Race to win with these spring writing contests

 As promised, here's a slew of new contests to get our writerly juices flowing!

Now--February 28: From across the pond, Flash 500 supports a number of writing contests. Its annual short story competition closes the last day of February -- remember the time difference if you enter this. The site also hosts a flash fiction contest which repeats quarterly, beginning March 31, and an annual novel writing contest which closes October 31. Cash prizes for winners. See the site for details, entry fees and optional critiques. 

Now--March 3: At least, that's the early pricing deadline for the Book Pipeline Unpublished and Adaptation contests in several fiction and nonfiction categories. Cash prizes for winners in each category, chances for industry circulation, and more. Fee: $45 for early entries (March 3); additional deadlines are May 20, September 22, and October 15, with increasing fees. Winners announced December 1, 2026.

March 1--March 15 (early bird): Fees for the Pulp Literature Magpie Awards are $25 for first entry, $10 for each subsequent entry. Fees for entries after March 15 through the drop-dead deadline of April 15 are $35 for first entry, $25 for each subsequent entry. But note, the number of allowed entries is limited to 500. So, the early bird . . . you know. Cash prizes for winner and two runners-up. All entrants gain a one-year digital subscription to Pulp Fiction. See the site for details.

 Now--April 1 (early bird): The early bird fee for entry in Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Competition is $100 for first entry, $85 for each additional entry. Fees increase for entries up to the final deadline of May 1. See the site for details and formatting.

Now--May 4 (early bird): And now for the most popular of Writer's Digest contests, the Annual Writing Competition, including poetry and several other writing genres. For poetry: early bird fee is $20 for first entry, $15 for each additional entry, with fees increasing slightly through the final deadline of June 1. Fees for manuscript entries are $30 for first entry, $25 for each additional for early birds, increasing until the June 1 entry deadline. Again, see the site for full details.

Image by Oleksandr Pyrohov for Pixabay

Want more contests? Of course we do! Their deadlines keep us on our writing toes. Check out offerings from the likes of Reedsy,  New Pages, and Erica Verrillo's blog, Publishing And Other Forms of Insanity

Did some old favorites seem left out? The Writer's League of Texas manuscript contest isn't available yet--it normally opens in March. I'll update here as new information becomes available or check the site for details.

Dallas-based Carve Magazine is currently on hiatus. 

And one of my favorite contest sites, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest has closed permanently after more than 40 years of delighting us with its takes on what was possibly the worst opening sentence in all of English literature. Farewell, dark and stormy nights!

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Still to come--a set of new posts I'm calling Texas Writer Smackdowns, pitting classic Texas writers against modern contenders in the same genres. Some of these will surprise you!