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About the Whiting Awards

Whiting awards, since 1985, the foundation has supported creative writing through the whiting awards, given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. the awards, of $50,000 each, are based on early accomplishment and the promise of great work to come..

We hope to identify exceptional new writers whose work we believe has the power to impact literary culture (and beyond): the writers to watch. Though the writers may not necessarily be young (talent may emerge at any age), the grant ideally offers recipients a first opportunity to devote themselves fully to writing, and the recognition has a significant impact.  Whiting winners have gone on to win numerous prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Obie Award, and MacArthur, Guggenheim, and Lannan fellowships, and their work has shaped and advanced literature in this country over the past three decades .  For a list of our previous winners, click here .

The Foundation does not accept applications or unsolicited nominations. Rather, we invite nominators from across the country whose work brings them in contact with individuals of extraordinary talent to propose a single candidate each. The pool of nominators changes annually, and has included writers, professors, editors, agents, critics, booksellers, artistic directors of theaters, dramaturgs, and directors of literary festivals or reading series. Winners are chosen by a selection committee, a small group of recognized writers, literary scholars, and editors appointed every year by the Foundation. 

We promise anonymity to our nominators and selectors so they will not be subject to pressure, and so they can speak candidly about the writers under consideration. We also ask our nominators not to reveal to their candidates that they are under consideration to avoid any potential anxiety about the selection process.

The Whiting has undertaken a very difficult task, which is of discovering talent and promise in beginning writers.  This is much more anxious-making than acknowledging what others have discovered. 

Elizabeth hardwick, whiting awards keynote speaker, 1989, these awards are among the few that are large enough to give the gift of time as writers measure it, which is in very large chunks. , frances fitzgerald, whiting awards keynote speaker, 1995, the writing of the end of beauty   would simply not have been attempted had i not received both the sense of encouragement and the almost enforced time-off from teaching your award provided. , jorie graham, whiting awards winner, 1985, the whiting awards are a wonderful antidote to self-doubt. , seamus heaney, whiting awards keynote speaker, 1998, this is the contest that we are looking at: on the one hand, a chaotic degeneration which affects so large a part of american society, the wild excitement and the need for super-stimulation, and on the other hand, the attempt to hold attention in a kind of stillness, which is what writers and poets do. , saul bellow, whiting awards keynote speaker, 1985.

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Creative Writing Prizes for Undergraduates

These prizes are awarded at the annual Creative Writing Awards ceremony each May. Please see the next section for submission details .

• The Sidney Cox Memorial Prize:

The Sidney Cox Memorial Prize is offered annually for that piece of undergraduate writing which most nearly meets those high standards of originality and integrity which Sidney Cox set for himself and for his students in his teaching and in his book, Indirections for Those Who Want to Write.  Any kind of undergraduate writing in English may be submitted; there is no limit to the amount or variety of the material that any individual may submit; and the award is not limited to students majoring or minoring in English.

•   Academy of American Poets Prize:

 The Academy of American Poets Prize is offered for the best poem or group of poems.

• Jacobson-Laing Award in Poetry:

The Jacobson-Laing Award will be given to an undergraduate for the "best manuscript of original poems."

• Lockwood Prize:

Competition for the Lockwood Prize is open to undergraduates classified as Junior. Any form of writing except plays may be submitted. A group of short poems may be considered as one manuscript.

• Grimes Prize:

Competition for the Grimes Prize is open to undergraduates classified as Senior. Any form of writing except plays may be submitted. A group of short poems may be considered as one manuscript.

• The William C. Spengemann Award in Writing:

The William C. Spengemann Award in Writing is given for a work of prose or poetry distinguished by its formal precision, as well as its original, innovative, or iconoclastic approach to its subject matter.

• The Mecklin Prize:

 The Mecklin Prize is for the best student writing in creative nonfiction or journalism. 

• The Erskine Caldwell Prize:

The Erskine Caldwell prize is awarded to a student(s) whose written work in the short story is most outstanding.     

• The Ralston Prize

The Thomas Henry Ralston VI Creative Writing Prize is for the most outstanding student in an introductory creative writing class, in any genre (fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry). Please do not submit to this prize. This prize is selected by creative writing faculty.

Creative Writing Prizes Rules and Instructions

READ CAREFULLY

Please read these submission instructions carefully. Your submission will not be considered if it does not follow the guidelines below. If you have any questions, please email [email protected] .

The deadline to submit to the 2024 Creative Writing Prizes is Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at 4 p.m. ET (Eastern Time) . Submissions will open on Monday, February 5, 2024. Please submit through this online form . You must complete the online submission form (which includes uploading a cover letter and your piece(s) as a single PDF) in order to be considered. See details and rules below.

• This writing contest is open to all Dartmouth undergraduate students.
• The PDF must include a cover letter as the first page. The cover letter must include your full name, the titles of each piece, and the prizes you would like each piece to be considered for. See cover sheet sample . The cover letter must match what you enter in the online submission form.
• Your piece(s) must start on the second page of the PDF. Please title every piece in the document.
• You must use a minimum of 12 pt font in Times New Roman . Prose submissions must be double-spaced. Poetry submissions may be single-spaced.
• Your document must include page numbers. Your cover letter should be page 1.
• Save your work, with the cover letter as the first page, as one PDF document. You may use this template: Creative Writing Prizes Submission PDF Template (note that the template is a Word document, which you can edit, and then save as a PDF).
• Name the PDF file as lastname_firstname_2024.pdf (e.g., Shakespeare_William_2024.pdf).
• Upload your PDF to the online submission form. Your PDF upload must match what you submit in the online form. Double check to make sure you have listed the correct titles and prizes in the cover letter, and that you have included the correct pieces in the PDF.
• Your submission will not be considered if it does not follow the above PDF guidelines.
• You may submit a maximum of two pieces for consideration . You can submit each piece for multiple prizes. Please read each prize description and eligibility requirements to determine which prizes your piece can be submitted to. You must indicate which prizes you are submitting your pieces to in the online submission form as well as on the cover letter in your PDF.
• Fiction and creative nonfiction submissions are limited to one short story, or one nonfiction piece, or one chapter of a book length manuscript not to exceed 20 double-spaced typewritten pages. If your submission is an excerpt from a novel or longer piece of writing, please include a 1-page synopsis.
• A group of poems should have 6-8 poems and the document must not exceed 12 pages single-spaced.
• Pieces that previously won a Creative Writing Prize cannot be submitted again. They will not be considered.
• You must submit work that is solely yours. Collaborations are not accepted.

The prize winners will be announced in early May 2024. There will be a prize ceremony with readings on Thursday, May 9, 2024 at 4:30 p.m. in Sanborn Library.

The 2024 Creative Writing Prizes judge is Andrea Cohen . Andrea Cohen is the author of eight poetry collections, including  The Sorrow Apartments , just out with Four Way Books. Other recent books include  Everything  and  Nightshade . Cohen 's poems have appeared in  The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Threepenny Review, The Atlantic Monthly,  and elsewhere. Her awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship and several residencies at MacDowell. She directs the Blacksmith House Poetry Series in Cambridge, MA and is teaching at Boston University this spring.

Past Winners

View past Creative Writing Prize winners .

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Penguin Random House and We Need Diverse Books Congratulate Winners of the 2024 Creative Writing Awards!

June 3, 2024 by We Need Diverse Books

Penguin Random House grants $60,000 in scholarship awards to six exceptional high school senior literary voices from across the country

New York, NY, June 3, 2024 — Six exceptional public high school seniors from across the country have been chosen as winners of the 2024 Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards in partnership with We Need Diverse Books, a national grassroots organization that advocates for diversity in literature. This year marks the first time the Freedom of Expression Award has been presented.

The Freedom of Expression Award was specifically created in response to the rise in book bans across the country, and to celebrate the power of books and stories. Applicants to the new award were asked to answer the prompt, “ Tell us about one banned book that changed your life and why .”

Book bans have reached an all-time high in recent years, according to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, climbing 65 percent in 2023 versus 2022. Forty-seven percent of the 4,240 unique book titles targeted for removal in 2023 featured LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC characters.

Prizes were awarded in the following categories: the inaugural Freedom of Expression Award, the Michelle Obama Award for Memoir, the Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry, the Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word, fiction & drama, and the NYC Entrant Award.

2024 Winners

To learn more about this year’s CWA winners and read their winning pieces, follow this link !

Claire von Schilling , EVP, Director Corporate Communications and Social Responsibility, Penguin Random House said, “Every year, we are blown away by the caliber of talent of our Creative Writing Award winners, and this year was no exception. Together with We Need Diverse Books, we are excited to uplift these captivating and diverse stories—and proud to champion young people’s voices in the face of rampant book bans and censorship efforts.”

Caroline Richmond , Executive Director of WNDB said, “We are thrilled to present the first Freedom of Expression Award, and to celebrate these outstanding young voices. These exceptional entries showcase valuable perspectives and remind us that diverse viewpoints are essential and life saving.”

More than 1,000 students from nearly 900 high schools across 50 states and two territories entered the competition, which is celebrating its 31st year. Each first-place recipient of the Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards will receive a $10,000 college scholarship and a week of summer professional development from Penguin Random House, including a one-on-one coaching from some of the industry’s best editors, networking workshops, a panel about career opportunities in publishing, and a fireside chat with a Penguin Random House author. The week concludes with a virtual awards ceremony.

In addition, 78 honorable mentions are awarded to outstanding entries. These honorees will receive a “Creativity Kit,” which includes writing resources and books.

