Competitions, submissions and other opportunities
The latest writing competitions and submissions windows for writers.
Deadline: 4 May 2025
Goldsmith Festival Poetry Competition 2025
The Goldsmith Festival in Athlone, Co. Westmeath, is currently seeking submissions of original, unpublished poems up to 70 lines in length for its annual poetry competition. Submissions can be made either online or by post. Prize winners will be informed a week in advance of the prizegiving and will be afforded the opportunity to read their winning poem at “Poetry at Pallas” on Sunday June 12st.
Accepted forms: Poems in the English language that do not exceed 70 lines.
Entry fee: €10 (up to 3 poems).
Prize: 1st prize €600; 2nd prize €250; 3rd prize €150.
More Information here:
olivergoldsmithfestival.comDeadline: May 2025
Poetry Ireland
Poetry Ireland Review Issue 146 is now open for submissions, and editor Stephen Sexton will be reading and selecting through May and June.
Accepted forms: We welcome unsolicited submissions of poems, and proposals for articles and interviews, from Ireland and abroad, in Irish or English.
Contributor fee: a minimum of 100 euros
More Information here:
www.poetryireland.ieDeadline: 4th May 2025
Writer in Residence, Department of English, Maynooth University
Established writers are invited to apply for a Writer-in-Residence position, co-funded by Maynooth University and Kildare Library and Arts Services.
The residency will run from 1 October 2025 – 30 September 2026, with duties expected to average approximately six hours per week contact time (with students and the wider public).
Writers-in-Residence at Maynooth University have included Catherine Prasifka, Fíona Scarlett, Paul Lynch, Christodoulos Makris, Eoin McNamee, Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Sue Rainsford, Susan Tomaselli, and Joanna Walsh.
More Information here:
universityvacancies.comDeadline: 5 May 2025
2025 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize
Australian Book Review welcomes entries to the 2025 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, one of the world’s leading prizes for an original short story. The prize – worth a total of AU$12,500 – is open to all writers writing in English. They are looking for original short stories of between 2,000 and 5,000 words on any subject and in any style. This year, the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize is judged by Julie Janson, John Kinsella and Maria Takolander.
Prize: 1st place will receive $6,000; 2nd place will receive $4,000; 3rd place will receive $2,500. All three shortlisted stories will be published in Australian Book Review.
Entry fee: AU$20 for current ABR subscribers or AU$30 for non-subscribers.
More Information here:
www.australianbookreview.com.auDeadline: 15 May 2025
The Stinging Fly: Climate Crisis Focus in Issue 53
Climate-themed fiction and poetry will be welcomed through the the Stinging Fly’s Submittable portal from May 1 to May 15 2025. The link to the submission form will be made available on their main submission page during this two-week period.
Accepted forms: Fiction and poetry.
Contributor payment rate: Fiction and non-fiction: €45 per magazine page, with a minimum/maximum payment of €325/€1200. Flash Fiction/shorter essays (1 – 2 pages): €150. Poetry: €45 per magazine page, with a minimum payment of €70 per poem.
More Information here:
stingingfly.orgDeadline: 16 May 2025
Greywood Arts Family Residency
The Greywood Arts Family Residency is a new residency scheme designed to support parenting artists located at Greywood Arts Creative Hub in Killeagh, Co. Cork. Two artists and their families will be awarded studio space, accommodation, and one place on Greywood’s summer art camp from 20 – 27 July, 2025. Families will be offered up to two bedrooms plus studio space appropriate to their discipline (literary, visual art, performing arts).
See Greywood’s website for full details.
More Information here:
form.jotform.comDeadline: 19th May 2025
Birr Writers’ Residency Award 2025
The Birr Writers’ Residency will offer professional writers’ accommodation and workspaces for five nights at Brendan House in the centre of Birr, County Offaly.
The purpose of the residency is to provide an opportunity for artists to focus on a writing project (current or new) in a tranquil environment which supports and values high professional artistic development.
