festival.

Write a 140 character twitter story for us before the 12th May.

The tweet must finish using our special hashtag #LWW2014.

The Irish Independent will publish the best and they will offer the winners a Listowel Writers' Week Festival Ticket.

So get writing but remember your entire story, start, middle and end must only be 140 characters!

Submissions for Irish Pages on Seamus Heaney

The Editors of Irish Pages, Chris Agee and Cathal Ó Searcaigh, are currently assembling a special issue entitled "Heaney", in English and Irish, due out in October 2014. There will be a particular focus, of course, on poetry, memoir, reminiscence and literary essays of a non-specialist nature directly relating to the man and his work but the issue will also include outstanding writing of all creative genres, especially poems, from Ireland and overseas, in a posthumous celebration of the enduring literary imagination in general.

Submissions should be sent by the middle of May by email to editor@irishpages.org, or by post to The Editors, Irish Pages/Duillí Éireann, 129 Ormeau Road, Belfast BT7 1SH.

Full details of the journal and its submission procedure can be found at www.irishpages.org.

The Pickled Body - Bull

The quarterly online poetry and art magazine, the Pickled Body is calling for submissions of poetry on the theme Bull.

We’re calling for Bull for Issue 1.3.  Send up to three of your best tothepickledbody@gmail.com .  Please include “Bull” in the subject line of your email submission.  Poems must not have been published elsewhere, and should be included in your email as an attachment (word doc/pdf file).

Deadline for submissions:  May 15, 2014. 

Baffle us with your brilliance or your bull.

Here is their website and go here for an idea of what they like.

Free Wee Library Poetry Competition 2014

Buncrana in Donegal has a fantastic project called Free Wee Library where there are gorgeous wee libraries scattered about where you can exchange books. This competition is, I think, to spread the word as well as fund raise.  I'd love to have these around my town.

Check out this link http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-foyle-west-23500788

Poetry Competition for adults and children - English and Irish Language Categories

Prizes will be awarded for 1st 2nd English and 1st 2nd Irish Language for each Category as follows:

• Adults:
• 1st Prize €150 + 250 copies of winning poem printed in bookmark format for distribution throughout the FWLP
• 2nd Prize €75 + 100 copies of winning poem printed in bookmark format for distribution throughout the FWLP.
• Children Over 10:
• 1st Prize €30+ 100 copies of winning poem printed in bookmark format for distribution throughout the FWLP
• 2nd Prize €15 + two book vouchers
• Children Under 10:
• 1st Prize €20 + 100 copies of winning poem printed in bookmark format for distribution throughout the FWLP
• 2nd Prize €10 + two book vouchers

The competition is open to everyone as long as the poem is the original work of the author submitting it.

 Entries must not have been previously published in any media, self published, broadcast, and/or won any competition. Both English and Irish poems are being accepted.

Entry Fee
There will be an entry fee for the adult sections of €5 (for a maximum of 3 poems) Fee made payable by cheque or postal order to Free Wee Library Project C/O The Exchange, Castle Ave, Buncrana, Co Donegal
No entry fee for children’s section.

The entrant’s name should NOT be written on the poem but should be written on a separate sheet with full contact details (name, address, telephone numbers, email address) To ensure fairness writers’ names will not be revealed to the judging panel until winners have been selected.

Poems can be on any subject with a maximum limit of 15 lines per poem. Early entries will be much appreciated.

Closing date 5pm on 30th May 2014.

The winning poets will be notified by 20th June 2014 and will be invited to read their poems at a prize- giving in The Exchange, Buncrana, Co Donegal during Feel Good Fortnight. (Date TBC)

Copyright remains with the poet, but Free Wee Library Project reserves the right to first publication or broadcast of the winning poem.

Wigtown Poetry Competition

Scotland’s international poetry prize in association with The Scottish Poetry Library

The 2014 Wigtown Poetry Competition is now open for entries.  You can enter online, or download this year's application form (.pdf).
Deadline for entries is 30th May 2014

Established in 2005, the Wigtown Poetry Competition offers a first prize of £2,000.
Entry is open to writers from the UK and abroad writing in English, while there are also dedicated categories for Scots Language and Gaelic.

This year’s judges are W.N. Herbert (Main Prize), Anne Lorne Gillies(Gaelic) and John Manson (Scots).

The competition event, which will include the announcement of the winners, readings of the victorious poems and contributions from the judges will take place during Wigtown Book Festival (26 September to 5 October 2014).

