Competitions, submissions & opportunities to publish

There are so many options out there - but how do you find out about them?

The most important part of being a writer is sitting down and doing the writing work. I’ve said that before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again - probably multiple times over. Writers write. We fill up notebooks, or tap away on keyboards in coffee shops, or buy an old typewriter as a child and for a few years make it our whole personality. (This last one may be based on myself.)

We’re writers whether we become global bestsellers, or whether we keep everything we’ve ever written in a shoebox under our bed, Emily Dickinson-style.

But if we do decide we want to publish our hard-wrung words, how do we decide where to send them? And how do we know what opportunities there are in the first place?

Every couple of months, I chair Cumbria Arts & Culture Network’s online Writers’ Network, for writers living & working in Cumbria. (If that’s you, do sign up to the mailing list and come along!)

At last week’s meet-up, we were talking about sharing work, and I asked the attending writers to spend a couple of minutes ‘chat-bombing’ with a list of all the places they go to find out about writing opportunities.

With the group’s permission, I’m sharing that list here:

• A bit of a self-interested one to start with, but my X/Twitter! Every week, I share a #FiveThingsFriday thread, of upcoming deadlines.

• New Writing North: for writers in the North of England, it’s well worth signing up to their mailing list, where they share their own opportunities (e.g. the Northern Writers’ Awards) and opportunities from other sources.

• For writers not in the North of England, have a search for your own regional writing organisation.

• Chill Subs: https://www.chillsubs.com/

• BBC Writers’ Room: https://www.bbc.co.uk/writers/opportunities/

• Neon Magazine: https://www.neonmagazine.co.uk/the-big-list-of-uk-literary-magazines/

• Sian Meades-Williams’ Substack - she has a free version, and a paid subscriber model which also gives you a big monthly round-up of bigger writing opportunities:

• One specifically for women writers: the Mslexia mailing list (also their Little Ms mailing list, which is free): https://mslexia.co.uk/

• Aesthetica mailing list: https://aestheticamagazine.com/

• Chris Fielden: https://www.christopherfielden.com/short-story-tips-and-writing-advice/writing-competitions.php

• The Literary Consultancy – their own opportunities, and sometimes also share others: https://literaryconsultancy.co.uk/

• NAWE, the National Association of Writers in Education - though their opportunities pages are relevant to all writers, not only those who work in Education: https://www.nawe.co.uk/the-writers-compass/events-and-opportunities.html

• The Poetry Society: https://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/

• National Centre for Writing – has an opportunities page, which is updated regularly, as well as a mailing list: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/get-involved/writers/

• British Council Arts Opportunities: https://www.britishcouncil.org/arts/opportunities

• For artists of all types based in England, there are funding opportunities from Arts Council England: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/ (for artists based outside of England, check out your own regional arts funding body)

• Society of Authors - both their grants, and their prizes: https://societyofauthors.org/grants/grants-for-work-in-progress/

• Angela T Carr’s monthly submissions mailing list, which is huge and excellent: https://thisiswordbox.ck.page/blogsignup

• We also talked about the writing community on social media, and how if there are individual presses/journals/magazines/competitions etc you want to be published by, then make sure to follow them directly.

• Similarly, signing up to the newsletters of particular publications / organisations you’re interested in working with.

And, since this was a Cumbrian network, here are a few Cumbria-specific places to check out as well, if you’re based up in this neck of the woods:

• Cumbria Arts & Culture Network mailing list: https://cacn.co.uk/contact/

• Theatre by the Lake: Cumbrian Creatives: https://www.theatrebythelake.com/get-involved/artist-network/

• The Cumbrian Literary Group on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2622989501066208/

• Peter Hunter’s map of literary & writing events & projects in Cumbria.

And there you have it! Do you know of any others that ought to be on this list? Please do share them in the comments below.

And in the meantime, happy writing / submitting!

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Check out my previous post about where to find opportunities, from 2019: