(b) Critique and Proofreading Services
Would you like feedback on your short story, poetry, script or book? Check out our critique service and proofreading service.
Critique Ireland
Proofreading Ireland
Critique UK
Proofreading UK
(c) No Fee Creative Writing Ink Monthly Competition
Many thanks to everyone who entered our free to enter September writing competition and congratulations to the winner, Kaci Skiles Laws. You can read previous winning entries here.
(d) Writing Prompt Competition
Our free to enter writing prompt competition is open and closes on November 30, 2019.
Please visit our writing prompts page if you'd like to enter the current competition.
2. Writing Competitions
Here are some other free to enter writing competitions.
Use information listed at your own risk. Creative Writing Ink gives no warranty to completeness, accuracy, or fitness of the markets, competitions, publishers or agents although research is carried out to the best of our ability. Note that some of these competitions have residency requirements,so check the terms and conditions of the competitions to see if your country is eligible.
(a) The Soundwork Short Story Competition is open until April 30, 2020.
Free to enter.
Submit short stories up to 2,500 words, any style and theme.
Prize: Recording by professional actor and placement on Soundcloud and the soundwork-uk.co.uk website.
More here.
(b) The BeAnimal Writing Competition is open until December 16, 2019 (Midnight IST).
Free to enter.
Narrate an account of an experience in your life that brought you closer to nature.
(OR)
Write a short piece on your ideal utopia and some of the things you would find there.
(OR)
Write an informational piece on something that we could all adopt to live a happier, healthier life – whether it’s an ideology, dietary improvements or physical activity!
Your essays should not exceed 1000 words.
Prizes: Each of the three finalists will win a place on a nature experience and tour through the wilderness of India.
First prize – Valley of Flowers tour (16 days) worth 599 euros
Second prize – The Himalayan experience (10 days) worth 499 euros
Third prize – The Gaia experience – Mountain retreat in Kookal (5 days) worth 399 euros
Runners up – Unique handcrafted BeAnimal T-Shirt
More here.
(c) The Young Walter Scott Prize 2019 is open until October 31, 2019.
Open to writers aged 11 to 19.
Submit fiction between 800-2000 words. The judges are looking for fiction from writers which is set in a time before they were born. They accept any kind of fiction.
The winners will receive a £500 travel grant and a 2-day trip to the Baillie Gifford Borders Book Festival in Melrose, Scotland in June 2020.
All shortlisted and highly commended writers will have their work published in an anthology, and runners-up in each age category will receive a book token.
More here.
(d) The Nobrow Short Story Competition is open until 2nd December 2019, midnight BST time.
Up to twelve winning entries will be published in a short story anthology. One overall winner will receive £2,000 and all other selected contributors will receive £150 each.
Submit a short story or a creative non-fiction piece of up to 3,000 words.
Theme: ‘The Censor’.
More here.
(e) The Weird Christmas Flash Fiction Contest 2019 is open until November 2, 2019.
Free to enter.
Prizes: $50, $25. The winners and honorable mentions will be read on a podcast and published on the Weird Christmas website.
Your story should be weird or strange or odd and it must be related to any winter holiday (Christmas, Hannukha, Kwanza, solstice celebrations, “Yule,” etc.). You can include other holidays like Halloween or Easter, but it has to still have some strong connection to the winter season’s celebrations. They also say: try to avoid “evil Santa” stories! 350 word limit (title not included).
More here.
(f) The 2020 DRF Writers Award is open until October 31, 2019.
Submit 20,000-25,000 words of a work in progress, fiction or non-fiction, which is not under option or contract.
Judges: Ian Rankin (Chair), Sarah Perry and Max Porter.
An award of £10,000 will be presented to a first-time prose writer whose submission demonstrates literary talent and who would benefit from financial support to complete their work. Each runner-up will receive £1,000.
More here.
(g) Iceland Writers Retreat is offering writers from around the world the chance to attend its April 2020 programme for free.
Deadline: 31 October 2019. Free to enter.
The successful candidates must demonstrate that they do not have the financial means to attend without this award. The full funding scholarship includes a round-trip airfare plus the full retreat package including accommodation and all workshops. Partial funding covers the participant costs only and does not include accommodation or flights.
More here.
(h) The Kate O’Brien Prize 2020 comes from the University of Malaga.
Deadline: June 13, 2020
Lecturers, students and researchers around the world may apply.
The prize is for research works on the literary and/or gender relationships between Spain and Ireland.
The total monetary award is €1,200.
More here.
There are dozens of other open writing competitions over on our websites. Many are free to enter. You can check out Creative Writing Ink UK or Creative Writing Ink Ireland for further details. In addition, The Writing District publishes even more new writing competition listings several times a week. You can check out the listings here.
3. Submissions
(a) The Traverse Theatre are open for script submissions until October 31, 2019. Open to writers in the UK and Ireland. They particularly encourage submissions from voices and communities which are under-represented in theatre - both onstage and off.
This year they will also be selecting five of the most promising plays in order to develop them through in-house dramaturgy and round-table readings with professional actors. These development periods will happen throughout the year.
More here.
(b) The London Reader are open for submissions until November 4, 2019.
Submit short stories, true stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, and any other writing or art that explores the topic of mothers or motherhood.
More over on their website.
(c) Nostos is open for submissions until November 1, 2019. The theme of the issue is: Loss. They are looking for poetry, short fiction, and art dealing with this theme in any of its forms.
More here.
(d) Halfway Down the Stairs publishes poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and book reviews. Their December 2019 issue will be themed The Calling. Submissions are open until November 1, 2019.
More here.
(e) Submissions for Banshee Press are now open until October 31, 2019.
No submission fee.
Stories and essays should be 1500-5000 words. Flash fiction should be under 1000 words, poems no more than 40 lines.
They are happy to read one story or one essay or two flashes or up to six poems. Only submit in one category and include a short bio when submitting.
They offer contributors a small fee as well as two copies of the journal.
More here.
(f) The Wild Hunt are currently open for submissions on the theme: is it safe?.
Deadline: November 1, 2019
Fiction and flash fiction: Stories up to 3,000 words are considered.
More here.
(g) WordFire Press are open for short story submissions that feature a monster in a movie setting, to include a mix of science fiction, fantasy, horror, alien, magical, witchcraft, AI, and romance elements. Must be appropriate for a “PG-13” audience. No copyrighted characters and no real movies.
Deadline: October 31, 2019
More here.
(h) Puddock Haiku Journal seeks to encourage excellence in haiku and related genres in the three indigenous languages of Scotland: English, Gaelic and Scots and is open to submissions from writers around the world.
There is no payment to authors but there will be a prize of original artwork for the best poem in each issue.
Send up to 10 works in total in English, Gaelic or Scots . All Gaelic and Scots poems must include an English translation.
Haiku: All forms are acceptable, 1 to 4 lines up to 17 syllables.
Tanka: Traditional or Modern
Haibun: No more than 3 within a submission up to a maximum of 60 lines to be sent in the body of an email.
Submissions close November 1st 2019.
More here.
(i) Splonk are open for submissions until October 31, 2019. Submit unpublished flash fiction of up to 500 words for SplonkFlash. Micro-fictions of up to 100 words for SplonkMicros. Or Irish language flash up to 500 words for SplonkSplanc.
More here.
That's it for this month. If you decide to enter any writing competitions or submit to magazines and journals - best of luck with your submissions! And many thanks to everyone for letting us know if you've won a competition or if you've been published, it's great to hear!
Creative Writing Ink Team
|
