We found over five dozen excellent free poetry and prose contests with deadlines between December 15-January 31. In this issue, we bring you "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden, illustrated by Julian Peters. Annie Mydla shows how mystery in a book can devolve into confusion if not handled carefully. This month's tip reveals a great source for used books. If you have a tip, recommendation, or warning, please email it to info@winningwriters.com. Open at Winning Writers, co-sponsored by Duotrope and Chill Subs
WERGLE FLOMP HUMOR POETRY CONTEST - NO FEE
Free to enter, $3,750 in prizes. Top award includes $2,000 plus a two-year gift certificate from Duotrope (a $100 value) and five years of Chill Subs' Best plan (a $1,000 value). 13 prizes in all. Open at Winning Writers, co-sponsored by Duotrope
TOM HOWARD/JOHN H. REID FICTION & ESSAY CONTEST
$12,000 in prizes. Two top awards include $3,500 each plus two-year gift certificates from Duotrope (a $100 value). 12 prizes in all. $25 entry fee.  In Memoriam: Richard Conway Jackson
Winning Writers mourns the loss of longtime subscriber and family friend Richard Conway Jackson (June 6, 1959-December 1, 2025). A self-taught writer and artist, Richard created the cover art for WW editor Jendi Reiter's poetry chapbooks Swallow (Amsterdam Press, 2009) and Barbie at 50 (Červená Barva Press, 2010), and for Carolyn Howard-Johnson's poetry book Imperfect Echoes (2015). Read Jendi's tribute to him on their blog and help us support the family's funeral expenses with this GoFundMe.
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"What an incredible experience my first residency was! Being on campus, surrounded by other passionate writers, for an entire week made me realize I haven't been able to dedicate this much time to my writing since...ever. This is why I wanted to get my MFA.
"I had no idea how enriching residency would be. This one week created a huge shift: in my motivation, my perspective of what's possible, my mental health, and the number of people I call Friend.
"Now I'm back home for my semester of independent study—writing, reading, analyzing texts, but not as 'on my own' as I thought it would be. We all have so much support from the faculty and staff, a huge network of alums, and each other.
"I can't wait to see what we write this semester! I'm beyond grateful that it's finally time to give my all to my writing."
 – Emily Persichetti Schuster, low-residency MFA student at Spalding University's Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing LEARN MORE |
Write Hook is the weekly, fight-night-style writing contest where fast-paced creativity meets competitive excitement. The contest is open to writers worldwide. Every week, 16 writers enter. Only one walks away with the €200 Champion's Prize. This contest features peer judging. While your submissions are being judged, each participant will score between 5-9 stories from another contest group. The judging will be spaced out so judges only have to judge two stories every few days. There is a €15 fee to enter each contest. With tiered divisions, everyone competes at their own level, from absolute beginners to seasoned pros. Quick turnarounds mean you'll get judged, get results, and get better fast. Writers rise through the ranks, unlock achievements, defend titles, and chase end-of-year awards. Ready to prove yourself? Join the next 16. Step into the ring. Write to win. https://www.getwritehooked.com |
Deadline: December 31, 2025 Gifted fiction writers! Lilith magazine—independent, Jewish & frankly feminist—seeks quality short stories with heart, soul, and chutzpah, 3,000 words or under, double-spaced, for our Annual Fiction Contest. First prize: $300 and publication. No fee to enter. We especially like fresh fiction with feminist and Jewish nuance and are eager to read submissions from writers of color and emerging writers of any age. Submit to info@lilith.org with the subject line “Fiction Contest” and your surname. INCLUDE FULL CONTACT INFORMATION ON MANUSCRIPT. Check out FRANKLY FEMINIST: Short Stories by Jewish Women from Lilith Magazine, available here or wherever you buy books. |
Deadline: December 31, 2025 Attention Women Poets: Two Sylvias Press is looking to publish Full-Length Poetry Manuscripts by Women Over 50
(Open to both established and emerging poets) Prize: $1,000 and print book publication by Two Sylvias Press, and 20 copies of the winning book The Wilder Series Poetry Book Prize is open to women over 50 years of age (born on or before December 31, 1975). Women submitting manuscripts may be poets with one or more previously published chapbooks/books or poets without any prior chapbook/book publications. (We use an inclusive definition of "woman" and "female" and of course welcome trans women, genderqueer women, and non-binary people who are female-identified or AFAB.) All manuscripts will be considered for publication. See the complete contest guidelines. We offer a limited number of fee waivers for writers experiencing financial hardship. If the entry fee presents a barrier, please