Category: Contest

Contest / Events / Flat Amount / Royalties

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Under-Represented UK Horror Authors Check Out The Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers’ Prize

Deadline: July 25th, 2025
Prize: A publishing contract with Penguin Michael Joseph, with a £10,000 advance, and representation by Bell Lomax Moreton Agency.
Theme: Horror novels by under-represented UK horror authors

Penguin Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin Books, is a leading publisher of commercial fiction and non-fiction.

We are proud to be entering our third year of The Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers’ Prize to find new authors from underrepresented backgrounds who we can bring to the widest possible readership.

Last year, we asked for submissions in the romance genre and were thrilled to announce Brandon Purves, whose debut novel Do Not Kiss Nicholas Prince publishes Summer 2026, as our second Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers Prize winner.

This year we want something scary! If you’re an aspiring horror author, we want to hear from you. We’re looking for the best horror novels that have a strong hook and even stronger atmosphere.
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Contest / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Sundog Literature 2025 Collaboration Contest

Deadline: July 15th – August 31st, 2025
Prizes: Winners will receive a $300 prize
Theme: Your wildest, most inventive work of any or mixed genre

A Note on Our Aesthetic

We believe there is beauty in scars on smooth skin, in the small fissures where things begin to break apart. Sundogs are not the sun itself but phantom stars appearing on the horizon, illusions produced by the play of the sun’s heat with crystals of ice. They shed their light all the same. Many are tinged with color.

We look for this same quality in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. We want writing that attempts to salvage something pure from the collision of warmth and cold, that says what it can about the world it finds itself in. We seek a diversity of voices speaking from visceral, lived experience. We like truth we can stare at until our eyes water, words so carefully chosen we want to reread them as soon as we have finished.

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Contest / Events / Semipro

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Contest: Shallow Waters’ May Flash Fiction Window

Deadline: May 31st, 2023
Payment: 3 cents per word for the winner, 2 cents per word for second place, and 1 cent per word for third place
Theme: Red

The theme for next month’s flash contest is…

“RED! The colour of blood, and love, and danger. Flashing lights, glowing eyes, cooking flesh; the blinding hue of rage, the windswept locks of a Celtic warrior princess. Give us something red – serve us something raw and dripping, a fresh cut that only you can deliver.” This theme is courtesy of last month’s winner, Matthew R. Davis, who will also read all the submissions and pick the finalists.

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Anthology / Contest / Events / Flat Amount / Token Payment

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Contest: The Drabble Harvest Contest

Deadline: June 30th, 2023
Prizes: $5 for first place, $2 for second place, all others accepted are $1 per drabble
Theme: A drabble with the idea of: Space Station Duty-Free

A “drabble” is defined as a short story containing exactly precisely no more and no fewer than 100 words. It has a title, which can be from 1 to 15 words– but no more than 15. That’s a drabble.

You have to count each word. Hyphenated words, such as tete-a-tete, count as one word. Don’t use your word count tool to count the words, because that tool will count an ellipsis ( . . . ) as three words, which really should not be counted at all. It will also count dashes ( – ) as words, which is wrong. So count each word by sight, not by tool.


Our drabble contests have themes. For each contest, we will simply throw the theme out there. Whatever the theme inspires you to write, that’s what you write.


The theme of this contest is:

Space Station Duty-Free

This should be self-explanatory. What would people/aliens try to smuggle in? Or out?

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Contest / Events / Novel / Novella / Royalties

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Early Details On PitDark May 2023

Pitch Date: May 25th, 2023
Prizes: A book contract from a publisher; contracts vary between publishers. Generally royalties with the possibility of an advance.
Themes: Darker literature (horror, or other forms of fiction that are dark or are mixed genres.

Welcome to #PitDark, the only Twitter pitching contest for dark literature!

#PitDark is the first and only Twitter pitch event to highlight literature of a “darker” nature. Importantly, this is not limited to horror works; however, any pitched manuscript must contain an element of horror or darker writing. Examples of such categories include pure horror novels, dark fantasy, murder mysteries, psychological horror stories, non-fiction works about darker subjects, etc. MG, YA, NA, and adult age categories are welcome.

