Contests & Awards
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| © Sheila Keegan |
Submitting your work to contests and awards is a great way to get your work noticed. Here's a list of submission opportunities for children's writing and illustrating. We normally only list contests that do not require an entry fee.
Also, check out these other compilations of contests:
- Sub It Club's monthly lists of contests (see their contest roundup calendar)
- Funds for Writers
- Lee & Low's roundup of Awards & Grants for Authors of Color
- Institute for Children's Literature runs contests (for fee)
- Poet & Writer's Database of Writing Contests (includes fee contests)
Before entering a contest, pay attention to warning signs:Writing Contests are Important: How to Choose the Right Ones from the Scams; Awards Profiteers: How Writers Can Recognize Them and Why They Should Avoid Them
James Cross Giblin Scholarship for Highlights Foundations courses
What I Gained from Contests (Besides my Agent)
Draw This!
- What: monthly illustration challenge with a prompt, due 20th of each month
- Who: SCBWI members
- Prize: winning pieces featured in SCBWI's monthly newsletter
ONGONG
- What: apply for emergency funds during the pandemic
- Who: people of color in the children's publishing industry (agents, editors, authors, illustrators) who've been furloughed or lost their jobs
- Award: emergency funds
MARCH
SCBWI grants with end of March deadlines:
Don Freeman Grant - two $1,000 grants to assist an illustrator with completion of a book dummy or portfolio
Work-in-Progress Grant - to assist in the completion of a manuscript not under contract
Karen Cushman Late Bloomer Award - $500 and free conference tuition for unpublished writer over age 50
APRIL
- What: submit a fiction or nonfiction picture book manuscript less than 1500 words
- Who: may not have published or sold a picture book
- Award: two $500 stipends (one fiction, one nonfiction) to help sell your work (submission advice, counseling, editing, querying)
April 1- June 30 Lee & Low New Voices Award
- What: award given biennially to an unpublished writer of color or Native/Indigenous writer for a picture book manuscript (fiction, nonfiction, poetry)
- Award: monetary award and potential publication
MAY
May 1- May 31 Crystal Kite Member Choice Awards
- What: Award voted by SCBWI members for excellent books published in 2024 in various regions
- What: apply for free place at the Undiscovered Voices master class series (June 5, 12, 19) and free SCBWI membership
- Who: writers living in the UK who identify as coming from an underrepresented background in publishing
JUNE
June 1- June 30 Volemos Award
- What/who: award for writers of Hispanic/Latinx/Ibero-American heritage early in their career (1-3 traditionally published books) or not yet traditionally published
- Award: $500, 1 yr-SCBWI membership, coaching
Fall
- What: submit a short illustrated story following a theme prompt and an assignment
- Who: SCBWI member
- Award: all-expenses paid trip to NY SCBWI conference plus inclusion in the NY portfolio showcase