Birmingham Writers’ Group

The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award is an international literary prize that is a hotbed for new talent in Poetry and Short Fiction. Now in its 14th year, the Prize supports both emerging and established writers. By entering, writers can showcase their work to key industry figures and organisations including The Poetry Society, Granta, VINTAGE and more.

Winners are selected for both categories and awarded with £1,000. Publication within the Aesthetica Creative Writing Anthology, is also awarded to a further 60 writers whose works are highly commended.

Aesthetica is proud to champion new writing talent and supports its writing alumni beyond the Prize, offering print and digital publicity and continued exposure across our channels.

Poetry £12 | Short Fiction £18

Submissions close 31 August 2020

Website: https://aestheticamagazine.com/creative-writing-award/

The Emma Press has announced that it is accepting poetry manuscripts submissions until 24th January 2020. There are two categories – pamphlets for adults and collections for children – which will be judged by publisher Emma Dai’an Wright and poet Edward van de Vendel.

The Birmingham-based publisher is inviting poets to submit 6 pages of poems for either or both categories. There is a £10 submission fee, which is limited to one per poet and allows the poet to submit a manuscript to one or both of the categories. The selected manuscripts will be published in 2021.

See more details on their website

Gollancz and author Ben Aaronovitch are launching a writing prize championing under-represented voices in science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Read more about the initiative at The Bookseller:

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/gollancz-and-aaronovitch-launch-writing-prize-bame-authors-1088156

It will be launched on 1st October at https://www.gollancz.co.uk/

Received from Middleground:

We’re Middleground, an online magazine focused on publishing the stories and experiences of writers and artists of mixed ethnic backgrounds. It was born from a desire to achieve better understanding of mixed identities and offer a community to those who identify as part of this group.

Here’s more information if you need it:

Who can submit work?
Middleground focuses on the voices of mixed race people. If you identify as such, and have a desire to tell or explore your racial identity and its meanings, ambivalences, and beauty, we’d love to hear from you.

What are we looking for?
Exploration of one’s identity is a diverse and fluid journey, and Middleground wants to honour that.

We accept:

• Non-fiction up to 2,500 words
• Fiction up to 2,500 words
• Up to three poems per submission
• Illustrations, photography, digital artwork, etc.

Please note that all contributors will be paid a small fee.

Our submission guidelines can be found here: https://www.middlegroundmagazine.co.uk/submissions

For further information, please contact contact@middlegroundmagazine.co.uk or visit https://www.middlegroundmagazine.co.uk

Digbeth at Midnight will be an interactive storytelling experience spread across Digbeth.

See https://www.facebook.com/DigbethAtMidnight/ for details on how to enter your story

A Poem for Europe Open Poetry Competition

Deadline: 31 July 2019
Judge: Gillian Clarke
Prize: £500
Entry fee: £6

A Poem for Europe Young Poets Competition

Open to all those aged 16 – 25 on 31 July 2019
Deadline: 31 July 2019
Judge: tbc
Prize: £500
Entry fee: £3

For further details, rules and how to enter visit www.apoemforeurope.org

Harper’s Bazaar has a proud tradition of publishing the very best in original literary fiction, including stories by Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy, Ali Smith and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Continuing this legacy, we are happy to launch our annual short-story competition once again, inviting published and non-published writers to follow in the footsteps of these literary greats.

To enter, submit up to 2,500 words on the theme of ‘Liberty’, the title of a story by Vita Sackville-West published in the October 1930 issue, to shortstory@harpersbazaar.co.uk by midnight on 15 March. The winner will receive a two-night stay at Brownber Hall, Yorkshire, and the chance to see their work published.

See website for full details

Science Fiction Novel Submission Call – January 2019

Science Fiction Novels – Starting from Tuesday 1st of January to Sunday 6th of January 2019
Midnight to midnight, UK time.

The novel, even if part of a potential series, must be able to stand alone.

Unpublished novels only.

It can be for the YA or the General Trade market.

What to submit:

1. A detailed synopsis of the whole story, ideally chapter by chapter.
2. First 3 chapters of the book in .doc or pdf format.
3. List of previously published work, if any, and social media links — new writers welcome!

• You will receive an email confirming we have your submission, generally on the same day.
• We will write back by the end of January or earlier, depending on the volume of submissions, with an answer.
• If it’s a YES, we will request the full manuscript. Make sure that it’s as close to a final draft as it possibly can — at this stage, you really want to enter the fray with a worthy challenger! However, don’t worry if you still feel that you could do with another look at the book: if we take this further, there will be time to revise, edit, etc.
• If it’s a NO, please don’t despair. There is a range of reasons for rejections, and what is not appropriate for one publisher can be perfect for another. Take a break, recharge your batteries and while you send the MS to others begin to write your next book!

See the Luna Press website for more details

Writers Retreat are pleased to announce their first short story competition:

We want you to write a short, short story with a minimum of 250 words and a maximum of 1000 words. All genres are welcome.

Prizes:

• 1st – £200, plus a free place on an available Writer’s Retreat UK Lake District retreat.
• 2nd – £100, plus 50% discount for an available Writer’s Retreat UK Lake District retreat.
• 3rd – £50, plus 50% discount for an available Writer’s Retreat UK Lake District retreat.
• 6 additional merit prizes of £15 will be awarded.
• 15 further stories will be shortlisted and will receive a 50% discount on any available Writer’s Retreat UK retreat.

All winning and shortlisted stories will be published on the Writer’s Retreat UK website and will be in the 2019 Short Story Anthology. Every author included in the Anthology will receive a copy.

All prize winning stories will be included in the first Writer’s Retreat UK, Short Story Anthology that will be published in 2020.

Each individual entry costs an early fee of £10, for entries before 17th December, 2018 and is for one story. From December 18th, the entry fee is £15 per story. You are welcome to enter more than one story, with an entry fee for each. The final deadline is 30th January, 2019.

See website for more details

Room 204 is Writing West Midlands’ writer development programme. Every year we select a small number of emerging writers from the West Midlands to work with us on a programme of creative writing career development.

Room 204 has been running yearly since 2012 and to date, over 100 writers have joined the programme and seen their writing careers take off as direct result of being part of Room 204.

This is your chance to secure mentoring and career development worth over £1,000!

This year, we are also partnering with Word Factory to be able to offer ONE Word Factory Apprentice Award for a West Midlands Short Story writer.

The successful candidates will receive a year of support including:

• 1-1 meetings, 2 times a year, with experienced Writing West Midlands staff.
• A year’s membership to the Society of Authors
• Access to a “writer buddying” scheme.
• Group networking and career development sessions.
• Occasional workshops on particular themes such as pitching, fundraising, time management or digital writing.
• Tailored signposting and brokering via Writing West Midlands towards performance and development opportunities, potential collaborators, bursaries, courses and events that might benefit the individual writer.
• Access to a private information-sharing and support group on Facebook.
• A free place at the National Writers’ Conference on 22 June 2019, run by Writing West Midlands.
• Ongoing support as a member of Room 204 beyond the 1st year.

More details on the Writing West Midlands site