Robert Watson Literary Prizes
Sponsor – Greensboro Review
Deadline Date – 01-Aug-2025
Funding – $1,000.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
The Greensboro Review awards prizes for unpublished works of fiction and poetry. Winners of the fiction and poetry prizes will each receive a $1000 cash award and publication in The Greensboro Review.
Fiction entries may include no more than 7,500 words or 25 typed, double-spaced pages. Each story counts as one submission. Poetry entries can include any number of poems up to 10 pages. Entries must be previously unpublished.
Applicants should submit only once per genre during each submission period.
Winners of the fiction and poetry prizes will each receive a $1000 cash award and publication in The Greensboro Review.
ASF Translation Awards – Inger and Jens Bruun Translation Prize
Sponsor – American-Scandinavian Foundation
Deadline Date – 15-Sep-2025
Funding – $2,000.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
The Inger and Jens Bruun Translation Prize, supported by Scan Design Foundation, recognizes the best Danish translation and includes a $2,000 award, publication of an excerpt in Scandinavian Review and a commemorative bronze medallion.
This Translation Prize recognizes the best Danish translation. Translations must be from the writing of one author, although not necessarily from a single work. Submission must be an English translation of poetry, fiction, drama, or literary prose originally written in a Nordic language – in this case, Danish.
The translation submitted in the competition may not have been previously published in the English language by the submission deadline.
Translators may submit one entry only and may not submit the same entry in more than two competitions. The Translation Prize cannot be won more than three times by the same translator.
The Inger and Jens Bruun Translation Prize includes a $2,000 award, publication of an excerpt in Scandinavian Review, and a commemorative bronze medallion.
Founders’ Prize Contest
Sponsor – The Poetry Forum/RHINO Poetry
Deadline Date – 30-Sep-2025
Funding – $500.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
RHINO looks for the very best in contemporary writing, and welcomes all styles of poems for their Founder’s Prize.
RHINO welcomes all styles of writing, particularly that which is well-crafted, uses language lovingly and surprisingly, and feels daring or quietly powerful. Up to five poems may be submitted.
Poems should be unpublished and not planned for publication in a chapbook, book, or elsewhere. Translations must include the work in its original language.
There is a $15 entry fee per submission of up to 5 poems.
First prize of $500 and two runners-up prizes of $100 each will be awarded. Winners will also be nominated for a Pushcart Prize. All submissions are also considered for publication in RHINO’s 2025 issue, and for our $500 Editors’ Prize.
Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes in Poetry
Sponsor – Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing
Deadline Date – 15-Sep-2025
Funding – $1,500.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
The Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes in Poetry are awarded annually to two book-length poetry manuscripts (50 to 90 pages in length) submitted in a national competition, selected by an anonymous outside judge. Each prize offers $1,500 plus publication by the University of Wisconsin Press.
The Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes in Poetry are awarded annually to the two best book-length manuscripts of original poetry submitted in an open competition. All submissions will be considered for both prizes. There are no restrictions on the kind of poetry or subject matter, although translations are not acceptable. The manuscript must be previously unpublished in book form. Poems published in journals, chapbooks, and anthologies may be included, but must be acknowledged.
Any poet with an original, full-length collection is eligible.
Each prize offers $1,500 plus publication by the University of Wisconsin Press, and three additional finalists will also be offered publishing contracts, as part of the Wisconsin Poetry Series.
Philip Levine Prize in Poetry
Sponsor – California State University, Fresno
Deadline Date – 30-Sep-2025
Funding – $2,000.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
The Philip Levine Prize for Poetry seeks previously unpublished, full-length poetry manuscripts and is open to any poet writing in English. Individual poems in a contest manuscript may have been previously published in magazines, journals, anthologies, or chapbooks, but the work as a whole must be unpublished. Translations are ineligible for this prize, as well as previously self-published books. The sponsor will provide a $2,000 cash award; publication by Black Lawrence Press; 25 author copies of the published book; and a public reading at California State University, Fresno.
Current and former faculty and students of California State University, Fresno are ineligible. Close friends and family members of the final judge are also ineligible. Multiple submissions are accepted so long as a separate entry fee accompanies each submission.
The sponsor will provide a $2,000 cash award; publication by Black Lawrence Press; 25 author copies of the published book; and a public reading at California State University, Fresno.
Yale Drama Series Competition
Sponsor – Yale University Press
Deadline Date – 15-Aug-2025
Funding – $10,000.00 USD
Program Information – View Details
The Yale Drama Series is seeking submissions for its 2025 playwriting competition. The winning play will be selected by the series’ current judge, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. The winner of this annual competition will be awarded the David Charles Horn Prize of $10,000, publication of their manuscript by Yale University Press, and a celebratory event. The prize and publication are contingent on the playwright’s agreeing to the terms of the publishing agreement.
This contest is restricted to plays written in the English language. Worldwide submissions are accepted. Submissions must be original, unpublished full-length plays, with a minimum of 65 pages. Plays with less than 65 pages will not be considered. Translations, musicals, and children’s plays are not accepted. Plays that have been professionally produced or published are not eligible. Plays that have had a workshop, reading, or non-professional production or that have been published as an actor’s edition will be considered. Plays may not be under option, commissioned, or scheduled for professional production or publication at the time of submission. Plays must be typed/word-processed and page-numbered.
The Yale Drama Series is intended to support emerging playwrights. Playwrights may win the competition only once. Playwrights may submit only one manuscript per year.
The winner of this annual competition will be awarded the David Charles Horn Prize of $10,000, publication of their manuscript by Yale University Press, and a staged reading at the Schwarzman Center at Yale University. The prize and publication are contingent on the playwright’s agreeing to the terms of the publishing agreement.
