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Opportunities for writers
There are lots of opportunities for writers in Scotland. We've collected and listed the current crop below.
For more opportunities (including workshops, retreats and advice), you might also want to look into our resources for writers, and our writing programmes; the New Writers Award, Ignite Fellowship and the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. If you're under 18, why not check out our offering for Young Writers.
Please note that we curate this list but don't run the opportunities listed. You can find free guidance on copyright and other issues on the Society of Authors' (this will open in a new window)advice page.
Always read the organiser's submission criteria.
Want to share an opportunity with us? Email andrew.blair@scottishbooktrust.com (this will open in a new window)
No Deadline
Primo Poetica
Looking for football poetry that will strike a chord across Europe due to the delayed Euro 2020 tournament.
Entry fee: None
Scottish Women's National Team Poets Society
Julie McNeill – the First Makar of the Scottish Women's National Team Poets Society - is looking for poetry inspired by the national women's team.
Entry fee: None
Loud Coffee Press
page one mentoring scheme - Johnson & Alcock
The Johnson & Alcock Agency are offering an online mentoring programme to underrepresented writers (including - but not limited to - Black, Asian, and minority ethnic candidates, those living outside of London and the South East, people with disabilities, and those from low-income families), with the aim of demistifying their industry.
Kalopsia Literary Journal
Looking for poetry, prose and visual art. Feedback will be offered where possible.
Entry fee: None
Bella Caledonia
The Bella Caledonia website is welcoming poetry submissions. Email your poems to bellasletters@yahoo.co.uk
Tether's End Magazine
Tether's End are looking for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, photography and art for their first issue.
Entry fee: None
Hysteria Collective
Looking for any creative writing (poetry, short stories, memoirs, chapters, screenplays etc.) from women, trans, and non-binary writers.
Entry fee: None
Creatives - Scottish Mountaineering Press
Looking for fiction, non-fiction, poetry and visual arts inspired by the Scottish landscape.
Entry fee: None
Kelso Writers: Creative Writing for Well-being
Kelso Writers is offering an opportunity for people over the age of 16 who live in the Scottish Borders. As a result of funding from the Communities Mental Health and Well-being Fund, Kelso Writers is able to offer a series of twelve free online workshops and two in-person workshops designed to help people develop and improve their creative writing skills. The course will look at all kinds of writing including short stories, poetry, flash fiction and life writing. Topics covered will include the writing process; creating characters; use of dialogue; how to structure and plot a story; nature writing; and editing and presentation. To register interest and find out more please email kelsowriters@gmail.com
Entry fee: None
Pugmill Press
Pugmill Press is currently open for submissions of unsolicited ideas from authors. They are currently open for submissions of proposals for concise non-fiction works between 35,000-45,000 words only.
Entry fee: None
June
Guppy Books open submission
Looking for YA novels. Please include the first few chapters of your young adult novel (up to 2000 words), plus a covering letter and synopsis, preferably as a Word attachment. If your work is longlisted, they will ask for a full manuscript.
Deadline: 6pm Friday 10 June
Entry fee: None
Mentoring Programme for LGBTQIA+ Writers
Curtis Brown Creatives are offering nine months of mentoring for five LGBTQIA+ writers of limited financial means.
Deadline: Sunday 12 June
Entry fee: None
Extra Teeth
Looking for short stories and essays between 800 and 4,000 words in length.
Deadline: Tuesday 14 June
Entry fee: None
The Mechanics' Institute
York Festival of Writing - Bursary for Carers
York Festival of Writing are offering a bursary to a primary care giver/writer based in the UK. Travel and accommodation are covered, but not interim care costs while attending the festival.
Deadline: Friday 24 June
Entry fee: None
Tyger Tyger Magazine
Looking for new children’s poems on the theme of ‘The Colour Spectrum’. Poems should be up to 40 lines long and aimed at readers aged 7-11 years old.
Deadline: Thursday 30 June
Entry fee: None
Nosy Crow - LGBTQ+ writers and writer-illustrators
Looking for picture books aimed at 3-5 year olds from LGBTQ+ writers and writer-illustrators.
Deadline: Thursday 30 June
Entry fee: None
Bath Magg
Looking for poetry for their August/Summer issue.
Deadline: Thursday 30 June
Entry fee: None
Fawn Press
Looking for pamphlets of no more than 25 poems.
