Top Creative Contests

You can list your upcoming writing, art and design contests on this site. You can also request us to write an advertorial content for your next contest and publish on this site, and promote through our social profiles. Request for details of the paid opportunities at auh@auhbd.com.

Last Updated on July 18, 2020

Top Writing Contests

Contest Name: Munster Literature Centre Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition

Deadline: July 31, 2020 Rewards: 1st Prize €2,000, 2nd Prize €500 & 4 Runners-Up €250 Entry Fees: €18 per Story

The competition is open to original, unpublished, and unbroadcast short stories in the English language of 3,000 words or fewer. The story can be on any subject, in any style, by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world.

Contest Name: Bard College Bard Fiction Prize

Deadline: July 30, 2020 Rewards: $30,000 Entry Fees: $0

The Bard Fiction Prize is awarded to a promising emerging writer who is an American citizen aged 39 years or younger at the time of application. In addition, the winner receives an appointment as a writer in residence at Bard College for one semester, without the expectation that he or she teach traditional courses.

Contest Name: Sixfold – Poetry and Short Story Awards

Deadline: July 24, 2020 Rewards: $1,000 Entry Fees: $5

Sixfold Invites writers to upload a short story or poetry collection. Winner will be selected by reader’s votes and comments. Top-voted 20 short stories and 40 sets of poems are published.

Contest Name: University of Pittsburgh Press Drue Heinz Literature Prize

Deadline: June 30, 2020 Rewards: $15,000 Entry Fees: $0

The University of Pittsburgh Press calls application for Drue Heinz Literature Prize 2021. The award is open to authors who have published a book-length collection of fiction or at least three short stories or novellas in commercial magazines or literary journals.

Contest Name: Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) New Writers Awards

Deadline: June 25, 2020 Rewards: $500 Entry Fees: $0

The GLCA invites literary submissions from publishers to its New Writers Awards (NWA) 2021 competition. For this year’s program the NWA will accept entries that bear a publication imprint of 2019 or 2020.

Contest Name: FIL Prize in Romance Languages

Deadline: June 22, 2020 Rewards: $150,000 Entry Fees: $0

FIL Literature Award given annually to honor a poet, a fiction writer, or a creative nonfiction writer who writes in Catalan, French, Galician, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, or Spanish. Cultural or educational institutions or groups interested in literature may nominate a candidate; individuals may not apply.

Contest Name: Bard College Bard Fiction Prize

Deadline: June 15, 2020 Rewards: $30,000 Entry Fees: $0

The Bard Fiction Prize offered to encourage and support young fiction writes, the prize is open to American citizens age 39 or younger at the time of application. Requires the applicant to submit a published book that shows their best work.

Contest Name: Mother’s Day Poetry Contest

Deadline: May 10, 2020 Rewards: $100 Cash Prize Entry Fees: $9.95

Write a poem about Mom or being a Mom for the Mother’s Day.

Contest Name: Poetry Foundation: Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships

Deadline: April 30, 2020 Rewards: $25,800 Entry Fees: $0

Applications are now open for the Ruth Lilly Fellowship. To be eligible, poets must be between 21 and 31 years old and must reside in the U.S. or be U.S. citizens.

Contest Name: Oberon Poetry Prize

Deadline: April 10, 2020 Rewards: $1,000 Entry Fees: $18

A prize of $1,000 and publication in Oberon, a literary journal published by the Oberon Foundation. Submit up to three poems with a $18 entry fee by April 10.

Contest Name: Rhyming Poetry Contest

Deadline: April 7, 2020 Rewards: $100 Cash Prize Entry Fees: $9.95

Wrote any type of rhyme scheme poem with personals styles to enter this contest.

Contest Name: Bellingham Review Literary Awards

Deadline: March 15, 2020. Rewards: $1,000. Entry Fees: $20

Winners of the 2020 contests will be notified in June 2020. Winning entries and many runners up will be published in the Spring 2021 print edition, Issue 82.

Contest Name: Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation Poetry Prize

Deadline: March 14, 2020. Rewards: $1,000. Entry Fees: $10

The annual Tor House Prize for Poetry is a living memorial to American poet Robinson Jeffers. Open to poetry in all styles ranging from experimental to traditional forms, including short narrative poems.

Contest Name: Colorado Review Nelligan Prize

Deadline: March 14, 2020. Rewards: $2,000. Entry Fees: $17

The Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction was established in 2004 in memory of Liza Nelligan. By giving an award to the author of an outstanding short story each year, they hope to honor Nelligan’s life, her passion for writing, and her love of fiction.

Top Art Contests

Contest Name: Woon Foundation Painting & Sculpture Prize

Deadline: July 31, 2020 Rewards: 1st Prize: £20,000, 2nd Prize £9,000 & 3rd Prize £6,000 Entry Fees: No Entry Fee

The Woon Foundation Painting and Sculpture Art Prize, jointly hosted by Northumbria University and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary offer an opportunity annually for students currently in the final year of their undergraduate study within the United Kingdom.

