Pixnio This September there are more than three dozen free writing contests for short fiction, novels, poetry, CNF, nonfiction, and plays. Prizes range from $25,000 to publication. None charge entry fees.Some of these contests have age and geographical restrictions, so read the instructions carefully.

If you want to get a jump on next month's contests go to Free Contests. Many of these contests are offered annually, so even if the deadline has passed, you can prepare for next year.

Good luck! 

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2025 QTBIPOC Book Prize. Restrictions: Open to QTBIPOC-identified, feminist, innovative writers/poets. Genre: Full-length manuscript. Prize: Publication along with $1,000.00.  Deadline: September 1, 2025.

Morioka International Haiku Contest. Genre: Haiku. Prize: Not specified. Deadline: September 1, 2025.

The Jacki and Jeff Karsh Journalism Fellowship. Genre: Journalism. The Karsh Fellowship convenes journalists for immersive learning, mentorship, and collaboration, empowering them to produce original work of exceptional depth and authority on Jewish issues. Prize: $4000. Deadline: September 1, 2025. 

The SETI Institute: Cosmic Chronicles Literary Prize. Restrictions: Open to emerging writers. Genre: literature, speculative fiction/sci-fi, experimental poetry, and philosophy that reflects and expands on the SETI Institute’s “Intelligence and Consciousness” research area. Prize: $1000. Deadline: September 1, 2025. 

Coppercoat Brian Black Memorial Award 2025. Genre: Images and stories that answer the questions: How have you witnessed the changing marine environment and weather patterns through your sailing and along the coast? What was driving this change? and How do we respond to it? In the main article competition, we are looking for a story about sailing that you have done and that reveals something about our changing seas. Prize: £2,000. Deadline: September 1, 2025.

Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award. Restrictions: Open to writers who have not previously published any works of fiction for young readers. This includes self-published as well as commercially published work. Genre: Full-length work of fiction in English with universal appeal of Jewish content for readers aged 8-13 years, both Jewish and non-Jewish. It should reveal positive aspects of Jewish life. Prize: $1000. Deadline: September 1, 2025.

AILACT Essay Prize. Genre: Papers related to the teaching or theory of informal logic or critical thinking, and papers on argumentation theory. Prize: $700 top prize. Deadline: September 1, 2025.

RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction. Restrictions: The writer must be a resident of the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland, or have been a resident in the UK or ROI for the past three years. Genre: Nonfiction book. Prize: Two awards – one of £10,000, one of £5,000 – are offered to support writers to complete their first commissioned works of non-fiction. Deadline: September 1, 2025.

The Hinternet Essay Prize. Genre: Essay on topic: “How might current and emerging technologies best be mobilized to secure perpetual peace?” Essays must be of 2,000-10,000 words, and can be written in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Polish, or Turkish. Prize: $10,000. Deadline: September 1, 2025.
Hadassah-Brandeis Research Awards. Genre: Research or artistic projects in Jewish women’s and gender studies across a range of disciplines. Awards are made to graduate students, early career, and established researchers. Prize: $2000 - $5000. Deadline: September 2, 2025.

Maine Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowships. Restrictions: Open to writers who have lived in the state of Maine for at least one year. Genre: Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction. Prize: $5,000. Deadline: September 3, 2025.

Young Lions Fiction Award. Restrictions: Open to US citizens 35 years of age or younger. Genre: Novel or a collection of short stories. Each year, five young fiction writers are selected as finalists by a reading committee of Young Lions members, writers, editors, and librarians. Submissions by publisher only. Authors may not submit their own work. Prize: $10,000.00. Deadline: September 5, 2025.

Stories Out of School. Genre: Flash fiction. The story’s protagonist, or its narrator, must be a K-12 teacher. Stories must be between 6 and 749 words and previously unpublished. Prize: First-prize winners receive $1000; second-prize winners, $500. Deadline: September 7, 2025.

