Finding the perfect available writing opportunity can be exhausting. But this January, you don’t have to search far and wide. I’ve gathered the best remote writing opportunities, grants, competitions, and magazine calls all in one place. You can also bookmark this page for updates that’ll be made throughout the month (some mags may make calls at later dates), and in case you come across one that’s not included here, feel free to let me know, so I can add it! Let’s make 2025 our year of writing wins!
Call for Submissions By Categories
OPEN TO ALL WRITERS (WORLDWIDE)
These are poetry, prose, and playwriting opportunities for writers without restrictions based on location, demographics, or other criteria.
The Welkin Mini
Via Matt Kendrick
This is a writing competition for micro-fiction and creative non-fiction up to 100 words. Read the full details and submit to the Welkin Mini here.
- Prizes: 1st place: £50 | 2nd place: £30 | 3rd place: £20 | Highly commended: £10
- Deadline: January 2, 2025.
Shepton Snowdrops
The Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Project invites writers to explore the theme of “Treasures of Nature” in their 2025 Poetry Competition. Entrants are encouraged to reflect on how we value nature, including geology, landscape, and flora. Read the full details and submit your poem to Shepton Snowdrops here.
- Prizes: Ages 18 & Over: £300 | Ages 12 to 17: £100 | Ages 11 & Under: £50
- Deadline: January 6, 2025.
Headland’s Issue 23
For their 23rd issue, Headland is accepting short fiction and creative nonfiction only, with a 5,000-word limit. Read the full details and submit your work to Headland here.
- Prizes: $50 for accepted pieces.
- Deadline: January 10, 2025.
Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize
This poetry contest is open for poetry submissions in English, with no restrictions on length or subject. Read the full details and submit your poem for the Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize here.
- Prizes: 1st place: $500 | 2nd place: $150 | 3rd place: $75.
- Deadline: January 15, 2025.
Levis Reading Prize 2025
The Levis Reading Prize, honoring the memory of poet Larry Levis, is awarded annually for the best first or second book of poetry published in the previous calendar year. Read the full details and enter the Levis Reading Prize here.
- Prize: Honorarium | An expenses-paid trip to Richmond for public reading.
- Deadline: January 15, 2025.
Stacy Doris Memorial Poetry Award
The Stacy Doris Memorial Poetry Award celebrates poets with an inventive spirit. Read the full details and enter the Stacy Doris Memorial Poetry Award here.
- Prizes: $500 | Publication in Fourteen Hills.
- Deadline: January 15, 2025.
38th Annual Translation Prize
The French-American Foundation, supported by the Florence Gould Foundation, invites submissions for the 38th Annual Translation Prize. This prestigious award recognizes the best translations from French to English in both fiction and nonfiction, with separate prizes for each category. Read the full details and enter for the translation prize here.
- Prize: $10,000 for each winning translator (fiction and nonfiction categories). The prize may be split between multiple winning translators.
- Deadline: January 15, 2025.
Driftwood Press – Fiction | In-House Short Story Contest
Read the full details and submit your short story for Driftwood Press’ fiction contest here.
- Prizes: Grand Prize: $400, five copies of the issue, and an interview. | Runner-ups: $200, one copy of the issue, and an interview.
- Deadline: January 16, 2025.
Driftwood Press – Poetry | In-House Poem Contest
Read the full details and submit up to five poems for Driftwood Press’ poetry contest here.
- Prizes: Winner: $300, five copies of the anthology, and an interview. | Finalists (up to five): $50, publication, and a free copy of the anthology.
- Deadline: January 16, 2025.
Witch Craft
This is a new collection of folk tales and horror stories exploring what it means to be a ‘witch,’ the rediscovery of power, its connection to nature, and the balance between good and evil. Read the full details and submit your short story to Witch Craft.
- Payment: 8 cents/6 pence per word.
- Deadline: January 19, 2025.