contact us at twosylviaspress@gmail.com to request a waiver. Learn more about the prize and Two Sylvias Press. Previous winners & manuscripts chosen for the Wilder Poetry Book Prize include Tiffany Midge, Gail Griffin, Michelle Bitting, Gail Martin, Kelly Cressio-Moeller, Erica Bodwell, Adrian Blevins, Dana Roeser, Molly Tenenbaum, and Carmen Gillespie. Simultaneous submissions allowed. NOTE: Our mission at Two Sylvias Press is to support poets. Your manuscript will NOT be disqualified if it was submitted incorrectly. We will not penalize you for trying and making a mistake. If we have a question or concern about your manuscript format, we will contact you and allow you to resubmit. Please know that we are on your side. Thank you for trusting us with your work. |
Deadline: January 5, 2026 The 2026 DISQUIET Prize is now open for submissions. Entries are accepted in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. One winner in each category will be published in Granta.com (fiction), NinthLetter.com (nonfiction) or The Common (poetry). One grand prize winner will receive a full scholarship, accommodations, and travel stipend to attend the fourteenth annual DISQUIET International Literary Program in Lisbon (June 28-July 10, 2026). Genre winners will receive a tuition waiver for DISQUIET 2026 in addition to publication. Winners who are unable to attend the program in Lisbon may elect to receive a $1,000 cash prize in lieu of the tuition waiver. See the complete guidelines at DISQUIET International Literary Program. |
 Holding things back from readers can be a good way to inspire curiosity, but too much mystery can lead to confusion. Readers need a certain amount of information to feel immersed and interested right off the bat: material that will give them expectations about the nature of the book, as well as questions that will keep them turning pages. One good strategy is to start with an intimate view of something small that reflects an important aspect of the wider premise. Orient the reader in that one thing fully before moving on to the big picture.
Read on. |
The Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University is seeking submissions to the Colorado Prize for Poetry until January 14, 2026, allowing for a five-day grace period. Authors do not need to reside in Colorado or the United States. Our final judge will be Victoria Chang. The Colorado Prize for Poetry is an international poetry book manuscript contest established in 1995. The winning book will be published by the Center for Literary Publishing and distributed by the University Press of Colorado in the fall of 2026. To see what kind of work has been published in this series, please take a look at some of our previous winners. Manuscripts may consist of poems that have been published, but the manuscript as a whole must be unpublished. Please do not submit self-published books. We have a limited number of fee waivers available for writers experiencing financial hardship. Email creview@colostate.edu directly to request one of these waivers. Find out more on our website and submit online via Submittable. |
Deadline: January 15, 2026 The annual Rattle Chapbook Prize gives poets something truly special. Every year, three winners will each receive: $5,000 cash, 500 contributor copies, and distribution to Rattle's 8,000+ subscribers. In a world where a successful full-length poetry book might sell 1,000 copies, the winning book will reach an audience eight times as large on its release day alone—an audience that includes many other literary magazines, presses, and well-known poets. This will be a chapbook to launch a career. And maybe the best part is this: The $30 entry fee is just a standard subscription to Rattle, which includes four issues of the magazine and three winning chapbooks, even if one of them isn't yours. Rattle is one of the most-read literary journals in the world—find out why just by entering! For more information, visit our website. We congratulate our three winners from our 2025 contest: - José Enrique Medina, Haunt Me
- Liz Robbins, Backlit
- Matthew Buckley Smith, The Soft Black Stars
Please enjoy this poem by 2025 winner Liz Robbins. It appears in Backlit, published by Rattle in 2025. Cigarettes The sex worker gives away
her body: her mouth, her nipples,
her mind. We say, they were giving
it away, about a store with goods
priced unusually low. The street
walker does go low: $15 for a blow,
$25 for sex. She bends down, she
bends over, lies beneath. The john's
car seconds as a motel bed. The dash
lit up like a plane, Johnny Cash
in the background. The best drug
remains anticipation, as the act
itself is never what we dreamed.
After, we're a little let down, emptied.
The sex worker opens the car door,
scans the street for a store to buy
Marlboros, all she wants. He'll drive
home darkly, fresh rationales singing
in his head. All inside, she's a column
of gray, a building on fire, a house
that's leaning, trying and failing to
run from the flames. In her head,
she's trained herself to hear only
the most recent tape: I walk the line.