Mavis Batey Essay Prize. Restrictions: Open to any student, worldwide, registered in a bona-fide university or institute of higher education, or who has recently graduated from such an institution. Genre: Nonfiction. Scholarly essay on gardening history. Prize: £250, free membership of the Gardens Trust for a year and consideration for publication. Deadline: September 7, 2025.

Only Poems Poem of the Month. Genre: Poetry. See theme. Prize: $33.  Deadline: September 7, 2025.

Undiscovered Voices. Restrictions: Current members of SCBWI who live in the UK or one of the current countries of the EU or the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. Genre: Opening of an already completed novel for children, aimed at any age from 5 years through to Young Adult. You may submit up to 4,000 words – choosing a suitable place to stop your extract. Prize: Publication. Deadline: September 8, 2025.

Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award. Restrictions: Open to authors aged 18-35 as of December 31 of the deadline year. Books must have been first published in the UK and/or the Republic of Ireland, in the English language. Authors must be UK or Irish citizens, or residents for the three years preceding the award. Genre: Published or self-published book of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. Prize: £10,000. Deadline: September 8, 2025.

Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing. Genre: Book of literary nonfiction that captures a political subject of relevance to Canadian readers and has the potential to shape or influence thinking on contemporary Canadian political life. Book must be published in Canada. Prize: CAN $25,000.  Deadline: September 10, 2025. (For books published between January 1, 2025 and August 31, 2025)

Toni Beauchamp Prize in Critical Art Writing. Genre: Scholarly essay. All work submitted must have been written or published within the last year. Prize: $3,000. Deadline: September 14, 2025.

Washington State Book Awards. Restrictions: Open to Washington State writers. Genre: Published book, fiction, nonfiction, poetry: adults or children. Prize: Recognition (?) Deadline: September 15, 2025. (For books published June 1-Aug.15, 2025.)

American-Scandinavian Foundation Translation Prizes. Genre: English translations of poetry, fiction, drama, or literary prose originally written in Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, or Swedish by a Scandinavian author born after 1800. Prize: $2,500. Deadline: September 15, 2025.

53-Word Story Contest. Genre: Flash fiction of exactly 53 words based on monthly theme. Prize: Publication and a free book. Deadline: September 15, 2025. 

Fractured Lit Elsewhere Prize. Restrictions: Free entry for marginalized groups only. Genre: Micro, flash, and sudden fiction stories from 100-1,500 words. "For this contest, we want writers to show us the forgotten, the hidden, the otherworldly. We want your stories to take us on journeys and adventures in the worlds only you can create; whether you make the familiar strange or the strange familiar, we know you will take us elsewhere." Prize: $3,000. Deadline: September 15, 2026. 

Ambroggio Prize. Restrictions: Poet must be a U.S. Citizen; Resident of the United States for the ten-year period prior to the submission deadline, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Legal Permanent Status (LPS), or any subsequent categories designated by the U.S. authorities as conferring similar enhanced status upon non-citizens living in the United States. Genre: Book-length poetry manuscript originally written in Spanish and with an English translation. Prize: $1000 and publication. Deadline: September 15, 2025.

Havok. Genre: Flash fiction. See themes. Payment: $50 via PayPal for one story selected for an Anthology. No payment for online publication. Deadline: September 19, 2025.

Savage Science Fiction/Fantasy Writing Contest. Genre: Science fiction or fantasy short story. Prize: Winning stories are published in Toasted Cheese. If 50 or fewer eligible entries are received, first place receives a $35 Amazon gift card & second a $10 Amazon gift card. If 51 or more eligible entries are received, first place receives a $50 Amazon gift card, second a $15 Amazon gift card & third a $10 Amazon gift card. Deadline: September 21, 2025. Opens September 19, 2025.

Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awards. Restrictions: Scottish writers over 18 years of age. Genres: The awards are divided into three different categories.: Fiction and Narrative Non-fiction in English and Scots, Poetry in English and Scots, Children’s and Young Adult Fiction in English and Scots. Prize: £2,500 and personal development opportunities, which can include mentoring from writers and industry professionals. Training in PR, performance and presentation training, and the opportunity to showcase work to publishers and agents. Deadline: September 24, 2025.

International Booker Prize. The International Booker Prize for fiction translated into English is awarded annually by the Booker Prize Foundation to the author of the best (in the opinion of the judges) eligible novel or collection of short stories. The work must be published by a UK or Ireland publishing house. Authors are not permitted to enter their own works. Prize: £50,000 divided equally between the author and the translator. There will be a prize of £2,000 each of the shortlisted titles divided equally between the author and the translator. Deadline: For books published between 1 December 2025 and 30 April 2026 the deadline is September 25, 2025.

Cullman Center Fellowships. The Cullman Center’s Selection Committee awards up to 15 fellowships a year to outstanding scholars and writers—academics, independent scholars, journalists, and creative writers. Foreign nationals conversant in English are welcome to apply. Award: A stipend of up to $90,000, an office, a computer, and full access to the Library's physical and electronic resources. Deadline: September 26, 2025.

Kari Ann Flickinger Biennial Memorial Literary Prize. Genre: Poetry chapbook. Prize: $1500 plus publication with Rare Swan Press; four finalists will receive $250 along with a Literati Magazine Portfolio. Deadline: September 30, 2025. Biennial prize.

Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing 2026. Restrictions: All entrants must be Australian residents as of the closing date. Local entrants must live, work or study in the Shire of Nillumbik. Youth writers must be aged 11–21 years as of the closing date. Youth categories are free to enter. Genre: Poetry and fiction. Prize: Up to $5000. Deadline: September 30, 2025.

L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest is held four times a year. Restrictions: The Contest is open only to those who have not professionally published a novel or short novel, or more than one novelette, or more than three short stories, in any medium. Professional publication is deemed to be payment of at least six cents per word, and at least 5,000 copies, or 5,000 hits. Genre: Short stories or novelettes of science fiction or fantasy. Prizes: $1,000, $750, $500, Annual Grand Prize: $5,000. Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Don't Text and Drive Scholarship. Restrictions: You must be a high school freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior or a current or entering college or graduate school student of any level. Home schooled students are also eligible. There is no age limit. You must also be a U.S. citizen or legal resident. Genre: 500- to 1,000-word essay about texting while driving. Prize: $1000 scholarship. Deadline: September 30, 2025.

SUSPECT Flash Fiction Contest. Genre: Flash fiction. See theme. Prize: USD300, 200, and 100. Deadline: September 30, 2025.

The Willie Morris Awards for Southern Fiction and Nonfiction. Genre: Novels and nonfiction books published in 2022. Book has to be set in one of the original eleven states in the Confederacy. (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.) Prize: $2,500.00. Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry. Genre: Poem that evokes the South. Prize: $2,500 and expenses-paid trip to award ceremony in Oxford, Mississippi. Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Sejong International Sijo Competition. Genre: Sijo poem. Prize: $500. Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Jerry Jazz Musician Fiction Contest. Genre: Short fiction. Prize: $150. Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Rhonda Gail Williford Award for Poetry. Genre: Poetry that incorporates themes of justice, dignity, and resistance. Prize: First Prize: $150; Second Prize: $100; Third Prize: $50. Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Shoreline of Infinity Flash Fiction Contest. Genre: Science fiction story about Peace. 1000 words max. See theme. Prize: £50. Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Substack runs a monthly short story competition. Their mission is to "revive the art of the short story, support artists, and produce something wonderful." Genre: Short story. Length: 6000- 10,000 words. Prize: $100 plus 50% of subscription revenue to be sent by Paypal, Zelle, or check. Deadline: September 30, 2025. Reprints are ok so long as you still have the rights to distribute.