Winning a poetry or creative writing contest is an excellent way to get your work published and read by various agencies and allows for a certain amount of bargaining power when signing any type of future publication deal. Contests include multiple categories: short story, poetry, screenplays and even full-length novel manuscripts. You can submit your content through the regular mail or online in specified formats. Winners can receive cash prizes, publication and consultations with publishers.

Site Listings

• Associated Writers & Writing Programs -- Serving Writers Since 1967 - Annual awards are offered for original, unpublished, book-length work in three categories: novels, poetry, and creative non-fiction.
• Goldwatch Press Writing Contest - Writing Contest for published and non-published authors to give them some recognition along with some really nice prizes.
• New Century Writer Awards - Annual screenwriting, playwriting and fiction writing competition and educational organization supported by Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope All Story,Anthony Michael Hall and Sam Adams Boston Beer. $15,000 total in cash prizes.
• PARK PUBLICATIONS U.K - Publishers of the magazines, "Scribble" and "Countryside Tales", holding quarterly competitions for original, unpublished short stories and poems, some open, some limited to specific themes.
• Playwriting Contest - Annual contest seeks original, unproduced plays, open in theme, but suitable in both subject, and language, for family-oriented amateur groups. The winner receives a $1,000 royalty advance, and publication.
• The Communicator Awards - Annual competitions honoring excellence in all areas of communication, with separate categories for print (177 sub-categories), video (216 sub-categories) and audio (140 sub-categories).
• WritersDigest.com  - Offers $25,000 in prize money for original, unpublished work in ten categories including poetry, short stories, plays, television scripts, articles, and children's fiction. Deadline: mid-May. Also provides separate annual awards for short short stories, screenplays and self-published books.
• Writing That Works, the business writing newsletter for writers, editors and communicators; APEX Awa - Writing That Works is the authoritative monthly newsletter on business writing, editing and communications for business, corporate and non-profit communicators. Find articles on writing, editing and online publishing, and reviews of editorial Web sites, and other resources for business writers and e...