Free Writing Competitions for You to Enter in July 2022
One thing about writing competitions is the flexibility they offer you to think out of the box and most of all, get your work out there. As always, we’ve compiled this list of free-to-enter writing competitions for you. There’s also a link to the guidelines for submission, “here” (marked pink). Hope you get value as you scroll through.:)
Clumsy Spider Publishing
They anticipate as many writers as possible to use their creativity to write a story for any audience.
Deadline: At 300 submissions
Prizes:
1st-$50 and your story published on Clumsy Spider
2nd-$20 and your story published on Clumsy Spider
3rd-$10 and your story published on Clumsy Spider
Guidelines for submission here.
Lost In Words Short Fiction Competition
Undo Redo Entertainment announces their Lost in Words Short Fiction Competition 2022. They’re looking for “original short fiction and ideas that have been lost in the cacophony of corporate banality.”
Word count: 4000 words
Deadline: 8 July 2022
Prize: Winner – $500
Guidelines for submission here.
HG Wells Short Story Competition
The theme of this year’s entry is “Switch”.
Your story can be set anywhere, feature any characters, and be written in any style.
The length is 1,500 to 5,000 words.
Prize: For those 21 and under: £1,000
Deadline: 11th July, 2022.
Guidelines for submission here.
READ ALSO: Just A Little Twist | Chinonso Marymartin Okoabu
Driftwood Press: The Adrift Short Story Competition
They’re considering fiction ranging from 1,000 words to 6,000 words.
Prize: $500 and 10 copies of the issue.
Deadline: July 15, 2022.
Guidelines for submission here.
The 2022 Page One Prize For Novelists
The Gutsy Great Novelist Page One Prize is open to all writers over 18 who are working on an as-yet-unpublished novel. It aims to find the best first page of a novel-in-progress written in the English language.
Prizes: 1st-$1000 | 2nd-$500 | 3rd-$250
Deadline: 15th July, 2022.
Guidelines for submission here.
MER: Literary submissions on motherhood
They’re seeking poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and hybrid works on mothering or motherhood for consideration in MER’s annual print issue. Writers do not need to be mothers to submit.
Deadline: July 15, 2022.
Guidelines for submission here.
W&A Working-Class Writers’ Prize
Working-class writers can submit a piece of writing from a longer unpublished work. The top prize includes two mentoring sessions with the judge Jessica Andrews.
Word limit: 2,000
Prize: £200
Deadline: 18 July 2022
Guidelines for submission here.
READ ALSO: When A Kid Catches A Glimpse of Honey… Review of John Donne’s The Good Morrow
Green Stories Competition
The theme, this year, is ‘Clean vs. Green’.
The challenge for this competition is to write a short story (between 1000 and 3000 words) that helps to raise awareness and shift attitudes, especially for those people who assume that “the more detergent the better.”
We need to know how to keep our environment and bodies free from harmful bacteria, but many beliefs relating to bacteria and cleaning products are misinformed, which has harmful effects on our environment and on our health. Much waste and unnecessary carbon emissions are generated by people’s concerns about hygiene.
Deadline: July 21, 2022.
Prize: £500
Guidelines for submission here.
National Geographic Travel Writing Competition 2022
For your chance to win, write up to 500 words on an inspiring travel experience, which could be anything from hiking in Hawaii to horse-riding in Herefordshire.
Deadline: 24th July, 2022.
Prizes and guidelines for submission here.
2022 Black Voices in Children’s Literature
The book writing contest invites black writers of children’s literature to send entries that are culturally relevant. The winning manuscript will be considered for publication by Free Spirit.
Word limit: 50–800 words
Prizes: $1,000, $500, $250, and others
Deadline: 24 July 2022.
Guidelines for submission here.
READ ALSO: An Approach to Memoir: A Review of Abigail Thomas’s What Comes Next and How to Like It
Boroondara Literary Awards
The Awards encourage creativity in writers of all ages.
Theme: Open
Word limit: 1,500 to 3,000 words
Deadline: 29 July, 2022.
Prizes: First place – $1500; Second place – $1000; Third place – $500
Guidelines for submission here.
Valley Voices: “Where Are You From?” submissions
For the fall 2022 issue of Valley Voices, the Mississippi Valley State University literary review welcomes works that engage with the question “where are you from?” “This simple question may not have a simple answer,” editors acknowledge. “It may mean ‘Where are you originally/really from?’ Or one may ask, ‘Where am I from?’”
They need entries of fiction and nonfiction up to 5,000 words or no more than five poems.
Deadline: July 30, 2022.
Guidelines for submission here.
Biopage Storytelling Contest
“We are still in this COVID-19 pandemic. You as a writer should write down this once in a life experience of fighting the deadly virus. Tell your stories in words and pictures: pantry inventories, window views, workout routines, neighbors helping neighbors, homeschooling activities… Or more dramatic: fighting the virus yourself, sick family member at home or hospital, treating patients as a healthcare provider, dealing with pain losing a friend…”
Prizes: $300, and five runners-up can win $100 each.
Deadline: 31st July, 2022.
Guidelines for submission here.
The Writer’s Workout: Pandemic nonfiction
The Writer’s Workout is looking for creative nonfiction (up to 7,500 words) for “Our Pandemic,” an anthology of pandemic experiences. All anthology proceeds will be donated to Direct Relief, which works to provide medical supplies to doctors and nurses around the world.
Deadline: July 31, 2022.
Guidelines for submission here.