Every submission to the competition was given individual consideration via a rigorous scoring process by We Need Diverse Books and Penguin Random House. Judges for We Need Diverse Books included WNDB Executive Director Caroline Richmond, WNDB CEO and award-winning author Ellen Oh, and WNDB COO and New York Times bestselling author Dhonielle Clayton, along with a selection of educators and publishing professionals. Judges for PRH included members of the Penguin Random House Intellectual Freedom Taskforce: Dominique Cimina, Skip Dye, Carmela Iaria, Dan Novack; CWA Alumni: Kiora Brooks, Chloe Cramutola, Ife Martin, Melissa Vera, Maya Williams; Penguin Random House volunteers: Keline Adams, Isabela Alcantara, Tracy Bernstein, Allison Chan, Erin Colombo, Kristen Costa, Ximena Gonzalez, Megha Jain, Daniel Ortega-Venni, Mia Pulido, Miriam Tuliao, Sarah Turbin, Angela Rose West.

About Penguin Random House : Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade book publisher, is dedicated to its mission of nourishing a universal passion for reading by connecting authors and their writing with readers everywhere. The company, which employs more than 10,000 people globally, was formed on July 1, 2013, by Bertelsmann and Pearson, who own 75 percent and 25 percent, respectively. With nearly 275 independent imprints and brands on six continents, Penguin Random House comprises adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital English- and Spanish-language trade book publishing businesses in more than 20 countries worldwide. With over 15,000 new titles and more than 600 million print, audio and eBooks sold annually, Penguin Random House’s publishing lists include more than 80 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors. www.penguinrandomhouse.com

About We Need Diverse Books : Founded by marginalized authors, We Need Diverse Books strives to diversify the publishing industry and make our bookshelves more equitable — all to promote literacy, build empathy, and reduce bias. Established in 2014, WNDB is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports diverse creators and publishing professionals via grants, mentorships, and workshops. We also serve educators and teachers nationwide, providing over 100,000 diverse books to schools and libraries. Learn more at www.diversebooks.org

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2022 creative writing award winners, april 21, 2022.

Quantá Holden | Duke English Digital Communication Specialist

We are excited to announce the winners of the 2022 Creative Writing Contests and the Creative Writing Scholarship awardees. Each year the English Department administers writing contests to recognize fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry by English majors and non-major undergraduates. Congratulations to the following students! 

Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Fiction Sascha Seinfeld, '23

Family members and friends of former English student Anne Flexner (1945) established the Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Creative Writing to recognize undergraduates for their work in fiction and poetry. 

Reynolds Price Award for Fiction Thalia Halloran, '22 Download Thalia Halloran’s “What I Done To You"  (docx - 25.31 KB) The Reynolds Price Fiction Award was established in memory of the distinguished novelist, essayist, poet, and public intellectual Reynolds Price, a graduate of Duke and professor in the English Department for over 50 years. 

CREATIVE NONFICTION

George P. Lucaci Award for Creative NonFiction Haoning Jiang, ’23  (1st place)   Download Haoning Jiang’s “Snowmen"  (docx - 27.36 KB) Francisco Angel Banda, ’23  (2nd place) Download Franciso Angel Banda’s “Travelling"  (docx - 25.17 MB) This award was created to encourage creative nonfiction writing and to honor George P. Lucaci, a former Duke student who has been an active supporter of undergraduate creative writing in the English Department for many years. 

Academy of American Poets Prize Marina Chen, ’24 (1st Prize) Download Marina Chen’s “Dreams About Blood"  (docx - 20.92 KB)

Spencer Chang, ’25  (Honorable Mention) Download Spencer Chang’s “Ghost Stories"  (docx - 20.53 KB) Founded in 1934 in New York City, the Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization advocating for American poets and poetry.  Its mission is to support American poets at all stages of their careers and foster contemporary poetry appreciation. 

Anne Flexner Memorial Award  for Poetry:  (co-winners) Margot Armbruster, ‘22 Download Margot Armbruster’s “clean suite"  (docx - 24.77 KB) Tina Xia, ‘23 Download Tina Xia’s “Waiting for the rain to fall"  (docx - 18.96 KB) Family members and friends of former English student Anne Flexner (1945) established the Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Creative Writing to recognize undergraduates for their work in fiction and poetry. 

Terry Welby Tyler, Jr Award for Poetry (co-winners) Lauren Garbett, '23  Download Lauren Garbett’s “From the Other"  (docx - 16.27 KB)

Rebecca Schneid, ‘23 Download Rebecca Schneid’s “Meditations on February"  (docx - 15.24 KB) The family of Terry Welby Tyler, Jr. established this award in his memory to recognize and encourage outstanding undergraduate poets. Welby, an English major who loved poetry, would have graduated with the class of 1997 had he not passed away in 1996.  

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CREATIVE WRITING FELLOWSHIPS

The National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowships program offers $25,000 grants in  prose  (fiction and creative nonfiction) and  poetry  to published creative writers that enable the recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. 

This program operates on a two-year cycle with fellowships in prose and poetry available in alternating years. In 2024 we will be accepting applications in poetry.  

Learn  more about past recipients of our literature fellowships  in the Literary Arts Impact section. 

If you have questions about your application, please contact the Literary Arts staff at 202-682-5034 or email  [email protected]

Stay Connected to the National Endowment for the Arts

Creative Writing in English

Introduced in 2006, the awards in this category have been won by poets, short story writers and playwrights. The volume of entries has grown exponentially over the years and has explored a diversity of styles and themes – from performance poetry to science fiction. The composition of the jury for these awards includes poets, literary critics, novelists, journalists, scholars and teachers from different parts of the country.

2024 Longlist – Creative Writing (English)

TFA is pleased to announce the longlist for the nineteenth edition of the TOTO Awards for Creative Writing in English. From a total of 194 applications that we received, 26 young writers have been longlisted for the two awards. Their names, in no particular order, are:

Faiz Ahmad, Mumbai

Aditya Gautam, Bengaluru

Yamini Krishnan, New Delhi

Abhishek Basak, Delhi

Varsha Ananth Murthy, Bengaluru

Azhar Wani, Srinagar

Zainab Ummer Farook, Kozhikode

Tuhin Bhowal, Bengaluru

Sumedha Chakravarthy, New Delhi

Ajay Kumar, Hyderabad

Vismaya Vishwa, Bengaluru

Tanya Singh, Chandigarh

Shinjini Dey, Secunderabad

Michael Verghese, Bengaluru

Lonav Ojha, Tezpur

Rose Maria Alexis, Bengaluru

Tanvi Kulkarni, Pune

Kanika Ahuja, New Delhi

Kinshuk Gupta, Kaithal

Navya Sah, Bengaluru

Prerna Kalbag, Delhi

Afreen Khan, Delhi

Nupur Saraswat, Bengaluru

Subhrojyoti Mukherjee, Kolkata

Ishani Pant, Kolkata

Denzel Joyson AJ, Bengaluru

These awards are supported by Mani Rao Foundation and Naboneeta Majumdar.

Past Winners

Moachiba Jamir, Aparna Chivukula (2023)

Aswin Vijayan, Uday Kanungo (2022)

Kunjana Parashar, Amulya B (2021)

Riddhi Dastidar, Noor Niamat Singh (2020)

Swati Simha, Shreya Ila Anasuya (2019)

Maya Palit, Urvashi Bahuguna (2018)

Arvind Jayan, Sohini Basak (2017)

Tushar Jain, Danish Shaikh (2016)

Mohit Parikh, Kaushik Viswanath (2015)

Rohan Chhetri, Mihir Vatsa (2014)

Swetanshu Bora, Aditi Rao (2013)

Ramneek Singh, Joshua Muyiwa (2012)

Deepika Arwind, Ishita Basu Mallik (2011)

Abhishek Majumdar, Ram Ganesh Kamatham (2010)

Aditi Machado, Neel Chaudhuri (2009)

Anindita Sengupta, Arka Mukhopadhyay (2008)

Monica Mody, Sneha Rajaram (2007)

Nisha Susan, Shakti Bhatt, SS Prasad (2006 )

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70 Outstanding Writing Competitions and Book Awards (Ultimate Guide)

Attention all authors, aspiring authors, and hobbyist writers! Whether you’re an experienced novelist, an emerging writer, or a passionate hobbyist, writing competitions and book awards are an excellent way to get recognition for your work, not to mention potential cash prizes, publication deals, and invaluable exposure.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ve rounded up 70 of the most compelling writing competitions and book awards from around the globe. From short stories to poetry, first novels to works of non-fiction, there’s something here for every writer. These awards and competitions welcome works across a broad spectrum of genres, styles, and themes.

So, dust off that manuscript or fire up your computer and start crafting a winning entry for one of these fantastic writing opportunities. Deadlines vary, and the specifics of each contest are subject to change, so make sure to check out the provided links for all the details. Happy writing and good luck!