Accepted forms: Professional writers working in any genre, e.g. literary fiction, poetry, playwrights, journalism, travel writing, etc.
Award: Five night residency in Birr, County Offaly.
More Information here:
www.offaly.ieDeadline 21 May 2025
Developing Your Intuition with Claire-Louise Bennett
The Irish Writers Centre is delighted to present a one-day, in-person, intermediate-level workshop with Claire-Louise Bennett. In this immersive, one-day workshop, author of Pond, Checkout 19 and the forthcoming Big Kiss, Bye-Bye, Claire-Louise Bennett, will guide a group of fifteen emerging writers on a journey through their writing practice, returning them back to their formative influences, and shedding light on that most mysterious of impulses: writerly intuition.
The workshop will be held in-person at the Irish Writers Centre from 10.30am – 3.30pm on Saturday 14 June. Participants will be selected via a short application process.
The tuition fee for the workshop is €25. All fees must be paid by the chosen applicants by Friday 6 June.
More Information here:
irishwriterscentre.ieDeadline: 21 May 2025
Tolka
Tolka is a biannual literary journal of non-fiction: publishing essays, reportage, travel writing, auto-fiction, individual stories and the writing that flows in between.
Accepted forms: Tolka publish all forms of non-fiction: personal essay, memoir, reportage, travel writing, auto-fiction, and the writing that falls in between. Their word count is 1,000–3,000 words.
Contributor payment fee: €500
More Information here:
www.tolkajournal.orgDate: May 23-25 2025
All-Weather Words Writing Retreat
Join us for the inaugural All-Weather Words Writing Retreat in Castlebar, Co. Mayo.
Hosted by award-winning local writer, Alice Kinsella, this weekend retreat is designed to give you time and space to read, relax, meet like-minded peers, spend time in nature, and write.
We’re delighted to present this introductory offer of €265 is to celebrate our first retreat. Spaces are extremely limited. The cost of your retreat includes accommodation, breakfast, and creative writing workshops with Alice Kinsella.
More Information here:
www.thelinenhall.comDeadline: 23rd May 2025
RTÉ Short Story Competition
The 2025 RTÉ Short Story Competition in honour of Francis MacManus, one of Ireland’s longest established and most significant literary prizes, is now open for entries.
Writers over the age of 18 living in Ireland, and Irish writers around the world are invited to submit their short story to the competition; this year, Tristan Rosenstock and Jan Carson join returning judge Neil Hegarty on the panel. The literary prize, set up in 1986 to honour writer and broadcaster Francis MacManus, recognises and rewards the best new Irish fiction writing for radio.
Prize: 1st prize €5,000.
Entry fee: None.
More Information here:
www.rte.ieDeadline: 29 May 2025
Annaghmakerrig Residencies 2025
The Irish Writers Centre is delighted to announce five new residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, Newbliss, County Monaghan. We are offering five writers a one-week stay at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in August 2025.
These residencies are created and funded by the Irish Writers Centre in partnership with the Tyrone Guthrie Centre.
This is an open call for all writers, both emerging and established who are over 18 years of age and resident on the island of Ireland. Accepted forms of writing: Fiction, creative non-fiction, children’s/Young Adult fiction and poetry.
More Information here:
irishwriterscentre.ieDeadline: 31 May 2025
Fiction Factory Short Story Competition
Fiction Factory is currently seeking original short stories (max. 3,000 words in length) for its annual short story competition. Winning stories will be published on the Fiction Factory website, as well as in a planned anthology (to be published at a later date). Entries should be formatted as a Microsoft Word document and can be submitted directly via the Fiction Factory’s email address (words@fiction-factory.biz).
Accepted forms: Short story.
Prize: 1st place £500.
Entry fee: £7 (£13 for 2 stories, £18 for 3 stories).
