Opportunities
Welcome to Literature Wales’ opportunities page where we share internal and external literary opportunities, from competitions to residencies, from Wales and beyond. If you have any opportunities you’d like us to feature, please email us on: post@literaturewales.org
Work Opportunities
Ffotogallery: Festival Coordinator (Ffoto Cymru) – 24 May
Ffotogallery is seeking a part-time Freelance Festival Coordinator for Ffoto Cymru 2024, who will support the team, participating artists, partners and stakeholders in the organisation and delivery of the 2024 festival.
Job type: Part-time freelance. Start date: June 2024. End date: November 2024. Salary: £7,500 inclusive, proposed 2 days per week to be paid in monthly instalments by invoice. More details.
Call-outs
Arts Council Wales: Creative Steps – 31 May (Last day of each month)
The aim of this programme is to support individuals and organisations who have experienced barriers to accessing our funding. Creative Steps aims to address this by supporting artists, creatives, and organisations throughout their developmental journey.
You can apply for the Individual strand if you are an artist or creative who identifies as being ethnically and culturally diverse, as Deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent, or as someone who has experienced racism or discrimination.
You can apply for the Organisations strand if your organisation is led by ethnically and culturally diverse people, Deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent people, or people who have experienced racism or discrimination.
This will be a rolling programme, with applications accepted on the last day of each month. Click here for further information.
Black Bee Call for Submissions – Rolling
Black Bee Books is currently open for submissions from under-represented voices in Wales. As a new publishing house based in West Wales, the company want to be reflective of a wide variety of experiences and are actively seeking those who are under-served by the industry.
They are looking to publish both adult and young adult fiction and non-fiction, but not children’s books.
For submission guidelines please see: www.blackbeebooks.wales/contact
Hack Publishing – Rolling
Hack Publishing are looking for 10 writers to join us an exciting project that will explore work now and imagine working culture in the future. This will be a collection of essays with 10 different perspectives, although writers are encouraged to experiment with genre.
In addition, they are also looking for writers to contribute to their upcoming magazine. The first issue’s theme is: resilience. Writers can submit any genre of up to 3,500 words. It is a chance for new writers to see their work published alongside one another.
Find the full details on their website.
Mentee Creative Practitioner Opportunities: Stepping In – 15 May
‘Stepping In’ is an exciting new pilot training and mentoring programme for a cohort of 4 mentee creative practitioners from minoritised communities in Wales. It is a first of its kind pilot for South and West Wales. Stepping In has been designed by WAHWN in consultation with the sector in response to the lack of diversity within the arts and health creative workforce. This programme will help build the skills, knowledge and experience required to deliver projects in arts and health settings, through training, shadowing a live project, mentoring and peer support. More information.
Open Call: Welsh Language Writing for “Elsewhere” – Ruthin International Arts Festival 2024 – 20 May
We invite Welsh speakers worldwide to contribute to a special exhibition at the Ruthin International Arts Festival, taking place from 28 June to 4 July 2024 in Ruthin, North Wales, UK. Under the theme ‘Elsewhere’, we aim to bring the essence of Welshness from across the globe back to Ruthin, celebrating the language in its many forms and uses.
This call is open to everyone, from anywhere, to share their everyday Welsh writing. Whether it’s professional pieces, personal reflections, or casual writings—if it connects with the theme “Elsewhere,” we want to showcase it. We’re particularly interested in material that captures the everyday experiences of Welsh speakers living “elsewhere” and how they connect with their Welsh identity.
Work will be presented as prints and part of exhibition objects, integrating them into a curated space that reflects on the theme through a Welsh lens.
Submission guidelines:
We welcome all types of writing in Welsh—poems, short stories, letters, diary entries, or any piece that speaks to your experience with the theme ‘Elsewhere.’ Please send your work by 20 May 2024 to RuthinArtsFestival@outlook.com
Well Projects 2024 Open Call for New Writing: Resurrection Charms – 29 May
Well Projects produces a yearly anthology book that explores ecology through a broad range of contributions including (but not limited to) academic or visual essays, fiction, poetry and interviews.
This year, Well Projects are opening up the anthology to submissions. Selected applicants will receive a fee of £300.00 and support whilst writing their texts which will be published later this year. Well Projects invites proposals for texts that engage with ecology in relation to – resurrection, time travel, rewilding, restoration, science fiction, intersectionality, ghosts, hauntings and histories. Full details.
