b l o c demo

Funding and competitions A to Z

If you're looking for a way
to make money out of your
writing, have a browse of our
list of funding bodies and
competitions for writers.
Search by name or by subject.

Upcoming competitions

The Art of the Garden - The Verb Competition 2004
BBC Radio 3's regular writing strand The Verb wants you to write a short story, of no more than 1,500 words, based on a photograph or painting of a garden. The winning story will be read out on air. Closing date 10th September 2004.
For further details and examples by Rose Tremain, Adam Thorpe and Jake Arnott go to The Verb's web pages.

The Bridport Prize
Established for 30 years, the Bridport Prize is one of the top open writing competitions in the country and has been the first step in the careers of established poets and novelists such as Helen Dunmore.

Entries are welcome either online or by post with an entry fee of £6. There are many prizes to be won, including £3000 for 1st prize.

Stories should be 5000 words maximum, and poems should be no more than 42 lines. The competition closes 30th June 2004.

For more information please see www.bridportprize.org.uk

The Cherrybite Open Poetry Competition
First prize of £100 for a poem of up to 40 lines. The style and theme are up to you. Closing date 30th June 2004.
Visit http://www.cherrybite.co.uk/opc.html for details.

2004 Jo Cowell Short Story competition
Ormskirk Writers’ and Literary Club are offering prizes totalling £400 for their 2004 Jo Cowell Short Story competition. Stories should be between 1,000 and 2,000 words on a theme of your choice. Entry fee of £4 for the first entry and £3 after that. The competition will be judged by literary agent, Merric Davidson. Send an sae for entry form and details to: The Competition Co-ordinator, OWLS, Stone Cross, 2 Cobbs Brow, Newburgh, Wigan, WN8 7ND. Closing date 30th June 2004.

Momaya Short Story Competition
Momaya Press's Short Story Competition is open to writers of any nationality writing in English, and also offers the opportunity for winners to be published in the Momaya Annual Review 2004. Entry fee is £6, and £130 goes to the first prize winner. Closing date 1st July 2004.
Visit www.momayapress.com

Mere Literary Festival Short Story Competition
Entry fee: £4 (£3.50 for second entries). 2500 words, 1st prize £300. Closing date 11th July 2004.
Visit www.merewilts.org.uk

Legend Writing Awards - Short Story Competition
This competition is for short stories up to 2000 words and particularly aims to encourage new writers. Cash prizes: 1st £500, 2nd £250, 3rd £100
Plus three runners-up prizes of £50. Closing date 31st August 2004.
Visit www.legendwritingaward.com

The New Writer Prose and Poetry Prizes
Fact, fiction and poetry competition with cash prizes. Closing date 31st October 2004. Visit www.thenewwriter.com

Funding A to Z

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The Arts Council
www.artscouncil.ie
Grants aid to events, organisations, awards and schemes that help artists.

Ask about writing
www.askaboutwriting.net/competitions.htm
A good selection of regularly updated writing competitions

BBC Writers Room
www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom
Contains competitions organised by the BBC

The British Academy
www.britac.ac.uk
The British Academy is the chief source of funding for arts post graduate courses.

The British Science Fiction Association
www.appomattox.demon.co.uk/acca
Offers the Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction.

Career Development Loans
http://www.dfee.gov.uk/
Loans available for vocational courses, including some postgraduate courses.

The Crime Writers Association
www.thecwa.co.uk
Unpublished novelists would do well to submit for the Creasey Dagger Award. Information and advice freely available.

The Directory of Grant Making Trusts
www.acf.org.uk/pubs/gmakeruk.PDF

Donard Publishing Short Story Competition
www.donardpublishing.co.uk/writers.html
A range of prizes from £1,500-£250

Educational Grants Advisory Service
Family Welfare Association, 501-505 Kingsland Road, Dalston, London E8 4AU
Can put students in touch with sources of charitable help.

The Educational Grants Directory
www.knowuk.co.uk/html/about_edu.htm

EMC Short Story Competition
www.englishandmedia.co.uk
1st prize £1,000. No web address as yet so contact by post: Short story competition, English and Media Centre, 18 Compton Terrace, London, N1 2UN

The Esmee Fairbair Foundation
www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk
The foundation's arts and heritage programme gives priority to arts provisions in under-served geographical areas.

Essay Writing Contest
www.breakawaybooks.com
On the subject of 'Bicycle Love' stories of passion, devotion, or obsession.

Fish Short Story Competition
www.fishpublishing.com
£1,000 first prize

The Grants Register
http://www.macmillan-reference.co.uk/Academic/Grants.htm

Higher Education Funding Council
www.niss.ac.uk/admin/support-he.html
Displays results of recent funding audits at UK universities.

Hidden Brook Press
http://www.hiddenbrookpress.com
Annual poetry competitions, with prizes and publication

Jacqui Bennett Writers' Bureau
www.jbwb.co.uk
Free critique, hall of fame and competitions

The K.Blundell Trust
www.societyofauthors.co.uk/
Grants for authors under the age of 40. Work must 'contribute to the greater understanding of existing social and economic organisation'. For fiction and non-fiction writers.

Literary Awards
www.literature-awards.com
General information on awards

The McKitterick Prize
www.societyofauthors.co.uk/
£4,000 for the best first-published novel by someone over a certain age.

The Minack Chronicles Trust
http://www.minackchroniclestrust.org.uk/
Bursary fund left by David Tangye.

Natural Environment Research Council
www.nerc.ac.uk/research-councils/
Provides links to all UK research councils.

The New Writer
www.thenewwriter.com
For unpublished poetry of up to 40 lines, also collections of 6 to 10 poems

Park Publications
www.parkpublications.co.uk
Publishing and competitions

The Petra Kennedy Poetry Competition
www.petrapoetrycompetition.co.uk
A 1st prize of £1,000 makes it worth sharpening your pencil and rhyming some rhymes.

The Poetry Service
www.poetrybusiness.co.uk
Independent poetry publisher - annual competition

Prospects
www.prospects.ac.uk/
Links to all UK universities and funding sources.

Quality Assurance Agency
www.qaa.ac.uk
Displays results of recent quality assessments at UK universities.

The Romantic Novelists' Association
www.rna-uk.org/parkeraward.html
Runs the £10,000 Parker Romantic Novel of the year award.

The Royal Society of Literature
www.rslit.org/prizes
A prize of £1,000 for a previously unpublished short story.

The Sagittarius Prize
www.societyofauthors.co.uk/
£2,000 for the best novel by an author over the age of 60.

Screen Daily.com
www.screendaily.com
Budding screenwriters, now's your chance! £10,000 for the best screenplay.

Shrewsbury Literary Competition
29 Oswell Road, Shrewsbury SY2 5Y1
Small prizes for short stories of up to 2,000 words. Also travel articles of up to 750 words

The Society of Authors
www.writers.org.uk/society
The Eric Gregory Award for promising poets under the age of 30.

The Society of Authors
www.societyofauthors.co.uk/
For a range of age catergories including poets under 30 and first time novelists over 60.

The Student Awards Agency for Scotland
Gyleview House, Redheughs Rigg, Edinburgh, EH12 9HH

The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award
www.societyofauthors.co.uk/
Offers £5,000 for a full length published work of fiction, non fiction or poetry by an author under the age of 35.

The Wellcome Trust Book Prize
www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/1/miscmp.html
£25,000 for a spooky science writer

Write Link
http://www.writelink.co.uk/Competitions/competitions.html

Writers Reign
http://www.writersreign.co.uk/Competitions/competitions.html

Writing competitions
www.freelancewriting.com
Various writing competitions, mainly American

Resources