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2020 Writing Contests: The Ultimate Guide

August 23, 2018 | 9 min read

Finding the right writing contest for you can be a difficult and time-consuming process. I googled the term “writing contests” and got 126,000,000 results. For that reason, we compiled a comprehensive and up-to-date list of the best writing contests in 2020.

You’re here because you’re looking for credible writing contests that offer cash prizes and/or the ability to get your work in front of more people. Discover the best essay, poetry, novel, and short story writing competitions for fiction and non-fiction writers.

Disclaimer:The majority of the descriptions of each contest were taken directly from the most relevant contest website.

We did the leg work and we’ll continue to curate and update this list throughout the year. If you want to receive updates when we update this list, sign up for updates!

Submit your work to these competitions for a chance to win notoriety, rewards and of course, cash prizes.

Related: Struggling to get your piece finished before the competition deadline? UseSprinter, our online, distraction-free writing tool. Produce your best work by staying productive and creative.

Did we miss a writing competition? Let us know in the comments or by tweeting at us, @astrohaus.

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20 Writing Contests in 2020

1. 100,000,000 Words Writing Contest

The Freewrite community is filled with so many talented authors and writers who have published novels, screenplays and more. This year we'll be crossing 100 million words written on Freewrite - an incredible milestone. To celebrate, we're launching a writing contest to showcase the talented members of the Freewrite family who helped us get here.

Deadline:June 18, 2020 Fee: Free Prize: $250 gift card + surprise collectors item View Contest

2. Inkitt Midsummer Mystery Contest

We’re on the search for stories that keep readers hooked with suspense which means this contest is open to submissions of multiple genres, such as: mystery, thriller, crime, fantasy, paranormal urban, horror and any other genre that keeps your readers on the edge of their seats.

Deadline: August 31, 2020 Fee: None Prize: $650 and Badge for book View Contest

3. 2019 Accenti Writing Contest

The annual Accenti Writing Contest has an open topic. Multiple entries are welcome. The contest is open to prose works of fiction, non-fiction or creative non-fiction with a maximum length of 2000 words. Winners are chosen by blind judging. Four finalists make the shortlist, from which the judges choose the winner. The popular vote winner is the submission from among the four finalists that receives the most votes by Accenti readers. Winners' names, bios and submissions will be posted on Accenti in May and reported in the Accenti Newsletter. Top prize: $1000.00 (CDN) and publication in Accenti. Two runner-up prizes: $100.00 (CDN) each and publication in Accenti. Popular Vote prize: $100.00 (CDN) and publication in Accenti.

Deadline: February 3^rd, 2020 Fee: $30 Prize: $100 - $1,000 View Contest

4. AFSA National High School Essay Contest

USIP partners with the American Foreign Service Association ((AFSA) on the annual National High School Essay Contest. The contest engages high school students in learning and writing about issues of peace and conflict, encouraging an appreciation for diplomacy's role in building partnerships that can advance peacebuilding and protect national security. Now in its 22nd year, the contest encourages students to think about how and why the United States engages globally to build peace, and about the role that the Foreign Service plays in advancing U.S. national security and economic prosperity.

Deadline:April 6, 2020 Fee: None Prize: $2,500 + Trip to Washington D.C. View Contest

5. Storyathon

Storyathon is an exciting free online event where students are challenged to write a story that is EXACTLY 100 words. This online event is for grades 3 to 6 in US and Canada.

This is more of a creative writing event than a contest. Our aim is for every child to develop a passion for writing and storytelling. Storyathon has already proved unbelievably popular with over 3,000 classrooms participating and over 40,000 stories created to date.

Deadline: 3 March 2020 (7PM Eastern Standard Time, 6PM Central Pacific Time and 4PM Pacific Standard Time). Fee:None Prize: A Storyathon trophy for the National champion. A Storyathon Top 10 Certificate for the top 10 stories and these will also be published in the Storyathon Chronicle. Finalists will receive a digital certificate. View Contest

6. WOW! Women On Writing 2019 Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest

Seeking creative nonfiction essays on any topic (200 - 1000 words) and in any style--from personal essay to lyric essay to hybrid and more! The mission of this contest is to reward bravery in real-life storytelling and create an understanding of our world through thoughtful, engaging narratives.

