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 funded by Arts Council England is responsible for supporting, promoting, and championing writing where you live. These are: Writing East Midlands, Writing West Midlands, London Writers Centre (formerly Spread the Word), New Writing North, New Writing South (South East), Literature Works (South West).
ROLLING
Arts Council Developing your Creative Practice is a fund of between £2000 and £12000 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
JANUARY 2026
The Exeter Novel Prize accept the first ten thousand words including synopsis of a novel that has not been accepted for publication by a traditional publishing house.
Deadline: 1 January
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 For unpublished writers only.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: 7 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: 12 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
The Royal Society for Asian Affairs Travel Awards support practical projects and research that have the potential to contribute to advances in scholarly or other public knowledge including, but not limited to, post-graduate degrees, journalism and travel writing.
Deadline: 31 January
FEBRUARY
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: 8 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Northern Writers’ Awards invite writers from across the North of England to send in their unpublished work-in-progress for the chance to win cash awards and professional development.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: 5 February
Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition is for short stories of no more than 2,000 words.
Deadline: 13 February
The London Library Emerging Writers Programme 2026/27
Deadline: 26 February
MARCH
The Future Worlds Prize is now open for entries! We’re looking for great works of science fiction and fantasy by new writers and we’re open to everything from space operas and dystopias to books set in magical worlds and more.
Deadline: 1 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: Request an application pack by 21 March
The Bath Short Story Award is for short stories of up to 2,200 words.
Deadline: 31 March
APRIL
Alpine Fellowship is awarded for the best piece of writing on the theme of ‘Language’. All genres of writing are permitted, including fiction, non-fiction and non-academic essays.
Deadline: 1 April
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: Cycle 1 (April 4) Cycle 2 (20 June)
Working Class Nature Writing Prize is for unpublished, unrepresented writers who self-identify as working class.
Details
Deadline: 19 April
The Women’s Playwriting Prize is for original scripts that last more than an hour.
Deadline: 22 April
The Guardian Foundation is offering a number of bursaries for a postgraduate qualification in journalism.
Deadline: check the website for details, applications open 3 February.
MAY
Creative Futures Writers’ Award is for underrepresented writers. The prize welcomes fiction and poetry on a set theme annually.
Deadline: 18 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
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: 2 June
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: 19 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.
Deadline: check the website for theme
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
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
JULY
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: check website
Leicester Writes Short Story Prize is for short stories of up to 3,500 words, on any theme or subject. For previously longlisted writers only.
Deadline: 31 July
The Salam Award for Imaginative Fiction is for short stories of up to 10,000 words.
Deadline: 31 July
AUGUST
Writing East Midlands Mentoring Scheme is for writers based in the East Midlands.
Deadline: 5 August
Kali Theatre’s Discovery programme is partnering with Key Theatre, Peterborough to connect with South Asian female and non-binary playwrights throughout Peterborough and in the wider region. Selected writers will be offered playwriting workshops, script development support and a bursary towards travel and childcare expenses. Culminating in a professionally produced showcase.
Deadline: 14 August
Faber’s FAB prize is for BAME new writers and illustrators.
Deadline: 21 August
Merky Books New Writers’ Prize is open to Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic writers who are aged between 18 and 35. You need to submit a 1,500 word extract and 200 word synopsis.
Deadline: 24 August
Aesthetica Creative Writing Award is open for entries in two categories: short fiction and poetry
Deadline: 31 August
The Iowa Short Fiction Award and the John Simmons Short Fiction Award are annual prizes awarded to two collections of stories. Writers who have yet to publish a book-length volume of fiction are eligible to apply, and winning manuscripts are published by The Iowa Press.
Deadline: 31 August
Edinburgh Award Flash Fiction is for flash fiction on any topic up to 250 words. We welcome stories in all genres: literary, historic, crime, romance, realism, contemporary, humour and more.
Deadline: 31 August
The World of Interiors x Montblanc Writing Open Call 2026 invites emerging writers from around the world to submit a 500-word story that explores this year’s theme: ‘Doors & Drawers’.
Deadline: 31 August
SEPTEMBER
The Observer / Redstone Press Postcard Story Prize 2026 invites you to submit an imaginative short story, piece of text, or poem (up to 250 words) in response to a postcard image.
Deadline: 1 September
Primers is open to poets who have not yet published a full-length collection of poems in the UK. We define a full-length collection as any collection of poems of more than 40 pages total. Biannual.
Deadline: check website
Climate Playwriting Prize is open for entries. It is for plays of 70 minutes or longer that engage meaningfully with the climate crisis.
Deadline: 1 September
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: check website
The Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Writer’s Award is a residency prize that grants up to £20,000 annually to two writers from the UK and Latin America for a yet-to-be-published book relating to the Americas.
Deadline: 14 September
The Sareeta Domingo Prize is looking for bold, original and irresistible fiction for an adult audience from unpublished writers who have a compelling story to tell. The Prize is open to writers from Black and Global Majority backgrounds. Free to enter.
Deadline: 21 September
The Mslexia Novel Competition is open to unpublished fiction novels of at least 50,000 words in any genre for adult and/or young adult readers. £28 entry fee.
Deadline: 21 September
Joffe Books Prize aims to discover and launch talented crime writers from Black, Asian, Indigenous, and minority ethnic backgrounds, who are not represented by a literary agent. Submit the first 10,000 words.
Deadline: 30 September
Searchlight Novel Awards for YA and Children’s Fiction is for novels for readers aged 7-18.
Deadline: 30 September
OCTOBER
The Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction is for short stories of between 2000 and 6000 words.
Deadline: varies, check website
Bloomsbury Mentorship Programme is for short stories or novel excerpts up to 2,000 words and a synopsis.
Deadline: 16 October
National Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition is for an unpublished poem of up to 40 lines, open to all poets worldwide aged 18 or over.
Deadline: 31 October
NOVEMBER
Rachel Cooke Graphic Short Story Prize is looking for a four-page comic designed to run over a double-page spread in the Observer New Review – a story that has a beginning, a middle and an end, and that is told through striking, original illustrations.
Deadline: 30 November