Golden Haiku Poetry Competition
The 12th annual Golden Haiku Poetry Competition invites poets worldwide to submit up to two original haiku inspired by the 2025 theme, “Bridges of Belonging.” Read the full details and enter the poetry competition here.
- Prizes: Adult: $500 – $200 | Youth: $150 – $75.
- Deadline: January 19, 2025.
Story Unlikely Short Story Contest
Read the full details and submit your short story for the Story Unlikely Contest here.
- Prizes: 1st Place: $1,500 | 2nd Place: $1,000 | 3rd Place: $500.
- Deadline: January 31, 2025.
The Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
The Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest awards writers who submit the best original, previously unpublished short fiction. They want stories that appeal to a reader with interests in music, social history, literature, politics, art, film, and theater, particularly mid-twentieth century American counter-culture. Read the full details and enter the short fiction contest here.
- Prize: $150 and publication of the story on Jerry Jazz Musician’s website (with the possibility of inclusion in an anthology). The winner will also be nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
- Deadline: January 31, 2025.
Brink Literary Journal
Brink invites submissions for the January reading period, engaging with the theme of Renewal. They accept anything from nonfiction to fiction, poetry to translation, but particularly value hybrid work that blends multiple media. Read the full details and submit to Brink Literary Journal here.
- Payment: $25 per poem | $50 for works under 1500 words | $50 for art (1-3 images) | $100 for art (4+ images) | $100 for works over 1500 words.
- Deadline: January 31, 2025.
ESSAY WRITING COMPETITIONS
The Bechtel Essay Writing Prize
via Teachers & Writers Magazine
Teachers & Writers Magazine is accepting essay submissions for the 2025 Bechtel Prize. They want an essay that describes a creative writing teaching experience, project, or activity that demonstrates innovation in creative writing instruction. Read the full details and submit your essay for the Bechtel Prize here.
- Prize: $1,000.
- Deadline: January 10, 2025.
Walter Muir Whitehill Essay Writing Prize
The Walter Muir Whitehill Prize is awarded annually for a distinguished essay in early American history, with preference given to New England subjects. Read the full details and enter the essay writing competition here.
- Prizes: $2,500 and publication.
- Deadline: January 15, 2025.
Profile in Courage Essay Contest
Writers are invited to write an original and creative essay on political courage, inspired by John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage. Read the full details and enter the Profile in Courage Essay Contest here.
- Prizes: 1st place: $10,000 | 2nd place: $3,000 | 5 Finalists: $1,000 each | 10 Semi-finalists: $100 each.
- Deadline: January 17, 2025.
Nine Dots Prize 2024/2025
The Nine Dots Prize invites applicants to respond to the question, ‘Is data failing us?’. Read the full details and enter the Nine Dots Prize here.
- Prize: Development of a short book and additional details upon winning.
- Deadline: January 27, 2025.
GRANT WRITING OPPORTUNITIES, AWARDS, AND CREATIVE WRITING FELLOWSHIPS
Sloan Fellowship
Via Sloan.org
The Sloan Fellowship supports the biography writing of a figure from science or technology. Read the full details and submit to the Sloan Fellowship here.
- Benefits: Stipend of $72,000 | Research assistance and workspace at the Levy Center for Biography.
- Deadline: January 4, 2024.
Steinbeck Fellowship
The Steinbeck Fellows Program gives emerging writers the chance to pursue a significant writing project during their fellowship year. Fellowships are awarded in creative writing (fiction, drama, creative nonfiction, and biography). Read the full details and apply for the Steinbeck Fellowship here.
- Benefit: Stipend of $15,000
- Deadline: January 5, 2025.
Olive B. O’Connor Fellowship in Creative Writing
The Olive B. O’Connor Fellowship in Creative Writing at Colgate University is designed for writers completing their first books. Fellows will teach one multigenre creative writing workshop per semester and give a public reading of their work. Read the full details and apply for the Olive B. O’Connor Creative Writing Fellowship here.
