International Playwriting Monodrama Competition 2008

The theme is "Clash", and the submission deadline is March 31, 2008, for the International Playwriting Monodrama Competition 2008. The International Playwrights Forum and International Monodrama Forum of the International Theater Institute, in collaboration with United Arab Emirates Center of the ITI in Fujairah, invites playwrights to write monodramas inspired by whatever "Clash" may mean to them. The play has to be a monodrama: written for one performer. Each playwright may submit only one monodrama that should be approximately 45 to 70 minutes long, 20 to 40 pages, and 1800 characters (with spaces) per page. There's no entry fee for this interesting event.

• 1st prize: $1500 US dollars
• 2nd prize: $1000
• 3rd prize: $500

In addition, winners accept a first performance in the form of a play reading or full production (without further remuneration or royalties).

2nd Annual Mothering Heights Mother's Day Essay Contest

Mothering Heights wants to know what you know now as a mom that you'd wish you'd known before becoming a parent. What wry, witty, honest and personal observations would you share with Mother and Mothers-to-be everywhere? The second annual Mother's Day Essay Contest submission deadline is February 15, and they are accepting essays from around the world. Essays must be

• 1,000 to 1,500 words
• In English
• Original content
• Include a 100 to 150-word bio on the author

Twenty essays will be chosen to be featured in a book to be published for Mother's Day 2008. Each featured writer will receive a Mothering Heights Tiara and three copies of the book. Please go to their website for further details and submission guidelines.

Ultra-Short Competition

The Binnacle is sponsoring it's Fourth International Ultra-Short Competition in the 2007-2008 academic year. They are looking for poetry of 16 lines or less, and prose of 150 words or less, and will be awarding at least $300 in prizes, with a minimum prize of $50. Since they are the University of Maine at Machias' Literary and Arts Magazine, at least one of the awards will go to a UMM student. They ask that you submit no more than 2 works total, prose and/or poetry, and note that the deadline is February 15, 2008. There is no entry fee. All submissions should be made by email to ummbinnacle@maine.edu. For the rest of the contest guidelines, please go to their website.

Franklin-Christoph Free Poetry Contest

Plenty of time left to fine-tune up to 3 of your poems and submit them to the Franklin-Christoph Free Poetry Contest: the deadline isn't until December 31st. First prize is $1000 and publication on Franklin-Christoph.com. 5 Merit Award winners will each receive a $290 1901 fountain pen (or alternate FC product of your choice of equal or lesser value), and publication on Franklin-Christoph.com. They are open to all poetry, on all subjects, short or tall, large or small. No fee? Possible $1000? Maybe a really cool pen? Being published? Nothing to lose!

Women: Write Your Way To Starting Your Own Business!

The Mirassou Winery, a longtime supporter of Women in Business, is sponsoring an essay contest that will net the winner $50,000 in seed money to start her own business. The deadline for their Make Your Dreams Come True With Mirassou contest is December 15, 2007. Your personal essay of 500 words or less should include 1) a description of the new business, 2) consumer appeal to the new business, and 3) a plan to implement the new business.

Short Story Competition ~

Win big bucks! The L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers and Illustrators of the Future contest awards prizes every quarter, with the next contest deadline being December 31st. Each quarter prizes up to $1,000 are awarded. At the end of the year, a Grand Prize of $5000 is awarded to the Best Short Story and the Best Illustration of the year. All types of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Dark Fantasy are welcome. There's no entry fee for this contest. Simply submit your original prose, up to 17,000 words, by midnight at the end of the quarter, for your chance to win $500, $750, $1,000 and $5,000!

Free Entry Short Story Competition

The deadline for Words Magazine Short Story Competition is not until December 30th, so you have plenty of time to polish your work, up to 2000 words, for a chance to win £100 (or equivalent in your currency, which, in the USA, equals $206.729). You may enter as many times as you like.

More Writing Contests!

Our Echo sponsors many writing contests, all of which have no entry or reading fees of any kind. One of these is offered each month for a $100 prize. Winners are selected from posts on their website. Check it out: you literally have nothing to lose!

Essay Contest: Make Us Want To Be You!!

