Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize

Genre: Creative Nonfiction
Entry Fee: $35 CAD for Canadian entries and $45 CAD for each entry from elsewhere, plus $15 CAD for each additional entry submitted at the same time as the first entry (includes a one-year print subscription to The Malahat Review); each additional entry is $15 CAD but must be paid for at the same time
Deadline: August 1, 2025, at 11:59 pm PDT
Prize: $1,250 CAD and publication in The Malahat Review winter 2025 issue; a book prize to one lucky contest entrant
Description: The entry must be no longer than 4,000 words and not previously published or accepted for publication. There are no restrictions to the subject matter or approach, so the entries may be personal essay, memoir, cultural criticism, nature writing, literary journalism, etc.
Details: https://www.malahatreview.ca/contests/contests_info.html

 

River Styx 2025 Contest

Genre: Fiction, Poetry
Entry Fee: $20 USD
Deadline: August 1, 2025
Prize: First prize of $1,000 USD and publication each to one fiction writer and one poet
Description: The winning work will appear online in January 2026 and in the River Styx spring print edition. Works of fiction should not exceed 3,000 words. Send only one story, or up to three poems, per entry. Work must be previously unpublished.
Details: http://www.riverstyx.org/submit/microfiction-contest/

 

ruth weiss Poetry Contest

Genre: Poetry
Entry Fee: $10 USD
Deadline: August 1, 2025
Prize: Maverick prize of $1,500 USD; emerging prize of $1,000 USD; youth prize of $500 USD
Description: Open to all poets and filmmakers. The ruth weiss Foundation invites poets, artists, and filmmakers to honor the ingenuity and artistic span of ruth weiss—a pioneering Beat Generation poet, playwright, filmmaker, and actress—through our annual call for creative works. This year’s theme: EKPHRASIS – Art Inspiring Art.
Details: https://www.ruthweissfoundation.org/2025-poetry-contest

 

Writing Battle Summer Nano-Fiction Battle

Genre: Flash Fiction
Entry Fee: $18 USD
Deadline: August 1, 2025
Prize: The winner of each of four categories split the cash pool prize of $4,000 USD and receive publication and feedback
Description: Everyone is guaranteed feedback by four or more peer writers. This is an international competition. Participants have 2 days to write 250 words starting August 4.
Details: https://www.writingbattle.com/

 

Room Magazine’s 2025 Poetry Contest

Genre: Poetry
Entry Fee: $35 CAD if you reside in Canada, $45 CAD if you reside in the US, and $55 CAD if you reside outside of North America, plus $7 CAD for each additional entry (includes a one-year subscription to Room)
Deadline: August 15, 2025, at 3:00 am ET
Prize: First prize of $1,000 CAD; second prize of $250 CAD; honourable mention prize of $100 CAD; all prizes include publication on Room’s website
Description: Room publishes work by people of all marginalized genders, including cis and trans women, trans men, nonbinary, and Two-Spirit people. An entry (both initial and additional) can include up to three poems or 150 lines of poetry in a single document.
Details: https://roommagazine.com/contests/#PTY

 

Green Stories Epiphanies Competition

Genre: Flash Fiction
Entry Fee: Purchase one book from the Green Stories project as a guide to competition criteria
Deadline: August 27, 2025
Prize: First prize of $1,000 CAD; second prize of $250 CAD; honourable mention prize of $100 CAD; all prizes include publication on Room’s website
Description: The Green Stories project (organised with the University of Southampton) has launched another writing competition on the theme of ‘epiphanies’. Word limit of 500 words. Stories are invited in the following categories: transport, home and garden, food, nature, consumption/waste, activism (e.g. campaigns, protest, or internal activism e.g. within a school or business), and other. The competition is open to all adults (18+) of any nationality. Submissions will be judged on creativity, literary merit and how well they meet the theme criteria. There is no entry fee, but all entrants must purchase at least one book from the Green Stories project as a guide to competition criteria (entertaining fiction that showcases green solutions). Green Stories books must be purchased from https://habitatpress.com/shop/.
Details: https://www.greenstories.org.uk/flash-fiction-competition-epiphanies-2/

 

Anthology Personal Memoir Competition

Genre: Memoir
Entry Fee: Early Bird rate of €12 per entry and regular rate of €15 per entry
Deadline: Early Bird deadline of April 30, 2025; final deadline of August 31, 2025
Prize: €500 and publication in a future issue of Anthology
Description: Established to recognize and encourage creative writing and provide a platform for publication. Open to original and previously unpublished short stories in the English language by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. There is no restriction on theme or style. Stories submitted must not exceed the maximum of 1,500 words.
Details: https://anthology-magazine.com/awards/memoir-competition/