- Benefits: Stipend: $57,100 | Travel expenses | Health and life insurance.
- Deadline: January 15, 2025.
Springer Nature Fellowship
This one-semester fellowship is designed to help reporters and editors from Africa and the Middle East enhance their careers in science journalism. It is hosted by the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, and it includes study, specialized training, seminars, and workshops. Read the full details and apply for the Springer Nature Fellowship here.
- Benefits: $40,000 stipend for the semester, MIT health insurance, travel and housing stipend, access to MIT benefits, and connections to the science journalism community.
- Deadline: January 15, 2025.
Patrick Henry History Fellowship
The Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience invites applications for its full-time residential fellowship supporting outstanding work on American history. Read the full details and apply for the Patrick Henry History Fellowship here.
- Benefits: $45,000 stipend, health benefits, faculty privileges, book allowance, nine-month residency.
- Deadline: January 15, 2025.
2025 Hillman Prizes
The Hillman Prizes honor investigative journalism and public service reporting that serves the common good. Read the full details and enter the Hillman Prizes here.
- Prizes: $5,000 honorarium and a certificate.
- Deadline: January 30, 2025.
A.C. Bose Grant for South Asian Speculative Literature
The A.C. Bose Grant is an annual $1,000 award for South Asian or Desi diaspora writers developing speculative fiction. The grant is open to works accessible to older children and teens and will prioritize speculative genres, including science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, and more. Read the full details and apply for the grant here.
- Prize: $1,000.
- Deadline: January 31, 2025.
TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting
The TRACE Foundation is accepting entries for the 2025 Prize for Investigative Reporting. This prize recognizes journalism that uncovers business-related bribery and financial crime, aiming to increase commercial transparency and good governance. Read the full details and enter the TRACE prize here.
- Prizes: $10,000 cash prize for each of the two winners | $1,000 for up to two honorable mentions | Award ceremony invitation.
- Deadline: January 31, 2025.
WITH RESTRICTIONS
Opportunities for writers from specific regions, demographics, or themes.
2024 Dr. Paul Kalanithi Writing Award, Medicine and the Muse
Medicine & the Muse invites submissions for the 2024 Dr. Paul Kalanithi Writing Award. For this particular call, they are accepting unpublished short stories, essays, or poetry on the theme of patients and providers facing chronic or life-limiting illness. Entries are free for medical students, residents, and fellows. Read the full details and enter the Dr. Paul Kalanithi Writing Award, here.
- Prizes: 3 winners (one from each genre) will receive a cash prize of $300. | Winners will be published in Anastomosis, Stanford University School of Medicine’s humanities and literary journal.
- Deadline: January 6, 2025.
The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2025
via Theatre and Dance NI
This prize is open for writers in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, British Overseas Territory, or people who have a British Forces Post Office Address. Read the full details and enter the Bruntwood Prize here.
- Prizes: The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting: £20,000 | The Judges Award: £10,000 | The Bruntwood Prize International Award: £10,000 (for international playwrights via partner theatres) | The North West Original New Voice Award and Residency: £10,000 + £10,000 for professional development at the Royal Exchange Theatre (for playwrights based in the North West of England)
- Deadline: January 9, 2025.
Encore Award
The Royal Society of Literature invites submissions for the Encore Award, a prestigious prize for the best second novel published in 2024. It is open for writers resident in the United Kingdom (UK) or the Republic of Ireland (RoI) for the past three years. Read the full details and enter the Encore Award here.
- Prize: £15,000 for the winner, £1,000 for shortlisted authors.
- Deadline: January 10, 2025.
The Michael Elliott Award for Excellence in African Storytelling
The Michael Elliott Award celebrates emerging African journalists who amplify the voices of the people and highlight the transformative changes happening across the continent. Read the full details and enter the Michael Elliot Award here.
