We found over three dozen excellent free poetry and prose contests with deadlines between April 15-May 31. This issue features a poem from Julian Peters' newly published Nature Poems to See By. See below for a discount on the hardcover from the publisher. Annie Mydla's column presents literary yardsticks: big-picture questions to focus your revisions. Our tip comes from a subscriber who got wise to a sophisticated author phishing operation just before they lost money. If you have a tip, recommendation, or warning, please email it to info@winningwriters.com. Winners of our Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest
EMILY DAVIS-FLETCHER and QIAORUI (SHERRY) ZHANG won the top awards of $3,500 each in our 23rd annual Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. Contest co-sponsor Duotrope awarded our winners two-year gift certificates (value $100) to access Duotrope's extensive literary information services. Visit the winners' pages to read their poems and see the original art we commissioned to illustrate them. We received 2,471 submissions from around the world (most submissions contained three poems). We awarded 11 Honorable Mentions and $500 to Alishya Almeida, Ja'net Danielo, Jomil Ebro, Simon Peter Eggertsen, Latorial Faison, Carlos Andrés Gómez (two awards, very rare!), Mickie Kennedy, Elisabeth Preston-Hsu, Maya Salameh, and Margo Wheaton. We are pleased to recognize a mix of returning past winners as well as poets who are new to us. We further recognize these finalists: Partridge Boswell, Claire Hong, Michael Lavers, Ana M. Mahomar, Elisávet Makridis, Minh Nguyen, Maya Salameh, and Jennifer Tubbs. Read our press release, and read all the winning entries selected by Michal 'MJ' Jones with assistance from Briana Grogan and Dare Williams. We would also like to acknowledge the dedicated administrative support provided by Annie Mydla and her staff in Poland. MJ and Dare will return to judge our 24th contest opening today. Briana is departing for new endeavors—we wish her all the best! Her work will be taken up by Ezra Fox. In the 24th contest, we will award two top prizes of $3,500 and ten Honorable Mentions of $500. The entry fee remains $25 for 1-3 poems. Enter here. LAST CALL! Open at Winning Writers, co-sponsored by Duotrope
TOM HOWARD/JOHN H. REID FICTION & ESSAY CONTEST
Deadline: May 1. $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. Open at Winning Writers
NORTH STREET BOOK PRIZE
Deadline: July 1. 12th year. Cash awards totaling $23,500, including a top award of $10,000. Many additional benefits from our co-sponsors. This year's categories: Mainstream/Literary Fiction, Genre Fiction, Creative Nonfiction & Memoir, Inspirational/Self-Help (new!), Poetry, Children's Picture Book, Middle Grade, Graphic Novel & Memoir, and Art Book. Accepting hybrid-published as well as self-published books. Fee: $95 per entry. All entrants who submit online via Submittable can choose to receive a brief commentary from one of the judges (5-10 sentences) at no extra charge. See the previous winners and enter here. View past newsletters in our archives. Need assistance? Let us help. Join our 65,000 followers on Facebook and Bluesky. Advertise with us, starting at $20. |
Professional publishing. Full ownership. Real support. At Gatekeeper Press, we help authors publish with confidence backed by a dedicated team guiding every step from manuscript to marketplace. From editing and design to production, distribution, and marketing, your book is supported by experienced professionals who are invested in your success. You keep 100% of your rights, 100% of your royalties, and full creative control. Join thousands of authors who have trusted Gatekeeper Press to bring their books to life. If you're ready to publish your book the right way, we invite you to begin your journey with us. Start Your Publishing Journey |
Congratulations to Deanna Nese, Walt Madigan, James K. Zimmerman, Eileen P. Kennedy, Chen Du, Xisheng Chen, Judy Juanita, John Ollom, Charles Sartorius, Koss, Susie Helme, Gail Thomas, and Harris Gardner. Cheryl J. Fish (one of our critique specialists) and Eileen P. Kennedy will read from their new collections from Shanti Arts on Saturday, April 25, at 2pm EDT at Jones Library, 101 University Drive, Amherst, MA. Cheryl's book is an expanded edition of her poetry collection Crater and Tower, which juxtaposes reflections on 9/11 and the eruption of Mount St. Helens. Eileen's poetry collection Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth is an ekphrastic response to works by Norwegian artist Irene Christensen. Ying Qian, winner of an honorable mention for A China Story in our 2020 North Street competition, writes, "I am sorry to hear from your March newsletter about the passing of the former judge of the North Street Book Prize, Ellen Louise LaFleche. "Judge LaFleche was one of the few people I've never met but who profoundly impacted my life in a very positive way. Her comment in 2020 on the manuscript of my book, A China Story: Growing Up in Mao's Cultural Revolution, was a great encouragement for me, a first-time author and a non-native English speaker. Her generous compliment showed what a passionate person she was and how willing she was to help someone she had never met. The book has since won a few more awards, but the North Street Book Prize and Judge LaFleche remain very special. She will always be in my heart. "Thank you for your hard work and the help you provide to writers."
