Contests! I’ve added quite a few new ones to the list this month. As always, you’ll find them in date order. Members of our Sub It Club Submission Support Group are welcome to post their pitches and queries in the group for feedback anytime so be sure to join if you aren’t already there.
Best of luck on your entries!
March:
3/31: SCBWI Work In Progress Grants – Open to SCBWI Members. PB, CB, MG, YA fiction or nonfiction. Selected works will be presented to a hand-selected group of acquiring editors.
3/31: Don Freeman Illustrator Grant – Open to SCBWI Members. Submit you Picture Book dummy or portfolio for a chance to win a $1000 grant.
3/31: Karen & Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award – Open to unpublished SCBWI Members over age 50. Submit your work in progress for a chance to win $500 and free tuition to any SCBWI conference.
April:
4/1: 1st Five Pages Workshop – Open to MG and YA. Receive mentoring and feedback over the course of a 3 week workshop. Read the Workshop Rules for entry details. Participants will receive agent feedback. One chosen entry from will receive a critique of the full first chapter or first ten pages from agent Justin Wells of Corvisiero Literary Agency.
4/1: Scholastic Graphix Contest – Open to Graphic Novels for kids. U.S. Residents only. Up to 5 winners will receive an offer to publish their work with Scholastic and a $15,000 advance.
4/1: Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest – Open to humorous poetry not to exceed 250 lines in length. One entry per person. First prize of $1,000, second prize $250, plus 10 Honorable Mentions receive $100 each and the top 12 entries will be published online. Entry via Submittable.
4/5: #TKA20 – Open to Adult, YA, MG. Pitch Knight Agency agents Deidre Knight, Pamela Harty, Elaine Spencer, Melissa Jeglinski, Travis Pennington, Nephele Tempest, Kristy Hunter, and Janna Bonikowski via Twitter using the #TKA20 hashtag between 9am & 5pm EST. See the #TKA20 post for specific info.
4/5: #KidPit – Open to Board Books, Picture Books, Easy Readers, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, and Young Adult Fiction and Nonfiction. Pitch your completed manuscript via Twitter using the #KidPit hashtag between 9am and 3pm CST.
4/5: #AdPit – Open to Adult and New Adult Fiction and Nonfiction. Pitch your completed manuscript via Twitter using the #AdPit hashtag between 9am and 3pm CST.
4/7: #P2P17 – Entrants submit a query and 5 pages of their draft manuscript to freelance editors. Each editor will select an author to work with for 5 weeks of intensive manuscript development to prepare for an agent round. According to the #P2P17 Twitter feed this even has been postponed.
4/9: #RevPit – The contest did not specify genres. Read the participating editor bios. Writers are paired with freelance editors to revise their query and first five pages for an agent round. No participating agents are listed at this time.
4/10: An Agent’s Inbox – Open to YA & Adult Science Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, and Horror. Enter your query and the first 1,250 words of your completed and polished manuscript.
4/15: Common Good Books Poetry Contest – Open to poetry based on the theme “Poems of Experience”. U.S. Residents only. Ten poets will receive prizes of $250 each. Entry via U.S. Postal service.
4/23: Inked Voices – Open to a writer of Literary or Upmarket Fiction of a diverse background novel related to their experience. Enter via form. Winner to receive entry to the Inked Voices workshop (which includes feedback on the first 15 pages of your novel) with agent Katie Grimm of Don Congdon Associates.
4/25: #DVPit – Open to Children’s and Teen Fiction and Nonfiction pitches about and especially by marginalized voices. Pitch your completed manuscript via Twitter using the #DVPit hashtag between 8am and 8pm EST.
4/26: #DVPit – Open to Adult Fiction and Nonfiction pitches about and especially by marginalized voices. Pitch your completed manuscript via Twitter using the #DVPit hashtag between 8am and 8pm EST.
Upcoming:
5/?: QueryKombat – “a bracket style competition where 64 query letters and first pages are matched against each other until only one is left. There are six rounds of competition that last the entire month of June and our expert judges leave notes and determine the winners. Agents request from the entries between the 1st and 2nd round, but there’s a catch. No agent requests are revealed until an entry is knocked out of the competition. Entries are known by their fun nicknames. Surviving entries are allowed to revise twice over the six rounds.”
6/8: #Pitmad – Open to all genres. Pitch your manuscript via Twitter using the #Pitmad hashtag between 8am & 8pm EDT. Only pitch 3 times per project.
6/22: #PBPitch – Open to picture books. Pitch your manuscript via Twitter using the #PBPitch hashtag between 8am and 8pm EST.
6/28: #FaithPitch – Open to “completed Fiction that falls under the categories of inspirational, faith-based, biblical worldview, or Christian.” Picture book through Adult categories. Pitch your manuscript via Twitter using the #FaithPitch hashtag between 8am and 8pm CST. See the contest page for a list of age category and genre hashtags.
8/15: Pockets Fiction Contest – Open to stories for children of 750-1000 words. Winner to receive $500 and publication in Pockets Magazine.
Know of any great contests I missed? Please link us up in the comments!
Sub It Club 
Thoughts? Questions? Comments? We want to hear them!