• Man Booker Prize : This is arguably one of the most prestigious English-language literary awards in the world. It is awarded each year for the best original novel written in English and published in the UK. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Newbery Medal : Awarded annually by the American Library Association to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. Deadline: Varies Website
• Hugo Awards : One of the most prestigious science fiction awards. Named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories. Deadline: Varies Website
• Nebula Awards : Presented annually by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), for the best science fiction or fantasy works. Deadline: Varies Website
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction : One of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Edgar Awards : Presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, named after Edgar Allan Poe. Deadline: Varies Website
• Costa Book Awards : Recognizes some of the most enjoyable books of the year, written by authors based in the UK and Ireland. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Women’s Prize for Fiction : One of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious literary prizes, awarded annually to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English. Deadline: Varies Website
• Caine Prize for African Writing : An annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, published in the English language. Deadline: January 31, 2024 Website
• The Commonwealth Short Story Prize : An annual award for unpublished short fiction open to citizens of the 53 Commonwealth countries. Deadline: November 1, 2023 Website
• National Book Awards : Presented annually by the National Book Foundation, with awards in four categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature. Deadline: Varies Website
• International Dylan Thomas Prize : Presented annually to the best published or produced literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award : The world’s richest prize for a single short story, open to any novelist or short story writer from around the world who has been published in the UK or Ireland. Deadline: Varies Website
• Bridport Prize : One of the most prestigious awards in the field of poetry, short stories, and flash fiction. Open internationally. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Bath Novel Award : An international prize for emerging novelists writing for adults or young adults. The winner receives £3,000. Deadline: Varies Website
• Bristol Short Story Prize : An annual international writing competition open to all published and unpublished UK and non-UK based writers. Deadline: Varies Website
• Yeovil Literary Prize : Open to anyone over the age of 16, with categories for novels, short stories, and poetry. Deadline: Varies Website
• Grindstone Literary International Novel Prize : This competition is open to any writer, anywhere, with a completed manuscript. There’s a cash prize and the chance for your work to be presented to literary agents. Deadline: Varies Website
• The BBC National Short Story Award : One of the most significant awards for a single short story. Open to UK residents or nationals. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Eric Gregory Award : For a collection by poets under the age of 30. Administered by the Society of Authors. Deadline: Varies Website
• James Tait Black Prizes : Awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain’s oldest literary awards. Administered by the University of Edinburgh. Deadline: Varies Website
• Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition : Offers the winner a cash prize, a place on an Arvon residential writing course, and publication on the W&A website. Open to all unpublished authors. Deadline: Varies Website
• Bath Flash Fiction Award : An award for flash fiction of up to 300 words. Open to writers worldwide. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Paris Review Discovery Prize : Known as the Plimpton Prize, this $10,000 award recognizes an emerging writer of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or literary criticism published in the Paris Review. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Stella Prize : A significant literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing, championing diversity and cultural change. Deadline: Varies Website
• Fish Publishing Short Story Prize : An international competition welcoming stories on any subject. The top ten stories are published in the Fish Anthology. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Booker Prize for Fiction : One of the most prestigious international literary awards for novels written in English. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Manchester Writing Competition : Offers the UK’s biggest literary awards for unpublished work, administered by Manchester Metropolitan University. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Debut Dagger : Sponsored by the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) in the UK, this is for the opening of a crime novel that has not been previously published in any form. Deadline: Varies Website
• Foley Poetry Contest : Every year America Magazine receives hundreds of entries for the Foley Poetry Contest from around the world. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Montreal International Poetry Prize : A global poetry competition open to any English poem of 40 lines or less. The prize awards $20,000 CAD to the winner. Deadline: Varies Website
• Mogford Prize for Food and Drink Writing : This annual short story competition is all about food and drink, and awards a £10,000 prize. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Caledonia Novel Award : An Edinburgh-based, international award for unpublished and self-published novelists. Deadline: Varies Website
• ServiceScape Short Story Award : This contest is for new short stories of up to 5,000 words. The winner receives $1,000 and publication. Deadline: Varies Website
• The New Voices Award : Presented by Lee & Low Books for a children’s picture book manuscript by a writer of color or a Native/Indigenous writer. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award : An annual grant of $2,000 for an emerging writer of color who has not yet published a full-length work. Deadline: Varies Website
• Toni Beauchamp Prize in Critical Art Writing : A writing competition open to writers of all levels, backgrounds, and from any country. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing : Alternates yearly between accepting unpublished fiction and nonfiction submissions. Deadline: Varies Website
• Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize : Aimed at celebrating cutting-edge fiction, this contest awards a cash prize, a writing residency, and more. Deadline: Varies Website
• Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship : This Australian fellowship awards $15,000 for the writing of a new biography. Deadline: Varies Website
• The American Library in Paris Visiting Fellowship : Offers a $5,000 stipend for a month-long stay in Paris, France, for research and writing. Deadline: Varies Website
• Hodson Trust-John Carter Brown Fellowship : A fellowship that supports work by academics, independent scholars, and writers working on significant projects relating to the literature, history, culture, or art of the Americas before 1830. Deadline: Varies Website
• The McKitterick Prize : An award for first novels, in the name of Tom-Gallon, who bequeathed his estate to the Society of Authors. Deadline: Varies Website
• CINTAS Foundation Fellowship in Creative Writing : Awards up to $20,000 in cash grants to individuals of Ibero-American descent working on a creative writing project. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Malahat Review’s Open Season Awards : Open for poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction from writers worldwide. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Orwell Prize for Political Writing : Britain’s most prestigious prize for political writing. A political book prize, a journalism prize, and a prize for exposing Britain’s social evils. Deadline: Varies Website
• Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction : This annual award recognizes the most outstanding work of fiction by an Albertan author. Deadline: Varies Website
• Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting : This international screenwriting competition awards up to five fellowships of $35,000 each year. Deadline: Varies Website
• CBC Literary Prizes : CBC Books has annual awards for original, unpublished works in categories: Short Story, Poetry, and Creative Nonfiction. Deadline: Varies Website
• William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition : Open to all writing in all genres, to all writers, this competition has multiple categories and prizes. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Adventure Writers Competition : This is an international competition now in its tenth year, and there is a cash prize. Deadline: Varies Website
• Drue Heinz Literature Prize : You can win $15,000 and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press with this prize, awarded for a collection of short fiction. Deadline: Varies Website
• Tony Hillerman Prize : An annual award by St. Martin’s Press for best first mystery set in the Southwest. The winner gets a contract with St. Martin’s Press. Deadline: Varies Website
• Friends of American Writers Chicago Awards : FAW presents two annual awards: an Adult Literature Award for literary fiction or nonfiction, and a Juvenile Literature Award for a children’s/YA book. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Sunday Times Short Story Award : A British competition open to any writer over 18 who has been previously published in the UK or Ireland. Deadline: Varies Website
• Bristol Short Story Prize : An international writing competition based in Bristol, UK, which is open to all published and unpublished, UK and non-UK based writers. Deadline: Varies Website
• PageTurner Award : Has a writing contest and book cover contest for indie authors. Varies Website
• Doris Gooderson Short Story Competition : Offers a first prize of £200 in an annual competition for a story on any subject. Maximum 1200 words. Deadline: Varies Website
• Young Lions Fiction Award : This $10,000 award recognizes “young authors,” which the rules define as any author aged 35 or younger. Deadline: Varies Website
• Colorado Prize for Poetry : This contest from Colorado State University’s Center for Literary Publishing offers a $2,000 honorarium and publication of a book-length collection of poetry. Deadline: Varies Website
• The Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize : This contest from Selected Shorts radio program at Symphony Space in New York City offers the winner $1000 and their story read live. Deadline: Varies Website
• Bridport Prize : From the UK, the Bridport Prize offers a substantial amount of money for short fiction and poems. The competition is open to anyone. Deadline: Varies Website
• Cinnamon Press Writing Awards : Any debut novelist or short story writer working in English can apply. Winners receive a one year mentorship program with the press. Deadline: Varies Website
• Inkitt Novel Competition : Inkitt runs contests regularly, so be sure to check back often! You could win cash, or an investment towards a book deal. Deadline: Varies Website
• Notting Hill Editions Essay Prize : Biennial essay competition, with a first prize of $20,000 and five runner-up prizes of $1,000. Deadline: Varies Website
• Aesthetica Creative Writing Award : Aesthetica Magazine runs this contest for short fiction and poetry. Winners receive a cash prize, publication, and more. Deadline: Varies Website
• Commonwealth Short Story Prize : This prize is part of Commonwealth Writers and is for unpublished short fiction. Winners and runners-up get cash prizes. Deadline: Varies Website
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction : Honors the best published works of fiction by American citizens in a calendar year. Three finalists also each receive a smaller cash prize. Deadline: Varies Website
• Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence : This contest aims to honor outstanding and deserving writers, working and shaping literature. Deadline: Varies Website
• Jan Michalski Prize for Literature : An international literary award for any work of fiction or nonfiction published anywhere in the world in any language. Deadline: Varies Website

PS if you’re entering a short story competition , it may be worth hiring an editor .

Rise of AI: The Impact on Short Story Competitions

The emergence and rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have brought about dramatic changes across all sectors, and the world of literature is no exception. In recent years, AI has started to show impressive capabilities in creative writing, leading to an unexpected consequence – some short story competitions are closing their doors due to a flood of submissions generated by AI.

AI tools, like OpenAI’s GPT-3, have become so sophisticated that they can generate short stories that are nearly indistinguishable from those written by humans. While this might sound like an exciting advancement, it has led to an ethical quandary for writing competitions.

The purpose of these contests has traditionally been to celebrate and encourage human creativity, offering aspiring and established writers a platform to share their work, receive recognition, and often, to win cash prizes. However, with AI now capable of generating compelling narratives, it’s becoming increasingly challenging for competition organizers to discern whether a submission is the work of a human or a machine.

This influx of AI-produced stories has led to a new form of competition flooding. It’s not uncommon for these competitions to receive thousands of entries, but with AI, that number could easily surge into the millions. Faced with an insurmountable volume of submissions, some competition organizers have found no other solution than to shut down.

This development raises important questions about the role of AI in creative fields. Is AI-generated literature a form of creativity to be celebrated, or does it undermine the value of human imagination? And if AI continues to infiltrate this space, how can competitions adapt to ensure they’re still rewarding and promoting human creativity?

The answers to these questions are still up for debate, and the situation is continually evolving. It’s clear, however, that the intersection of AI and literature will be a fascinating space to watch in the coming years.

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Annual Creative Writing Contests

Every year the Program in Creative Writing awards up to $15,000 to undergraduates and graduate students at various stages in their studies. The following prizes are awarded at the end of the spring semester at a special ceremony and reading. Please read the criteria carefully; most students are eligible to apply for more than one prize. To submit your poems, stories, or essays, please prepare pdfs of your writing samples as specified below, and upload them through the Qualtrics survey links listed below.

All prize applications are  due by March 15 , except for the ENGL 695 thesis prizes, which are due by April 20.

Find the winners of the 2023 Contests here .

