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.
JANUARY 2021
BBC Writersroom’s annual window for unsolicited scripts (TV, film, radio, stage or online) will open between 11am on Monday 7th December 2020 and 5pm on Wednesday 6th January 2021.
Deadline: 6 January
The National Centre for Writing is inviting submissions for the University of East Anglia (UEA) New Forms Award and Laura Kinsella Fellowship: two awards for fiction writers at the beginning of their writing careers.
Deadline: 15 January
The Women’s Prize and Curtis Brown have launched 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: 17 January
The Nine Dots Prize is a prize for creative thinking that tackles contemporary societal issues. This year’s question is ‘What does it mean to be young in an ageing world?’
Deadline: 18 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
Megaphone invites applications for writers from an ethnic minority background who are looking for mentoring in writing for children. The scheme includes masterclasses, and information and advice on how to get your book published.
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: 1 February
Spread the Word Life Writing Prize aims to find the best life writing from emerging writers. Free to enter.
Deadline: 1 February
Papatango New Writing Prize is now open for entries for scripts. Offers feedback to all entries.
Deadline: 7 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 For unpublished writers only.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: 12 February
Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition is for short stories of no more than 2000 words.
Deadline: 12 February
Word Factory Apprenticeship is a programme offering creative inspiration, writer development and a unique community of supportive writers for unpublished writers of short stories.
Deadline: 18 February
Northern Writers’ Awards 2021 invite writers from across the North of England to send in their unpublished work-in-progress for the chance to win a share of £40,000 in cash awards and professional development.
Deadline: 18 February
ELEVATE is an Arts Council funded scheme that pairs low-income and/or underrepresented writers with specialist editors to develop their work.
Deadline: 21 February
adda magazine is seeking translated work from South and Southeast Asia. Accepting poetry, non-fiction, and fiction: non-fiction entries – in particular – are strongly encouraged.
Deadline: 21 February
Neema Shah is offering to mentor writers from underrepresented backgrounds.
Deadline: 26 February
Avon x Mushens Entertainment Prize is open to writers from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds who are writing a commercial novel. Novels do not need to be complete at the time of submission.
Deadline: 28 February
Owned Voices Novel Award is open to unagented writers from an underrepresented background. Writers must have a complete novel at the time of submission.
Deadline: 28 February
MARCH
Mslexia is looking for pieces about artists and their subjects, about seeing and being seen, about paint, pencil and film for their 90th issue.
Deadline: 8 March
The Ledbury Emerging Poetry Critics 2021 is a national programme to encourage diversity in poetry reviewing culture aimed at emerging critical voices.
Deadline: 15 March
Pontas Literary & Film Agency and JJ Bola are partnering to create a mentoring prize for unagented, unpublished, under-represented writers.
Deadline: 15 March
The Borough Press are currently running an Open Submission period for writers from underrepresented backgrounds. Submit the first 10,000 words.
Deadline: 31 March
Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize 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: tba
APRIL
Royal Literary Fund Fellowships offer professional writers the opportunity to work in a university for two days a week helping students develop their writing.
Deadline: now open
The Bath Short Story Award is for short stories of up to 2,200 words.
Deadline: 19 April
The White Review Short Story Prize is an annual short story competition for short stories of up to 7,000 words.
Deadline: 26 April
The RSL has partnered with Sky Arts, led by Awards Ambassador and RSL Vice-President, Bernardine Evaristo to launch a new set of Awards focused on discovering and nurturing talented emerging writers of colour.
Deadline: 30 April
Write Beyond Borders is a British-Council funded project for emerging writers of South Asian background based in the UK, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
Deadline: 30 April
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: 30 April
Bad Betty Press is open for submissions for its 2021 anthology, The Book of Bad Betties. They are looking for poems that pay tribute to the women who’ve changed our lives.
Deadline: 30 April
MAY
Bristol Short Story Prize is for published and unpublished writers and is for short stories of up to 4000 words.
Deadline: 5 May
Writing Our Legacy is offering 15 bursaries of £500 to Black, Asian or ethnically diverse writers in Sussex, Hampshire or the wider South East to research and develop new writing or project work with a focus on the landscape of South Downs National Park.
Deadline: 5 May
The Times/Chicken House Books Children’s Fiction Comp is looking for completed full-length children’s/YA novel. Prize: £10k advance and representation.
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.
Deadline: 31 May
The Bath Novel Award is for unpublished novels. Submit 5,000 words plus a one-page synopsis.
Deadline: 31 May
Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize is for fiction, poetry and life writing up to 3,000 words.
Deadline: 31 May
All Stories offers free mentorships for underrepresented children’s book and YA writers unable to pay for support.
Deadline: 31 May
JUNE
Leicester Writes Short Story Prize is for short stories of up to 3,500 words, on any theme or subject.
Deadline: 1 June
Creative Futures Writers’ Award is for under-represented writers. The prize welcomes fiction and poetry on a set theme annually.
Deadline: 6 June
Mslexia is inviting short stories no longer than 2,200 words (which translates to a 15-minute radio broadcast slot) and poems up to 40 lines on the theme of Roots for their Showcase section.
Deadline: 7 June
Faber’s FAB prize is for BAME new writers and illustrators.
Deadline: now open
The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is the UK’s biggest national competition for playwriting.
Deadline: tba
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: 30 June
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: 1 July
Primadonna Prize is for unsigned and unrepresented new writing talent. Entrants must submit 500 words on the theme ‘the more things change.’
Deadline: tba
The Salam Award for Imaginative Fiction is for short stories of up to 10,000 words.
Deadline: 31 July
The Women’s Prize for Playwriting is for scripts which are at least an hour long.
Deadline: 12 July
Poetry London Mentoring Scheme is offering talented poets free one-to-one mentoring.
Deadline: tba
AUGUST
Novel London Literary Competition is inviting international writers to submit their opening chapter.
Deadline: tba
The Women Poets Prize is for emerging and established poets. Three winners will receive £1000 bursary and mentoring.
Deadline: tba
Richard & Judy’s Search For A Bestseller is accepting manuscripts from unpublished authors.
Deadline: tba
Costa Short Story Award is for short stories of up to 4000 words. Prize fund: £5000
Deadline: tba
Aesthetica Creative Writing Award is open for entries in two categories: short fiction and poetry
Deadline: tba
SEPTEMBER
Gatehouse New Fiction Prize seeks to encourage new writers to explore the possibilities of length within the short fiction genre. For short fiction up to 8000 and 12,000 words.
Deadline: tba
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
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 are 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 new 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
The Faber Academy Scholarship is intended to help someone who would not be otherwise able to attend their Writing a Novel course. The scholarship covers course fees only.
Deadline: Rolling – Check with Faber