More Information here:
fiction-factory.bizDeadline: 2 June 2025
The Stony Thursday Book – 50th Anniversary Edition
The Stony Thursday Book is seeking submissions from local, national and international poets for its next issue, to be published in Autumn/Winter 2025. This year’s editors will be founding poets John Liddy and Jim Burke, to mark 50 years since the founding of the book. Writers are invited to submit up to three poems either in .doc or .pdf format. All work must be previously unpublished. Texts in other languages are welcome, and if poets wish to send an accompanying English translation they may.
Accepted forms: Poetry.
Entry fee: None.
Contributor’s fee: None.
More Information here:
limerickarts.submit.comDeadline: 6 June 2025
Write By The Sea Writing Competition 2025
Write By The Sea Festival is currently accepting entries to its annual writing competition. Writers can apply in any one of four categories (fiction, flash fiction, poetry and non-fiction/memoir), with a cash prize of €500 and a free weekend pass to the Write By The Sea Festival 2025 available in each. See the festival’s website for full details.
Accepted forms: Short Story: max. 2,500 words; Flash Fiction: max. 700 words; Poetry: max. 40 lines; Personal Essay/ Memoir: max. 1,000 words.
Prize: The winner of each category will receive a cash prize of €500 and a free weekend pass to the Write By The Sea Festival 2025.
Entry fee: Entrants can submit as many entries as they wish at €10 per entry, or enter 3 pieces, in the same or different genres, for €25.
More Information here:
writebythesea.ieDeadline: 30 June 2025
The Frazzled Lit Short Story Award 2025
From 1 June until 30 June, Frazzled Lit will be accepting submissions of original short stories (750-2,000 words) for its annual short story competition. Entries must be made via Duosuma, and will be blind-read by Jennifer and Laura from Frazzled Lit. The overall winner will be chosen by Nuala O’Connor (author of Nora [2022] and Seaborne [2024]). All ten shortlisted stories will be published in a special issue of Frazzled Lit.
Accepted forms: Short stories.
Prize: 1st prize €1,000; 2nd prize €500; 3rd prize €300.
Entry fee: €15 (twenty free places available to low-income writers).
More Information here:
www.frazzledlit.comDeadline: 30 June 2025
Heroines Anthology / Heroines Women’s Writing Prize
Heroines Anthology publishes literary writing by women. The anthology focuses on telling women’s lost history, untold stories, and myths, fairy tales, folklore or legends reimagined from the perspective of their women characters.
The special theme for the next edition is witchcraft: from the history of witches and witch trials, to medicine women, mystics and herbalists, spells and enchantments, shapeshifters and familiars, covens, hags, crones and sabbats. They welcome writing on witchcraft as the old religion, remembered or imagined, and the depiction of witches in fairytale, folklore, literature and film (both good and bad) across cultures.
Anthology copies can be ordered at a 10% discount. All submissions are considered for the Heroines Women’s Writing Prize.
Prize: First prize receives $500. The first prize may be won by either a poem or a piece of short fiction. All short-listed entries are published in Volume 6 of the anthology.
Entry fee: $15 per poem.
More Information here:
www.writingtheheroine.comDeadline: 30 June 2025
The Moth Short Story Prize
The Moth Short Story Prize is an international prize, open to anyone from anywhere in the world, as long as their story is original and previously unpublished. The winners are chosen by a single judge each year, who reads the stories anonymously. Previous judges include Ottessa Moshfegh, Kevin Barry, Mark Haddon, Ali Smith and Sarah Hall.
Accepted forms: short story (3,000 word limit)
Prize: 1st prize €3,000, 2nd prize a week at Circle of Misse plus open travel stipend, 3rd prize €1,000.
Entry fee: €15 per story.
More Information here:
www.themothmagazine.comDeadline: 30 June 2025
The Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2025
The 2025 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize is currently open for entries. The prize supports writers who have not yet published a book-length work, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background. The sixteenth edition of the prize also welcomes entries in translation – across all three categories – for the first time since the prize was founded by Dr. Susheila Nasta.
Prize: £1,000 in each category (fiction, life writing, poetry) and publication in Wasafiri’s print magazine.
Entry fee: Single entry £12, double entry £16. Subsidised entry also available.
