My latest list of current writing competitions is here. Rather slim pickings in April, but there are quite a few coming up in May. Surprisingly, there are no competitions for writing a good April Fool story. Someone should organise that!
Lots of non-members have expressed an interest in our Writer of the Month competition – so for February we are opening it to all comers. Only members who enter will get to vote on the winner, though! There is no prize, but entries will be published here.
The theme for the February contest is “Love”. Unrequited love, forbidden love, love against all odds, love over the airwaves… let your imagination decide. There are no limits other than a word count of 750 words for prose, 7 or 8 verses for a poem. Non-fiction, memoir, or part of a screenplay etc are all welcome too.
The deadline for entries will be Friday 21st February: send them to Stella at:
I have reorganised my lists of writing competitions and added ones with deadlines in February. I hope collecting all the details on one page is helpful.
The Tom Grass Prize is for stories with a sense of place and adventure. The top prize is £1,000 plus a conversation with a literary agent.
We are restarting our ‘Writer of the Month’ competition!
The theme this month is “Light and Dark”, fitting for this time of year and the times we are living in. Entries can be prose or poetry but should be short – flash fiction or a single stanza of verse. Entries should be a Word document attached to an email, or in the body of an email. Please send them to Stella at:
You will then be sent all the entries to read and asked to return your vote for the top three. The closing date will be Friday January 23rd and voting will close shortly afterwards. The winner will be announced and published on the website. There is no prize except recognition and we hope, a bit of motivation and inspiration!
The Globe Soup Open competition, with a Grand Prize of £2,000, closes on 16 December.
At last! Our congratulations, and thanks to everyone from all around the world, who supported our competition. You can hear an audio recording of the announcement here…
The results were as follows.
First Place
Hashmi-al-Haseeb Faisal – We only Had One Religion
Second Place
Stuart Wilks-Heeg – Sniggery Wood
Stuart Wilks-Heeg has recently begun writing fiction. In his other life, he is a Professor of Politics at the University of Liverpool. He lives in Crosby, Merseyside and, from 2023-25, he was the stadium announcer for Marine Football Club.
Shortlisted
Fay Dickinson – Austentatious Dames
Fay has had a number of writing successes and a much greater number of rejections! She has now retired and wonders how she ever had time to go to work. Fay is concerned about environmental issues and is keenly green.
Celia Gatward – Missing
Celia Gatward is a passionate writer who loves crafting worlds and bringing characters to life. With a professional background in marketing and media, she has always found time to immerse herself in storytelling. Her writing has been featured in The Swan Theatre’s New Playwright Festival, and she has written three radio plays for Upstage Surrey Theatre Company, with another currently in production and a live stage play scheduled for 2026. Alongside her dramatic writing, Celia enjoys exploring short stories and poetry and continues to develop a children’s novel that she hopes will one day find its way to publication.
Benjamin Graham – Why Don’t You Just Keep Going
Born in a former mining community in Durham, England, Ben’s love of literature grew from reading the works of Joyce, Hemingway, Ginsberg and several other writers a teenage boy should really have no interest in reading.
After several years struggling to pay rent as a freelance journalist, Ben became a copywriter and editor in Edinburgh. He now divides his time between writing, reading, and frequenting the drinking establishments of renowned Edinburgh authors in the hope of finding some clue to their genius or, failing that, a good dram of whisky.
Katie Weatherford – Dust to Dust
Katie Weatherford is an actress, writer, and director. She has been telling stories since she was a child. In 2023, she wrote and directed an award-winning short film, “The Murder Party: Offering Unconventional Solutions to Heartbreak.”
Katie is passionate about the art of creation and creating with kindness.
Read some of the stories here.
You can now read entries from the shortlist for the Michael Round Prize! This includes the entries which came first and second. The results were officially announced at our meeting on 10 November.
Winner: We only Had One Religion (Hashmi-Al-Haseeb Faisal)
Second Place: Sniggery Wood (Stuart Wilks-Heeg)
Missing (Celia Gatward)
Why Don’t You Just Keep Going (Benjamin Graham)
Dust to Dust (Katie Weatherford)
Austentatious Dames (Fay Dickinson) has been retained for possible publication elsewhere.
Judging in the Michael Round Prize is now complete, and all entrants have been sent an email letting them know (if you entered and haven’t heard, get in touch at the same email you used to enter).
But who has won?
The result will be announced at a special meeting on 10 November, where the entries that won first and second places will be read. Not to be missed – put it in your diary! (10 November, not December!)
Here is my latest list of writing competitions…
Croydon Writers 