Alum Chloe Benjamin, Photo © Oliver Bendorf

Email Contests Coordinator Sean Bishop

Awards for Students of ENGL 207: “Intro to Fiction & Poetry”

The Charles M. Hart, Jr. Writers of Promise Awards are given for the best poetry and fiction by students enrolled in ENGL 207: Intro to Fiction & Poetry. Students taking English 207 in either semester of the academic year may submit one story or three poems. Although there is no minimum or maximum word criteria for stories, we suggest you keep fiction submissions between five and thirty double-spaced pages in length. To apply, prepare a single PDF file beginning with a cover page that lists your name, preferred email address, and UW Campus ID#, followed by either one short story or three poems. The file name you use should employ the format “Lastname-Firstname_HartGenre2024,” where you replace “Genre” with either “Fiction” or “Poetry,” depending on the genre of the manuscript. For example if your name were Lorrie Moore and you were submitting fiction, you would label the file “Moore-Lorrie_HartFiction2024.pdf,” whereas if your name were Felix Pollak and you were submitting poetry, you would label the file “Pollak-Felix_HartPoetry2024.pdf.” The final deadline for this competition is March 15. Once you have prepared your submission, you may submit it here:  [CLICK TO SUBMIT]

Poetry Awards, Open to All UW-Madison Undergraduates

The Program in Creative Writing accepts entries to the Phillip H. Wang Memorial Prizes in Poetry ($500-$1,000) and the George B. Hill Poetry Awards ($100-$500) as a single submission. Read more about each award, below. All entries will be considered for both prizes. To apply for these awards, prepare a single PDF file beginning with a cover page that lists your name, preferred email, and UW Campus ID#, followed by 3 poems. If you wish, you may also prepare a second audio file of yourself reading the poems. For this optional audio file, MP3 format is strongly preferred, though we will accept M4A, WAV, or AIFF formats if necessary. The file names for both the PDF and the optional audio file should use the format “Lastname-Firstname_Poetry2024.” For example if your name were Audre Lorde, you would label the files “Lorde-Audre_Poetry2024.pdf” and “Lorde-Audre_Poetry2024.mp3,” respectively. The final deadline for both of these competitions is March 15. Once you have prepared your submission, you may submit it here:  [CLICK TO SUBMIT]

The Phillip H. Wang Memorial Prize in Poetry  ($1,000 winner, $500 runner up) is awarded to the best collection of three poems written by any undergraduate student at UW-Madison, submitted in a campus-wide competition. Since Phillip was a spoken-word artist, special consideration may be given to students who submit audio files of their poems in addition to the required pdf submissions. Interested applicants can read and hear a sampling of Phillip’s poems, by clicking  this link . The George B. Hill Poetry Awards  ($100-$500) were established in 1951 by Theodore Stempfel, president of Brach’s Candy Company, to honor Stempfel’s college friend George. In addition to being a writer for  The Daily Cardinal,  Mr. Hill was also a poet, so the George B. Hill Awards were established to honor his legacy.

Fiction Awards, Open to All UW-Madison Undergraduates

The Program in Creative Writing accepts entries to the Henry Douglas Mackaman Undergraduate Writer’s Award ($1,000) and the Therese Muller Memorial Fiction Awards ($100-$500) as a single submission. Read more about each award, below. To apply for these awards, prepare a single PDF file beginning with a cover page that lists your name, preferred email, and UW Campus ID#, followed by one short story. The file name for this PDF should use the format “Lastname-Firstname_Fiction2024.” For example if your name were James Baldwin, you would label your file “Baldwin-James_Fiction2024.pdf.” The final deadline for both of these competitions is March 15. Once you have prepared your submission, you may submit it here:  [CLICK TO SUBMIT]

The Henry Douglas Mackaman Undergraduate Writer’s Award  ($1,000) was established in 2015. The prize is awarded to the best short story written by a sophomore, junior, or senior, submitted in a campus-wide competition. Read more about Henry Douglas Mackaman at  henrymackaman.com . The Therese Muller Memorial Fiction Awards  ($100-$500) were established in 1951 by UW alumna and favorite daughter of Sauk City, Therese Muller, who graduated from UW in 1912. They are given to short stories of particular promise, written by any UW-Madison undergraduate.

Nonfiction Awards (See Details for Eligibility)

The Program in Creative Writing awards promising writers of creative nonfiction through two separate competitions. The Therese Muller Memorial Nonfiction Awards ($100-$500) are open to any UW-Madison undergraduate student, for any genre of creative nonfiction. The Johanna Garfield Award in Nonfiction Creative Writing ($2,500) is given to the best creative personal essay written by any undergraduate student  or graduate student currently enrolled at UW-Madison. Read more about each award and find the submission links, below. If you are eligible for both prizes, please note that you must submit separately to each. The final deadline for both of these competitions is March 15.

The Johanna Garfield Award in Nonfiction Creative Writing ($2,500) was established in 2020, and is open to any current undergraduate or graduate student at UW-Madison who submits a work of creative nonfiction that could be described as a “personal essay,” meaning an essay based primarily on the author’s lived experience. Before clicking the upload link, please prepare a single PDF file beginning with a cover page that lists your name, preferred email, and UW Campus ID#, followed by one personal essay. The file name should use the format “Lastname-Firstname_PersonalEssay2024.” For example if your name were Joan Didion, you would label the file “Didion-Joan_PersonalEssay2024.pdf.” Once you have prepared your submission, you may submit it here:  [CLICK TO SUBMIT]

The Therese Muller Memorial Nonfiction Awards ($100-$500) are open to any current UW-Madison undergraduate student who submits an essay in any sub-genre of creative nonfiction (personal essay, memoir, lyric essay, travel writing, creative journalism, etc, etc.) Graduate students are not eligible for these awards. Before clicking the upload link, please prepare a single PDF file beginning with a cover page that lists your name, preferred email, and UW Campus ID#, followed by one work of creative nonfiction. The file name should use the format “Lastname-Firstname_Nonfiction2024.” For example if your name were Roxane Gay, you would label the file “Gay-Roxane_Nonfiction2024.pdf.” Once you have prepared your submission, you may submit it here:  [CLICK TO SUBMIT]

Thesis Prizes for ENGL 695 Students

The Program in Creative Writing awards at least three annual prizes of $1,000 or more, for students who have completed ENGL 695 during the current academic year: one for poetry, one for fiction, and one for any genre. Read more about the individual prizes, below. To apply, please prepare a single PDF file beginning with a cover page that lists your name, preferred email, and UW Campus ID#, followed by the most complete draft you have of your ENGL 695 thesis. The file name you use should employ the format “Lastname-Firstname_ThesisGenre2024,” where you replace “Genre” with “Fiction,” “Poetry,” or the like, depending on the genre of your thesis. For example if your name were Lorrie Moore and you were submitting fiction, you would label the file “Moore-Lorrie_ThesisFiction2024.pdf,” whereas if your name were Felix Pollak and you were submitting poetry, you would label the file “Pollak-Felix_ThesisPoetry2024.pdf.” Other genres you could use include “Nonfiction,” “Stageplay,” “Screenplay,” or “Mixed” for a multi-genre thesis. The final deadline for this competition is April 20. Once you have prepared your submission, you may submit it here:  [CLICK TO SUBMIT]

The Ron Wallace Poetry Thesis Prize  ($1,000) is awarded annually for the best poetry thesis completed during the current academic year by an English Major with an Emphasis in Creative Writing. The prize was established by Professor Emeritus Ronald Wallace, author of 12 books and founder of UW’s Program in Creative Writing, who retired in 2015. The Eudora Welty Fiction Thesis Prize  ($1,000) is awarded annually for the best fiction thesis completed by an English Major with an Emphasis in Creative Writing. Eudora Welty graduated from UW-Madison in 1929, and over the course of her writing career she received a National Book Award, a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Nobel Prize nomination, and many other honors. The Cy Howard Memorial Scholarship in Creative Writing  ($1,000) is awarded annually to an English Major with an Emphasis in Creative Writing, for a thesis written in any genre of creative writing. This award was established by Mrs. Barbara Howard in honor of her husband Cy, who was a graduate of UW-Madison and a writer for film and television.

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Awards and prizes

Creative writing awards and prizes, the sparks prize.

Awarded to a distinguished graduate of the Creative Writing Program as a post-graduation year of residency and writing time, funded by Nicholas Sparks and judged by an external writer. Based on the quality of writing and the likelihood that the submission will be published or will be developed into a publishable book.

2024 Winner: Chibuike Egwu Ogbonnaya, for  The Love of Sister Tobi

Chibuike Egwu Ogbonnaya has received a mentorship from Chimamanda Adichie and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). They were a Lambda Fellow for fiction in 2023 and an Anaphora Writing resident in 2024. Their work has received the Josephine K. Piercy Memorial Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters (Indiana Chapter), a finalist for the Iron Horse Literary Review First Book Prize, and Tain't Taint Magazine 's James Baldwin Short Story Prize. They have also received a research grant from the University of Notre Dame for their historical writing project. Their fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Lambda's Emerge , Green Mountains Review , The Forge Literary Magazine , Black Femme Collective , and elsewhere.

2024 Judge Emily Raboteau's comments:

" The Love of Sister Tobi is a rollicking, juicy, unique, and funny tale of queer love, faith, gossip, and community set in Indiana during the Trump years. I couldn't put it down."

Emily Raboteau writes at the intersection of social and environmental justice, race, climate change, and parenthood. Her books are Lessons for Survival, Searching for Zion , winner of an American Book Award and finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the critically acclaimed novel, The Professor’s Daughter . Since the release of the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, she has focused on writing about the climate crisis. A contributing editor at Orion Magazine and a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books , Raboteau’s writing has recently appeared and been anthologized in the New Yorker , the New York Times , New York Magazine , The Nation , Best American Science Writing, Best American Travel Writing , and elsewhere. Her distinctions include an inaugural Climate Narratives Prize from Arizona State University, the Deadline Club Award in Feature Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists’ New York chapter, and grants and fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Bronx Council on the Arts, the Robert B. Silvers Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and Yaddo. She serves as nonfiction faculty at the Bread Loaf Environmental Writing Conference and is a full professor at the City College of New York (CUNY) in Harlem, once known as “the poor man’s Harvard.” She lives in the Bronx.

