Contests & Awards
 |
| © Sheila Keegan |
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
James Cross Giblin Scholarship for Highlights Foundations courses
What I Gained from Contests (Besides my Agent)
Draw This!
- What: monthly illustration challenge with a prompt, due 20th of each month
- Who: SCBWI members
- Prize: winning pieces featured in SCBWI's monthly newsletter
ONGONG
- What: apply for emergency funds during the pandemic
- Who: people of color in the children's publishing industry (agents, editors, authors, illustrators) who've been furloughed or lost their jobs
- Award: emergency funds
July
June 21-July 21 Lyrical Language Lab Free Verse Contest
- What: a kid lit free verse poem suitable for elementary or middle school or YA with a "summer snapshot" theme, under 100 words
- Prizes: cash ($300 1st place, $200 2nd place, $100 3rd place)
- Fee: $10 entry free
June 19-July 22 Black Voices in Children's Literature
- What: submit an original children's story aimed for ages 0-4 or 4-8
- Who: Black residents of the United States 18 years or older
- Prizes: Consideration for publication by Strive Publishing and cash prizes
July 1-30 SCBWI Emerging Voices Award
- What: apply for full tuition to the SCBWI summer conference in Los Angeles
- Who: writer or writer/illustrator from traditionally underrepresented ethnic or cultural background; with an original work not under contract
- Award: full tuition to summer conference, access to agents/editors
July 1-31 Walter Dean Myers Grant
- What: apply for a grant from We Need Diverse Books
- Who: unpublished children's or YA writer or illustrator who identify as diverse, over 18
- Award: $2,000 grant
September
July 1-Sept 15 Russell Freedman Award for Nonfiction for a Better World
- What: submit your traditionally published nonfiction book for children or young adults
- Award: $2500 plus $500 to purchase copies for schools and libraries
July 1- Sept. 15 The ILF Encouragement Fund
- What: apply for a grant to continue or finish a middle grade novel
- Who: a traditionally published author working on a middle grade novel
- Award: $2000