Entry Fees: £6.50 for first poem
Multiple entries: the first three poems cost a total of £17.00.
Each subsequent entry after the first three costs £5 or a total of £12 for every additional block of 3,
ie: 1 poem £6.50; 2 poems £13; 3 poems £17; 4 poems £22; 5 poems £27; 6 poems £29; 7 poems £34; etc

Full Competition information and rules can be found on the Wigtown Book Festival Website

Legends/Changing Times Literary Competition

Literary Competition

Theme: Legends/Changing Times.

The overall theme of the June Fest is ‘Legends’. This theme and/or  ‘Changing Times’ can be interpreted in any way you want, just so long as your prose/poetry has some connection to the theme.

Length: Prose(fiction, essay, memoir) up to 750 words, poetry up to 40 lines.

Closing date: Friday 2nd May

5 euro entry fee to cover costs. Cheques payable to: Junefest Newbridge

Entries can be posted or dropped in to Newbridge Library.  All entries must be type written. Include a separate sheet with your name and contact details and the name of your story/ poem. The pieces will be judged anonymously so please do not put your name on the entry itself.  Please clearly mark the envelope Junefest Literary Miscellany.

Prizes: 1^st  50, 2^nd book vouchers for 30, 3^rd  book vouchers for 20 and the opportunity to read your entry at the Literary miscellany event. 

3 highly commended entries will also have an opportunity to read at the event.

Prize winners will be announced at the Literary Miscellany event on Tuesday 2^nd June. Entries will be judged by Kildare writer Martin Malone, who will also read at the event.

Which Short Story Competition to enter?

Bath Short Story Award 2014 offers £1k, £200 and £100 plus publication in an anthology. Entrants must be over 18. Send up to 2.2k words on any theme or subject. Entry fee: £8. Deadline: 31 Mar

Short Fiction Journal, International Short Story Prize offers £500 plus publication for up to 5k words on any theme. Online entries only. Entry fee: £5. Deadline: 31 Mar

Brighton Short Story Prize offers £400 and the chance to read your story at Brighton Festival Fringe show. Send 1-2k words on any subject or genre. Entry fee: £6. Deadline: 1 Apr

Berkhamsted Writing Competition offers cash prizes and raises money for the Hospice of St Francis. Send stories up to 1k words on the theme ‘beginnings’.  Entry fee: £5. Deadline: 4 Apr

Flash 500, Flash Fiction Competition offers £300, £200 and £100 for encapsulating a story with just 500 words. Any subject or genre. Entry fee: £5 for one story or £8 for two. Deadline 31 Mar

SI Leeds Literary Prize 2014 for unpublished fiction of over 30k words by Black or Asian women writers resident in the UK. Prizes: £2k, £750, £250. Winner also gets a place on a 2015 Arvon Foundation course and all three finalists will receive manuscript feedback from The Literary Consultancy. Deadline: 31 Mar
Bristol Short Story Prize offers £1k, £700, £400 for a story up to 4k words, any theme, subject or style, including graphic and verse. Entry fee: £8. Deadline: 30 Apr

Almond Press Short Story Competition offers £100 plus publication for vivid and imaginative dystopian portrayals of mankind’s future, up to 5k words. Entry is free. Deadline: 1 May

Fiction Desk Ghost Story Competition offers £500 plus publication in Fiction Desk anthology for stories of 2-5k words. Entry fee: £7. Deadline: 30 May

Frome Festival, Short Story Competition offers £525 in prizes. Winning stories will be read by a leading London literary agent. 1-2k words, any theme or genre. Entry fee: £5. Deadline: 31 May

Bridport Prize Short Story Competition offers £5k, £1k, and £500 as well as the opportunity for your story to be read by leading London literary agents and submission to the BBC National Short Story Award. Entry fee: £9. Deadline: 31 May

Bridport Short Story, Flash and Poetry Competition

This is one of the most prestigious writing contests in the British literary calendar.

Do you have a really good poem or short story? Or a few? I mean, really really REALLY good?

poem - no more than 42 lines
short story - no more than 5,000 words.   
flash fiction category - stories of up to 250 words 

This year’s judges are Liz Lochhead (poems) Tania Hershman (flash fiction) and Andrew Miller (short stories).

    Closing: 31st May 14 (postmarked)

    Prizes: In each of the main categories (Short Stories, Poems) - £5,000, £1,000, £500.  There are also ten runners-up prizes of £50.  These are called ‘supplementary prizes’ to make you feel less like an also-ran.  The top four poems will be submitted to the Forward Prize. 
Prizes in the Flash Fiction category are £1,000, £500, £250, plus three supplementary awards of £25.
The top 13 short stories will be entered for the National Short Story Prize worth £15,000, and the Sunday Times Short Story Award worth £30,000.  
There's also a prize for the highest placed piece from a writer in Dorset. 
All winners will be invited to an awards ceremony on October 14th at the Bridport Open Book Festival.
 
