Here’s a list of live writing opportunities. Please note, the information below may change so do check the details on individual websites. This is not an exhaustive list. Do check your regional literature development agency for further opportunities available to you.
Your regional literature development agency is responsible for supporting, promoting, and championing writing where you live. These are: Writing East Midlands, Writing West Midlands, Spread the Word (London) New Writing North, New Writing South (South East), Literature Works (South West).
JANUARY 2023
Penguin WriteNow is designed to give participating writers the tools, information, and access needed to navigate the publishing industry and launch their career as a successful author.
Deadline: 8 January
The Women’s Prize and Curtis Brown are inviting entries to Discoveries, a pioneering programme seeking the most talented and original new female writing voices in the UK and Ireland. The prize will accept novels in any genre of adult fiction and entrants will be required to submit only the first 10,000 words of their novel with a synopsis.
Deadline: 15 January
City Lit’s Malorie Blackman Scholarships for Unheard Voices provide three annual awards worth up to £1000 each, to fund one year’s study within the Creative Writing department at City Lit.
Deadline: 31 January
FEBRUARY
Room 204 is Writing West Midlands’ writer development programme for emerging writers in the region. The programme includes mentoring and career development.
Deadline: 2 February
Papatango New Writing Prize is now open for entries for scripts. Offers feedback to all entries.
Deadline: 5 February
Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize is for a novel by a woman over the age of 21 that marries literary merit with unputdownability. For unpublished writers only.
Deadline: 8-10 February (see website)
Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition is for short stories of no more than 2,000 words. 2023 theme: love
Deadline: 14 February
Watson, Little x Indie Novella Prize is devoted to celebrating emerging voices from underrepresented communities, and welcomes fiction of all lengths from all writers from all backgrounds in the UK.
Deadline: 14 February
Northern Writers’ Awards invite writers from across the North of England to send in their unpublished work-in-progress for the chance to win cash awards and professional development.
Deadline: 22 February
Out-Spoken Press Emerging Poets Development Scheme will run from July 2023–September 2024 and will provide one-to-one craft development as well as wider resources to help equip you to pursue publication and develop your career.
Deadline: 22 February
The Out-Spoken Prize for Poetry is open to page poets, performance poets and those who produce poetry in film.
Deadline: 28 Feb
Asian Women Writers is for women whose heritage is from anywhere on the Asian continent and who want to develop their writing in preparation for being published.
Deadline: 28 February
MARCH
The Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize, an annual competition for unpublished writers, is inviting proposals for a book-length essay (minimum 25,000) by a writer resident in the UK and Ireland who is yet to secure a publishing deal.
Deadline: 13 March
The Middle Way Mentoring project is now open for applications. The scheme is open to Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic writers from the Midlands and provides two-years of professional development including mentoring and masterclasses.
Deadline: 27 March
Deborah Rogers Foundation is now open for entries. 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.
Deadline: 31 March
Aziz Foundation Scholarship Programme offers 100% tuition fee Masters scholarships to support British Muslims to study at UK universities. The scholarships are aimed at those who wish to advance in their careers and bring positive change to their communities and beyond.
Deadline: 31 March
Royal Literary Fund Fellowships offer professional writers the opportunity to work in a university for two days a week helping students develop their writing. You should be a writer with at least two (sole-authored) books published, or mainstream theatre works performed, or radio/TV scripts broadcast, prior to application.
Deadline: 31 March
Primadonna Prize is for unsigned and unrepresented new writing talent. Entrants must submit 500 words on the theme ‘renewal.’
Deadline: 31 March
The Greene Door Project is inviting applications from under-represented crime and thriller writers to receive a Zoom feedback session from an agent at Greene & Heaton.
Deadline: tba
APRIL
Cheshire Novel Prize is open to unagented authors over the age of 18.
Deadline: 1 April
The Women’s Playwriting Prize is for original scripts that last more than an hour.
Deadline: 17 April
The Bath Short Story Award is for short stories of up to 2,200 words. 2023 Judge: Farhana Shaikh
Deadline: 24 April
Bristol Short Story Prize is for published and unpublished writers and is for short stories of up to 4000 words.
Deadline: 26 April
The Guardian Foundation is offering a number of bursaries for a postgraduate qualification in journalism.
Deadline: tba
Guardian and 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize is for short stories up to 6,000 words. Open to black, Asian, minority ethnic writers living in the UK or Ireland.
Deadline: tba
MAY
Creative Futures Writers’ Award is for under-represented writers. The prize welcomes fiction and poetry on a set theme annually. 2023 theme: X
Deadline: 14 May
Bridport Prize The Peggy Chapman-Andrews First Novel Award is for unpublished novels. Submit 5-8,000 words plus a 300 word synopsis in the first instance. The prize also has categories for short story, poetry, and flash fiction. See the website for bursaries for underrepresented writers.