- Prize: $5,000 cash prize | Personalized award certificate | Two-week professional development program at The Economist headquarters in London, UK.
- Deadline: January 12, 2025.
Discoveries 2025
Curtis Brown Creative and the Curtis Brown literary agency are partnering with the Women’s Prize Trust and Audible to run the fifth Discoveries writing development programme and prize. This prize is open to unpublished women writers residing in the UK or Ireland, and it accepts novels in any genre of adult fiction. Read the full details and guidelines for submission here.
- Prizes: First Prize: £5,000 cash prize and representation by Curtis Brown Literary Agency. | Shortlist: Free scholarship to attend a three-month Writing Your Novel course (worth £1,800), a mentoring session with a Curtis Brown agent, and a place on a six-week online writing course with Curtis Brown Creative. Studio session with Audible. | Longlist: Bespoke two-week online Discoveries Writing Development Course with Curtis Brown Creative (taught by Charlotte Mendelson), plus an annual Audible subscription.
- Deadline: January 13, 2025.
Shatter the Sun Anthology
This anthology seeks stories of queer heroes overcoming tyranny, fighting dark stars and bright suns, and exploring gritty, un-epic sword and sorcery. The focus is on diverse, nuanced portrayals of gender, family, and ethnicity, with a mix of occult and cosmic horror elements. Read the full details and submit your work for the Shatter the Sun Anthology here.
- Pay: $0.08 per word.
- Deadline: January 15, 2025.
Michael Rubin Work-in-Progress Award (MRA) 2025
This is an annual competition for current graduate students or recent alumni of San Francisco State University (SFSU). For 2025, the award is open to fiction submissions. Read the full details and enter the Michael Rubin Award here.
- Prizes: $750 | Publication in Fourteen Hills journal | Two complimentary copies.
- Deadline: January 15, 2025.
2025 Zócalo Poetry Prize
The Zócalo Poetry Prize recognizes U.S. poets who evoke a strong connection to place. This year’s contest seeks submissions of original poems that explore the theme of “place” in diverse ways—whether literal, imaginary, or metaphorical. Read the details and enter the Zócalo Poetry Prize here.
- Prizes: $1,000 for the winner, publication on Zócalo’s website, accompanied by an interview with the poet, and a poem reading. | Honorable mentions: $100.
- Deadline: January 24, 2025.
JOURNALS AND LITERARY MAGAZINES ACCEPTING ENTRIES
34 Orchard
via Kristi Petersen Schoonover
34 Orchard is an international literary journal that publishes dark, intense, and unsettling pieces that speak to deeper truths. They accept fiction and poetry submissions during specific windows. Read the full details and submit to 34 Orchard here.
- Prizes: $50 per accepted piece.
- Deadline: January 15, 2025.
The Fairy Tale Magazine Submissions
The Fairy Tale Magazine is calling for fairy tale stories and poems for their Spring/Summer 2025 and Fall/Winter 2025 issues, as well as for their Prose & Poetry Contest. Read the full details and submit to the Fairy Tale Magazine here.
- Prizes: $25 per selected work.
- Deadline: January 15, 2025.
Three-Lobed Burning Eye (3LBE)
This is a speculative fiction magazine featuring horror, dark fantasy, and science fiction. Read the full details on submitting to Three-Lobed Burning Eye here.
- Payment: $0.08 per word. | Additional: One print anthology copy.
- Deadline: January 16, 2025.
The Ampersand Review: Call for Submissions
The Ampersand Review, a literary magazine published by Sheridan College’s Honours Bachelor of Creative Writing & Publishing program, seeks submissions for Issue #8. They welcome poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and review pitches from Canadian writers only. Read the full details and submit to the Ampersand Review here.
- Payment: Poetry: $50 per poem/page to a maximum of $100 | Fiction: $100 per story | Non-fiction: $100 per piece | Reviews: $100 per review.
- Deadline: January 31, 2025.