Electronic submissions via e-mail only; reprints are okay; simultaneous submissions okay; multiple submissions are okay as long as they are submitted in their own individual e-mail. Open internationally.

Deadline: October 31, 2019 Fee: $12 Prize: $500 and publication View Contest

7. WOW! Women On Writing Fall 2019 Flash Fiction Contest

Guest Judge: Literary Agent Cari Lamba with the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency

Seeking short fiction of any genre between 250 - 750 words. The mission of this contest is to inspire creativity, communication, and well-rewarded recognition to contestants.

Electronic submissions via e-mail only; reprints are okay; simultaneous submissions okay; multiple submissions are okay as long as they are submitted in their own individual e-mail. Open internationally.

Deadline: November 30, 2019 Fee: $10 Prize: $400 and publication View Contest

8. BeAnimal Autumn Writing Competition

The aim is to get participants to think deeply about nature and sustainability. Our NGO works with environmental education and preservation of nature in India.

First prize - Valley of Flowers tour (16 days) worth 599 euros
Second prize - The Himalayan experience (10 days) worth 499 euros
Third prize - The Gaia experience - Mountain retreat in Kookal (5 days) worth 399 euros

Deadline: December 16, 2019 Fee: None Prize: See Above View Contest

9. The Restless Books Prize For New Immigrant Writing

The ethos of the modern world is defined by immigrants. Their stories have always been an essential component of our cultural consciousness, from Isaac Bashevis Singer to Isabel Allende, from Milan Kundera to Maxine Hong Kingston. In novels, short stories, memoirs, and works of journalism, immigrants have shown us what resilience and dedication we’re capable of, and have expanded our sense of what it means to be global citizens. In these times of intense xenophobia, it is more important than ever that these boundary-crossing stories reach the broadest possible audience.

With that in mind, we are proud to present The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing. We are looking for extraordinary unpublished submissions from emerging writers of sharp, culture-straddling writing that addresses identity in a global age. Each year, a distinguished panel of judges will select a winning manuscript to be published by Restless Books. We can’t wait to read and share what the new voices of the world have to say.

Deadline: March 31, 2019 Fee: None Prize: $10,000 View Contest

10. Sarton Women's Book Awards

The Sarton Women’s Book Awards are given annually to women authors writing chiefly about women in memoir, nonfiction, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, and young adult. The awards are limited to submissions originally written in English and published by small/independent publishers, university presses, and author-publishers (self-publishing authors). The award program is named in honor of May Sarton, who is remembered for her outstanding contributions to women's literature as a memoirist, novelist, and poet.

Deadline: July 1, 2019 (Early Bird Entry) Fee: $90 (Early Bird Fee) Prize: $100 + commemorative medallion and advertising considerations View Contest

11. 6th Ó Bhéal Five Words International Poetry Competition

The O Bheal Five Words Poetry Competition is one of the more unique competitions on this list. Instead of opening yearly or even quarterly, this contest is held weekly. Every Tuesday around noon (UTC), from the 16th of April 2019 until the 28th of January 2020, five words are posted on the competitions page. Entrants have one week to compose and submit one or more poems which include all five words given for that week. One winner is selected from all the weekly winners.

Five words poetry competition logo

Deadline: Weekly, through January 28, 2020 Fee: €5 Prize: €500 View Contest

12. L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest

Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest is an opportunity for new writers of science fiction and fantasy to have their work judged by some of the masters in the field and discovered by a wide audience.

Deadline: March 31, 2019 Fee: None Prize: Up to $5,000 View Contest

13. Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition

Writer’s Digest has been shining a spotlight on up and coming writers in all genres through its Annual Writing Competition for more than 80 years. Enter our 88th Annual Writing Competition for your chance to win and have your work be seen by editors and agents! Almost 500 winners will be chosen. The top winning entries of this writing contest will also be on display in the 88th Annual Writer’s Digest Competition Collection.