More Information here:
www.wasafiri.orgDeadline: 30 June 2025
Southword Creative Non-Fiction Award 2025
Southword is currently seeking submissions of original, previously unpublished works of creative non-fiction to a new, annual non-fiction award. The competition will be judged by Southword’s poetry editor, Patrick Cotter, and is open to writers working in the field of memoir, innovative essay-writing, or a mixture of both. Submissions are to be made in either .doc, .rtf or .odt format and can be submitted up to 30 June.
Accepted forms: Creative non-fiction.
Prize: 1st prize will receive €1,000 and publication in Southword; eight runners up will receive €400 and publication in Southword.
Entry fee: €20.
More Information here:
munsterlit.ieDeadline: 30 June 2025
Wells Festival of Literature’s Creative Writing Competitions
Wells Festival of Literature is currently seeking entries to its annual writing competition. Entrants can apply in any of the following four categories: short stories, books for children, open poetry, and young poets. A total of £5,000 will be given out in cash prizes, with £100 reserved for a local writer in each category.
Accepted forms: Short stories, poetry, children’s books.
Prize: Various.
Entry fee: £6 per submission.
More Information here:
wellsfestivalofliterature.org.ukDeadline: 4 July 2025
The Hubert Butler Essay Prize 2025
The Hubert Butler Essay Prize was founded to encourage the art of essay-writing with a European dimension and to expand interest in Butler’s work. The subject for this year’s prize is: “‘Men must endure / Their going hence, even as their coming hither’ – King Lear. Have we no more active rights over life, birth and death?”
Accepted forms: Essays/non-fiction.
Prize: €1,500 first prize; two second prizes of €500.
Entry fee: None.
More Information here:
www.hubertbutleressayprize.comDeadline: 31 July 2025
Fiction Factory Poetry Competition 2025
Fiction Factory is currently seeking poems (max. 40 lines in length) for its annual poetry competition. Winning entries will be published on the Fiction Factory website, as well as in a planned anthology (to be published at a later date). The overall winner will receive £100, feedback on five poems, and an hour-long mentoring session. Entries should be formatted as a Microsoft Word document and can be submitted directly via the Fiction Factory’s email address (words@fiction-factory.biz).
Accepted forms: Poetry.
Prize: 1st place £100.
Entry fee: £5 (£9 for 2 poems, £12 for 3).
More Information here:
fiction-factory.bizOpen from 1 May to 31 July 2025
The Hope Prize 2025
The Hope Prize is an international writing competition open to writers aged 18 and over from anywhere in the world. Stories should align with the core themes of hope, courage, and resilience, as personally experienced or imagined by you, the writer. The competition is limited to prose stories only – either fiction or narrative nonfiction (including memoir). It does not cater to poetry, essays, or academic writing. Applications open 1 May.
Accepted forms: Short stories/narrative non-fiction.
Prize: 1st prize $10,000 AUD; 2nd prize $2,000 AUD; 3rd prize $1,000 AUD. All highly-commended and winning entries will be will be published in an anthology by Simon & Schuster Australia.
Entry fee: $20 AUD (30 June); $30 AUD (until 31 July).
More Information here:
www.thehopeprize.comDeadline: 15 August 2025
Tyrone Guthrie Centre Bursary Awards for Children’s Books Artists in 2025
Children’s Books Ireland and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre are pleased to announce an opportunity for Irish Children’s books artists and illustrators to avail of a week-long residency, to take place between 3rd and 10th November and 17th and 24th November 2025
- One bursary is on offer to support an upcoming, unpublished, aspiring Irish children’s author
- One bursary is on offer to support an emerging artist, published but in their early career
- One bursary is on offer to support a children’s artist published in the Irish language, at any stage in their career
- The additional bursaries are on offer to support mid-career artists
More Information here:
childrensbooksireland.ieDeadline: 28 August 2025
The 2026 V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize
The Royal Society of Literature is currently seeking entries of original, previously unpublished stories between 2,000 and 4,000 words in length for its annual V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize. The competition, now in its 25th year, will be judged by writers Kirsty Gunn, Anjali Joseph, and Tom Vowler. For full details see the RSL’s website.