Center for Social Concerns International Justice Poetry Prize

This new annual fellowship supports a post-MFA poetry project related to international justice. The CSC-IJ Fellow will be in residence at the Center for Social Concerns and receive an additional year of research, reading, and writing. The winner also gives a public reading the following spring.

2024 Winner: Tim Fab-Eme

Tim Fab-Eme worked as a field engineer at Shell's largest integrated gas plant in West Africa, where he gained insight into the destructive mechanisms that drive the fossil fuel industry. His poetry, which centers on social and environmental justice, has been published in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, South Korea, and other countries. He co-edited the 2023 issue of Reckoning: Creative Writing on Environmental Justice, received a 2022 Cove Park writer-in-residence on climate action funding, and the inaugural CSC-IJ Poetry Fellowship.

The Mitchell Award 

The Mitchell award is designed to honor one MFA second-year student for their special contributions to the Creative Writing Program, namely for distinguished achievement and contributions during residency. It recognizes the student who has been the most involved citizen in the program and one of its best writers.

2024 Winner: Alaina Johansson

Alaina Johansson lives in Indiana with dogs, Brigit and Søren. Previous work is published in Early American Literature, Psaltery & Lyre, and 3:AM Magazine. An MFA student studying Poetry at the University of Notre Dame, Johansson worked as an editorial assistant at Action Books.

The Samuel and Mary Anne Hazo Poetry Award 

Recipient's work reflects Hazo's humanistic aesthetic/ideals and commitment to poetic craft. Selected by unanimous decision from current poetry faculty and based upon thesis, student's class performance, and contribution to the creative writing community and the MFA program.

Tim Fab-Eme  worked as a field engineer at Shell's largest integrated gas plant in West Africa, where he gained insight into the destructive mechanisms that drive the fossil fuel industry. His poetry, which centers on social and environmental justice, has been published in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, South Korea, and other countries. He co-edited the 2023 issue of Reckoning: Creative Writing on Environmental Justice , received a 2022 Cove Park writer-in-residence on climate action funding, and the inaugural CSC-IJ Poetry Fellowship.

Undergraduate awards and prizes

Outstanding creative writing student.

This award goes to the graduating senior who has excelled in creative writing.

2023 Winner: Andrew Lee

Billy maich academy of american poets prize.

The Billy Maich Prize is awarded to the Notre Dame student, graduate or undergraduate, for excellence in poetry, recognizing for the best group of poems from among those submitted. Students may enter no more than five poems and are encouraged to limit their entries to 250 lines.

2023 Winner: Kristyn Garza

Richard t. sullivan award for fiction writing.

The Richard T. Sullivan Award for Fiction is awarded to recognize the undergraduate student who submits the best fiction manuscript. Entries may be a short story or a chapter from a novel. Only one submission per student.

2023 Winner: Christine Hilario, for "Little Angel”

Ernest sandeen poetry award .

The Ernest Sandeen Poetry Award is awarded to recognize the undergraduate who submits the best group of poems. Students may enter no more than five poems and are encouraged to limit their entries to 250 lines.

2023 Winner: Taylor Erickson

Program awards and prizes, sandeen prize in poetry.

The Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry was sponsored by the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English at the University of Notre Dame in conjunction with the University of Notre Dame Press. The prize was awarded to an author who has published at least one volume of poetry (authors who are graduates of the University of Notre Dame are not eligible.)

2022 Winner: Sheryl Luna

Magnificent Errors is a collection of poems that shows how mental health challenges can elicit beauty, resiliency, and hope.

In 2005, Sheryl Luna burst onto the poetry scene with Pity the Drowned Horses , which quickly became a classic of border and Southwest literature with its major point of reference in and around El Paso, Texas. Now with the poems in Magnificent Errors , Luna’s third collection and winner of the Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry, Luna turns her gaze toward people living on the margins—whether it be cultural, socioeconomic, psychological, or personal—and celebrates their ability to recover and thrive. Luna reveals that individuals who suffer and experience injustice are often lovely and awe inspiring. Her poems reflect on immigrants in a detention camp, a meth addict, a homeless individual, and someone on food stamps. She explores the voices of people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or PTSD, poets, visual artists, and people living in a mental health community setting. The author’s own journey to recovery from childhood abuse and mental illness also illuminates how healing is possible.

The poems in Magnificent Errors are lyrical, narrative, and often highly personal, exploring what it means to be the “other” and how to cope with difference and illness. They venerate characters who overcome difficulties including ostracism and degradation. People who live outside of the mainstream in poverty are survivors, and showing their experience teaches us compassion and kindness. Ideas of art, culture, and recovery flow throughout the poems, exploring artistic creativity as a means of redemption. With language that is fresh and surprising, Sheryl Luna shares these remarkable poems that bring a reader into the experiences of marginalization and offer hope that grace and restoration do indeed follow.

Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction

The Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction was sponsored by the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English at the University of Notre Dame in conjunction with the University of Notre Dame Press. The Prize was awarded to an author who has published at least one volume of short fiction (authors who are graduates of the University of Notre Dame are not eligible.)

2022 Winner: Maya Sonenberg

In these dense and startling stories, Maya Sonenberg telescopes seasons, decades, and generations in candid depictions of women’s family lives.

What happens when the urge to ditch your family outpaces the desire to love them? The stories in Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters , winner of the Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction, attempt to answer this question, heading straight for the messiness of domestic relationships and the constraints society places on women as they navigate their obligations. Daughters desert their rheumy-eyed elders in dusty museums, steal a mother’s favorite teacup, or consider throwing their dead parents’ nostalgia-riddled belongings out the window. Mothers conclude that they love one child more than their others. Fathers puzzle over a wife’s inability to balance family and career or accuse a partner of blaming their child for her own misdeeds. Women mourn the children they decided not to have and fret over the legacy they’ll leave the children they do have. But sometimes the generations reconcile or siblings manage to rescue each other. Love tears these people apart, but it mends them too.

The emotions expressed in these stories are combustible, both fraught and nuanced, uncontrollable and common, but above all often ignored or hushed because we’re not supposed to be bored by our children or annoyed with our aged parents, even as we love them. The careful shapes of these stories adapted from fairy tales, verse, letters, or newspaper announcements, the surprise of their wordplay, and the blaze of their lyrical sentences allow them to dig into and contain all those messy emotions at the same time. In these works, constraint creates both understanding and fire.

Sandeen and Sullivan Prizes

The Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry and Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction were sponsored by the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English at the University of Notre Dame in conjunction with The University of Notre Dame Press. Both series are now complete and are not accepting new submissions. Beginning in 1995, the prizes were awarded to authors who had previously published at least one volume of short fiction or one volume of poetry and helped bridge a gap in publication support between an author’s debut and becoming an established author. To learn more about or purchase a copy of these award-winning books, please visit the Notre Dame Press website for the Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry and the Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction .

Ernest Sandeen was a professor of English at the University of Notre Dame from 1946 until his retirement in 1978. He was an award-winning teacher. His poems appeared in such journals as the Hudson Review , Poetry and the New Yorker . He published six volumes of poetry in his lifetime and served as emeritus professor of English at the University of Notre Dame until his death in 1997. His Collected Poems 1953 – 1994 was published in 2001.

Richard T. Sullivan graduated from Notre Dame in 1930 and joined the University’s faculty as a writing instructor in 1936. In addition to writing numerous book reviews for the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune , he published several short story collections and novels, including The World of Idella May , The Three Kings , Summer After Summer , The Dark Continent , and First Citizen . A popular undergraduate teacher, he is remembered for his description of writing as “hard work requiring patience and idiotic perseverance.” He died in 1981.

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• College of Liberal and Professional Studies

2023 Creative Writing Prize Winners

The Creative Writing Program awards a number of prizes annually to University of Pennsylvania students. See below for our most recent prize winners; previous winners are listed at the bottom of this page . Details on our 2024 prizes and how to submit work will be available on our website in early 2024.

Congratulations to the 2023 recipients of the Creative Writing Prizes:

The Peregrine Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets Awarded to the best poetry by a graduate student.

Winner: Knar Gavin

Contest judge Syd Zolf writes: Gavin’s impressive “poetics of the improbable” produces “hungering / line[s]” that move “thru glitch / into revolution.” As we dwell in the “lair” of their poems, we savor “honey; bread; roses” and imagine possible futures beyond “the noir procession / of today.” Come, let's join Gavin and create new tender worlds “free with the nectarine / blossoms.”

Honorable Mention: James Mesiti, Michael Martin Shea

About the judge: Syd Zolf has published six books of poetry and a book of theory, No One’s Witness: A Monstrous Poetics (Duke, 2021). Films Zolf has written and/or directed have shown internationally at venues such as White Cube Bermondsey, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. They have received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts and a Trillium Book Award for Poetry, among other honors. Zolf holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a PhD in Philosophy, Art and Social Thought and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.

The College Alumni Society Poetry Prize Awarded to the best poetry by an undergraduate student.

Winner: Sof Sears

Contest judge Syd Zolf writes: Sears makes stunning word pictures of the wonders and horrors of girlhood. While their quintessential queer monster may be “rusting & yawning under the bed,” Sears keeps “gutting the scenes around us like fish” and “laughing at the mess” along the way. “The girl goes home before the movie ends” but we still feel her presence long after, a silhouette, a trace, a green taste of violence. That’s the sign of a good poem.

Honorable Mention: Nidhi Bhatt, Celine Choi, Astrid Raganas, William Zong

About the judge: Syd Zolf has published six books of poetry and a book of theory, No One’s Witness: A Monstrous Poetics (Duke, 2021). Films Zolf has written and/or directed have shown internationally at venues such as White Cube Bermondsey, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. They have received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts and a Trillium Book Award for Poetry, among other honors. Zolf holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a PhD in Philosophy, Art and Social Thought and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.  