Contest Name: Scottish Portrait Awards

Deadline: July 31, 2020 Rewards: 1st Prize: £5,000, 2nd Prize £1,000, 3rd Prize £500 & Young Fine Artist (16-25) £500 Entry Fees: £10 per work (max 6)

The Scottish Portrait Award in Fine Art is open to anyone who born, living, or studying in Scotland and over 16 years. This Portrait Award for Fine Art is for portraits in any 2D or 3D medium – all painting formats, all sculpture formats, collage, printmaking, weaving, photography, digital art, or anything else – as well as powerful art and strong story-telling.

Contest Name: Jerwood/FVU Awards

Deadline: July 20, 2020 Rewards: £25,000 (£6,000 artist fee and £19,000 for production budget) Entry Fees: No Entry Fee!

Jerwood Arts and Film and Video Umbrella invite early-career artists to make proposals for ambitious new works in any form of the moving-image. Two proposals are selected each year by a panel consisting of practicing artists and arts programmers/curators, for the commission, production, exhibition and tour from November 2020 through to 2022.

Contest Name: The comix competition “Nouveau talent 2020”

Deadline: June 30, 2020 Rewards: 1st prize CHF 2,000; 2nd prize CHF 1,500; 3rd prize CHF 1,000 & Special prize CHF 500 Entry Fees: No Entry fee.

The Nouveau talent competition is part of the International Comic Strip Festival in Lausanne, Switzerland. The theme for this year’s competition is SPAGHETTI. All interpretations of the theme are welcome. This competition is open to anyone over the age of 15, who has not yet been published.

Contest Name: Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize

Deadline: June 24, 2020 Rewards: 1st Prize £8000, 2nd Prize £5000, Student Award £2000 & Working Drawing Prize £2000 Entry Fees: Standard Entry for 1 work £20, 2 works £30, 3 works £40 & Student Entry for 1 work £15, 2 works £20, 3 works £25

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize is now open for entries for a milestone edition. In 2020, it will be the third year of support for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize by Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust and the 25th consecutive annual open drawing exhibition since 1994.

Contest Name: Visual Art Open

Deadline: June 20, 2020 Rewards: Prize Fund Worth £8000 Entry Fees: £15 per work

The VAO competition is currently running in its fourth consecutive year and is open to both amateur and professional artists. The primary goal of the awards is to reveal and establish artists’ profiles in the contemporary art world.

Contest Name: XIII International Compostela Prize for Picture Books

Deadline: June 15, 2020 Rewards: 9,000 € Entry Fees: No Entry Fee!

The competition is organised by Department of Education and Citizenship of the City Council of Santiago de Compostela, in collaboration with ‘Kalandraka publishers’. Entrants are asked to submit a project of picture book: a book in which the story is told through images, or through images and text that complement each other.

Contest Name: 440 Gallery: Refuge

Deadline: May 08, 2020 Rewards: Not Specified! Entry Fees: $40 for 1-3 images & $5 for each additional image.

440 Gallery, announces an open call for an Artsy Online Exclusive exhibition. The topic for the 2020 national juried exhibition is REFUGE.

Contest Name: NYC4PA: From a Seed – A World of Botanicals

Deadline: May 13, 2020 Rewards: $4000 Entry Fees: $35 for the 1st 3 images & additional images may be submitted for $10 each.

NYC4PA Call for Entries worldwide to both amateur and professional photographers to submit images. They also invites photographers working in all mediums, styles and schools of thought to participate. Experimental and mixed techniques are welcome. Only 2-D work is eligible.

Contest Name: 2020 EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY SOUTHERN ART

Deadline: April 15, 2020 Rewards: $10000 in Awards Entry Fees: $10 per image

Red Clay Survey is recurring all media competition which open to artists over 18 residing in AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, and WV.

Contest Name: 2020 Waterloo Arts Juried Exhibition

Deadline: April 12, 2020 Rewards: $2500 in Awards Entry Fees: $30 up to 3 pieces

Waterloo Arts invites all artists residing in the US or Canada to submit artwork for the Waterloo Arts Juried Exhibition 2020.

Contest Name: 54th Annual Lewiston Art Festival

Deadline: March 15, 2020. Rewards: $6000. Entry Fees: Booth Fee $225 (10’ x 10’) & Application Fee $15

Lewiston Council on the Arts announces a Call for Artists for a juried art and fine craft competition. Over 25,000 people will attend this much anticipated outdoor festival.

Contest Name: Awesome art prizes Spring Edition

Deadline: March 15, 2020. Rewards: 1 Platinum Prize $5000, 3 Gold Prizes $3000, 6 Silver Prizes $2000, 10 Excellency Prizes $1400, 10 Honorable Prizes $1000 & 10 Merit Prizes $800. Entry Fees: $15 for 1 entry & $30 for 4 extra artworks.

The awesome art prize organizes international competitions open to beginners and professional living artists. They accept entries from any country in the world and also understand and promote artists worldwide to art lovers, to private and professional art buyers and Galleries.