 

BookLife Prize in Fiction

Genre: Fiction
Entry Fee: $99 USD
Deadline: August 31, 2025
Prize: Grand prize of $5,000 USD and an author profile in Publishers Weekly; one finalist from each respective submission category will receive $1,000 USD worth of BookBaby’s Facebook + Instagram for Authors service, a promotional “blurb”  from one of the guest judge’s for the Prize, and a mention in Publishers Weekly; all entrants receive a Critic’s Report (a brief critical assessment of their novel written by a Publishers Weekly reviewer)
Description: Unpublished or self-published novels in the English language. The BookLife Prize seeks to support independent authors and discover great written works in five fiction categories – Romance/Erotica, Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror, General Fiction, and Middle-Grade & YA Fiction. Novels submitted to the Middle Grade & YA Fiction category must contain 30,000-100,000 words. All other submissions must contain 40,000 to 100,000 words.
Details: https://booklife.com/about-us/the-booklife-prize.html

 

Fool for Poetry International Chapbook Competition

Genre: Poetry
Entry Fee: €25 per manuscript
Deadline: August 31, 2025
Prize: First prize of €1,000; second prize of €500; both win a chapbook publication, 25 complimentary copies, and a featured reading at the Cork International Poetry Festival (with three-night hotel stay and full board)
Description: The competition is open to new, emerging and established poets from any country. One of these winners will be the highest scoring manuscript entered by a poet with no solo collection (full-length or chapbook) previously published. Up to 25 other entrants will be publicly listed as “highly commended”. Manuscripts can be between 24 and 36 pages in length, in the English language and the sole work of the entrant with no pastiches, translations or versions. The poems can be in verse or prose.
Details: https://munsterlit.ie/fool-for-poetry/

 

Storyhouse Biographical Nonfiction Contest

Genre: Nonfiction
Entry Fee: None
Deadline: August 31, 2025
Prize: First prize of $200 USD and automatic entry to the Winners Circle Contest; runner-up prize of $100 USD
Description: A biographical entry must be a true story of an individual(s) known to the author personally—not a fictional or historical character. Or, it could be autobiographical, a true story about the author’s life, the whole or an episode. Stories must be between 1,000–5,000 words in length. Language in the stories should be free of words or scenes not suitable for children. Stories can be submitted from any country, although they must be written in English. There is a limit of two contest submissions. No story may be entered in more than one contest. Stories entered in any of our previous contests will not be eligible for current year contests.
Details: https://www.storyhouse.org/contest2025.html

 

CRAFT First Chapters Contest 2025

Genre: Excerpts of book-length fiction
Entry Fee: $20 USD per entry
Deadline: 2025 contest details to be announced
Prize: First prize of $2,000 USD; second prize of $500 USD; third prize of $300 USD; all prizes include publication in CRAFT, accompanied by an introduction by the guest judge and an author’s note (craft essay)
Description: The 2025 CRAFT First Chapters Contest, for unpublished first chapters of book-length projects up to 5,000 words, will be awarded in December 2025.
Details: https://www.craftliterary.com/craft-first-chapters-contest-2024/

 

Letter Review Prizes

Genre: Manuscript Excerpt, Nonfiction, Poetry, Short Fiction
Entry Fee: $25 USD
Deadline: 2025 contest details to be announced
Prize: Yearly prize pool of $16,000 USD and publication (the prize is awarded every three months in the categories of Short Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Books.
Description: Open to anyone in the world. The entry must not have been traditionally published. Seeking all varieties of novels, short story collections, nonfiction, and poetry collections. Will accept manuscripts which are unpublished, self published, and some which are indie published. Please submit the first 5,000 words of your manuscript, whether it be prose or poetry.
Details: https://letterreview.com/information/

 

Omnidawn 2025 Open Poetry Book Contest

Genre: Poetry
Entry Fee: $27 USD
Deadline: 2025 contest details to be announced
Prize: $3,000 USD, 100 copies of the winning book, publication of the winning book by Omnidawn, and extensive display advertising and publicity, including large display ads that will appear in Poets & Writers Magazine, American Poets Magazine, Rain Taxi Review of Books, etc.
Description: This contest is open to all writers worldwide with no limitations on the amount of poetry a writer has published. Submissions are recommended to be between 40–120 pages, not including front and back matter, with most manuscripts received being between 40-80 pages long.
Details: http://www.omnidawn.com/contest/poetry-contests.htm#book-and-chapbook-contests