March 2016 Contest Roundup

In this month’s Roundup, as always, there are lots of contests to pitch and/or submit your work to. There are opportunities to try new things like writing for a specific contest prompt. But if you don’t have time or are not ready, don’t feel rushed! There are always more opportunities to come. Agents and publishers need you! Without stories and art there is no publishing. Don’t forget that my friends. Here are upcoming contests, mostly listed by closing date:

March:

3/2: Harlequin Matchmaker: Open to Historical Romance. Submit info about your historical romance novel to the editors at Harlequin. They are looking for publishable manuscripts. Entries will be chose to move onto further rounds where they work with editors.

3/5: Pitch2Pub – 15 freelance editors will be paired with chosen authors to help polish their manuscript. Check the editor links to see what categories they work in. Edited manuscripts go into an agent round on 4/15.

3/7: #SonofaPitch – Pitch your manuscript via Twitter using the #SonofaPitch hashtag. Include your genre and age category. One tweet per manuscript per hour.

3/9: Creative Writing Fellowship – Open to published authors of poetry. $25,000.00 in grants are available. Applications must be submitted through Grants.gov. See links to various information in the sidebar on the page.

3/14: An Agent’s Inbox – with Brent Taylor of Triada US Literary Agency.  3/11 Update: Contest details have been posted here.

3/14: Pass or Pages – Open to YA Contemporary Novels. Enter your query and first 250 words. 5 entries will be randomly chosen to move onto the agent round where they will get feedback. Agent announcement is on 3/7.

Opens 3/15: Pockets Fiction Contest  – Pocket’s is a magazine for 6-12 year olds. It says that the contest rules are the same as last year and that the winner is to be published in the magazine. Am hoping there will be more information to come on this one.

3/17: #Pitmad – Open to any genre and category. Pitch your completed manuscript on Twitter using the #PitMad hashtag along with a category/genre hashtag (see list on the #Pitmad rules page) from 8AM – 8PM EDT. Tweet 3 pitches per project.

3/27: Skylark Literary Tales for Teens Competition – Open to YA for 13-15 year-olds by unagented, unpublished writers. Judged by Lauren Fortune, Senior Commissioning Editor, Fiction, Scholastic Children’s Books, Ellen Holgate, Editorial Director, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, & Florentyna Martin, Children’s New Titles Buyer, Waterstones. Winner to receive a one-to-one editorial critique of your finished manuscript by phone, or in person (locations allowing), with agents Joanna Moult and/or Amber Caraveo.

3/31: Foley Poetry Award – Open to unpublished poetry on any topic. Poem be 30 lines or less. Winner to receive $1000.

 April:

4/1: Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest –  Open to humorous poetry with a maximum of 250 lines. 1st prize of $1,000, 2nd – $25o, 10 Honorable Mentions -$100 each. Top 12 entries will be published online.

4/19: #DVPit – Open to marginalized voices in any kind of fiction (adult, kids, any genre, you name it) and narrative nonfiction. Pitch your work via Twitter using the #DVPit hashtag from 8am – 8pm EST. There is a long list of participating agents as well as some editors.

4/24: #FicFest –  Open to Children’s Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult, New Adult, and Adult. 45 manuscripts will be chosen. Finalists will work with teams on revisions. Agent round begins 7/8 with agents requesting partial/fulls on the manuscripts that interest them.

Upcoming:

6/9: #Pitmad – Open to any genre and category. Pitch your completed manuscript on Twitter using the #PitMad hashtag from 8AM – 8PM EDT. Tweet 3 pitches per project for the day.

7/15: Future Scapes – Open to short fiction of up to 8,000 words written to the contest’s prompt regarding the future.  1st places receives $2,000, 2nd – $1,000, and 4 runners-up $500 each. See rules.

8/3: Pitch Wars – “Published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose one writer each, read their entire manuscript, and offer suggestions to shine it up for agents. The mentors also critique the writer’s pitch to get it ready for the agent round. Writers send applications (query and first chapter of manuscript) to the four mentors that best fit their work. The mentors then read all their applications and choose the writer they want to mentor for the next two months. Then we hold an agent round with over a dozen agents making requests.”

Know of a great, no fee contest that we missed? Please link us up in the comments!