The judges have some pointers here well worth reading.

Note: Entries must never have been published, self-published, published on any website, blog or online forum, broadcast nor winning or placed (as in 2^nd, 3^rd,, runner up etc) in any other competition.

    Entry Fees:Poems - £7.  Short Stories - £8.  Flash Fiction - £6
 
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Raving Beauties

Sue Jones-Davies, Dee Orr, Anna Carteret and Fan Viner invite submissions for their fourth anthology of

‘women’s poems about being women’

which will be published by Bloodaxe Books in 2015.

However you feel about your body and whatever kind of writer you are – a published poet or impelled to write your first poem reading this – they want to hear from you. And they’ll consider previously published work as well as new poetry.

Send up to three poems by 1 May 2014 to here.

More information here

Wigtown Poetry Competition

The Wigtown Poetry Competition is Scotland’s most prestigious poetry prize. Fees are quite steep though.

Winning poets will be invited to appear at the Wigtown Book Festival in 2013.

The winners, the runner-up and 8 commended poems will be published in Southlight, the Dumfries and Galloway Literary magazine.

Deadline: 5pm Friday 31st May 2013 

Judges: Robin Robertson, Meg Bateman and Liz Niven

Link here

1st Prize £2000
Runner-up £400
8 runners up £25

Top Prize money has decreased but there are small additional prizes now.

Bridport Prize

This is one of the most prestigious writing contests in the British literary calendar.

Do you have a really good poem or short story? Or a few? I mean, really really REALLY good?

poem - no more than 42 lines
short story - no more than 5,000 words.   
flash fiction category - stories of up to 250 words 

This year’s judges are Liz Lochhead (poems) Tania Hershman (flash fiction) and Andrew Miller (short stories).

    Closing: 31st May 14 (postmarked)

    Prizes: In each of the main categories (Short Stories, Poems) - £5,000, £1,000, £500.  There are also ten runners-up prizes of £50.  These are called ‘supplementary prizes’ to make you feel less like an also-ran.  The top four poems will be submitted to the Forward Prize. 
Prizes in the Flash Fiction category are £1,000, £500, £250, plus three supplementary awards of £25.
The top 13 short stories will be entered for the National Short Story Prize worth £15,000, and the Sunday Times Short Story Award worth £30,000.  
There's also a prize for the highest placed piece from a writer in Dorset. 
All winners will be invited to an awards ceremony on October 14th at the Bridport Open Book Festival.
 
The judges have some pointers here well worth reading.

Note: Entries must never have been published, self-published, published on any website, blog or online forum, broadcast nor winning or placed (as in 2^nd, 3^rd,, runner up etc) in any other competition.

    Entry Fees:Poems - £7.  Short Stories - £8.  Flash Fiction - £6
 
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Writing.ie Anam Cara Poetry Competition

From writing.ie competition page

Anam Cara Writer’s and Artist’s Retreat and writing.ie are once again joining forces to sponsor a writing competition, this time for poets.  The winning poet will receive a place in the one-week residential retreat “Lining Our Thoughts: A Poetry Writing Workshop,” led by Leanne O’Sullivan, scheduled at Anam Cara for 20-27 July 2013.

In honour of Bloomsday, this competition is for previously unpublished journey poems, no longer than 30 lines.

To submit, send your entry as an attachment (without identifying information in the document) with an email message containing your name, postal address, e-mail address, and telephone number. Send to Sue Booth-Forbes: anamcararetreat@gmail.com.  Include in your email message the answer to the following question:  What is the name of the river that runs at the bottom of the hill on which Anam Cara rests? (www.anamcararetreat.com)

The deadline is midnight in Ireland, 1 May 2013.

The winner will be announced on Bloomsday, 16 June 2013.  An all-poet panel of judges will select the short list, from which Leanne will select the winning poem.

Yeovil prize

This competition is unusual in that it includes the novel.

• Entries may have appeared online but may not have been published in any commercial online form (e.g. in a journal or magazine, or as a publication requiring payment to access.)

You have to be careful these days as come competitions insist that entries may not have appeared online.

• The word count for the Short Story category is 2,000 words. All genres accepted.
• In the Poetry category each poem should have a maximum of 40 lines.
• Novel entries must have a synopsis, and either the first three chapters, or, the first (up to) 15,000 words, whichever is relevant. Do not exceed the combined word count of 15,000 words. 