Deadline: May 6, 2019 Fee: $25 Prize: $5,000 View Contest

14. Drue Heinz Literature Award

The Drue Heinz Literature Prize recognizes and supports writers of short fiction and makes their work available to readers around the world. The award is open to authors who have published a book-length collection of fiction or at least three short stories or novellas in commercial magazines or literary journals.

Manuscripts are judged anonymously by nationally known writers. Past judges have included Robert Penn Warren, Joyce Carol Oates, Raymond Carver, Margaret Atwood, Russell Banks, Rick Moody, and Joan Didion.

Winners receive a cash prize of $15,000, publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press, and support in the nation-wide promotion of their book.

Deadline: June 30, 2019 Fee:None Prize:$15,000 View Contest

15. Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize

Established in 1981, the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize is administered by the
University of Pittsburgh Press. Named in honor of Agnes Lynch Starrett, the Press’s
first director, the prize is awarded for a first full-length book of poems.

The prize carries a cash award of $5,000 and publication by the University of
Pittsburgh Press as part of the Pitt Poetry Series. The series is edited by Ed Ochester, who also serves as final judge in the Starrett competition.

Deadline: April 30, 2019 Fee: $25 Prize: $5,000 View Contest

16. Miami Book Fair/ De Groot Prize

The Miami Book Fair, the nation’s finest and largest literary gathering, presented by Miami Dade College, has partnered with The de Groot Foundation to launch the Miami Book Fair/De Groot Prize to be awarded to an author for an unpublished novella.

Deadline: April 30, 2019 Fee:None Prize: $6,000 and publication by Melville House View Contest

17. Write The World

Founded in 2012 by David Weinstein, Write The World is a program dedicated to the development of high school aged writers. They’ve created a global community and a guided interactive process that’s subscribed to by thousands of youth writers and educators.

Image via: Write the World

Their current competition is a food writing competition. Writers aged 13-18 may submit a 600 - 1,000 word essay about food. Along with cash prizes of up to $100, youth writers will receive recognition from the global Write The World community.

Deadline: Monthly Fee: None Prize: Up to $100 View Contest

18. ServiceScape Short Story Award 2019

Calling all short story writers: Are you a short story writer interested in gaining more exposure and a bigger audience for your creative work? Would an extra $1,000.00 USD in your pocket be a great thing right now?

If so, the ServiceScape Short Story Award is the perfect way to achieve both. For this award, any genre or theme of short story is accepted. All applicants should submit their original unpublished work of short fiction or nonfiction, 5,000 words or fewer, to be considered. Along with receiving an award for $1,000.00 USD, the winner will have his or her short story featured within our blog, which reaches thousands of readers per month. Rules and exclusions apply.

Deadline: November 30, 2019 Fee: None Prize: $1,000 View Contest

19. Narrative Prize 2019

THE $4,000 NARRATIVE PRIZE is awarded annually for the best short story, novel excerpt, poem, one-act play, graphic story, or work of literary nonfiction published by a new or emerging writer in Narrative.

The winner is announced each September, and the prize is awarded in October. The award, citing the winner’s name and the title and genre of the winning piece, is widely publicized, and each winner is cited in an ongoing listing in Narrative. The prize will be given to the best work published each year in Narrative by a new or emerging writer, as judged by the magazine’s editors. In some years, the prize may be divided between winners, when more than one work merits the award.

Deadline: June 15, 2019 Fee:None Prize: $4,000 View Contest

20. Architecture of Power: Short Story Contest

Welcome to 2019; polarizing political views are an ever-present reality and it doesn't seem to be improving. Whether you live in the US or on the other side of the globe our environments are actors in the theater of influence. What happens when design becomes part of the equation?

Write a short story that puts into narrative how architecture and the built-environment affect the lives of the people in power and those on the fringes of society.

Deadline: February 28th, 2019 Fee: $25 Prize: $500 + Bonus View Contest

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There are many good reasons to enter writing contests. First and foremost, there is the possibility of winning a cash prize. Secondly, having your name attached to a popular literary magazine or writing organization can help get your work seen.