Genesis Emerging Writers’ Programme – 31 May
The annual Genesis Emerging Writers’ Programme covers fiction, non-fiction and poetry and includes bursaries, mentoring, peer support and an event at London’s longest-running literary festival. The programme is open to emerging writers over 18 years of age and living in the UK with no more than three years’ experience of being published, who feel they would benefit from the support and insight of a more established writer. The Programme runs from 1 June 2024 to 1 April 2025. More details.
Broken Sleep Books: Submissions for Poetry Collections – 31 May
Submissions are open for full-length poetry collections (40+ pages). All submissions considered, regardless of location. Collaborative submissions are considered. Full details & guidelines.
Competitions
Eisteddfodau Cymru – Ongoing
There are several literary competitions held by various Eisteddfod events across Wales annually.
All the closing dates can be found here. For further information, visit the Cymdeithas Eisteddfodau Cymru website.
Cathays Brass Anniversary Commission: Lyric Competition – 16 May
In October 2024 Cathays Brass will be celebrating 10 years of positive community music activity. The group have seen great development across these 10 years, with the ensemble building membership and stature through offering an appealing social
environment where players can share musical experiences with others. To celebrate the occasion, they are commissioning composer Michael Triggs to write a work for Brass Band which features a section that can be performed with a choir/vocalist. This is where we need your help!
They’ve asked their members what Cathays Brass means to them and created a Word Cloud to display the answers. They’d like this to be the basis for the lyrics used in this project. The lyrics must include English & Welsh words, however how these appear is at your discretion. For example, direct translations, separate verse & chorus writing, alternative lines may all be considered. Submissions must include 12-24 lines, inclusive of repetitions. Full details and submission form.
To celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Swansea & District Writers Circle (SDWC), they are awarding a cash prize of £200 to the best short story and poem on the theme of ‘Anniversary’ entered into our competition.
The contest is open to all writers over 16 years of age, anywhere in the world, writing in English. You can submit up to three entries in total across the two categories. The winning entries, 2 runners up and highly commended entries in each category will be published in our Anniversary Anthology, to be released in November 2024. More information.
Bog People Competition – 16 June
Hollie Starling and Chatto & Windus are launching a competition for unpublished working-class writers to have their fiction featured in a folk horror anthology. Bog People: A Working-Class Anthology of Folk Horror will be published in autumn 2025 by Chatto. Eight spaces will be taken up by established working-class authors.
Applicants must submit:
- an outline of their folk horror story (up to 600 words)
- an opening paragraph (up to 300 words)
- a sample of their fiction writing of any genre (up to 6000 words)
- a short bio of the writer (up to 200 words)
- please format a Word document including these three sections in plain, serif font, 1.5 spacing, black type on white background, with no pictures. Do not send separate documents or pdfs.
Three shortlisted authors will then be asked to submit the full short story (5000-7000 words).
All applicants must identify as working class or from a working-class background. They must not have had their fiction or non-fiction published as a book, but this does not exclude those who have had work published in magazines or websites. The story must adhere to the tropes of folk horror, though we welcome experimentation and fresh takes on the genre.
Judges: Hollie Starling, Rose Tomaszewska, and Asia Choudhry. Full details.
First Prize £5,000. Second Prize £2,000. Third Prize £1,000. Plus publication in Poetry London.
Entry fee: Poetry London subscribers £5 per poem / non-subscribers £10 per poem (Limited number of free entries for writers from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds)
Judge: Hannah Sullivan. More information.
The 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize – 1 July
The prize supports writers who have not yet published a book-length work, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background. The winners of each category (Fiction, Life Writing and Poetry) will receive a £1,000 cash prize and will be published in Wasafiri’s print magazine. Learn more, and submit.
CRIME CYMRU First Novel Prize – 3 September
Calling all budding crime writers in Wales! The Welsh crime writers’ collective, Crime Cymru, is offering an opportunity to show off your writing and reach a new level in your writing career.
To enter, you’ll need the first 5,000 words of a crime novel and a one-page synopsis outlining the full plot. You don’t need to have written the whole book at the time of submission. What is essential is that you haven’t already published a novel prior to entering (either via traditional means or self-publishing). However, if you’ve previously published a collection of stories, a book of poems or a work of non-fiction, you are eligible to enter.
Shortlisted authors will be invited to a prize giving ceremony at the Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival in Aberystwyth in April 2025, where the winner will be announced. The winning entrant will receive a mentoring package from a successful crime writer worth £1000, and the two other shortlisted authors will receive a bundle of Crime Cymru authors’ books. All shortlisted authors will also receive two free weekend passes to Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival which will offer the opportunity to meet a wealth of the UK’s top crime writers and industry professionals. Full details.