Creative Writing Competitions to Enter in the New Year

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Bath Flash Fiction Novella in Flash Award, Discoveries 2022 Award, Fish Memoir Contest, Mogford Prize for Food and Drink Writing, Retreat West First Chapter Competition, The Exeter Novel Prize

January is the time for New Year Resolutions which, for writers, will surely involve finishing that novel or winning a writing competition or two…or three. To help concentrate your mind, below are some tempting opportunities – but please note that some of the deadlines are right at the beginning of the month, which is why this post is a few days early.

The Exeter Novel Prize requires the first 10,000 words of a novel not under contract, including a 500-word synopsis. Any genre can be entered, with the exception of children’s. Prizes: £500, 5x£100. Entry fee: £18. Closing date: 1 January. Details: http://www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk

Mogford Prize for Food and Drink Writing for short stories with food and drink themes, up to 2,500 words. Prizes: £10,000m 3x£250. Entry fee: £10. Closing date: 12 January. Details: http://www.mogfordprize.co.uk/

Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize for the first 40-50 pages of a finished but unpublished novel by a woman writer. Prizes: £1,500. Entry fee: 12. Closing Date 17 January. (Now extended to 12 February) Details: http://www.lucy-cav.cam.ac.uk/fictionprize/

Bath Flash Fiction Novella in Flash Award for flash fiction novellas between 56,00 and 18,000 words. Prizes: £300, 2x£100; publicatin. Entry fee: £16. Closing date: 16 January. Details: https://bathflashfictionaward.com/

Discoveries 2022 Award for novels by female unpublished writers. Prizes: First prize is representation by Curtis Brown Literary Agency and a cash prize of £5,000, plus the opportunity to workshop their manuscript with an Audible commissioning editor specifically matched to their writing style and genre; one promising writer from the shortlist of six will be named Discoveries Scholar and win a free scholarship place to attend a three-month Writing Your Novel course with Curtis Brown, worth £1,800; all shortlisted writers will be offered a mentoring session plus free enrollment on a Curtis Brown Creative six-week online course worth £210; all 16 longlisted authors will be invited to join the two-week online Discoveries Writing Development course, plus receive an annual Audible subscription. Send the first 10,000 words, plus a synopsis of between 500-1,000 words. Entry is free. Deadline 17 January. Details: discoveries.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/

Retreat West First Chapter Competition for the first chapter of a novel, up to 3,500 words. Prizes: critique and review. Entry fee: £10. Closing date: 31 January. Details: http://www.retreatwest.co.uk

UK Film Festival Script Writing Competitions for 3-minute scripts, 10-minute scrips, feature film scripts. Prizes: winning scripts passed to leading directors. Entry fee: varies with category and date: enter early. Closing dte: 28 January. Details: http://www.ukfilmfestival.com

Lancashire Authors’ Association Flash Fiction Competition for a story in exactly 100 words. Prizes: £100. Entry fee: £2, £5 for three. Closing date: 31 January. Details: http://www.lancashireauthorsassociation.co.uk

Fish Short Memoir Contest for personal non-fiction, up to 4,000 words. Prizes: 1,000 Euros, publication in annual Fish Anthology, a week at Casa Ana Writers retreat in Andalucia and 300 Euros expenses; 200 Euros. Entry fee: 18 Euros Closing date: 31 January. Details: http://www.fishpublishing.com

Please check all entry details with special care. Best of luck!

Was Your New Year Resolution to Write More?

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Comedy Women in Print Prize, Drip Action Theatre Company Arundel Festival Theatre Trail Competition, Fish Memoir Contest, Lancashire Authors' Association Flash Fiction Competition, Retreat West, Sarah Manning of The Bent Agency, Teignmouth Festival Poetry Competition, The Cambridge Short Story Competition, The Fiction Factory, The Fiction Factory Short Story Competition, The Mogford Prize Story, University of Southampton Netflix Scrip Competition

If so, here are a selection of writing competitions to enter in January. We don’t mind if you use a quill pen, an ancient Remington, a clapped-out biro, or a top-of-the-range laptop, just get those words down…

University of Southampton Netflix Script Competition – six episodes of 25-30 minutes each, or 45-50 minutes each. Prizes: £500 and submission to Red Production Company; £200; £100, plus £100 for the best student (18-25) and £100 for the best under-18. Deadline 6 January. Details: http://www.greenstories.org.uk/about-the-competition.

The Mogford Prize Story. 2,500 words on the theme of ‘Food and drink’. Prizes: £10,000, plus 3 x £250. Entry fee: £10. Deadline 7 January. Details: http://www.oxford-hotels-restaurants.co.uk/mogford-prize/competition-rules-2019

Comedy Women in Print Prize. Comedy novels by women in two categories: published writers, and unpublished writers. Prizes: £2,000 for published writers; £1,000 and (a wonderful opportunity here) a free place on the University of Hertfordshire MA in Creative Writing for unpublished writers. Entry fee: free for published writers; £10 for unpublished writers. Closing date: 31 January. Details: hello@comedywomeninprint.co.uk

Lancashire Authors’ Association Flash Fiction Competition for a story in exactly 100 words. Prize: £100. Entry fee: £2; £5 for three. Closing date: 31 January. Details: http://www.lancashireauthorsassociation.co.uk

Fish Short Memoir Contest for personal, non-fiction up to 4,000 words. Prizes: 1,000 Euros, publication in an annual Fish Anthology; a week at Casa Ana Writers retreat in Andalucia and 300 Euros travel expenses; seven honourable mentions plus 100 Euros. Entry fee: 17 Euros. Deadline: 31 January. Details: http://www.fishpublishing.com

The Fiction Factory have prizes of £150, £50 and £25 in their Short Story Competition. Entries must be up to 3,000 words and the entry fee is £6. Closing date: January 31. Details: http://fiction-factory.biz/

Retreat West First Chapter Competition offers a prize of submission package feedback and review from literary agent Sarah Manning at The Bent Agency, and a second prize of submission package feedback from Amanda Saint of Retreat West. To enter, submit an opening chapter of up to 3,500 words from an original, unpublished novel in any genre for adult readers. The entry fee is £10 and the closing date 27th January. Details about how to enter through their online submission system are available at http://www.retreatwest.co.uk/competitions/

Drip Action Theatre Company is co-ordinating the Arundel Festival Theatre Trail 2019 and want 30-40-minute plays for performance as part of the Trail. Previous audiences have totalled over 2,000 people, and each play selected will earn its writer £150. The writer of the best script will receive the Joy Goun Award of £250. Eight plays will be selected for performance at eight different venues around Arundel in August 2019. Check details of requirements at http://www.dripaction.com/writers-competition. Entry appears to be free, but please double-check. Only one play is permitted per playwright and they should be posted before the closing date of January 31st.

The Teignmouth Festival Poetry Competition invites entries for their 2019 prize. In the open category (please check website if you’re local), there is a first prize of £500, a second prize of £250, and a third of £100. Enter original unpublished poems up to 35 lines. The fee for online entries if £4.50 for the first poem and £3.50 for additional entries. Closing date is 31 January. Details: http://www.poetryteignmouth.com

The Cambridge Short Story Competition is for stories between 2,000-3,000 words. There is a £1,750 prize fund and all shortlisted entries will be published in an anthology. Entry is £8 per story, payable via Paypal only, and the deadline is January 15th. Check details at https://www.theshortstory.co.uk/competitions/short-story-competition/

Books make the most amazing Christmas gifts – my own haul promises much pleasure to come – so why not make it your Resolution to add your own novel to the ones that will be available next December?

Best of luck – and remember to check those details before entering anything.