Each month we curate a list of contests, fellowships, and other writing opportunities with approaching deadlines. Opportunities will be posted in the month prior to their deadlines, so that you have ample time to submit your work or applications.

Fiction Contests

Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Contest
Eligibility: All writers
Prize: $1,000 + publication
Entry fee: $30
Deadline: October 1, 2020

F(r)iction Short Story Contest
Eligibility: All writers
Prize: $1,000
Deadline: October 30, 2020

Quill Prose Award
Eligibility: Queer writers
Prize: $1,000 + publication
Entry fee: $10
Deadline: October 30, 2020

Nonfiction Contests

River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Book Contest
Eligibility: All writers
Prize: $1,000 + publication
Entry fee: $27
Deadline: October 31, 2020

Poetry Contests

Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholarship
Eligibility: All US-born poets (or with parent born in the US)
Prize: $60,500
Deadline: October 15, 2020

Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award
Eligibility: All writers
Prize: $3,000 + publication + 4-week residency
Entry fee: $25
Deadline: October 31, 2020

Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry
Eligibility: Female poets who have yet to publish a full-length book of poems
Prize: $1,000 + publication + residency
Deadline: October 31, 2020

APR/Honickman First Book Prize
Eligibility: U.S. writers who have not published a book-length collection of poems
Prize: $3,000 + publication
Entry fee: $25
Deadline: October 31, 2020

Blue Lights Book Prize
Eligibility: All writers
Prize: $2,000 + publication
Entry fee: $20
Deadline: October 31, 2020

Multi-Genre Contests

American Literary Review Awards
Eligibility: All writers
Prize: $1,000 + publication
Entry fee: $15
Deadline: October 1, 2020

Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize
Eligibility: All writers
Prize: $5,000
Entry fee: $25
Deadline: October 1, 2020

Thomas Morton Memorial Prize in Literary Excellence
Eligibility: All writers
Prize: $1,000 + publication
Entry fee: $20
Deadline: October 15, 2020