Over and over, from the top floor,
only smoke escapes.
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Entries must be received by January 30, 2026 Submissions are now being accepted for the 12th William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Two prizes of $5,000 each are given for works of fiction and nonfiction. All entries must be predominantly in English and available for individual purchase by the general public. Self-published books are eligible. Poetry will not be considered in this cycle. The awards, co-sponsored by Stanford University Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation, commemorate the life, legacy and intentions of William Saroyan—author, artist, dramatist, composer—and are intended to encourage new or emerging writers, rather than to recognize established literary figures. The award honors the Saroyan literary legacy. What is the Saroyan legacy or style?
Saroyan's literary style is characterized by originality, stylistic innovation and what is often described as an "exuberant humanism". It is this exuberance and desire to move art in new directions, rather than relevance to the particulars of Saroyan's common settings or themes, that Saroyan Prize judges will be seeking.
Submit five copies of your work published between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2025, with a $50 entry fee by January 30, 2026. An electronic file of your book will be accepted only if the book is not available in hard copy form. Writers who have published up to two books are eligible. Visit the Saroyan Prize website for complete eligibility and submission details.  Congratulations to Mirinae Lee and Fae Myenne Ng, winners of the 2024 Saroyan Prize. University Librarian Michael A. Keller announced awards of $5,000 to each winner and remarked, "Both of these outstanding books offer fascinating cultural insights at the person-to-person level otherwise very difficult to perceive." Learn more about their achievement.
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This Month's Tip
A Great Source for Used Books This month's tip comes from your newsletter editor Adam Cohen. Here at Winning Writers headquarters in Northampton, MA, we've had a little free library out front for several years. We give away hundreds of books per year, so supplying the library in a cost-effective way is a priority. Sometimes we find good-quality used books on Amazon or Abe Books, but the big winner has been World of Books. They have a wide selection, competitive prices, free US shipping over $15, and the books generally arrive within 1-2 weeks.
Have a tip, recommendation, or warning? Please email it to us at info@winningwriters.com. |
Deadline: January 31, 2026 Every life has a story. What's yours? This memoir competition invites writers of all nationalities writing in English to share their truths. You don't need fame, fortune, or heartbreak—the beauty of memoir lies in how you transform the everyday into something unforgettable. With honesty, heart, and a touch of craft, even ordinary moments can shine as extraordinary. Bring your story to life—submit online or by mail. Judge: Elspeth Beard, author of Lone Rider Prizes FIRST – $1,164 SECOND – $349 + Online Writing Course THIRD – $349 + Online Writing Course The best 10 memoirs will be published in the Fish Anthology 2026. See the complete guidelines and enter here. |
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$10,000 Grand Prize, 2024 North Street Book Prize Competition 
Linda Meyers was twenty-eight and the mother of three little boys when her mother, after a lifetime of threats, killed herself. Staggered by conflicting feelings of relief and remorse, Linda believed that the best way to give meaning to her mother's death was to make changes to her own life. Bolstered by the women’s movement of the seventies, she left her marriage, went to college, earned her doctorate, and established a fulfilling career. Written with irony and humor and sprinkled with Yiddish, The Tell, Grand Prize winner of the 2024 North Street Book Prize competition, is one woman's inspirational story of before and after, and ultimately of emancipation and purpose. "The Tell is deeply satisfying because Meyers took charge of her healing in a way that many inheritors of intergenerational damage never do. She summarizes the family dynamics with clarity and empathy, but neither moralizes about forgiveness nor dwells in bitterness."
—Jendi Reiter, final judge of the North Street Book Prize (read the full critique) "In this vivid and immensely enjoyable memoir, we encounter the lost world of Jewish Brooklyn, crazy parents, a crazy husband, and a protagonist/narrator who can't help being a good girl. Woody Allen and Ralph Lauren make appearances: somehow it all fits."