Learn about our subscribers' achievements and see links to samples of their work. Have news? Please email it to jendi@winningwriters.com. Do you use TikTok or Instagram? Send your news to the @winningwriters account so we can share it! |
Poets Jendi Reiter, Heidi Seaborn, and Cate Lycurgus will be reading from their new collections on April 16 at 7pm in the Third Thursdays series at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline, Massachusetts. The event will also be livestreamed and recorded. Jendi's fourth full-length collection, Introvert Pervert, was released by The Word Works in March. It depicts queer parenting and erotic expansion against the backdrop of an increasingly repressive society. Cate's chapbook Seacliff (Bull City Press, 2025) centers on the Northern California coast as a landscape of grief and renewal. Heidi's third full-length poetry book, tic tic tic (Cornerstone Press, 2025), explores the shifting texture of time as experienced during the tumultuous years since the pandemic. The book is illustrated with black-and-white photographs. This event is free to attend. Please RSVP. |
Deadline extended to April 25 Mary-Jane Holmes will judge the Haiku Prize sponsored by Fish Publishing. She will select 10 haiku to be published in the Fish Anthology 2026, which will be launched during the West Cork Literary Festival in July. Each winner will receive $132. Haiku and Senryu are a Japanese form of short poetry. Senryu tend to be about human foibles while Haiku tend to be about nature. Traditional Haiku and Senryu consist of 17 syllables, in three lines, 5, 7, and 5. Many poets do not rigidly adhere to this and nor will we. Both Haiku and Senryu are welcome! Submit unpublished work. Entry fee: $6. This contest is open to writers of any nationality writing in English. See the complete guidelines and enter here. A Forward Prize nominee and Hawthornden Fellow, Mary-Jane Holmes has won the Live Canon Poetry Pamphlet Prize 2020, Bath Novella-in-Flash Prize 2020, the Bridport Poetry Prize, Martin Starkie, Dromineer, Reflex Fiction and Mslexia Flash prizes as well as the Bedford Poetry competition. She has also been shortlisted for the Beverley International Prize for Literature and longlisted for the UK National Poetry Prize. Mary-Jane's debut poetry collection Heliotrope with Matches and Magnifying Glass is published by Pindrop Press. Her pamphlet Dihedral is published by Live Canon Press and her award-winning novella Don't Tell the Bees, is published by Ad Hoc Fiction. Her Lockdown poem "Letter from Baldersdale" joins 20 other poems in the National Poetry Archive on their 20th anniversary. |
April 24-26 It's a write-off! Hosted in Australia for writers worldwide 500 words 60 hours 2 teams 1 winner Choose a team and write a 500-word story based on your team's prompts to compete for thousands of dollars in cash prizes & print publication. Then stick around for the Not Quite Write Podcast afterparty, where the judges will unpack the competition stats and celebrate the top stories! 1st Prize AU$1,500 (~US$1,035) | 2nd AU$1,000 | 3rd AU$500 | 4th AU$350 | 5th AU$250 | 6th AU$200 | plus 3x AU$100 Wildcard Prizes Entry ticket: AU$35 (~US$24). Your ticket includes access to the Not Quite Write Community, a safe space to share your work, give and receive feedback, and chat with other authors. The winner receives a trophy, and the top 6 stories also feature in a dramatised reading on the podcast and are published in our annual Best of the Not Quite Write Prize for Flash Fiction anthology. Learn more and sign up now. |
 What to do with the chronically rejected manuscript? I see hundreds of books each year with a similar backstory: the project is the author's first or second. It started from a small seed of inspiration and has grown and changed over the years. Editing decisions are informed by what beta readers liked and disliked and what felt good to the author personally. No matter what tweaks the writer makes, though, agents just don't seem to be interested. And not only that, but none of the feedback the writer has received from beta readers, fellow authors, friends in the industry, paid editors, or others has seemed to get to the heart of why that might be.
