Writing Competitions Closing Next Month (April 2026)

Listed by closing date.

1 April: The Nature And Place Poetry Competition 2026

UK based competition. Poems that deal with any aspect of nature and place, up to 40 lines. Blind judging. Entry fees start at £7. Prizes £1,000, £500, and £250.   

3 April: Allen & Unwin Crime Fiction Prize

Open residents of Australia and New Zealand. Unpublished full-length crime or thriller manuscripts, 70,000 - 100,000 words. Prize: publishing contract with an advance against royalties of $25,000 AUD. Entry FREE.

6 April: Little Black Dress Spooky and Horror Story Competition

Open to Australian residents. Theme: Glitch. Categories are - Youth: 500 words, Teen: 1,000 words, Adult: 2,500 words. Free entry for minors, $15 entry fee for adults. Prizes up to $100.

12 April: Craft Award for Excellence

US based, open theme, multiple categories. Entry fee $20 (USD) for each category. Fiction up to 5,000 words, prize $1,000. Creative non-fiction up to 5,000 words, prize $1,000. Flash fiction up to $1,000 words, prize $1,000. Flash creative non-fiction up to 1,000 words, prize $1,000. 2 x Editor’s Choice $500 each.

13 April: Griffith Review Emerging Voices Competition

Original submissions of fiction and creative non-fiction, 3,500 – 5,000 words. Open theme, ‘new ideas, fresh voices and bold perspectives’. Non-subscriber entry fee $25 (AUD).

15 April: The Southerly Poetry Prize

Open to Australian citizens and residents, open theme, poetry up to 100 lines. Entry fee $20 (AUD), prize $2,000.

24 April: Not Quite Write Prize for Flash Fiction

Gather a team and come up with a 500-word story, within 60 hours, to win a share of $4,000 in cash prizes. Open. Entry fee $35 (AUD). Prompts drop 24 April, closing date 26 April.

26 April: Grieve

From the Hunter Writer’s Centre. Open to Australian citizens or residents 18 years, for prose, poetry and multimedia. General entry fee $26. Prize: publication and $50 (AUD)…and a copy of the anthology.

30 April: Daisy Utemorrah Award

Unpublished manuscript of junior or YA fiction by a First Nations author. Prize: publishing contract with Magabala Books and $15,000 (AUD).

30 April: Furphy Literary Award

Open to writers over 18 years of age. Fiction or narrative non-fiction up to 5,000 words ‘in the spirit of Archibald and honouring the author of Such is Life.’ Theme: Australian life in all its diversity. Entry: FREE. Prizes: $15,000, $3,000, and $2,000 (AUD).

30 April: Poetica Christi Press Annual Poetry Competition

Open to Australian residents 16 and over. Theme ‘A Momentary Darkness’. Poetry up to 50 lines. Entry fee $10. Prizes $300, $100.

30 April: Vallum Chapbook Award

Canadian poetry competition for poetry chapbooks of 12-30 pages. Entry fee $30 (CAD). Prize $300 plus 25 copies of chapbook.

30 April: The Best of Times Short Story Competition #41

Humorous short stories up to 2,500 words. Entry $10 (AUD) per story. Prizes are proportion of entry fees received: 60%, 15%, and 5%. (Refreshing…)