The Lilian and Benjamin Levy Award

Awarded to the best review by an undergraduate of a current play, film, music release, book, or performance.

First Place: Ria Vieira, “ Babylon Review: Forget About La La Land, This Is Damien Chazelle’s Masterpiece”

Contest judge Anthony DeCurtis writes: Less a review than a celebration, this piece bravely takes on the phantasmagoria that is Babylon , Damien Chazelle's whirling chronicle of early Hollywood in extremis . Like the film itself, Vieira explores the contemporary implications of Hollywood’s dramatic transitions -- in this case, the monumental impact of the advent of sound. “Is this the end of cinema?,” she asks, while making it clear that movies this compelling deliver a resounding, uplifting answer.

Second Place: Angela Ji, “ Fiona and Jane : An Homage to Messy, Sexy (Queer) Love”

Contest judge Anthony DeCurtis writes: Angela Ji takes an incisive look at Fiona and Jane , the debut collection of stories by Jean Chen Ho, and views it as a fresh take on the complexities of the lives of Asian American women. Along with its warmth and energy, she especially values the book’s dismantling of stereotypes, even (especially?) ones that are meant to be flattering. The messiness of Fiona and Jane’s lives is presented as a compliment. Friendship over decades is no neat path, Ji insists, and is all the more real for its bumps, detours and unpredictable shifts.

Third Place: Emma Marks, “The Flavors of Connection”

Contest judge Anthony DeCurtis writes: Few books have made as forceful an impact in recent years as Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H Mart , and Emma Marks’ smart, thorough essay captures why. She works through the book’s emotional depths with skill and empathy, capturing the journey that Zauner traveled and the heartfelt meanings her story brought alive. As Zauner does herself, Marks makes sure we understand that tears, however profoundly felt, are not the final stop in this tale of food, love and music.

About the judge: Anthony DeCurtis has taught in the creative writing program at Penn for twenty years and has long been a contributing editor for Rolling Stone . Among other books, he is the author of Lou Reed: A Life and coauthor of Clive Davis's autobiography, The Soundtrack of My Life , a New York Times bestseller. He is a member of the nominating committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a Grammy Award winner and a PhD in American literature.

The Phi Kappa Sigma Fiction Prize Awarded to the best original short story by an undergraduate.

Winner: Erin Brennan, “Vanishing Act”

Contest judge Weike Wang writes: Brennan’s story is set against the majestic Sleeping Bear dunes. Dynamic and heartfelt, the story succeeds on two fronts because it is told from two well-rendered perspectives. Brennan writes with uncanny confidence and humor about the kind of big love that young adults are capable of, that adult-adults sometimes forget.

Second Place: Andrew Basile, “Lobster”

Contest judge Weike Wang writes: What can be said of Basile’s “Lobster” except that I was drawn to the voice, one that I would follow anywhere. The story tells of a vacation gone wrong and is masterful in how it is able to contain itself—the momentum and multitudes—through a single paragraph.

Third Place: Zelda Godsey-Kellogg, “Neon Night”

Contest judge Weike Wang writes: Godsey-Kellogg’s story is set on a public “golf course in the middle-of-no-where Tennessee” and from there unfurls a most delightfully fun tale that involves floating boys and glow sticks. The prose is flawless. The execution, exquisite.

Honorable mention: Miriam Shah, “Being Beatrice” 

Contest judge Weike Wang writes: Shah’s prose shines with intellect and verve. The protagonist of the story is curious, effortlessly wise and takes the reader on an explorative journey through a most interesting mind.

About the judge: Weike Wang is the author of CHEMISTRY (Knopf 2017) and JOAN IS OKAY (Random House 2022). She is the recipient of the 2018 Pen Hemingway, a Whiting award and a National Book Foundation 5 under 35.  Her work has appeared in Ploughshares and The New Yorker , among other publications. She is in the 2019 Best American Short Stories and O. Henry Prizes. She earned her MFA from Boston University and her other degrees (a bachelors in chemistry and a doctorate in epidemiology) from Harvard. She currently lives in New York City and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Judy Lee Award for Dramatic Writing Awarded to a graduate or undergraduate student for the best script of any length.

Winner:  Michael Martin Shea, DR. LOVE - Season One, Pilot Episode: "Valley of Love"

Contest judge Jeffrey James Keyes writes: Shea’s well written pilot jumps off the page and commands your attention. I was struck by how quickly I was drawn into the world and rooting for “Zach”, Shea’s protagonist. The lingering question raised by this story, “what will someone do to get by? ” is familiar but feels new and timely through Dr. Love . The script illuminates this remarkable writer’s care and reverence for language and the craft of writing. Shea is a daring writer that has created an engaging story supported by strong dialogue, an understanding of conflict, and a unique point of view. This is a writer to know and pay attention to.

Second Place: Kelly A. Diaz, WHAT'S IN A NAME 

Contest judge Jeffrey James Keyes writes: Diaz flashes high-quality screenwriting through her complex and nuanced storyline. I was extremely impressed with her grasp of storytelling and how she utilized time and space to reveal the advanced structure of her script. I found her story thought provoking and surprising with each turn. I felt for her intriguing characters and found myself worrying about them as I quickly turned each page, eager to discover what would happen with each turn. What's in a Name is polished, well crafted, and I look forward to more from this creative and strong screenwriter.

Third Place: Natalie McTigue, BLUE PALM 

Contest judge Jeffrey James Keyes writes: McTigue’s Blue Palm is a fun and surprising script that I couldn’t put down and immediately re-read. I was impressed with McTigue’s visual storytelling, and her understanding of how idiosyncrasy serves the world of her story. Her protagonist, “Mia” is the type of character that many actresses would jump at the chance to play. I found myself rooting for her while she made what might seem like poor life decisions while somehow seemingly remaining in total control of her own destiny. I look forward to turning on Netflix one day and seeing Blue Palm in my queue.

About the judge: Jeffrey James Keyes is an interdisciplinary writer and artist. He co-authored the New York Times bestseller Killer Chef with James Patterson in 2016. He was an inaugural recipient of the PEN America L’Engle Rahman Prize for Mentorship in 2021. His short film uniform screened in over thirty film festivals around the world. His audio immersive experience, Wherefore Art Thou Juliet? ran through Times Square when most shows were closed in 2021. He was recently nominated for a 2022 Queerty Award for Digital Entertainment. BA: Fordham University College at the Lincoln Center, MFA: Columbia University School of the Arts. jeffreyjameskeyes.com  

The Gibson Peacock Prize for Creative Nonfiction Awarded to the best creative nonfiction piece—memoir or essay—by an undergraduate student.

Winner: Alexandria “Alex” Behm, “Wind Ridge”

Contest judge Piyali Bhattacharya writes : This is an eerily beautiful piece about grandparents, lost generations, that love that can never be recaptured, and also elderly loss as it relates not only to the young, but also to those left behind in that generation. What captures the reader most about this essay is its sense of place and setting. This piece couldn’t have taken place anywhere else but in the narrator’s ancestral home, a place in which even the gas prices and bathroom furnishings tell a story.

Second Place: Cynthia Zhou, “Starbucks Saints”

Contest judge Piyali Bhattacharya writes : This is a gorgeous, playful, but canny and sharply observed piece about the characters we meet in mundane situations, and how even the trivial parts of life are full of color, if we allow ourselves to see it. Unsurprisingly, what captures the reader here is character. This author draws such clear pictures (also unsurprising, as the essay also speaks of her work as a visual artist) of people, and observes them so keenly in their own worlds, that they linger in the mind long after the piece has been put down.

Third Place: Angela Ji, “People You Love in Philadelphia”

Contest judge Piyali Bhattacharya writes : This is a gem of a piece about romance, love and the multiplicity of race, sexuality, and daughterhood that comes with all of that. Told in a kaleidoscopic pattern, the piece is nuanced about the melancholy of being a 20-something in the 2020s, and also the hope of this moment. It’s beautifully rendered in second person by a narrator who is viewing herself, but is also viewing you .

Honorable Mention: Meg Gladieux, “The Death Café”

Contest judge Piyali Bhattacharya writes : This lengthy piece deserves its page space. How many ways can one play with the image, the idea, of death? What is death to a DeadHead (by whom the narrator is raised), what does it mean that the narrator has a “graveyard of romantic relationships,” what does it mean that in trying to set up a meetup that will discuss death, the narrator contracts COVID-19, ultimately leaving her feeling “not dying, but might as well be dead?” It is a mature meditation from a young voice, told with clarity and without fear.

About the judge: Piyali Bhattacharya is a fiction and nonfiction writer. Her short stories and essays have appeared in Ploughshares , Literary Hub , The New York Times , The Wall Street Journal , National Geographic and elsewhere. She is the editor of the anthology Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian American Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion , which won the Independent Publisher Book Award and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts . At Penn, she is the Abrams Artist-in-Residence and has won the Beltran Family Award for Innovative Teaching and Mentoring.  

The Parker Prize for Journalistic Writing Awarded to the best news article, exposé, investigative work, or reported essay by an undergraduate.

First place: Walker Carnathan, “Life is a Cabaret”

Contest judge Lise Funderburg writes: This lively profile of an on-campus production of Cabaret sparkles with creativity as Carnathan braids together multiple strands, including lines of dialogue, synopsis, research into the business end of college productions, and charming, funny, reflective vignettes of the students who comprise cast and crew. Ambitious, well-executed, and a delight to read.

Second Place: Gemma Hong, “Playing Offsides”

Contest judge Lise Funderburg writes: In this reported essay, Hong harvests poignant memories and details from her mother’s life as well as her own childhood, all in service of understanding why her mother insisted on Hong’s participation in soccer, a sport neither cared much about. The narrow scope allows for well-fleshed-out scenes and vibrant descriptions, and at the same time broadens out to encompass enormous themes of race, immigration, perseverance, and parental love.

