The weather outside is frigid, minus 13 F this morning on my back porch. But the holidays are approaching, and that means ’tis the season for writing contests.
Some of my favorite short story contests open for entry during or just after the holiday season, all of which pay cash prizes. I’ve entered / will be entering all of these–hope to see you there too.
- Writers of the Future quarterly writer contest
- Spec fiction up to 17,000 words
- December 31st, March 31st, June 30th, September 30th of each year
- Open to all non-professionally published writers *
- First Prize: $1000
- Free
- The James White Award: BSFA’s annual contest
- Science Fiction up to 6,000 words
- January 20, 2017
- Open to all non-professionally published writers *
- First Prize: £200 plus publication in Interzone
- Free
- Parsec annual story contest for Confluence
- Spec fiction up to 3,500 words
- January 1, through March 31, 2017
- Theme: A Hidden, Underlying Truth
- Open to all non-professionally published writers *
- First Prize: $200
- Free
- Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award
- Near future space-based science fiction up to 8,000 words
- January 31st, 2017
- Grand Prize: Publication by Baen at professional rates
- Free
- Baen Fantasy Adventure Award
- Fantasy up to 8000 words
- Not yet announced for 2017 (usually announced ~January 1st)
- Free
* In general, these publications define a professional author as one who is eligible for SFWA membership, basically three professional short story market sales or one novel sale. But definitions vary slightly
For a list of year-round paying spec fiction markets, please see my list of Paying Spec Fiction Markets
Keep on writin’!
CR Hodges
CR Hodges, Author 