Welkin Writing Prize 2023

Submit your best literary works to Welkin writing prize 2023 to win amazing cash prizes. Submission is available in different genres such as poetry,

Submit To Welkin Writing Prize 2023

Submit your best literary works to Welkin writing prize 2023 to win amazing cash prizes. Submission is available in different genres such as poetry, fiction etc.

Read carefully through the guidelines to submit.

About The Welkin Writing Prize 2023

From the organizer:

I’m running this competition as a thank you to the writing community which has done so much to support both my writing and my freelance work over the past few years. In September 2022, I was lucky enough to receive a DYCP grant from Arts Council England to fund paid research and writing time, and this competition feels like a small thing that I can do to pay forwards my good fortune. As such, the competition is free to enter and I hope it will be a welcoming space for all writers. The competition is open to all forms of narrative prose, be that flash fiction, short-short, vignette, haibun, hermit crab, prose poem or work that sits outside such labels. There is a whole universe (or welkin) of possibilities.

Also Read: Short Story Competitions 2023

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Other Writing Competitions To Enter

1. Blue white Dot Short Story Writing Competition 2022
2. Voice Club Flash Fiction Contest
3. Blue Mountain Arts Poetry Contest 2022
4. Lilith Annual Fiction Contest
5. Elizabeth Alexander Writing Award 2022
6. Orna Ross Green Stories Novel Prize 2022
7. Stories Unlikely Annual Fiction Contest
8. Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest 2023
9. Nine Dots Prize 2023
10. Ako Caine Prize For African Writing
11. Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
12. Imagine Little Tokyo Short Story Contest
13. Welkin Writing Prize 
14. Tartts Fiction Award 2023
15. Elie Wiesel Prize In Ethics Essay Contest
16. Jack Hazard Fellowship For Fiction Writers
17. Profile In Courage Essay Contest
18. Ballard Spahr Prize For Poetry
19. Zocalo Poetry Prize
20. Chestnut Review Poetry Chapbook Contest
21. Stacy Doris Memorial Poetry Award 2023
22. Global Essay Competition 2023
23. International Student Essay Competition 2023

Prizes For Welkin Writing Prize 2023

The competition will award prizes for:

• 1st place (£150 + annual membership of Writers' HQ worth £190)
• 2nd place (£75 + AdHoc Fiction book voucher worth £25)
• 3rd place (£50 + a copy of "Deflection" by Roberta Beary)

There are additional prizes of £25 for the best non-placed:

writer with a disability or chronic health conditionL, GBTQ+ writer, working class writer, writer whose first (or home) language isn't English carer for an adult dependent, new writer (for a writer with five or fewer publishing credits).

Also Read: Jack Hazard Fellowship For Fiction Writers 2023

There will also be additional prizes of £25 for the best non-placed:

historical fiction

humorous prose

speculative fiction

Entry Fee

This competition is free to enter. Each writer may only submit one piece.

Key Dates​

The competition will open for entries on 1st December 2022.

The deadline for entries will be 28th February 2023 at 11:59pm GMT. Entries received after this date will not be eligible.

The longlist will be announced on the 31st March 2023.

The shortlist will be announced on 14th April 2023.

The winners will be announced from 21st April 2023 onwards.

Criteria For Welkin Writing Prize 2023

Entries must be no more than 400 words. Titles are not included in the word count. There is no minimum requirement. Word count will be checked at https://wordcounter.net/

Entries should be written in English. However, all variants and dialects of English are welcome.

The competition is for any form of narrative prose aimed at adults. Traditional poems, stories aimed at children, and essays are unlikely to be successful.

The competition doesn’t differentiate between fiction and non-fiction, and welcomes narrative prose in any form that meets the above criteria – flash fiction, short-short, vignette, haibun, hermit crab, prose poem etc.

The competition doesn’t have a theme. Entries can be on any subject and written in any style.

Eligibility For Welkin Writing Prize 2023

Entrants must be 18 years or over on the closing date.

This is an international competition open to entrants from all countries. 

Entries must not have been previously published or accepted for publication, either online or in print, prior to the announcement of results. This includes blogs and personal websites.

As the competition is being judged by Matt Kendrick, pieces written and shared on his Write Beyond the Lightbulb courses are not eligible; nor are pieces that have been sent to Matt for feedback or line edits.

Entries which are deemed to be racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist or otherwise promoting views not in-line with the normative writing-community position will be disqualified.

Entries must be the sole work of the entrant. Any pieces that are deemed to have plagiarised existing work or breached copyright (e.g. by use of song lyrics) will be disqualified and will become ineligible for any prize monies.

Format

Entries must not include your name, address, email, telephone number or any other personal information.

Entries should use Arial, 14pt font and should be single-spaced.

The filename of your entry should be the title, punctuation removed. If your title is longer than five words, please only use the first five words. If your entry is untitled, please use the first five words of the piece itself.

Enter​

The prize will open for entries on the 1st December 2022 - entries submitted prior to this date will not be eligible.

Entry is through a Google form which can be accessed via the button below. Please carefully check your email address before submitting your entry.

If you wish to enter but don't have a Gmail / Google account (or if this would be helpful to you for accessibility purposes), you may send your entry via email (please include a short bio, and indicate if you are eligible for any of the additional prizes) to welkinprize@gmail.com. However, if you do have a Gmail / Google account, it would be appreciated if you could use the Google form to reduce admin time on behalf of the competition organiser.

You will receive an acknowledgement email within a week of submission. If you have not received an email after this time, please contact the competition organiser at welkinprize@gmail.com.

Each writer may only enter one piece. Multiple entries from the same writer will be disqualified.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted. However, please notify the competition organiser if your piece is accepted elsewhere.

No alterations post-entry will be accepted.

Enter via Google form

Judging Process

Entries will be judged on their individual merits.

In the first stage, entries will be read anonymously by at least two readers. Readers will score entries on originality, narrative, characterisation, impact, structure, voice, and language.

Depending on the number of eligible entries, the longlist will consist of between twenty and fifty stories.

The longlisted stories will be read by the competition judge (Matt Kendrick) in order to determine a shortlist and, eventually, the winners.

Depending on the number of eligible entries, the shortlist will consist of between ten and twenty stories.

The judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Publication of Results

 The longlist, shortlist and winners’ announcements will be posted to this website on the above dates.

Competition entrants will be notified in a BCC email at each of the above stages to let them know that a results update has been published. Please note that individual feedback on unsuccessful entries will not be possible.

Winning authors will be contacted regarding their prizes as soon as practicable after the winners’ announcement. Payment of prizes will be via Paypal.

The three winning entries will be published on this website. The winners of the additional prizes may also be offered publication. The competition organiser reserves the right to suggest edits prior to publication – the author will be consulted on any proposed changes.

Authors will retain all rights and copyright to their works. The Welkin Writing Prize requests one-time, non-exclusive rights and non-exclusive electronic archival rights to show your work indefinitely on this site.

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