Writing Contests: October 2025

Always be sure to follow the links I have done my best to provide, as they will take you to the original sources of the information I have collected below. I try to hit on most of the main details, but there is usually more to know than what's in the summaries below.

Happy writing! I hope you find something useful from Writing Contests: October 2025.

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Bennington College Young Writers Awards

Contest Entry Period: September 1-November 1, 2025

Entry Fee: FREE

Special Requirements: "All entries must be original work. Each will be checked for plagiarism. Plagiarized work will be disqualified. All [entries] must be reviewed and approved by a high school sponsor teacher. We will use your sponsoring teacher as a contact for the competition should we have any questions. For homeschooled students, please contact a mentor to sponsor your writing." They say elsewhere that for homeschool students it is fine to have a parent be the one to review & approve your entry. That's what I did last year.

Theme: None found.

Entry Length: Poetry - 3 poems; Short Story - up to 1,500 words; personal or nonacademic essay - up to 1,500 words.

Age Category: 9th-12th grade.

Rights Information: "In addition to cash prizes and scholarships, winning entries will be published on the Bennington College website in the spring. They may also be published through media requests from local newspapers or magazines, or recorded for the Bennington audio library. Authors retain all other copyrights."

Prizes: There are three categories (poetry, fiction, and nonfiction). First place for each category is $1,000; second place for each category is $500; and third place for each category is $250. Winners may also be eligible for scholarships if they choose to enroll at Bennington College. Please see this page.

To read all of the details, please visit this page, where you will find links to lots of info.

Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest

Contest Entry Period: This contest has a long entry period, opening on August 15, 2025, and closing on April 1, 2026.

Entry Fee: FREE.

Special Requirements: "Due to US government restrictions, we regret we are unable to accept entries from authors in Iran, North Korea, Crimea, Russia, and Belarus. Authors from all other countries are eligible. The poem you submit should be in English. If you have written a work in another language, you may submit an English translation (made by you). Inspired gibberish is also accepted."

Theme: None.

Entry Length: Poem must be no more than 250 lines. "Exclude the title and blank lines from your count."

Age Category: None. All ages.

Rights Information: There is a link at the bottom of the contest guidelines on this page. Click it and it will bring up a little box that contains more in-depth information on a few things.

Prizes: "First Prize: $2,000 plus a two-year gift certificate from our co-sponsor, Duotrope (a $100 value), Second Prize: $500, Third Prize: $250, Honorable Mentions: 10 awards of $100 each. Top 13 entries published online."

One poem may be submitted by each entrant.

You can find the guidelines page here. See other links on the same page for more information (particularly the link below the Submittable button).

Morgen Bailey's 50-Word Competition

Contest Entry Period: September 1 to September 30, 2025.

Entry Fee: FREE.

Special Requirements: None.

Theme: "Animal mayhem."

Entry Length: 50 words EXACTLY.

Age Category: None.

Rights Information: Didn't see it specified.

Prizes: "1st prize: free prose critique up to 1,500 words or 30 minutes of mentoring time; 2nd prize: free prose critique up to 1,000 words or 20 minutes of mentoring time; 3rd prize: free prose critique up to 500 words or 10 minutes of mentoring time."

Make sure to stay on theme and stick to the strict word count. 50 words, no more, no less!

"Each prize will be valid for six months from the closing date (i.e. the prizes for the top three stories for January 2025 are valid until end June 2025) so you can combine your ‘winnings’."

You can find the contest page (rules, details, etc.) here. Ms. Morgan is thorough in her rules, so it would behoove you to read the whole rule list before attempting to submit. I've simply tried to highlight the most important parts.