Judges for 2012.
Sophie Hannah , who is the author of many books for children, collections of poetry and several psychological crime novels, will judge the Novel category
Sue Freestone, who has a wealth of experience in the publishing world, will judge our Short Story category
Multi-talented Louis de Bernières, who writes poetry, novels and short stories, will judge our Poetry category.

Category 1 Novel - The Betty Bolingbroke-Kent Award Great opportunity for creative writers Excellent cash prizes
Requirement : Synopsis and Opening Chapters (combined maximum 15,000 words)
Prizes : 1st £1000 2nd £250 3rd £100
Entry Fee : £11

Category 2 Short Story Requirement : maximum 2,000 words
Prizes 1st £500 2nd £200 3rd £100
Entry Fee : £6

Category 3 Poetry Requirement : maximum of 40 Lines
Prizes : 1st £500 2nd £200 3rd £100
Entry Fee : £6 ; £9 for 2 ; £11 for 3

Deadline: 31 st May 2012
Link here

Bridport Prize

This is one of the most prestigious writing contests in the British literary calendar.

Do you have a really good poem or short story? Or a few? I mean, really really good?

poem - no more than 42 lines
short story - no more than 5,000 words.   
flash fiction category - stories of up to 250 words 

This year’s judges are Gwyneth Lewis (poems) and Patrick Gale (stories).

    Closing: 31 May 12.
    Prizes: In each of the main categories (Short Stories, Poems) - £5,000, £1,000, £500.  There are also ten runners-up prizes of £50.  These are called ‘supplementary prizes’ to make you feel less like an also-ran.  There is in addition a special prize of £100 and a perpetual trophy for the highest placed writer from Dorset.  Prizes in the Flash Fiction category are £1,000, £500, £250, plus three supplementary awards of £25.  The top 13 short stories will be entered for the National Short Story Prize worth £15,000, and the Sunday Times Short Story Award worth £30,000.  The top four poems will be entered for the Forward Prize.  All winners will be invited to an awards ceremony on October 14 at the Bridport Open Book Festival.
 
    Entry Fees:Poems - £7.  Short Stories - £8.  Flash Fiction - £6.
 
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Frome Festival Short Story Competition 2012

The contest, which is connected to the Frooom Literary Festival, is for stories of between 1,000 and 2,200 words.  
judges : Crime writer Peter Lovesey and novelist Maria McCann.
 
    Closing: 31 May 12.
 
    Prizes: £300, £150, £75.  In addition there are prizes for local writers

Winning stories are broadcast on radio - FromeFM no less. 
The winning stories are read by Literary agent Jane Judd who offers welcomed feedback to the authors.  A batch of stories are also sent to Women’s Weekly magazine which are often purchased.
 
    Entry Fee: £5.
 
    Comp Page: Click Here where you can also read last year's winners to get an idea of what they are looking for.

Dún a Rí Forest Park

OK I know this is very late notice but I thought I'd blogged about this before. Sorry...

Cavan Arts Office has launched a short story competition inspired by the magic of Dún a Rí Forest Park, Kingscourt, County Cavan. Do you have what it takes to enter? There’s a chance to win €500!

Cavan Arts Office is searching for a short story that will bring the magic of Dún a Rí Forest Park alive. It is looking for stories that are inspired by the Forest and also by the Public Art pieces themselves. In essence, the Arts Office is searching for someone to write a modern fairytale that has its origins in the Irish tradition of storytelling and folklore. It is hoped that the winining story will be a modern-day legend that comments on contemporary Irish society as well as drawing upon the myths and history of the Dún a Rí Forest Park.
Literary compositions are judged on their technical merit; however artistic expression is our core criterion. We are looking for writing with a strong, clear voice by authors who are daring, original and unafraid to take risks. Other aspects such as relevance to the context are also taken into consideration.

The winning story will be published in e-book format and formally launched in August 2012.

Prize: The winner will also be awarded €500 and a commemorative scroll.

Deadline: All entries must be submitted on-line by 4pm on Thursday 17th May 2012.

Entries must be from emerging, unpublished writers. - OK what does that mean?

more digging finds this:

You must be an emerging writer and have not yet published any previous work, (excluding magazine articles, anthologies, ezines, self-published work)  

I think this excludes me then. 

The work can be no longer that 2,000 words

Spoken Word or Fiction.

Free to enter

More here

Point to think about. This is not well publicised so the number of entries may be low.