An overview of novel competitions across the UK with closing dates for submissions.
| Competition | What they say | Closing Date | Website
Link |
| The Bridport Prize
| A prestigious annual prize with categories for poetry, short stories, flash fiction and the novel | 31st May 2021 | Meet the Judges |
|
The Bridport Prize: The Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a First Novel |
Your novel doesn’t have to be finished. We initially need only 5,000 to 8,000 words plus a 300 word synopsis. If you’re long listed we’ll ask for a total of 15,000 words, including your original word count. Shortlisted? Then we need a total 30,000 words, again including your original entry and long listed word count. It all adds up to an incredible opportunity
| 31st May 2021 | Bridport Prize |
| Bath Novel Award | The Bath Novel Award is a £3,000 international prize for emerging writers of adult fiction
Caroline Ambrose from the Bath Novel Award is a guest speaker at Novel Nights in Bath on 6th Sept 2019 Entry Fee £28 with sponsored places for writers on low income | 31st May 2021 | Bath Novel Award |
| Bristol Short Story Prize |
| May 5th 2021 | Bristol Short Story Prize |
| BBC National Short Story Award | Top Prize of £15,000. Entrants must have been previously published. | 9a.m. Monday 15th March 2021 | BBC National Short Story Award |
| Claymore Award |
The Killer Nashville Claymore Award assists new and rebranding English-language fiction authors to get published, including possible agent representation, book advances, editor deals, and movie and television sales. Genre fiction including Action, Adventure, Alternate History, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Suspense, Thriller, and Western manuscripts. $40 per entry | 1st April 2021 | Claymore Award |
| Times Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition
| Competition for unpublished and unagented writers of children’s fiction. Prize: a worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House and a royalty advance of £10,000 plus an offer of representation from a top literary agent | 14th May 2021 | www.chickenhousebooks.com
|
Good luck
- Inevitably, this list will be incomplete. If there are other competitions for novelists you think should be on the list, please let me know and email grace@novelnights.co.uk
- Colette Hill is a reader for the Bridport Prize and co-hosts Novel Nights Bath. Read her blog here on what she looks for in a manuscript.