Deadline: Thursday 30 June
Entry fee: £7
The Willowherb Review
Looking for previously unpublished prose—non-fiction especially, but will consider fiction and poetry—on nature, place, and environment.
Deadline: Thursday 30 June
Entry fee: None
Stepaway Magazine
Looking for Fantasy/Speculative Fiction stories, novel extracts, or poems. Submissions should not exceed 5000 words.
Deadline: Thursday 30 June
Entry fee: None
July
Haunt Publishing
Looking for Gothic, horror and dark fiction novels from agented and unagented writers.
Deadline: Midday, Friday 01 July
Entry fee: None
August
HarperCollins Academy
"The HarperCollins Author and Design Academy trains and supports writers and designers from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds, with the aim of helping them to become commercially successful in the publishing environment."
Deadline: Monday15 August
Entry fee: None
Anthology Short Story Award
Stories submitted must be on the theme of ‘Courage’ and not exceed the maximum of 1,500 words.
Deadline: 31 August (early bird, 30 April)
Entry fee: €15 per story (early bird, €10)
September
Knight Errant Press
Knight Errant Press are looking for novellas, novels, non-fiction essays/collections, short story collections, graphic novels, flash fiction collections and poetry collections for adult and YA audiences. They are looking to read "submissions by LGBTQI+ writers, preferably featuring queerness and queer characters."
Deadline: Thursday 01 September
Entry fee: None
Blackness on Sea Poetry Prize
A "substantial prize of £1000 and a trophy shield will be awarded for the poem judged to be of most literary merit containing a reference, not necessarily complimentary, to "The Lobster Pot" and "Blackness on Sea" somewhere in the composition".
Deadline: Wednesday 07 September
Entry fee: None
Ongoing Opportunities
Awards
The John Byrne award
The John Byrne Award is an online exhibition and competition exploring personal and societal values, open to anyone over 16 years old in Scotland. Creative writing and illustration welcomed. An award of £500 is offered quarterly, plus an annual award of £7,500. All entries are eligible for all prizes and all entries will be considered for posting on the John Byrne Award website and social media pages.
Entry fee: Free
The Zooker award
A new literary award that aims to encourage disadvantaged authors and reward works of social value. Single prize of £500, plus embossed certificate and featuring. Open to anyone who has published a book through Arkbound or any other publisher.
Entries can be made between 19th May and 10th October each year.
Entry Fee: £7.50 (concessions available)
Luna Press Publishing
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Dark Fantasy publisher who accept submissions on specific days each year.
Speculative Scotland (all writers born in Scotland): 25 January, 30 November Speculative Scottish Diversity (writers who identify as BAME (Black, Asian, minority ethnic), mixed-race or POC (people of colour) with a connection to Scotland either by birth or residency): 18 July, 02 October Speculative Novella: (all writers): 15 April
Entry Fee: None
Invisible Cities
Looking for previously unpublished poetry and prose.
Reading periods: 15 September–15 December
Entry fee: None
Call for Submissions
Speculative Books
Speculative Books is currently accepting unsolicited submissions of poetry. Send in a maximum of two poems.
Entry fee: None
The Dark Horse
The Dark Horse Magazine is accepting unsolicited submissions of poetry by post only.
Entry fee: None
Glasgow Review of Books
Lallans
Lallans is published twice a year and is the journal of the Scots Language Society. It includes poetry, fiction, reviews and articles in Scots.
Entry fee: None
The New Shetlander
The New Shetlander is a bi-annual publication looking for contributions of prose and poetry with a Shetland interest: all will be considered for publication.
Entry fee: None
Product Magazine
Product Magazine is currently looking for fiction, art and photography.
Entry fee: None
Shoreline of Infinity
Shoreline of Infinity is looking for science-fiction poetry and book reviewers.
Entry fee: None
Thi Wurd
Thi Wurd is a fiction magazine based in Glasgow. Submissions of short fiction and illustrations are welcome.
Entry fee: None
Eemis Stane
Published digitally three times a year, Eemis Stane furthsets poetry, fiction, essays and polemics in Scots o ony and ilka variety, frae ilka airt and pairt. Poetry submissions can consist o up tae three poems, totallin up tae 75 lines. Prose submissions, o baith fiction and non-fiction, should be nae langer than 2000 wirds.
Entry fee: None