Writing Opportunities January 2024

The latest writing opportunities for January 2024.

If you would like your submissions call listed on our website, please contact us here.

Fresh Pages, New Stories: The 2023/24 Creative Writing Competition Supported by the All Ireland Scholarships

Deadline: 15th January

This competition is supported by the All Ireland Scholarships. The overall prize fund is €4000 with a first prize of €2000 plus a place on the University of Limerick’s Winter School.

Previous winners include Alice Kinsella, author of Milk: On Motherhood and Madness.

They accept three types of entry: A) Fiction; B) Non-fiction; C) Op-ed each with a word limit of 2000 words.

Ragaire Literary Magazine

Deadline: 15th January

Ragaire is a new literary magazine from Galway and they are currently accepting submissions for their very first issue!

They say “‘Ragaire’ is an old Irish word to describe a person who enjoys late night wandering. We want our magazine to be a light for those travellers, a place to bring their poems and stories, those lines of life. We are a warm and welcoming home for writers of all stripes and creeds. We love a good story. We love writing that touches the heart. We like poems that come from around the corner and take us by surprise.”

They accept stories and poems written in English from Ireland or elsewhere. Short stories must be between 500 and 2000 words and poems can be no longer than 40 lines.

From the Well Short Story competition 2024

Deadline: 28th January

Cork County Council Library and Arts Service is accepting submissions to the From the Well Short Story competition 2024. From the Well is a long standing short story anthology published annually by Cork County Council’s Library and Arts Service. Twenty stories will be selected for inclusion in the 2024 edition of the From the Well short story anthology, while the winning story and two others will feature in the 2024 West Cork Literary Festival as part of the anthology launch event in Bantry Library within the festival dates of 12-19 July. The winning writer will be offered a place on West Cork Literary Festival’s three-day short story writing workshop. The tutor will be Jan Carson and the workshop will run from Monday 15 to Wednesday 17 July 2024.

Cúirt New Writing Prize

Deadline: 29th January

There are three categories for the Cúirt New Writing Prize: poetry, short fiction and short fiction and poetry in Irish.

The winner in each category will be awarded a €500 cash prize as well as the opportunity to perform at the Cúirt International Festival of Literature in April 2024.

The judges for this year are Sara Baume for short fiction, Elaine Feeney for poetry and Doireann Ní Ghríofa for Irish language poetry and short fiction.

Tower Magazine

Deadline: 31st January 2024

Submissions to TOWER VOL. 3: FAMILY will be open January 10-31 2024. They accept all genres of story, essay, poetry and art and encourage submissions of horror, sci-fi, fantasy and erotica. Perpetuation of aristocracy, mistreatment of single mothers, homophobic and transphobic legislation, Silicon Valley eugenics, and much more; for centuries abuse has been excused and oppression increased in the name of ‘protecting the family’. VOL. 3: FAMILY seeks work that takes on taboo topics and reexamines the role of the family in society.

New Writers Flash Fiction Competition 2024

Deadline: 31st January 2024

This flash fiction contest has a big purse with a top prize of £1,000, a second prize of £300 and a third prize of £200.

The word limit is 300 so it’s about as flash as you can get and it only costs £10 to enter.

Malorie Blackman Scholarships

Deadline: 31st January

City Lit’s Malorie Blackman Scholarships for Unheard Voices provide three annual awards to fund one year’s study within the Creative Writing department at City Lit.

The awards seek to support and encourage the creative and professional development of ‘unheard voices’.

The final award winners are selected by acclaimed writer, City Lit fellow and Patron of the School of Culture and Communication, Malorie Blackman OBE.

The award, worth up to £1,000 for each successful applicant, is to be spent on creative writing courses within the year from August 31st 2024 to August 31st 2025, and can be used against a single course or group of courses appropriate to the award recipient’s creative and learning aims. Award recipients will have the opportunity to speak to a member of the Writing team who will advise and help organise a study plan to best support the development of their writing.

The Prototype Prize

Deadline: 1st February

The Prototype Prize is a new, biennial prize for published or unpublished writers and artists working at the intersections of different literary and artistic forms. The prize, which is open only to writers or artists resident in the UK or Ireland, awards £3,000 plus publication by Prototype to the best book-length project, and a second prize of £2,000 plus publication by Monitor Books to the best short-form work. Both prize-winners will also have an excerpt of their work published by frieze. The judges for the inaugural prize are Bhanu Kapil, Tom McCarthy and Elizabeth Price, who will work alongside an editorial board from the publishers.

Faerie Press

Deadline: 5th February

Faerie Press is a new indie press based in Belfast. They are the first LGBTQ+ led children’s publishing press on the island of Ireland. Currently accepting poetry, short stories, and comic strips from creatived aged 16–24.

The Dublin Review

Deadline: Ongoing.

The Dublin Review welcomes submissions of fiction and non-fiction previously unpublished in the English language. We do not accept poetry submissions. We especially encourage submissions from members of groups traditionally underrepresented in literary magazines and other cultural forums.

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