Deadline: 31 May
The Bath Novel Award is for unpublished novels. Submit 5,000 words plus a one-page synopsis.
Deadline: 31 May
The White Review Short Story Prize is an annual short story competition for short stories of up to 7,000 words.
Deadline: tba
JUNE
The Novel Prize is a biennial award for a book-length work of literary fiction written in English by published and unpublished writers around the world. Managed collaboratively by the publishers Giramondo Publishing, Fitzcarraldo Editions and New Directions.
Deadline: tba
The Times/Chicken House Books Children’s Fiction Comp is looking for completed full-length children’s/YA novels. Prize: £10k advance and representation.
Deadline: 1 June
Mslexia is inviting short stories no longer than 2,200 words and poems up to 40 lines on a set theme for their Showcase section. Their Issue 99 theme is toxic substances, and the deliberate or accidental damage they can cause.
Deadline: 5 June
Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize is for fiction, poetry and life writing up to 3,000 words open to writers who have not yet published a book-length work, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background.
Deadline: 30 June
Zeenat Haroon Rashid Writing Prize for Women, open to Pakistani women over the age of 18, is looking for short stories of up to 3,000 words.
Deadline: tba
Faber’s FAB prize is for BAME new writers and illustrators.
Deadline: 30 June
JULY
Leicester Writes Short Story Prize is for short stories of up to 3,500 words, on any theme or subject.
Deadline: 2 July
The MM Mentorship is for unrepresented (un-agented) writers. Mentoring will include a structural edit, a meeting with a literary agent, and representation.
Deadline: closed
The Salam Award for Imaginative Fiction is for short stories of up to 10,000 words.
Deadline: tba
Poetry London Mentoring Scheme is offering talented poets free one-to-one mentoring.
Deadline: tba
AUGUST
The HarperCollins Author and Design Academy provides training and support to writers and designers from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds, with the goal of helping them achieve commercial success in the publishing industry. 45 places available for fiction, children’s and non-fiction writers.
Deadline: 18 August
Aesthetica Creative Writing Award is open for entries in two categories: short fiction and poetry
Deadline: 31 August
Megaphone Writers Development Scheme is for aspiring children’s and YA writers.
Deadline: 31 August
The Women Poets Prize is for emerging and established poets. Three winners will receive £1000 bursary and mentoring.
Deadline: tba
SEPTEMBER
Primers is a biannual mentoring and publication scheme organised by Nine Arches Press. It provides a talented poets a programme of supportive feedback, mentoring and promotion as well as a chance to find publication.
Deadline: 14 September
Present Tense Lit Magazine accepts poetry (up to 40 lines), flash fiction (up to 1,000 words), and short stories (up to 3,000 words) as well as creative non-fiction (up to 3,000 words). 2024 themes: Landscape (Summer), Underground (Winter)
Deadline: 30 September (for the Summer issue), 28 February (for the Winter issue)
Manchester Writing Prizes is for fiction of up to 2500 words and poetry of between 3 – 5 poems, with a max. combined length of 120 lines.
Deadline: tba
The Bodley Head/FT Essay Prize Competition 2020 is looking for dynamic, authoritative and lively essays of no more than 3,500 words in English, on any subject from writers aged 18-35.
Deadline: tba
The Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize is for both published and unpublished writers, writing original fiction in English, and from anywhere in the world. Short stories of up to 6000 words
Deadline: tba
OCTOBER
Working-Class Writers’ Prize returns for its fifth year. Entrants should submit the beginning of an unpublished work-in-progress, of no more than 2,000 words in length.
Deadline: 2 October
London Short Story Prize is open to London-based writers, for short stories of up to 5000 words. 50 free entries to low-income writers.
Deadline: tba
The Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction is for short stories of between 2000 and 6000 words.
Deadline: tba
NOVEMBER
New Media Writing Prize showcases exciting and inventive stories and poetry that integrate a variety of digital formats, platforms, and media.
Deadline: tba
DECEMBER
Royal Society of Literature is inviting proposals for their Literature Matters Award. For writing, literary events or projects which either help connect with audiences or topics outside the usual reach of literature, and/or will help generate public discussion about why literature matters.
Deadline: tba
ROLLING
Arts Council Developing your Creative Practice is a fund of between £2000 and £10000 for individual artists and/or creative practitioners.
Deadline: Rolling – Check with ACE
TLC Free Reads Scheme is a manuscript reading scheme for writers on a low income.
Deadline: Rolling – Check with your regional writing partner