Short story and poetry writing competitions
Do you want to challenge yourself and showcase your work? Enter our creative writing competitions for the chance to see your winning entry in print and win a cash prize!
Improve your creative writing skills, and chances in our competitions, with essential advice and fun exercises from our expert writers, whether you're just starting out or a seasoned winner. Explore our writing advice here
Open competitions
Our open competitions have writing prizes of
- Short stories: £200 first prize; £50 for second
- Poetry: £100 first prize; £50 for second
They are open to all writers, requiring a £7.50 entry fee, or £5 if you are a Writing Magazine subscriber.
Subscriber-only competitions
The monthly subscriber-only short story competitions are free to enter, but open only to subscribers.
Prizes are: £100 first prize; £25 for second
Winning entries
Visit our Competitions Showcase to see winning entries from previous competitions.