Dusty Attic Publishing
Dusty Attic Publishing is seeking previously unpublished short stories and poems with spooky or fantastical themes. Genre blending and experimentation are encouraged. Read the full details and submit to Dusty Attic Publishing here.
- Prizes: $10 per accepted story or poem.
- Deadline: January 31, 2025.
Triangulation
The theme for Parsec Ink’s 22nd anthology is Dark Hearts, which focuses on speculative stories and poems about women who are anti-heroes. They are looking for stories about women or female-presenting characters breaking the rules, defying norms, and doing what’s unconventional. Acceptable genres include science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Read the full details and submit to Triangulation here.
- Payment: Prose: 3 cents per word, minimum $5.50 | Poetry: 25 cents per line, minimum $5.50.
- Deadline: January 31, 2025.
OPPORTUNITIES WITH UNSPECIFIED PAYMENT
Empty House Press
via Empty House Press
Empty House Press is open for submissions for their upcoming issues. They welcome poetry, prose poems, flash fiction, nonfiction, hybrid work, and photo series that explore themes of place, home, memory, and the atmosphere of previously inhabited spaces. Read the full details and submit to Empty House Press here.
- Deadline: January 31, 2025.
In the Library with the Lead Pipe
In the Library with the Lead Pipe publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed articles related to librarianship. Submissions can include original research, autoethnography, transformative works, or arguments for specific strategies in librarianship. Read the full details and submit your research work here.
- Prize: Publication opportunity.
- Deadline: January 31, 2025.
WRITING OPPORTUNITIES WITH FEBRUARY 2025 DEADLINES
The First Line
via First Line Journal
The First Line is a literary journal that invites writers to create stories starting with a specific first line. Read the full details and submit to the First Line here.
- Prizes: $25 – $50 for fiction | $10 for poetry | $25 for nonfiction.
- Deadline: February 1, 2025.
Harbor Editions
The Harbor Editions Laureate Prize offers a fee-exempt submission for full-length poetry manuscripts, including works from disabled, BIPOC, and other marginalized writers. Read the full details and enter the Harbor Editions Laureate prize here.
- Prizes: $500 and 20 copies of the published book.
- Deadline: February 1, 2025.
Harbor Review
The Harbor Review Editor’s Prize is awarded annually for a micro chapbook. It is fee-exempt for BIPOC-identifying writers and previous finalists. Read the full details and enter the Harbor Review prize here.
- Prizes: $200 and online publication of the micro chapbook at Harbor Review.
- Deadline: February 1, 2025.
Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award
The National Space Society and Baen Books sponsor this short fiction contest in memory of Jim Baen, celebrating the role of science fiction in advancing real science. Read the full details and enter the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award here.
- Prizes: GRAND PRIZE: Published on the Baen Books website, paid at .08/word, engraved award, free entry to the 2025 International Space Development Conference, and a one-year membership in the National Space Society. | SECOND and THIRD PLACE: Free entry to the 2025 International Space Development Conference and a one-year membership in the National Space Society.
- Deadline: February 1, 2025.
The Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship
The fellowship awards $5,000 to two authors writing biographies about African American figures or groups, promoting diversity and remediating the scarcity of Black voices in published biographies. Read the full details and apply for the Frank Rollin Fellowship here.
- Prizes: $5,000 for each of two winners | One-year BIO membership | Registration for the BIO Conference | Publicity through BIO’s marketing channels.
- Deadline: February 1, 2024.
Global Essay Competition
Compete for a chance to become a Leader of Tomorrow at the prestigious St. Gallen Symposium, where you’ll meet 300 of the brightest young minds and debate your ideas with 600 senior leaders. Read the full details and enter the Global Essay Competition here.
- Prizes: CHF 20,000 (split amongst three winners)
- Deadline: February 1, 2025.
Mysterion Fiction Submissions
Mysterion invites submissions for speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror) with Christian themes, characters, or cosmology. Read the full details and submit to Mysterion here.