With that said, before taking the plunge, be sure to read the contest guidelines thoroughly. Some writing contests have regional, age, gender, ethnicity, and word count restrictions.

If you’ve found what you’re looking for, don’t delay, get writing! Writing competitions are one of the best ways for writers to get their work in front of a broad audience.

Carlton Clark loves to write about business, baseball, and popular culture. A writer, marketer, and entrepreneur. At the age of 14, he founded the media company ballplayerplus.com. Currently, Carlton helps businesses share their stories through social media and blogging. When he’s not writing or creating content, Carlton coaches youth baseball at his local high school and plays guitar. You can find him online on Instagram @itscarltonclark, and on Twitter @carlton_mukasa

December 30, 2025 • 3 min read

The 2025 Word of the Year

It’s Freewrite’s favorite time of year. When dictionaries around the world examine language use of the previous year and select a “Word of the Year.”

Of course, there are many different dictionaries in use in the English language, and they all have different ideas about what word was the most influential or saw the most growth in the previous year. They individually review new slang and culturally relevant vocabulary, examine spikes or dips in usage, and pour over internet trend data.

Let’s see what some of the biggest dictionaries decided for 2025. And read to the end for a chance to submit your own Word of the Year — and win a Freewrite gift card.

[SUBMIT YOUR WORD OF THE YEAR]

Merriam-Webster: "slop"

Merriam-Webster chose "slop" as its Word of the Year for 2025 to describe "all that stuff dumped on our screens, captured in just four letters."

The dictionary lists "absurd videos, off-kilter advertising images, cheesy propaganda, fake news that looks pretty real, junky AI-written books, 'workslop' reports that waste coworkers’ time … and lots of talking cats" as examples of slop.

The original sense of the word "slop" from the 1700s was “soft mud” and eventually evolved to mean "food waste" and "rubbish." 2025 linked the term to AI, and the rest is history.

Honorable mentions: conclave, gerrymander, touch grass, performative, tariff, 67.

Dictionary.com: "67"

The team at Dictionary.com likes to pick a word that serves as “a linguistic time capsule, reflecting social trends and global events that defined the year.”

For 2025, they decided that “word” was actually a number. Or two numbers, to be exact.

If you’re an old, like me, and don’t know many school-age children, you may not have heard “67” in use. (Note that this is not “sixty-seven,” but “six, seven.”)

Dictionary.com claims the origin of “67” is a song called “Doot Doot (6 7)” by Skrilla, quickly made infamous by viral TikTok videos, most notably featuring a child who will for the rest of his life be known as the “6-7 Kid.” But according to my nine-year-old cousin, the origins of something so mystical can’t ever truly be known.

(My third grade expert also demonstrated the accompanying signature hand gesture, where you place both hands palms up and alternately move up and down.)

And if you happen to find yourself in a fourth-grade classroom, watch your mouth, because there’s a good chance this term has been banned for the teacher’s sanity.

Annoyed yet? Don’t be. As Dictionary.com points out, 6-7 is a rather delightful example at how fast language can develop as a new generation joins the conversation.

Dictionary.com honorable mentions: agentic, aura farming, broligarchy, clanker, Gen Z stare, kiss cam, overtourism, tariff, tradwife.

Oxford Dictionary: "rage bait"

With input from more than 30,000 users and expert analysis, Oxford Dictionary chose "rage bait" for their word of the year.

Specifically, the dictionary pointed to 2025’s news cycle, online manipulation tactics, and growing awareness of where we spend our time and attention online.

While closely paralleling its etymological cousin "clickbait," rage bait more specifically denotes content that evokes anger, discord, or polarization.

Oxford's experts report that use of the term has tripled in the last 12 months.

Oxford Dictionary's honorable mentions:aura farming, biohack.

Cambridge Dictionary: "parasocial"

The Cambridge Dictionary examined a sustained trend of increased searches to choose "parasocial" as its Word of the Year.

Believe it or not, this term was coined by sociologists in 1956, combining “social” with the Greek-derived prefix para-, which in this case means “similar to or parallel to, but separate from.”

But interest in and use of the term exploded this year, finally moving from a mainly academic context to the mainstream.