Accepted forms: Short stories.
Prize: £1,000 and publication in the RSL Review.
Entry fee: £8 per entry (fifty free places for low-income writers).
More Information here:
rsliterature.orgDeadline: 29 September 2025
Mount Stewart Global Plant Networks Creative Residency
The National Trust and the Historic Houses Global Crossroads project are delighted to announce the Mount Stewart Global Plant Networks Creative Residency, the first of two major artist residencies due to take place in historic National Trust properties in 2026.
This Creative Residency will develop new work inspired by the global histories of the plants, trees and shrubberies that make Mount Stewart famous. Developed by Lady Edith Londonderry following the First World War, the gardens are home to flora from across Asia, Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, which have thrived within Mount Stewart’s sub-tropical local climate.
Applications are open to artists working in any medium. The appointed creative resident will engage in a six-week residency from May to June 2026 based at Mount Stewart.
See website for details on how to apply.
More Information here:
treatiedspaces.comOpen from 31 July to 30 Nov 2025
Anthology Creative Competitions 2025
Six new writing competitions have just opened at Anthology, with various deadlines starting 31 July 2025. Check out each one individually on their website.
Prizes range from €300, €500 and €1000 with entry fees starting at €10/12.
Short story: https://anthology-magazine.com/awards/short-story-competition/
Poetry: https://anthology-magazine.com/awards/poetry-competition/
Flash Fiction: https://anthology-magazine.com/awards/flash-fiction-competition/
Travel Writing: https://anthology-magazine.com/awards/travel-writing-competition/
Personal Memoir: https://anthology-magazine.com/awards/memoir-competition/
Nature Writing: https://anthology-magazine.com/awards/nature-competition/
More Information here:
anthology-magazine.comDeadline: Ongoing
Guernica: A Magazine of Global Arts & Politics
Founded online in 2004, Guernica is an award-winning 501(c)3 non-profit magazine focused on the intersection of arts and politics. A home for incisive ideas and necessary questions, Guernica publish memoir, reporting, interviews, commentary, poetry, fiction, and multimedia journalism exploring identity, conflict, culture, justice, science, and beyond. They offer honoraria of $50 for poetry, $100 for original essays, and $150 for original fiction and for reportage/journalism.
More Information here:
www.guernicamag.comDeadline: Ongoing
PN Review
PN Review considers submissions in hard copy form only (unless you are an individual subscriber to the magazine, in which case electronic submissions, word files rather than PDFs, will be considered). Writers wishing to send work should familiarise themselves with PN Review. Submissions should generally not exceed fifteen double-spaced pages of work (prose) or four poems/five pages (verse in English or translation). Copies of the original texts should accompany translations where possible. We discourage simultaneous submissions. Writers wishing to propose projects should send a synopsis and covering letter, with sample pages, having first ascertained from the website that the kind of proposal is suitable for PN Review.
We publish no short stories, children’s prose/poetry and very little non-poetry related work (academic, biography etc.) at the current time. We are not considering fiction in English or in translation at this time.
More Information here:
www.pnreview.co.ukDeadline: Ongoing
The Poetry Review
The Poetry Review, founded in 1912, is the magazine of the Poetry Society, UK, and has a long-standing policy of publishing the very best work by new, up and coming poets, and established poets. All submissions are read by the editor and considered on an equal basis. Unfortunately, due to the volume of submissions we receive, we cannot offer any individual criticism. Our aim is to accept or reject work within three months – but please read, and follow, the submission guidelines below, in order to facilitate our response.
More Information here:
poetrysociety.org.ukDeadline: Ongoing
The Dublin Review
The Dublin Review welcomes submissions of fiction and non-fiction previously unpublished in the English language. We do not accept poetry submissions. We especially encourage submissions from members of groups traditionally underrepresented in literary magazines and other cultural forums.