- Payment: 8 cents/word for original stories | 4 cents/word for reprints.
- Deadline: February 1, 2025.
Tasavvur Magazine
Tasavvur is accepting submissions for short stories for their Spring 2025 issue. Read the full details and submit to Tasavvur Magazine here.
- Payment: 3 cents per word for fiction stories up to 5,000 words. | $100 flat-fee for non-fiction.
- Deadline: Submissions open on 1 February 2025.
ROLLING SUBMISSIONS (NO DEADLINE SPECIFIED)
Trampset
Trampset is open for submissions of short fiction (up to 3,000 words), nonfiction, and poetry. Submissions may include short stories, flash fiction, personal essays, cultural criticism, or poetry (up to three poems per document). Translators are also welcome to submit with proper permissions. Read the details and submit to Trampset here.
- Payment: $25 per accepted piece.
StepAway Magazine
via National Association of Writers in Education
StepAway Magazine is an award-winning online literary magazine publishing urban flash fiction and poetry from writers worldwide. Inspired by Frank O’Hara’s poem “A Step Away from Them,” the magazine seeks literature that evokes the sensory experience of walking through specific neighborhoods or districts in a city. Read the full details and submit to StepAway Magazine here.
Dark Fiction Halloween Stories Submission
They’re inviting writers of dark fiction to submit short stories focusing on paranormal themes like poltergeists, ghosts, spirits, haunted places and objects, and the eerily unexplained that take place on or around Halloween. Bonus points for stories featuring families, siblings, longtime pals, or pets. Submissions from #ownvoices BIPOC, gender-diverse, LGBTQIA, and authors from other marginally represented groups are highly encouraged. Read the full details and submit your work here.
- Prize: Publication.
Room Magazine
Room Magazine invites submissions for its Issue 48.3: Rest/Unrest. The issue will focus on exploring rest and resistance against hyper-productivity. Submissions are welcome in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid forms that tackle themes such as burnout, rest as resistance, and reclaiming time. Art submissions are also encouraged, including works of glitches, surrealism, and mixed-media. Read the full details and submit to Room Magazine here.
- Deadline: Rolling basis until the submissions limit is reached (beginning November 15, 2024).
Driftwood Press – Comics
Submit a full or partial manuscript for Driftwood Press’ graphic novel collection. Read the full details and submit to Driftwood Press here.
- Royalties: 15% for the first 1,000 copies, 20% for sales above 1,000 copies.
Nashville Review
Nashville Review seeks submissions in Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Translation, Art, and Comics. They provide a platform for distinguished and emerging artists. Read the full details and submit to Nashville Review here.
- Prizes: $25 per poem | $100 for prose and art pieces.
- Deadline: Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, and Translation: January and August reading periods (closes early if submission cap is reached). | Art and Comics: Open year-round.
Fusion Fragment
Fusion Fragment publishes science fiction or SF-tinged literary fiction stories and novelettes ranging from 2,000 to 15,000 words. Read the full details and submit to Fusion Fragment here.
- Prizes: 4 cents (CAD) per word, up to a maximum of $400 (CAD) per story.
Black Cat Weekly
Black Cat Weekly publishes original, modern, classic mysteries, adventure stories, fantasy, and science fiction. Issues are (mostly) unthemed, except around holidays (e.g., extra dark fantasy stories around Halloween). Read the full details and submit to Black Cat Weekly here.
- Payment: 1 cent per word, minimum $5, up to $50.
Bonus: Check out our full list of writing opportunities with rolling submissions here.
FAQs
Where can I find writing opportunities online?
Check platforms like dlitreview.com and subscribe to the newsletter for monthly updates.
What are the best free writing contests for beginners?
Several contests in this list have no entry fees, and prestigious organizations run them.
If you liked this list, kindly share it with others who would love to see it too. Thanks for reading!
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