The next #PitDark will take place on May 25, 2023.

You can find the agents and publishers that participated in previous #PitDark events here.

Please follow the @PitDark_ Twitter account for up-to-date information about the event.

The Basics

The contest will happen on Twitter under a common hashtag (#PitDark). During a 12-hour window on the chosen day, authors with completed manuscripts who are seeking representation or publication can tweet a pitch for their books (at most, once per hour).

Agents and publishers will make requests by marking pitches as a like on Twitter. If your tweet is liked, please follow the agent or publisher’s submission guidelines.

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Contest / Events / Flash / Magazine / Pro

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Taking Submissions: Elegant Literature: Shadows & Knives

Deadline: April 30th, 2023
Payment: 10 cents per word
Theme: Shadows & Knives, and a crow
Note: There is ALSO a contest you can enter your work into instead of a magazine for a chance to win $3,000. However, it is pay to play on the contest.

Write a story involving Shadows & Knives, and a crow.
$3,000 grand prize.

Hurry down the street as night falls. Is that movement in the shadows? Don’t look back. Dark figures block your path, steel glinting. No time to think. Do you run, fight, or scream?

Murder is as old as time. The lights come on and someone’s dead. Everyone’s a suspect. The genius detective plays cat and mouse with a meticulous villain. Bodies, blackmail, and bloodstained letters. The cozy mystery is anything but for the victim. Prepare your alibi, avoid suspicion, and hope the trail of bodies leads back to the butler. The investigator has a secret, and the killer is working with the police. Conspiracies, confessions, and court intrigue. Assassins and bloody night raids—danger lurks in the dark. So accept the invitation, gather round the campfire, and hope the train doesn’t go through a tunnel. It’s a mystery, and we’re all gathered for the big reveal.

This contest invites you to explore shadows and knives, whatever that means to you. Fantasy, contemporary, romance, crime. All genres are welcome.

Submissions close April 30th at 11:59 pm EST. Contest only open to new writers

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Audio / Contest / Events / Flat Amount

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Contest: Tales to Terrify Flash Fiction Contest

Deadline: April 1st, 2023
First Prize: Audio version created and $50. Up to 4 runner ups for audio conversion as well.
Theme: Horror elements and relate to the theme of changing seasons

Our 2023 flash fiction contest is nearly here. This year, the theme is “Changing Seasons.” The contest is open from February 15th until midnight CST, April 1st.

Contest Rules

  • The story must have horror elements and relate to the theme of changing seasons. How you choose to interpret that theme is up to you, but it must be central to the story. Simply setting your tale during a change in seasons or having a tale take place across seasons is not adequate. It must play a crucial role in the development of the narrative.
  • The image included on this page is for interest purposes only and not intended as a prompt.
  • Deadline to submit is April 1, 2023 (11:59pm CST)
  • It must be previously unpublished.
  • Submissions must be in English, but authors from anywhere in the world are welcome to submit.
  • A minimum of ONE winner will be announced on or before June 1, 2023. The top flash piece will be produced for audio narration on Tales to Terrify and receive $50 (USD). Up to four runners up may also be considered for production.
  • Authors retain the rights to their submitted stories.

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Contest / Events / Flat Amount / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls 2023 Contest

Deadline: March 1st, 2023
Prizes: $50 to the and $10 to honorable mentions
Theme: Poetry with a theme of: Seasick

the theme for this year’s contest is seasick. with global greenhouse gas emissions climbing, we want poetry that examines the way human activity is affecting the ocean. we want your drowning islands, your melting glaciers, your bleached coral. we want your hurricanes, your flooding, your erosion. we want your seasick.

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contest submissions will remain open from november 1 to march 1. winners will receive a $50 prize and publication. honorable mentions will also be published and receive a $10 prize. all decisions will be announced in early april and made by our editing staff. to get a feel for what we publish, we’d encourage you to scroll through our archives.

do beware that our publishing software doesn’t handle formatting very well, so think twice before you submit a work heavily dependent on visual presentation. for an example of what the display would look like, we’d encourage you to look at the page of “ghost ship” by charlotte oliver. (thetiderises.org/read/ghost-ship)

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