—Philip Lopate (essayist and film critic) Read an excerpt from The Tell (PDF) Buy this book on Amazon 
Dr. Linda I. Meyers is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in NYC. She has published in Alligator Juniper, Post Road, and The Manifest Station. The Tell is her first book. Dividing her time between NYC and a country house in upstate New York, she is at work on a second memoir for which she is seeking representation. Working title: Walking to Zabars. |
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Some contests are best suited to writers at the early stages of their careers. Others are better for writers with numerous prizes and publications to their credit. Here is this month's selection of Spotlight Contests for your consideration: Emerging Writers
John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum will award a top prize of $10,000 for essays about how an elected official who served during or after 1917, the year John F. Kennedy was born, risked their career to take a stand based on moral principles. The winner and their family and nominating teacher are invited to attend the award ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston in May; travel and lodging expenses for the trip will be paid for winner, their parents, and their nominating teacher. US high school students under the age of 20 may enter. Essays should be between 700-1,000 words and cite at least five varied research sources. Must be received by January 12 (new deadline). Intermediate Writers
Hilary Mantel Prize for Fiction. The A.M. Heath Literary Agency will award 7,500 pounds and mentoring support to first-time novelists for an unpublished novel manuscript in any genre. Submit the opening chapter (15,000 words maximum) and a brief synopsis (1,000 words maximum). Open to residents of the UK, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, and Ireland. A.M. Heath is the oldest independent literary agency in the UK. Must be received by December 31. Advanced Writers
Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. The Cleveland Foundation will make four awards of $10,000 each: one for a book of fiction, one for a poetry collection, one for a book of nonfiction, and one for a memoir or autobiography. This award honors books that have made important contributions to the understanding of racism or the appreciation of cultural diversity. Books must have been published in the current calendar year. Must be received by December 31 (new deadline). See more Spotlight Contests for emerging, intermediate, and advanced writers within The Best Free Literary Contests database. | |  |
Winning Writers finds open submission calls and free contests in a variety of sources, including Erika Dreifus' Practicing Writer newsletter, FundsforWriters, Erica Verrillo's blog, Authors Publish, Lit Mag News Roundup, Poets & Writers, The Writer, Duotrope, and literary journals' own newsletters and announcements. • River Glass Books: Chapbook Reading Period
(poetry and prose chapbook manuscripts, especially on environmental themes - January 15) • Sundress Publications: Prose Manuscript Reading Period
(short novels, memoirs, and hybrid works - February 28) |
This month, editor Jendi Reiter highlights poems from around the web that have won recent prizes.  DANCE OF TWO LINE COOKS
by Mamie Morgan
Winner of the 2025 Hollis Summers Poetry Prize
Entries must be received by December 31
This open poetry manuscript award gives $1,000 and publication by Ohio University Press. Morgan's collection Midsummer Night's Toast was the most recent winner. In this timely poem, the speaker recalls how years of side-by-side labor gradually built trust between herself and an immigrant co-worker, giving her hints of his brutal journey across the border. THREE POEMS FROM BLACK SWAN THEORY
by Kyle Marbut
Winner of the 2023 Burnside Review Press Book Award
Entries must be received by December 31
This poetry manuscript contest offers $1,000 and publication by Burnside Review Press. These prose-poems, excerpted from Marbut's prizewinning collection Black Swan Theory, resemble surreal fairy tales where desire takes the form of a volcano or a meal of flowers, and longing is a missive made of dead birds. THE MARTYRDOM OF SAINT SERAPION
by Frank Paino
Winner of the 2024 Longleaf Press Poetry Book Contest
Entries must be received by January 15
Winners of this open poetry manuscript prize receive $1,000, publication, and 25 copies. This poem from Paino's winning collection Dark Octaves meditates on a painting by Francisco de Zurbarán in which the saint's body, ambiguously suspended between death and resurrection, gives no hint of his gruesome dismemberment for the faith. MY S. CAROLINA CONCEALED WEAPONS PERMIT INSTRUCTOR NOTICES THAT MY DRIVER'S LICENSE MISTAKENLY INDICATES I AM NOT A BLACK MALE
by Len Lawson
Winner of the 2025 Lit Fox Award
Entries must be received by January 15
This free contest for full-length poetry manuscripts gives $1,000, publication by Lit Fox Books, and 25 copies. Lawson's New Names for Stars was the most recent winner. In this tense and image-rich poem, the speaker is overcome by physical, ancestral memories during a high-stakes interaction with his white instructor. Read more award-winning work going back to 2005. |
December Links Roundup: Trans of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables fans have been queering the title character's passionate friendship with bestie Diana for a long time, but do you know about her genderqueer son Walter? In this essay at the Canadian Broadcasting Company's CBC Arts website, "In Anne of Green Gables, I found the kindred spirits and queer prophets I needed," Julia Smeaton takes a deep dive into the sequels. [read more] Jendi Reiter is the editor of Winning Writers. Visit their website. |
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