Third Place: Lila Dubois, “The Nuns Are Dying”

Contest judge Lise Funderburg writes: Dubois goes all in here with a look at a species nearing extinction: the American nun. Using an all-girls’ school in California as her launchpoint, Dubois explores the history of modern nuns and their distinct relationships to service and faith as well as their second-class status in the political hierarchy of the Catholic church. In addition to strong scene work, Dubois inserts a mini-profile of the school’s president, Sister Donna, which humanizes the larger theme.

About the judge: Lise Funderburg teaches creative nonfiction at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home , a contemplation of life, death, race, and barbecue, as well as the groundbreaking oral history Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk About Race and Identity . Her latest book is Apple, Tree: Writers on Their Parents , a collection of 25 original essays she commissioned and edited. Funderburg's essays have appeared in The New York Times , Chattahoochee Review , Cleaver , Broad Street, National Geographic , TIME , Threepenny Review, Harper's , Brevity, and elsewhere.

Past Contest Winners

2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

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The Best Student Writing Contests for 2023-2024

Help your students take their writing to the next level.

When students write for teachers, it can feel like an assignment. When they write for a real purpose, they are empowered! Student writing contests are a challenging and inspiring way to try writing for an authentic audience— a real panel of judges —and the possibility of prize money or other incentives. We’ve gathered a list of the best student writing contests, and there’s something for everyone. Prepare highly motivated kids in need of an authentic writing mentor, and watch the words flow.

1.  The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

With a wide range of categories—from critical essays to science fiction and fantasy—The Scholastic Awards are a mainstay of student contests. Each category has its own rules and word counts, so be sure to check out the options  before you decide which one is best for your students.

How To Enter

Students in grades 7-12, ages 13 and up, may begin submitting work in September by uploading to an online account at Scholastic and connecting to their local region. There are entry fees, but those can be waived for students in need.

2.  YoungArts National Arts Competition

This ends soon, but if you have students who are ready to submit, it’s worth it. YoungArts offers a national competition in the categories of creative nonfiction, novel, play or script, poetry, short story, and spoken word. Student winners may receive awards of up to $10,000 as well as the chance to participate in artistic development with leaders in their fields.

YoungArts accepts submissions in each category through October 13. Students submit their work online and pay a $35 fee (there is a fee waiver option).

3. National Youth Foundation Programs

Each year, awards are given for Student Book Scholars, Amazing Women, and the “I Matter” Poetry & Art competition. This is a great chance for kids to express themselves with joy and strength.

The rules, prizes, and deadlines vary, so check out the website for more info.

4.  American Foreign Service National High School Essay Contest

If you’re looking to help students take a deep dive into international relations, history, and writing, look no further than this essay contest. Winners receive a voyage with the Semester at Sea program and a trip to Washington, DC.

Students fill out a registration form online, and a teacher or sponsor is required. The deadline to enter is the first week of April.

5.  John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest

This annual contest invites students to write about a political official’s act of political courage that occurred after Kennedy’s birth in 1917. The winner receives $10,000, and 16 runners-up also receive a variety of cash prizes.

Students may submit a 700- to 1,000-word essay through January 12. The essay must feature more than five sources and a full bibliography.

6. Bennington Young Writers Awards

Bennington College offers competitions in three categories: poetry (a group of three poems), fiction (a short story or one-act play), and nonfiction (a personal or academic essay). First-place winners receive $500. Grab a poster for your classroom here .

The contest runs from September 1 to November 1. The website links to a student registration form.

7. The Princeton Ten-Minute Play Contest

Looking for student writing contests for budding playwrights? This exclusive competition, which is open only to high school juniors, is judged by the theater faculty of Princeton University. Students submit short plays in an effort to win recognition and cash prizes of up to $500. ( Note: Only open to 11th graders. )

Students submit one 10-page play script online or by mail. The deadline is the end of March. Contest details will be published in early 2024.

8. Princeton University Poetry Contest for High School Students

The Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize recognizes outstanding work by student writers in 11th grade. Prizes range from $100 to $500.

Students in 11th grade can submit their poetry. Contest details will be published this fall.

9. The New York Times Tiny Memoir Contest

This contest is also a wonderful writing challenge, and the New York Times includes lots of resources and models for students to be able to do their best work. They’ve even made a classroom poster !

Submissions need to be made electronically by November 1.

10.  Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest

The deadline for this contest is the end of October. Sponsored by Hollins University, the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest awards prizes for the best poems submitted by young women who are sophomores or juniors in high school or preparatory school. Prizes include cash and scholarships. Winners are chosen by students and faculty members in the creative writing program at Hollins.

Students may submit either one or two poems using the online form.

11.  The Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers

The Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers is open to high school sophomores and juniors, and the winner receives a full scholarship to a  Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop .

Submissions for the prize are accepted electronically from November 1 through November 30.

12. Jane Austen Society Essay Contest

High school students can win up to $1,000 and publication by entering an essay on a topic specified by the Jane Austen Society related to a Jane Austen novel.

Details for the 2024 contest will be announced in November. Essay length is from six to eight pages, not including works cited.

13. Rattle Young Poets Anthology

Open to students from 15 to 18 years old who are interested in publication and exposure over monetary awards.

Teachers may choose five students for whom to submit up to four poems each on their behalf. The deadline is November 15.

14. The Black River Chapbook Competition

This is a chance for new and emerging writers to gain publication in their own professionally published chapbook, as well as $500 and free copies of the book.

There is an $18 entry fee, and submissions are made online.

15. YouthPlays New Voices

For students under 18, the YouthPlays one-act competition is designed for young writers to create new works for the stage. Winners receive cash awards and publication.

Scroll all the way down their web page for information on the contest, which accepts non-musical plays between 10 and 40 minutes long, submitted electronically. Entries open each year in January.

16. The Ocean Awareness Contest

The 2024 Ocean Awareness Contest, Tell Your Climate Story , encourages students to write their own unique climate story. They are asking for creative expressions of students’ personal experiences, insights, or perceptions about climate change. Students are eligible for a wide range of monetary prizes up to $1,000.

Students from 11 to 18 years old may submit work in the categories of art, creative writing, poetry and spoken word, film, interactive media and multimedia, or music and dance, accompanied by a reflection. The deadline is June 13.

17. EngineerGirl Annual Essay Contest

Each year, EngineerGirl sponsors an essay contest with topics centered on the impact of engineering on the world, and students can win up to $500 in prize money. This contest is a nice bridge between ELA and STEM and great for teachers interested in incorporating an interdisciplinary project into their curriculum. The new contest asks for pieces describing the life cycle of an everyday object. Check out these tips for integrating the content into your classroom .

Students submit their work electronically by February 1. Check out the full list of rules and requirements here .

18. NCTE Student Writing Awards

The National Council of Teachers of English offers several student writing awards, including Achievement Awards in Writing (for 10th- and 11th-grade students), Promising Young Writers (for 8th-grade students), and an award to recognize Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines.

Deadlines range from October 28 to February 15. Check out NCTE.org for more details.

19. See Us, Support Us Art Contest

Children of incarcerated parents can submit artwork, poetry, photos, videos, and more. Submissions are free and the website has a great collection of past winners.

Students can submit their entries via social media or email by October 25.

20. The Adroit Prizes for Poetry & Prose

The Adroit Journal, an education-minded nonprofit publication, awards annual prizes for poetry and prose to exceptional high school and college students. Adroit charges an entry fee but also provides a form for financial assistance.

Sign up at the website for updates for the next round of submissions.

21. National PTA Reflections Awards

The National PTA offers a variety of awards, including one for literature, in their annual Reflections Contest. Students of all ages can submit entries on the specified topic to their local PTA Reflections program. From there, winners move to the local area, state, and national levels. National-level awards include an $800 prize and a trip to the National PTA Convention.

This program requires submitting to PTAs who participate in the program. Check your school’s PTA for their deadlines.

22. World Historian Student Essay Competition

The World Historian Student Essay Competition is an international contest open to students enrolled in grades K–12 in public, private, and parochial schools, as well as those in home-study programs. The $500 prize is based on an essay that addresses one of this year’s two prompts.

Students can submit entries via email or regular mail before May 1.

23. NSHSS Creative Writing Scholarship

The National Society of High School Scholars awards three $2,000 scholarships for both poetry and fiction. They accept poetry, short stories, and graphic novel writing.

Apply online by October 31.

Whether you let your students blog, start a podcast or video channel, or enter student writing contests, giving them an authentic audience for their work is always a powerful classroom choice.

If you like this list of student writing contests and want more articles like it, subscribe to our newsletters to find out when they’re posted!

Plus, check out our favorite anchor charts for teaching writing..

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Best 2024 Competitions for Students in Grades K-12

Competitions in STEM, ELA and the arts, and more! Continue Reading

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Creative Writing Scholarships and Prizes

The prizes and scholarships below are awarded by the UW Seattle English Department’s Creative Writing Program . Winners will be notified by the end of Spring Quarter. 

Prizes will be awarded at the end of Spring Quarter. Scholarships will be paid out in the following academic year.  During the term of the scholarship, recipients must enroll in a minimum of 6 credits.

The application deadline for these awards is the last day of Winter Quarter (March 15, 2024) at 5pm Pacific Time, unless otherwise indicated.

Requirements

Unless stated otherwise in the Contest Description , eligibility requirements for the prizes below are the following:

• Either a UW Seattle English major enrolled as an undergraduate for two quarters by the application deadline , OR a UW Seattle English Graduate student enrolled in the MFA program in Creative Writing
• UW GPA of 3.5
• UW English GPA of 3.7
• Minimum of 10 credits of completed UW English course work  completed before Winter Quarter begins. Courses taken during Winter Quarter will not count towards the 10 credit minimum.

