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 2022
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: 17 January
Papatango New Writing Prize is now open for entries for scripts. Offers feedback to all entries.
Deadline: 30 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
Room 204 is Writing West Midlands’ writer development programme for emerging writers in the region. The programme includes mentoring and career development.
Deadline: 31 January
FEBRUARY
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) on the set theme. Spring/Summer theme: Water/fall
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 For unpublished writers only.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: 11 February
Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition is for short stories of no more than 2,000 words.
Deadline: 11 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Northern Writers’ Awards invite writers from across the North of England to send in their unpublished work-in-progress for the chance to win a share of £40,000 in cash awards and professional development.
Deadline: 17 February
Writerz and Scribez CIC is accepting submissions for Griot’s Well – a 1 year poetry development programme for Black and ethnically diverse poets over the age of 25.
Deadline: 18 February
Writing for Theatre: Asserting & Celebrating Diversity Arvon at Home writing week is a unique opportunity for early-career playwrights to participate in an online week with two award-winning tutors. Fully funded by the Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation.
Deadline: 18 February
MARCH
Reykjavík UNESCO City of Literature is offering a free one month residency for a writer from another UNESCO City of Literature in September 2022.
Deadline: 1 March
The London Library Emerging Writers Programme 2022/23 is a unique opportunity which offers writers, in all genres, one year’s free membership of The London Library and includes writing development masterclasses, literary networking opportunities, peer support, and guidance in using the Library’s resources.
Deadline: 2 March
Visible Communities residencies at Dragon Hall are open to UK-based Black, Asian and Ethnically Diverse literary translators working from any language into English.
Deadline: 2 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: 14 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: 28 March
Aziz Foundation Scholarships 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
APRIL
The Guardian Foundation is offering a number of bursaries for a postgraduate qualification in journalism.
Deadline: 3 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: 8 April
The Bath Short Story Award is for short stories of up to 2,200 words.
Deadline: 11 April
The White Review Short Story Prize is an annual short story competition for short stories of up to 7,000 words.
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
Bristol Short Story Prize is for published and unpublished writers and is for short stories of up to 4000 words.
Deadline: 4 May
The Asian Writer is inviting short stories and flash fiction for its next anthology Being Brown, celebrating the diverse cultures of Asia and the diaspora.
Deadline: 13 May
Creative Futures Writers’ Award is for under-represented writers. The prize welcomes fiction and poetry on a set theme annually. 2022 theme: How it started
Deadline: 22 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
The Novelry Octopus Scheme, an initiative to nurture writing talent from under-represented or disadvantaged backgrounds is now open for applications.
Deadline: 31 May
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: 1 June
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 the theme of Keys for their Showcase section.
Deadline: 6 June
The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is the UK’s biggest national competition for playwriting.
Deadline: 6 June
Leicester Writes Short Story Prize is for short stories of up to 3,500 words, on any theme or subject.
Deadline: 20 June
Faber’s FAB prize is for BAME new writers and illustrators.
Deadline: closed
All Stories Mentorship is for writers of middle grade and young adult books to benefit from in-depth feedback, support and guidance from experienced editors.
Deadline: 30 June
Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize is for fiction, poetry and life writing up to 3,000 words.
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: 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: closed
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: tba
The Women’s Prize for Playwriting is for scripts which are at least an hour long.
Deadline: tba
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 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
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: rolling