Cambridge Dictionary's honorable mentions: slop, delulu, skibidi, tradwife

Freewrite: TBD

This year, the Freewrite Fam is picking our own Word of the Year.

Click below to submit what you think the Word of 2025 should be, and we'll pick one submission to receive a Freewrite gift card.

[SUBMIT HERE]

Sources

Learn more

December 18, 2025 • 7 min read

7 Pieces of Writing Advice from Jane Austen's Letters

What can Jane Austen's personal letters teach writers of today?

Learn more

December 10, 2025 • 6 min read

The Writing Instrument: Abner James on Writing Music on Freewrite

Singer-songwriter Abner James finds his creativity in the quiet freedom of analog tools. Learn how his creative process transcends different media.

Abner James went to school for film directing. But the success of the band he and his brother formed together, Eighty Ninety, knocked him onto a different trajectory.

The band has accrued more than 40 million streams since the release of their debut EP “Elizabeth," and their work was even co-signed by Taylor Swift when the singer added Eighty Ninety to her playlist "Songs Taylor Loves.”

Now, Abner is returning to long-form writing in addition to songwriting, and with a change in media comes an examination of the creative process. We sat down to chat about what's the same — and what's different.

ANNIE COSBY: Tell us about your songwriting process.

ABNER JAMES: The way I tend to write my songs is hunched over a guitar and just seeing what comes. Sounds become words become shapes. It's a very physical process that is really about turning my brain off.

And one of the things that occurred to me when I was traveling, actually, was that I would love to be able to do that but from a writing perspective. What would happen if I sat down and approached writing in the same way that I approached music? In a more intuitive and free-form kind of way? What would that dig up?

AC: That's basically the ethos of Freewrite.

AJ: Yes. We had just put out a record, and I was thinking about how to get into writing for the next one. It occurred to me that regardless of how I started, I always finished on a screen. And I wondered: what's the acoustic guitar version of writing?

Where there's not blue light hitting me in the face. Even if I'm using my Notes app, it's the same thing. It really gets me into a different mindset.

"I wondered: what's the acoustic guitar version of writing?"

I grew up playing piano. That was my first instrument. And I found an old typewriter at a thrift store, and I love it. It actually reminded me a lot of playing piano, the kind of physical, the feeling of it. And it was really fun, but pretty impractical, especially because I travel a fair amount.

And so I wondered, is there such a thing as a digital typewriter? And I googled it, and I found Freewrite.

AC: What about Freewrite helps you write?

AJ:I think, pragmatically, just the E Ink screen is a huge deal, because it doesn't exhaust me in the same way. And the idea of having a tool specifically set aside for the process is appealing in an aesthetic way but also a mental-emotional way. When it comes out, it's kind of like ... It's like having an office you work out of. It's just for that.

"The way I tend to write my songs is hunched over a guitar and just seeing what comes. Sounds become words become shapes. It's a very physical process that is really about turning my brain off."

And all of the pragmatic limitations — like you're not getting texts on it, and you're not doing all that stuff on the internet — that's really helpful, too. But just having the mindset....

When I pick up a guitar, or I sit down at the piano, it very much puts me into that space. Having a tool just for words does the same thing. I find that to be really cool and inspiring.

"When I pick up a guitar, or I sit down at the piano, it very much puts me into that space. Having a tool just for words does the same thing."

AC: So mentally it gets you ready for writing.

AJ: Yeah, and also, when you write a Microsoft Word, it looks so finished that it's hard to keep going. If every time I strummed a chord, I was hearing it back, mixed and mastered and produced...?

It's hard to stay in that space when I'm seeing it fully written out and formatted in, like, Times New Roman, looking all seriously back at me.

AC: I get that. I have terrible instincts to edit stuff over and over again and never finish a story.

AJ: Also, the way you just open it and it's ready to go. So you don't have the stages of the computer turning on, that kind of puts this pressure, this tension on.

It's working at the edges in all these different ways that on their own could feel a little bit like it's not really necessary. All these amorphous things where you could look at it and be like, well, I don't really need any of those. But they add up to a critical mass that actually is significant.

