Writing Contests

Hart Crane Memorial Poetry Contest

Deadline: February 9, 2009

Genre: Poetry

Prize: $100 for best poem

Details: Submit two poems of 750 words or less. We accept all forms, themes, styles, and genres.

Scribophile January Flash Fiction Contest

Deadline: February 15, 2009

Genre: Flash fiction

Prizes: 1st Prize: $50 Amazon.com gift card; 2nd Prize: $25 Amazon.com gift card

Details: Original piece of flash fiction under 1000 words prominently featuring the theme "the forest." Only one entry per member. Multiple entries will be disqualified.

Memoir Prize for Poetry and Creative Nonfiction

Deadline: February 15, 2009

Genre: Poetry/Nonfiction

Prizes: Grand Prize for Memoir in Prose or Poetry: $500 cash award, publication in print and online, six copies of the journal. Second Prize for Memoir in Prose or Poetry: $250 cash award, publication in print and online, six copies of the journal. Third Prize for Memoir in Prose or Poetry: $100 cash award, publication in print and online, three copies of the journal. The Prize for Graphic Memoir: $100 cash award, Publication in print and online, six copies of the journal.

Details: Memoirs, prose maximum of 10,000 words, poetry five poems maximum.

Words magazine Short Story Contests

Deadlines: March 30, 2009, Theme: Murder; June 30, 2009, Theme Christmas; September 30, 2009, Theme: Ghost; December 31, 2009, Theme: Author's Choice; and December 30, 2009. Theme: No set theme.

Genre: Short story

Prizes: £100 (or equivalent in your currency) for each contest.

Details: Original work, not under consideration elsewhere, 2000 word count.

Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest

Deadline: Entries accepted August 15, 2008-April 1, 2009.

Genre: Poetry, Inspired Gibberish

Prizes: First Prize of $1,359 and publication on WinningWriters.com. Second Prize of $764 and publication on WinningWriters.com. Third Prize of $338 and publication on WinningWriters.com. Twelve honorable mentions will receive $72.95 each and publication on WinningWriters.com. The winners and honorable mentions will also all receive official Winning Writers polo shirts.

Details: Find a vanity poetry contest, a contest with low standards whose main purpose is to entice poets to buy expensive products like anthologies, chapbooks, CDs, plaques and silver bowls. Vanity contests will often praise remarkably bad poems in their effort to sell as much stuff to as many people as possible. Make up a deliberately absurd, strange, laugh-out-loud humor poem. Submit your parody poem to a vanity contest as a joke. Then when you've submitted it to the vanity contest, submit it to us.