Application Process

• The Creative Writing Contests deadline for 2024 has passed. Please check back in early 2025 for next year's contests applications.
• Remove your name and/or student number from the file containing your prose or poetry submission, as these are read anonymously.
• For prose contests, submit: 2-3 short stories, works of creative nonfiction, or a novel excerpt (up to 30 pages/9,000 words). If you are excerpting from a longer work, please provide a synopsis of the whole. 
• For poetry contests, submit up to 100 total lines of poetry, and no more than 10 poems.

For more information, please contact:  [email protected]

Scholarship and prize information described below. 

Undergraduate Contests

Graduate contests, undergraduate contests, prose - undergraduates.

Edith K Draham Scholarship - $6,000 (one undergraduate winner per year) -  Applicant must be a full-time sophomore or junior English Major at the time of application, and be eligible for need-based financial aid.  

Stephanie Dassel Barden Scholarship in Creative Writing - $3000 (one undergraduate winner per year)

Eugene Van Buren Prize for Fiction - $3,000 (one undergraduate winner per year) -  OPEN THROUGH NOMINATION BY CREATIVE WRITING FACULTY ONLY.  Open to all currently enrolled University of Washington Seattle students. Nominated students will be notified by the Creative Writing Program by email.

Charlotte Paul Reese Fiction Award - $2,400 (one undergraduate winner per year) -  OPEN THROUGH NOMINATION BY CREATIVE WRITING FACULTY ONLY.  Currently enrolled English majors who are Sophomores or Juniors are eligible. Nominated students will be notified by the Creative Writing Program by email.

Poetry - Undergraduates

Edith K Draham Scholarship - $6,000 (one undergraduate winner per year) -  Applicant must be a full-time Sophomore or Junior English Major at the time of application, and be eligible for need-based financial aid.  

Stephanie Dassel Barden Endowed Scholarship in Creative Writing - $3000 (one undergraduate winner per year)

Arthur Oberg Award for Poetry - $2,000 (one $2000 winner or two $1000 undergraduate winners per year) -  Applicant must have completed a beginning (ENGL 283) or intermediate (ENGL 383) poetry writing class in the 12 months preceding the contest deadline.

Joan Grayston Poetry Prize - $1,500 (one undergraduate winner per year)

Academy of American Poets Prize - $100 (one winner per year) - Open to all  currently enrolled graduate or undergraduate students at the University of Washington Seattle.  This prize is awarded for the best poem or group of poems. More information on this contest is available on the Academy of American Poets website .

Graduate Contests

Prose - graduates.

Eugene Van Buren Prize for Fiction - $3,000 (one graduate winner per year) -  OPEN THROUGH NOMINATION BY CREATIVE WRITING FACULTY ONLY.  Open to all currently enrolled University of Washington Seattle students. Nominated students will be notified by the Creative Writing Program by email.

David Guterson Award - $1,500 (one graduate winner per year) -  Must be an MFA prose writer completing their degree. Applicants should submit a draft of their MFA Creative Thesis. 

Nelson Bentley M FA Award in Creative Writing (Prose) - $1,500 (one graduate winner per year) -  Must be an MFA student completing their first year in the program at the time of application.

Poetry - Graduates

Joan Grayston Poetry Prize - $1,500 (one graduate winner per year)

Nelson Bentley M FA Award in Creative Writing (Poetry) - $1,500 (one graduate winner per year) -  Must be an MFA student completing their first year in the program at the time of application.

Academy of American Poets Prize - $100 (one winner per year) - Open to all  currently enrolled graduate or undergraduate students at the University of Washington Seattle.   This prize is awarded for the best poem or group of poems.  More information on this contest is available on the Academy of American Poets website .

Other Scholarship Sources:

• English Department Scholarships
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University of South Florida

Department of English

TAMPA | ST. PETERSBURG | SARASOTA-MANATEE

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Scholarships & awards, creative writing.

Each academic year the Department of English holds creative writing contests in the areas of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and science fiction. The contests are open to all enrolled University of South Florida students (Tampa campus) in any major and level (with one exception, see Thomas E. Sanders Scholarship below). Winners receive a small scholarship and recognition at the annual Celebration of Awards and Achievements near the end of spring term.

Eligibility

Following the wishes of our generous donors, the scholarships listed below are restricted to students whose home campus is designated as the USF Tampa campus. Please note that these awards are scholarships, awarded on the basis of merit. 

January 17th, 2024.

Possible scholarships include the following:

Anspaugh Fiction Scholarship

• All registered students at the University of South Florida (Tampa campus) are eligible.
• The work submitted must be previously unpublished prose fiction.
• Maximum length per entry: 5,000 words.
• Each contestant may submit one entry.
• Contestants must follow the submission guidelines above and title their files “Anspaugh-[Title]”.

Anspaugh Science Fiction Contest

• A contestant may submit one entry only.
• Contestants must follow the submission guidelines above and title their files “Anspaugh SciFi-[Title]”.
• For this contest, science fiction will be considered as springing from a limited number of arbitrary hypotheses relating to the hard or soft sciences, along with realistic development of their implications. Fantasies (examples being  Watership Down  and the Tolkien stories) are excluded from consideration.
• NOTE: If no science fiction entry is deemed worthy of a prize by the judges, then no science fiction award will be given. 

The Thomas E. Sanders Scholarship in Creative Writing

To read a brief bio about Professor Thomas E. Sanders, please click here .

• Any  undergraduate English major in the creative writing concentration in the Department of English who has not reached the last term of academic residence is eligible.
• Submit a letter that explains your qualifications for the scholarship, along with a sample of your creative work.
• Contestants must follow the submission guidelines above and title their files “Sanders-[YourName]”.
• Note: The recipient will be chosen by the creative writing committee. The scholarship is non-renewable; however, recipients may reapply in subsequent years.

USF Poetry Scholarships

• All registered students at the University of South Florida (Tampa campus) are eligible.
• The work submitted must be previously unpublished.
• To be considered for the Bettye Newman Poetry Award , each contestant must submit a portfolio of four poems. The Newman portfolios will also be considered for the Zbar Poetry Award (no need to enter twice). Portfolios of one, two, or three poems will be considered only for the Zbar Poetry Award.
• Contestants must follow the submission guidelines above and title their files “Poetry-[Title]”.
• There will be two prizes awarded: the Bettye Newman Poetry Award and the Estelle J. Zbar Poetry Award.

 DISTRIBUTION OF Scholarships

The scholarships listed below are non-taxable, and will be processed and paid to each winner’s Oasis account through the Office of Financial Aid.

Submission Process

• Entries are accepted by email only. 
• The file that contains your manuscript must not show your name anywhere; we will use the title to identify your work. 
• Please name your file “[Contest]-[Title]”; for example, a story titled “Mars” would be entered into the Anspaugh Science Fiction Contest by sending a file with the name “Anspaugh SciFi-Mars”. If you are submitting a portfolio of poems, please use the title of the first poem in the portfolio. If you are applying for the Sanders Scholarship, please include both the application letter and the writing sample in a single file; in this case only, your name may appear on the manuscript, and the file should be named “Sanders-YourName”. 
• All submissions must be emailed as a file attachment to  [email protected] . 
• Your name 
• Address 
• Phone number 
• Email address 
• USF ID number 
• The name of the award/contest/scholarship you applied for 
• The title of the work submitted (in the case of a portfolio of poems, only the title of the first poem is needed) 

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Creative Writing Awards

One of our students’ assignments during their first clinical experience is to begin a journal. Through their journal they can watch their own transformation. Through their writing we can understand contemporary nursing and midwifery through the eyes, hands, and feelings of these remarkable students and soon-to-be APRNs.

YSN’s annual Creative Writing Awards are enlivened by the inspirational presence of YSN Professor Linda Honan. Yale nursing students submit their narratives, journal entries, and other creative writing for consideration of one of three significant student awards. This annual gathering, beloved by our community, also features prominent writers and thinkers.

Poetry and prose submissions are currently being collected for the Creative Writing Awards: Centennial Edition. Check out full details here and submit your poetry or prose by 11:59 pm on March 25, 2024.

Creative Writing Alumni: Reflections and Book Recommendations

The UC Davis English Department is proud to announce that our MA in Creative Writing officially became an MFA program this year! Meanwhile, our Creative Writing alumni have been busy winning awards. We asked some of the most recent award winners to reflect on why they write and the books that inspire them. Follow the links below for their answers.

Jamil Kochai - Jamil Kochai’s short story “Nights in Logar” was recently selected for the 2018 O. Henry Prize. He graduated from the UC Davis Creative Writing Master’s program in 2017.

Kirsten Lunstrum - Kirsten’s collection of stories, What We Do With the Wreckage , won the 2017 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. She graduated from the UC Davis Creative Writing Master’s program in 2003.

Becky Mandelbaum - Becky’s first collection of stories, Bad Kansas , won the 2016 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and was chosen as a 2018 Kansas Notable Book. She graduated from the UC Davis Creative Writing Master’s program in 2016.

Melinda Moustakis - Melinda’s first collection of stories, Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories , won the 2010 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Maurice Prize, and was a 5 Under 35 selection by the National Book Foundation. She graduated from the UC Davis Creative Writing Master’s program in 2011.

Austin Smith - Austin was recently selected as a Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction at Stanford University, where he is also a Jones Lecturer. His first collection of poems, Almanac , was chosen by Paul Muldoon for the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets, and his most recent collection will be published in the same series this year. He graduated from the UC Davis Creative Writing Master’s program in 2013.

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Daytime Emmys 2024: See the Complete Winners List

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Brendan Le is an Editorial Intern at PEOPLE with three years of experience working as an editor and writer.

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The 2024 Daytime Emmys gathered TV's favorite soap stars and daytime hosts in Los Angeles to celebrate their work over the past year.

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The 2024 Daytime Emmy Awards airs live on Friday, June 7 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+.

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