The 2013 Wasafiri New Writing Prize is now open! We welcome entries from all writers anywhere in the world! Categories: Poetry, Fiction or Life Writing. Prizes: £300 for each category plus winners will be published in Wasafiri Entry fees: UK Sterling £6.00 if entering one category, £10.00 for two and £15.00 for three categories Simply fill in the entry form and post it with your fee to: ‘Wasafiri New Writing Prize’ Wasafiri The Open...

While the traditional view of formal poetry includes a very strict rhyme scheme that must be adhered to, the free verse style popularized by the great Ezra Pound largely eschews rhyme schemes altogether, instead relying on the power of the words themselves to paint a vivid portrait of the poet’s feelings. Free verse has become so widely accepted by publishers of modern poetry, in fact, that some won’t even entertain submissions of formal...

Have you survived an illness, personal tragedy, devastating loss, abusive relationship, financial ruin, or other life experience that brought you to your knees? Did the song “I Will Survive,” by Grammy Award-winning songstress Gloria Gaynor, inspire you to rise, survive, and move forward? If so, we’d love to share your story in a new book of personal narrative essays that tell the story of how you survived the experience and how the song...

Now an established highlight of the Canterbury Festival calendar, Monday 11 March will see the launch of the 2013 Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year Competition. The Festival is on the lookout for today’s best writers from all across UK and beyond, and is encouraging them to submit a poem or series of poems to the competition and perhaps be crowned this year’s winner. With over 150 entries last year, the Festival is encouraging budding poets...

SUBMIT Poets: read about the Heteronymicon challenge here. It closes April 30. The best will run in Issue 15, which will come out in the summer. Submissions are currently open. Open reading periods are held from the beginning of March through May and from the beginning of September through end of November. There is no reading fee during open reading periods. We hold two contests annually, the Winter Writers Contest Summer 2013, from June 1,...

First Chapter Writing Contest Contest Submission Period: April Fool’s Day-June 1st, 2013 Entry Fee: Zilch. Nada. Zippo. It’s totally free to enter! Contest Benefits: I will provide a short critique for all submissions highlighting the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is a HUGE benefit of entering my contest. We writers crave feedback. Feedback makes us better. Prize: The winner will receive a $25 gift card to Amazon. But wait there’s more! As...

The Poets and Players Poetry Competition 2013 with the Whitworth Prize The inaugural poetry competition run by Poets and Players, one of Manchester’s leading organisers of poetry and music events. JUDGE: JACOB POLLEY Jacob Polley was born in Carlisle, Cumbria. He is the author of three acclaimed books of poems, The Brink (2003), Little Gods (2006) and The Havocs (2012), all published by Picador, UK. He received an Eric Gregory Award in 2002,...