These rejections have little to do with any one part of the book's content. The problem instead lies in the composition process. Specifically, a composition process that takes place without a thoroughly magical ingredient: yardsticks. Read on. |
Early-bird deadline: May 1
Submissions close: May 15 The Montreal International Poetry Prize is committed to encouraging the creation of original works of poetry, to building international readership, and to exploring the world's Englishes. Natalie Diaz is this year's final judge. One poet will win $20,000 CAD for a single unpublished poem of 40 or fewer lines. A jury of internationally reputed poets and critics selects a shortlist of approximately 65 poems, from which Natalie Diaz will choose one winner. The shortlist is published in The Montreal Poetry Prize Anthology. The prize is run by the Department of English at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. It is a not-for-profit initiative to recognize the single poem as a work of art. Fee: $25 CAD for a first poem during the early-bird period, $28 CAD for a first poem after May 1; $20 CAD for every additional poem at all times. Learn more and submit at the Montreal International Poetry Prize website. |
Final weeks! The submission window for the 2026 Waterston Desert Writing Prize is closing soon! Writers of literary nonfiction works centered on deserts have until Friday, May 1 to submit their proposals for the 2026 award. There is no fee to apply. The Prize celebrates the vital role deserts play in our global ecosystem and human narrative. Founded by Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston, the award provides critical support to writers whose work reflects a deep connection to these unique landscapes. The 2026 winner will receive a $3,000 cash prize, a residency at PLAYA in Summer Lake, Oregon, and a featured reading at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon, in September. Visit the Waterston Desert Writing Prize to review the submission guidelines and enter today. |
This Month's Tip
Author Eludes Phishing ExpeditionA subscriber relates an encounter with some real anglers: "I was approached by what seemed to be a valid book marketer. After a couple of emails, I agreed to look at the proposal. It was very targeted, very insightful, and clearly had a professional polish. The pricing tiers were also very well presented, making total sense and including fair market prices. "There was a website for this person, and two social media pages. The name also came up on the first page of a Google search, apparently affiliated with a well-known and respected platform for authors and other people in the book industry. "The weird part came when payment was required. He/they wanted to do business using a bank transfer, which isn't weird, but he sent me the account name, number, routing number, bank and bank address in the body of an email. I was expecting a DocuSign or some kind of encrypted portal for this transaction. It raised a concern. The other concern I had, was that the account name didn't match his, and that other name wasn't verifiable on the internet. In fact, it seemed like a personal account belonging to someone with a foreign name…best guess after a little research: Nigerian. The explanation was just that this 'other' name was 'their financial manager'. "I asked for a way to connect his name with his financial manager. The only explanation he supplied for sending sensitive information by email, was that the 'upworks' for their website wasn't currently working. He could put the information (that I already had) on the contract and resend (by email!), if that would make me more comfortable. He also suggested PayPal, but by then, I was thinking he was a scammer. He never supplied a way to verify a corporate structure or any other form of a tangible, bricks and mortar business when I asked him to do so. "I then thought that I'd log on to the platform that they probably got my name from, and once logged in, couldn't find this particular person anywhere. So…somehow they mirrored the platform site, put a name and a picture on it, created an entire portfolio and CV. It was all very believable and very sophisticated…until the payment part. "I blocked the email address and will never respond to any cold approaches ever again, even if they're legitimate. Too many things can go wrong, especially after putting heart and soul into a creative endeavor such as writing. Time and personal integrity are something that writers need to protect from exploitation, as well as their work! "Several days after blocking the 'person' who activated my suspicion, I was approached by another 'person'; this time, a well-known, award-winning author. I thought it was coincidental. The 'new' email address was [author name, the word 'author', and a Gmail address]. If you're an award-winning author, chances are you don't have to use the word 'author' in your email address, and you'll probably have a domain name to use for professional correspondence. Besides all that, you'd probably have your agent reach out!" Have a tip, recommendation, or warning? Please email it to us at info@winningwriters.com. |
Application deadline: May 15 Join renowned authors and professional park educators for a writers conference like no other, set on a lush, secluded campus nestled within America's most-visited national park. Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont partners with Smokies Life to bring this five-day intensive retreat to a small group of selected writers. Apply to be a part of your chosen cohort: fiction, nonfiction, or poetry—and enjoy the benefits of award-winning author workshop leaders dedicated to focusing on you and your work. Days will be devoted to learning and writing in small groups. Each afternoon, writers will have the option to join experienced Tremont naturalists for guided explorations that spark curiosity and wonder through a deeper connection to the region's cultural and natural history. Evenings will conclude with hearty dinners, fellowship with peers, and readings by the writing faculty. Apply now for the Tremont Writers Conference. |
Deadline: May 31, 6pm EDT The Connecticut Poetry Society is now accepting submissions for the 2026 Connecticut Poetry Award. Submit online via Submittable. There is a $15 reading fee, and prizes of $400, $100, and $50 will be awarded. The Connecticut Poetry Award was established in 2009, merging other contests that honored CPS founders Ben Brodine, Joseph Brodinsky, and Wallace Winchell. In a single file without identifiable information, submit 1-3 original poems, one poem per page, and no more than 80 lines per poem. Only electronic submissions through Submittable will be accepted. Learn more on the Connecticut Poetry Society website. Email contests.ctpoetry@gmail.com with questions. |
Deadline: June 15 Poet Hunt 31, judged by Nandi Comer, 2023–2025 Michigan Poet Laureate, awards $500 and publication to one Grand Prize winner, with up to two Honorable Mentions also recognized. All entrants will receive a copy of the issue that includes the winning poems.