The National Association of Baby Boomer Women and Funds For Writers is sponsoring the FFW annual essay contest with the theme: Make us want to be you. In 750 words or less, send them a remarkable promotional plan for your writing project, or tell them what you'd do with your writing career if you had a year to devote to your passion. You may choose whether or not to pay an entry fee. First prize with a $5 entry fee is $200, for no entry fee the first prize is $50. Deadline is October 31, 2007 and winners will be announced December 1, 2007.

A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words ...

or, in this case, up to 500 words of prose, or 15 lines of poetry. Tattoo Highway is now accepting submissions for their 16th issue, "Sidekicks and Fellow Travelers." First prize in either category is a $30 bookstore gift certificate, and the deadline is January 15, 2008.

Inspirational Good Deeds Contest

Point of Life is looking for the most superb Goody Two Shoe story of 2007. Have you (or anyone you know), done good deeds without any need for thanks? Well, your reward may be in the form of a $500 check and publication in the Point of Life Newsletter and on their website for one year. There's no fee for this contest, which doesn't end until December 31, 2007.

Here's Looking At You

Do you occasionally feel as though you're looking at yourself from the outside (and what writer hasn't)??? ReadingWriters's Here's Looking at You contest gives you a chance to turn this to your advantage, to the tune of $100 Grand Prize plus publication. There's no entry fee, and the deadline's not until September 15, 2007. Include yourself in a short story of not more than 700 words, from any point of view EXCEPT 1st person.

Science Fiction / Fantasy Contest

If your writer's bent is toward science fiction and/or fantasy, this contest could be right up your yellow brick road! The deadline for the current Electric Dragon Cafe's quarterly writing contest is 12:00 AM EST, September 10, 2007. They provide a colorful picture to use as a writing prompt, and there's no entry fee. 1st place prize is a $25 gift certificate to either Borders or Barnes and Noble, 2nd place prize is a $10 certificate.

Change the Ending!

Here's a contest that sounds like fun: have you ever read one of those great literary works, rooting all the way for the protagonist to triumph, only to be led to a less-than-cheerful denouement? The Happy Tales Literary Contest will allow you to change that! Take any work with a sad, disturbing, or negative ending, and supply a happy, affirmative, uplifting, humorous ending. There's not much time; the deadline's August 31, 2007, but there's no fee.

You think your poetry is bad?

It's all relative, so they say. Good poetry, bad poetry, to "I can't believe that's poetry." The deadline is today, so get out your flower pens and dust off your teenage love letters. If you don't make it, at least you can check out all the wannabes that have. Check out the new Slate Bad Poetry Contest, you may already be a winner!

Third Annual InnermoonLit Award for Best Short-Short Story

The deadline for this no-fee contest is September 1st, 2007 at 11:59 PM. The award for the winner is $100, 2nd place award is $50. Go to the InnermoonLit website for complete contest guidelines.

Love Poem Contest

There's no entry fee for this contest, the deadline's not until September 30, 2007, and the prize is $100 cash. So what's the catch? The submission must be a love poem, either serious or humorous, fictional or not, and the first letter of each line must spell out a word.

Two $1000 Prizes Awarded Each Year!

The American Poetry Review is always accepting submissions of poetry without a fee. How can you resist?

Put Your Divorce to Work For You!

Send an inspirational short story about your divorce to CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE DIVORCED SOUL STORY CONTEST before July 30, 2007, for a chance at a $350 prize.

Symphony Space Selected Shorts Writing Contest

Symphony Space: "SELECTED SHORTS WRITING CONTEST!

ENTER TO WIN THE STELLA KUPFERBERG MEMORIAL SHORT STORY PRIZE

An exciting new contest for writers. The winning entry will be read in the Selected Shorts series at Symphony Space and the winner will receive $1000.

Story requirements:
--Story length: 1-4 double-spaced typed pages
--Required Opening line: I’m not sure I knew I was setting out on an important journey…
--Required Final line: I understood I had finally come home.

Where to submit your story:
Email all submissions to shorts@symphonyspace.org (with “CONTEST” in subject line),
or send to:
CONTEST, Selected Shorts, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, NY, NY 10025

Deadline: All submissions must be received by March 31, 2007

The Prize: $1000 and two tickets to the May 30 closing night of the Selected Shorts series at Symphony Space, when the prizewinning story will be read."