And sometimes, if I want to bring it on a plane, I've found it's replaced reading for me. Rather than pick up a book or bring a book on the plane, I bring Traveler and just kind of hang out in that space and see if anything comes up.

I've found that it's kind of like writing songs on a different instrument, you get different styles of music that you wouldn't have otherwise. I've found that writing from words towards music, I get different kinds of songs than I have in the past, which has been interesting.

In that way, like sitting at a piano, you just write differently than you do on a guitar, or even a bass, because of the things those instruments tend to encourage or that they can do.

It feels almost like a little synthesizer, a different kind of instrument that has unlocked a different kind of approach for me.

"I've found that it's kind of like writing songs on a different instrument, you get different styles of music that you wouldn't have otherwise... [Traveler] feels almost like a little synthesizer, a different kind of instrument that has unlocked a different kind of approach for me."

AC: As someone who doesn't know the first thing about writing music, that's fascinating. It's all magic to me.

AJ: Yeah.

AC: What else are you interested in writing?

AJ: I went to school for film directing. That was kind of what I thought I was going to do. And then my brother and I started the band and that kind of happened first and knocked me onto a different track for a little while after college.

Growing up, though, writing was my way into everything. In directing, I wanted to be in control of the thing that I wrote. And in music, it was the same — the songwriting really feels like it came from that same place. And then the idea of writing longer form, like fiction, almost feels just like the next step from song to EP to album to novel.

For whatever reason, that started feeling like a challenge that would be deeply related to the kinds of work that we do in the studio.

AC: Do you have any advice for aspiring songwriters?

AJ: This sounds like a cliche, but it's totally true: whatever success that I've had as a songwriter — judge that for yourself — but whatever success I have had, has been directly proportional to just writing the song that I wanted to hear.

What I mean by that is, even if you're being coldly, cynically, late-stage capitalist about it, it's by far the most success I've had. The good news is that you don't have to choose. And in fact, when you start making those little compromises, or even begin to inch in that direction, it just doesn't work. So you can forget about it.

Just make music you want to hear. And that will be the music that resonates with most people.

I think there's a temptation to have an imaginary focus group in your head of like 500 people. But the problem is all those people are fake. They're not real. None of those people are actually real people. You're a focus group of one, you're one real person. There are more real people in that focus group than in the imaginary one.

And I just don't think that we're that different, in the end. So that would be my advice.

AC: That seems like generally great creative advice. Because fiction writers talk about that too, right? Do you write to market or do you write the book you want to read. Same thing. And that imaginary focus group has been debilitating for me. I have to silence that focus group before I can write.

AJ: Absolutely.

"I think there's a temptation to have an imaginary focus group in your head of like 500 people. But the problem is all those people are fake... You're a focus group of one, you're one real person. There are more real people in that focus group than in the imaginary one."

Learn more about Abner James, his brother, and their band, Eighty Ninety, on Instagram.

Learn more

2020 Writing Contests: The Ultimate Guide

20 Writing Contests in 2020

1. 100,000,000 Words Writing Contest

2. Inkitt Midsummer Mystery Contest

3. 2019 Accenti Writing Contest

4. AFSA National High School Essay Contest

5. Storyathon

6. WOW! Women On Writing 2019 Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest

7. WOW! Women On Writing Fall 2019 Flash Fiction Contest

8. BeAnimal Autumn Writing Competition

9. The Restless Books Prize For New Immigrant Writing

10. Sarton Women's Book Awards

11. 6th Ó Bhéal Five Words International Poetry Competition

12. L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest

13. Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition

14. Drue Heinz Literature Award

15. Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize

16. Miami Book Fair/ De Groot Prize

17. Write The World

18. ServiceScape Short Story Award 2019

19. Narrative Prize 2019

20. Architecture of Power: Short Story Contest

Find Your Freewrite

[SUBMIT YOUR WORD OF THE YEAR]

Merriam-Webster: "slop"

Dictionary.com: "67"

Oxford Dictionary: "rage bait"

Cambridge Dictionary: "parasocial"

Freewrite: TBD

[SUBMIT HERE]

Sources