Contest Name: Taking Pictures: 2020

Deadline: March 11, 2020. Rewards: Not Specified! Entry Fees: $35 per entry (an entry includes up to 5 photos)

Black Box Gallery announces an open themed juried group photo show. Open to all themes and ideas, all styles and genres, all perspectives on craftsmanship and photographic creativity.

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Top Design Contests

Contest Name: Art Moves 2020 – International Billboard Art Competition

Deadline: July 23, 2020 Rewards: PLN 5.000 (about EUR 1 127, USD 1 278) Entry Fees: No Entry Fee!

The Art Moves festival invites all the interested people, artists, and students to participate in its International Billboard Art Competition for 2020. This year’s competition theme: Epidemics – a global catastrophe, a punishment, or a chance to reinvent yourself and the world?

Contest Name: Curtas Vila do Conde 2020 – International Film Festival

Deadline: June 30, 2020 Rewards: Not Specified! Entry Fees: 15EUR/18 USD

The 28th Curtas Vila do Conde – International Film Festival announces the call for entries for new short films produced in 2019 or 2020, within the duration limit of 60 minutes. Eligible for submission are animations, documentaries, fiction films, experimental films and music videos, in film (35mm or 16 mm) or digital (DCP).

Contest Name: Pro Carton Young Designers Award 2020

Deadline: June 26, 2020 Rewards: Not Specified! Entry Fees: No Entry Fee!

The Pro Carton Young Designers Award, one of Europe’s leading student competitions for packaging design, is open for entries for 2020. The Award plays a pioneering role in promoting sustainability, as it is the only design competition focusing exclusively on cartonboard design.

Contest Name: 4th Cemer Dreams Come True Design Competition 2020

Deadline: June 25, 2020 Rewards: Area Design category 1st prize 4,000 Euro; Professional Product Design category 1st prize 2,000 Euro & Student Product Design category 1st prize 1,500 Euro. Entry Fees: No Entry Fee!

Cemer is seeking for innovative and creative ideas for 2020, for its 4th “Dreams Come True” Design Competition, themed: Breathing / Breathable Living Spaces.

Contest Name: Rethink: 2025 – Design for life after Covid-19

Deadline: June 12, 2020 Rewards: 1st prize £5,000, 2nd prize £2,000 & 3rd prize £1,000 Entry Fees: No Entry Fee!

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is hosting the Rethink: 2025 – Design for life after Covid-19 competition to discover what kind of a world might be coming. Participants are invited to submit a speculative proposition at any scale – in-detail or wide-ranging – that offers a positive and tangible response to one or more of the issues arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Contest Name: Australia’s Good Design Awards 2020 Competition

Deadline: May 08, 2020 Rewards: Not Specified! Entry Fees: Social Impact $150 & All categories $450

Good Design Australia is calling for Australian and international entries to the 2020 Good Design Awards. Australia’s Good Design Awards annual program recognizes and celebrates excellence in cutting edge design and breakthrough innovation.

Contest Name: OSTEN 52nd World Gallery Of Cartoons – Skopje 2020

Deadline: April 30, 2020 Rewards: Grand Prix for Lifetime Achievement $1500, 1st Award $1000 & 2nd Award $500 Entry Fees: $0

OSTEN Skopje invite submissions by authors from around the world. Professional, semi-professional and amateur cartoonists can participate with one or more original cartoons, satirical drawings and comics/strips.

Contest Name: Posterheroes 2020: Humans at Work

Deadline: April 10, 2020 Rewards: Cash Prize 2500 € Entry Fees: No Entry Fee!

Posterheroes invites students and professional designers or people passionate in graphic design to submit their work for 70x100cm poster designs about “Humans at work”.

Contest Name: YICCA 2020 – International Contest of Contemporary Art

Deadline: April 09, 2020 Rewards: 1st selected 3000 Euro and 2nd selected 1000 Euro. Entry Fees: 45 Euro

YICCA call for international artists for all kind of contemporary artworks, including mix media, video, installations and performances.

Contest Name: Australia’s Good Design Awards 2020 Competition

Deadline: March 27, 2020. Rewards: Not Specified! Entry Fees: All categories $450 AUD per entry, Social Impact $150 AUD per entry & Next Gen Free Entry.

Good Design Australia has started accepting all designers and innovators entries for Australian and international entries to the 2020 Good Design Awards.

Contest Name: World Habitat Awards 2020

Deadline: March 23, 2020. Rewards: £10,000. Entry Fees: No Entry Fee!

Through the 2020 World Habitat Awards competition, World Habitat is looking for the world’s most remarkable and innovative housing projects. The winners will have received international recognition for their work and also get Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards.

Contest Name: Communication Arts 2020 Photography Competition

Deadline: March 20, 2020. Rewards: Not Specified! Entry Fees: For Advertising, Books, Editorial, For Sale, Institutional, Self-Promotion & Unpublished $40 single entry & $80 series entry. For Motion or Cinematography $90 single entry & $180 series entry. For Student Work single entry JPG $20, Video $45 & series entry JPG $40, Video $90.

Entries are open for the most prestigious competitions for creativity in photography, the Communication Arts Photography Competition. Any photograph first published or produced from March 2019 through March 2020 is eligible.

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