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| © Sara LuAnn Perkins |
Submitting your work to contests and awards is a great way to get your work noticed. Here's a list of submission opportunities for children's writing and illustrating. We normally only list contests that do not require an entry fee.
Also, check out these other compilations of contests:
- Sub It Club's monthly lists of contests (see their contest roundup calendar)
- Funds for Writers
- Lee & Low's roundup of Awards & Grants for Authors of Color
- Institute for Children's Literature runs contests (for fee)
- Poet & Writer's Database of Writing Contests (includes fee contests)
Before entering a contest, pay attention to warning signs:Writing Contests are Important: How to Choose the Right Ones from the Scams; Awards Profiteers: How Writers Can Recognize Them and Why They Should Avoid Them
Twitter Pitch contests & 1st Five Pages Workshop by Adventures in YA Publishing
Most Popular Twitter Pitch Parties
James Cross Giblin Scholarship for Highlights Foundations courses
Four on 400 (every month, deadline 5th day of each month)
What I Gained from Contests (Besides my Agent)
Most Popular Twitter Pitch Parties
James Cross Giblin Scholarship for Highlights Foundations courses
Four on 400 (every month, deadline 5th day of each month)
- What: Comment on the contest announcement on the 4th of each month for a chance to submit your first 400 words of an MG or YA ms
- Prize: Winner's entry will be posted on blog & critiqued by four members of The Winged Pen
What I Gained from Contests (Besides my Agent)
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
Apr 1- Aug 31 Lee & Low New Visions Award
- What: submit your MG or YA novel or graphic novel, particular interest in literary science fiction, but all genres welcome
- Who: writers of color or Native American nations, U.S. residents 18 or over, previously unpublished in MG or YA
- Prize: $2000 plus standard publication contract
Apr 1- Aug 31 Lee & Low New Voices Award
- What: submit your PB manuscript
- Who: writers of color or Native American nations, U.S. residents 18 or over, previously unpublished in PB, only un-agented submissions accepted
- Prize: $2,000 plus standard publication contract
- What: Submit a 750-word excerpt of your unpublished middle grade historical fiction novel to the Institute of Children's Literature's contest (novels aimed at 10-14 year olds)
- Who: writers 18 years or older
- Fee: $19 (includes free online workshop with judge)
- Prize: 1st place: $1,000, 2nd place: $200, 3rd place: $100, potential publication in ICL's magazine
SEPTEMBER
Sept. 1-31 SCBWI Emerging Voices Grant
- What: Submit your PB, MG, or YA manuscript
- Who: SCBWI members, writers or writers/illustrators from traditionally underrepresented group, un-agented, unpublished
- Prize: 2 winners will receive a paid trip & tuition to the SCBWI LA conference, a manuscript critique, and showcase to editors
Sept. 5 Pitmad
- What: pitch your complete, polished novel or PB between 8 a.m.-8 p.m. EDT
- Prize: agent attention and requests for submissions
Sept. 25-27 Pitchwars
- What: submit your query, first chapter and synopsis of a finished manuscript
- Who: all categories of writers (children to adult)
- Prize: obtain a published author mentor who will help you revise your manuscript and present it in an agent showcase in Feb. 2020
July 1-Sept. 30 SLF Gulliver Travel Grant
- What: apply for a grant to cover airfare, lodging, or travel expenses associated with researching speculative writing (fiction, poetry, drama, or creative nonfiction)
- Prize: $1,000 grant
DECEMBER
Dec. 5 Pitmad
- What: pitch your complete, polished novel or PB between 8 a.m.-8 p.m. EDT
- Prize: agent attention and requests for submissions
