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Prizes, Competitions, Opportunities & Awards

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ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award

An annual award for a short story. The winner will receive £2,000, the runner-up £1,000, and £500 is awarded to each of the shortlist.

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BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Competition

Three winners of the BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Initiative get: A fantastic Industry showcase with professional actors and directors, industry introductions, access to bespoke masterclasses and a tailored career planning and profile building session to provide support in navigating the industry.

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BBC Studios Writers’ Academy

The BBC Studios Writers’ Academy was created in 2005 to provide support, help and paid training for up-and-coming screenwriters. 

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C4 Comedy Blaps

Blaps are a name that Channel 4 has given to short comedy videos. They are a way for the commissioning channel to test how successful a show will be and to start building an audience before committing to a full TV series. 

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Commonwealth Short Story Prize

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words). Regional winners each receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000.

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Criterion New Writing

Each CNW group will welcome six writers to the stage of the Criterion Theatre, Piccadilly, for a sequence of six highly-focused story & script development sessions.

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Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction

The prize aims to create a lasting legacy out of Dinesh’s love for writing short story fiction during his lifetime.

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John Byrne Award

The John Byrne Award is a creative competition, open to anyone living or studying in Scotland over 16 years old.

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Literature Works Opportunities

Opportunities from Literature Works

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Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize

The Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize is famous for helping undiscovered female writers launch their literary careers.

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New Writing North

Supports writers in the north of England to fulfil their creative ambitions. We commission new work, create development opportunities, nurture talent and make connections.

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Popcorn Writing Award

It champions brave and imaginative writing which playfully and artistically questions and addresses current affairs and societal trends and contributes positively to public debate.

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Script Revolution

Script Revolution, the free to use script hosting website that offers screenwriters a platform to promote their scripts and filmmakers the tools needed to search through them.

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Sitcom Mission

We're looking for 15 minute scripts with fresh, exciting characters and the potential to be made into a series.

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The Women’s Prize for Playwriting

The mission of The Women’s Prize for Playwriting is to address the inequality in the number of plays written by women and men on major stages in the UK. 

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Unsolicited Scripts

We want to empower unrepresented filmmakers by creating opportunities where creativity comes first, independently from any background or previous experience.

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Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards

The award aims to find and support writers from underrepresented groups, who have a big idea for a non-fiction book for general readers, that engages with the themes of health and being human.

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Alfred Fagon Award

The competition is open to any playwright of Caribbean or African descent, resident in the UK, for the best original, new stage play in English. Entrants must confirm on their CV that they are of African and Caribbean descent.

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BBC How to submit a script to us

Open Call is our system for receiving unsolicited original scripts.

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Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting

The Prize is an opportunity for writers of any background and experience to enter unperformed plays to be judged by a panel of industry experts for a chance to win part of a prize fund.

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Comedy Crowd

Our mission is to open opportunities for everyone to create comedy. Bringing creators and fans together to launch exciting new shows. Enabling creators to make low cost, hilarious content that isn’t afraid to take risks, shock, and leave us in tears of laughter the way comedy should.

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Creative Basildon

Open Lab is a brand new programme from Creative BasildON that supports innovative and creative, community engagement projects in Basildon. 

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Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award

An award of £10,000 will be presented to a first-time prose writer whose submission demonstrates literary talent and who would benefit from financial support to complete their work

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ETPEP Award

A playwriting prize for new UK playwrights who work or have worked in the theatre industry, run by the Finborough Theatre in association with the Experienced Theatre Practitioners Early Playwriting Trust

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Lindisfarne Prize

It is open to all writers who are from, or whose work celebrates the North East of England, and who have not previously had their submission published in any form (though they might have had other stories published before). Entrants must submit a short story of no more than ten thousand words or the first two chapters and a synopsis of their work in progress.

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London Playwrights Blog

A resource for writers on the latest opportunities they can get involved with.

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New Anglia Manuscript Prize

New Anglia Manuscript Prize recognises the best new writing from Suffolk and Norfolk in the form of a debut work from an unpublished writer. The winner will receive £500 and representation from Laxfield Literary Associates.

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Owned Voices Novel Award

The award aims to give its two winners the best possible chance of finding an agent or publisher for their work.

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Routes In

A guide to getting new work programmed in the North of England

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Shelagh Delaney New Writing Award

The award is open to those who identify as female and are living in, or are from, Greater Manchester.

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Sky Writes

Sky Writes is a development programme for new writers. It is free to take part in and is designed to support access to writing for the television industry by those from under-represented groups.

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Theatre Alibi

Opportunities for Artists & Theatre Makers

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Verity Bargate Award

It doesn’t matter how old you are, where you’re from or what you do. If you’ve never written before, that’s fine by us. What matters is that great stories are told – human, inspiring and urgent stories which can only exist in this moment.

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Writers Room Opportunities

Free to enter opportunities from organisations outside the BBC which are for novel writing, short stories, poetry etc.​

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Australian/Vogel’s Award for Young Writers

The Australian/Vogel’s Award for Young Writers is the most prestigious Australian award for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of thirty-five. The winning manuscript will receive prize money and will be published by Allen & Unwin with an advance against royalties.

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BBC National Short Story Award

Award of £15,000 for the winner.

£600 for four (4) further shortlisted stories.

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Bruntwood Opportunities & Events

Links to further writing Opportunities & Events through the Bruntwood website.

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Comedy Women In Print

Its aim is to recognise, celebrate and encourage witty women authors. They've created a platform for both aspiring and established witty writers. The competition not only offers a publishing deal with Harper fiction to a new witty writer, but it also gives mega publicity and respect to the best funny fiction around. 

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Creative Future writers’ award

An annual development programme for talented writers from a wealth of backgrounds.

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Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize

The aim is both to celebrate the best of new short fiction and to give winners the most visibility possible for their writing. Offering not only a cash prize and writing retreats but to ensure that all our shortlisters have the opportunity to be published in multiple print and online journals, have their work put in front of literary agents, and perform in multiple countries.

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Imison Award

The award is presented annually to an audio drama script by a writer new to the medium and which, in the opinion of the judges, is the best of those submitted. 

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Literature Works Competitions

Competitions from Literature Works

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London Writers Awards

The award aims to increase the number of writers from under-represented communities being taken up by agents and publishers.

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New Voices Award

Supports writers to develop an idea they've yet to commit to paper, or those in the very early stages of their work in progress. The Award provides mentorship and editorial guidance for aspiring authors and encourages entries from all writers, including those from underrepresented backgrounds with a new story to tell.

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Papatango Theatre Online Workshops on writing

Different video interviews from writers on their approach to writing.

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Screen Craft

Breaking in as a writer should be about how well you can write—not how well you can network. That’s why our competitions set out to uncover the best writers out there and help them launch their screenwriting careers.

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Shore Scripts

Our Feature Contest is geared towards screenwriters looking to gain representation with a manager or agent, sell their screenplay, and get hired on writing assignments.

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Studio 21

We’re looking for a pilot script for an international drama that will appeal to audiences and coproducers worldwide.

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Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition

A worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House with a £10,000 advance (subject to contract) for a complete fiction manuscript of any genre for children aged 7 up to YA. The winning entry will be the novel that, in the opinion of the judges, demonstrates the greatest entertainment value, quality, originality and suitability for children. 

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Wasafiri New Writing Prize

the prize supports writers who have not yet published a book-length work, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background. The winners of each category will receive a £1,000 cash prize and publication, and will be published in Wasafiri’s print magazine.

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© 2021 by Daniel Hallissey

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