Send up to 5 poems per $15 entry fee. Each poem should begin on a new page.
To preserve the anonymous review process, please only include your name, address (for mailing of your complimentary issue), and email (for the winner's announcement) on the cover page.
Enter via Submittable or mail your materials to: The MacGuffin • Attn: Poet Hunt 31 • 18600 Haggerty Road • Livonia, MI 48152. Please make checks out to Schoolcraft College.
See the complete rules. |
Deadline: Friday, July 3, 11:59pm Eastern US Time Last time we checked, 77% of web-based fiction magazines pay their fiction writers nothing. So did 60% of print-only fiction magazines! If you'd like to try getting paid for your fiction, why not consider us? Since 2006, On The Premises magazine has aimed to promote newer and/or relatively unknown writers who can write creative, compelling stories told in effective, uncluttered, and evocative prose. We've never charged a reading fee or publication fee, and we pay between $75 and $250 for short stories that fit each issue's broad story premise. We publish stories in nearly every genre (literary/realist, mystery, light/dark fantasy, light/hard sci-fi, slipstream) aimed at readers older than 12 (no children's fiction). The premise for our latest contest is "LESS". For this contest, write a creative, compelling, well-crafted story in which one or more characters are trying to make something—anything—smaller in some way. Trying to change their behaviors ("I will ____ less") or their weight counts, and so does inventing a way to make something faster ("this process will take less time”). So does inventing a shrink ray. In the spirit of the contest premise, you get less space to work with this time. Stories for this contest must be between 1,000 and 3,000 words long. Usually, you can go as long as 5,000 words, but not this time! This time you must work with LESS! One entry per author. No fee for entering. No fiction aimed at readers younger than 12, no exploitative sex, no over-the-top grossout horror. Also, no stories that are obvious parodies of existing fictional worlds/characters created by other authors. (For the same reason, we do not accept "fan fiction".) Follow those rules and we'll take anything from the most super-realistic literary drama to crazy farces (real-world or otherwise) to any variant of science fiction or fantasy you can imagine. Read our past issues and you'll see! Entry Fee: None. Prizes: In US dollars, $250 for first place, $200 for second, $150 for third, and $75 for honorable mention. Story Length: Between 1,000 and 3,000 words (three thousand is the limit for this contest only!) Expected Publication Date: On or around Sunday, August 16, 2026. We will notify authors if the publication date changes significantly. You can find details and instructions for submitting your story here. To be informed when new contests are launched, subscribe to our free, short, monthly newsletter by using the text box at the bottom of our home page. |
Deadline: July 15 The annual Rattle Poetry Prize celebrates its 21st year with a 1st prize of $15,000 for a single poem. Ten finalists will also receive $500 each and publication, and be eligible for the $5,000 Readers' Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber and entrant vote. All of these poems will be published in the winter issue of the magazine. With the winners judged in an anonymized review by the editors to ensure a fair and consistent selection, an entry fee that is simply a one-year subscription to the magazine—and a large Readers' Choice Award to be chosen by the writers themselves—we've designed the Rattle Poetry Prize to be one of the most inspiring contests around. Past winners have included a retired teacher, a lawyer, and several students. It's fair, it's friendly, and you receive a print subscription to Rattle even if you don't win. We accept entries online via Submittable. See Rattle's website for the complete guidelines and to read all of the past winners. Please enjoy last year's winning poem by Morri Creech, published in Rattle #90, Winter 2025: An Ordinary Childhood Our mother was a mousetrap under the stairs.
She used as bait the things she never said.
We'd hear a snap and find three silver hairs
in an old passport, pinned like something dead. Our father was an occupying force
in a town of collaborators. Good
behavior meant not signaling in morse
enemy troops camped in a distant wood. Our parents paced—her mind a radio
playing the classic dirges until dawn,
his heart a spider web spun in the snow
catching the dusk sun before it was gone. For supper, they would feed us each a crumb
of moonlight. Our house was a moving train.
Evenings they danced in a delirium
of silence, drunk on a thimbleful of rain.
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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
BSME Young Writers Prize. The British Society of Magazine Editors will award 12,000 pounds, mentorship, and online publication to a UK resident aged 18-25 for original work (800-1,000 words). 2026 theme is "Tell us about something you love". Must be received by May 8. Intermediate Writers
Rabbi Sacks Book Prize. Yeshiva University will award $10,000 for a recently or about-to-be published nonfiction book that contributes significantly to the arena of modern Jewish thought and heightens awareness of issues pertaining to the intersection of faith and modernity. Book must have a copyright in the current calendar year. Themes may include Jewish thought and philosophy, ethics, Jewish history, Jewish education, Jewish identity, contemporary Jewish practice and sociology, Jewish peoplehood, Israel from a religious perspective, or antisemitism. Must be received by May 1. Advanced Writers
Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Public Service Journalism. The Society of Professional Journalists will award one fellowship of up to $100,000 to an outstanding editorial writer, columnist, or reporter to have time away from daily responsibilities for study and research by taking courses, pursuing independent study, traveling, and participating in other endeavors that enrich their knowledge of a public interest issue. Candidate must currently be an editorial writer, columnist, or reporter at a US news publication and have worked in this capacity for a minimum of three years. Freelancers are also eligible. The recipient must provide a post-fellowship written report on how funds were used, and work resulting from the fellowship must be published within 6-12 months of receiving the award. The fellow must agree to become a mentor to the following year's recipient. Application must be received by April 20. 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. • Screen Door Press: Fiction and Poetry Reading Period
(publisher of Black diaspora authors seeks novels, novellas, story and poetry collections - April 20) • Fieldstone Review: "Wild Spaces" Issue
(poetry, short prose, artwork on this theme - April 30) • The Margins: Creative Nonfiction Reading Period
(literary essays by Asian writers - April 30) • Lucky Jefferson: "Paradox" Issue
(poems and flash fiction on the theme - May 3) • Broken Sleep Books: Poetry Book Reading Period
(left-wing Welsh press seeks full-length manuscripts - May 31) • Black Lawrence Press: Asian American and Pacific Islander Adoptee Anthology
(poems and personal statements from this demographic - June 1) • Voices of Lincoln Poetry Contest
(adult and youth entries on "Revisiting the Past Through Poetry" - July 15) • Driftwood Press: Novella and Poetry Manuscript Reading Period
(literary prose novellas and poetry collections - rolling deadline) |
This month, editor Jendi Reiter highlights selected entries from past Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contests. This year's deadline is May 1. Learn more about the contest.  "THEY"
by Elana Bregin
Third Prize
2007 Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest "WHAT TO DO"
by Frank Light Jr.
Honorable Mention
2014 Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest "HOW DOES AN ISLAND FEEL"
by Amanda Mancino-Williams
Honorable Mention
2016 Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest "NEVER FIRED A SHOT"
by Mark Cecil Stevens
Honorable Mention
2023 Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest |
Comic artist Julian Peters offers a fresh twist on 24 famous poems in a stunning anthology about our relationship with the natural world. Available in ebook and hardcover formats. For a limited time, please use code win30 to enjoy a 30% discount on the hardcover edition when you order from the publisher. Please enjoy this poem from the book: 
Read the text of this poem at Poetry Foundation. |
 This month I'd like to share a poem published in the anthology 30 Poems in November 2023 as part of a fundraiser for the Center for New Americans.
Patient Belongings I was made to hold
like a soldier holds territory
without being asked
or asking: whose shoes
were these? will they have a doorway
to come back to
and feet to warm
the dust of home? I was made to hold
what a person
owned before being wounded
or sick but cannot
hold power
or water for my hospital
in flames, rocket-blown
(forgive me). I was made to hold
the life reduced
to small change, headscarves, and keys
for bulldozed gates
because possessions are a map
of what can be done to you
and the map is lost. But I was not
holding anything important
enough to keep
the operating lights
awake in children's eyes
or the generator's heart-pump
from thumping weakly to a stop
like the defeated fist
of a mother
trapped under rubble. I am only a shopping bag.
I am not strong enough to be a tomb.
Abdelhakim Abu Riash, "Israel Continues to Attack Hospitals in Gaza, Killing at Least 8", Al-Jazeera, November 7, 2023
Jendi Reiter is the editor of Winning Writers. Visit their website. |
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