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
Literature Wales Opportunities
Hay Festival Writers at Work 2026 – 26 February (2.00pm)
Hay Festival is inviting new applications for Hay Festival Writers at Work 2026, its professional development opportunity for Welsh writers, in partnership with Literature Wales, funded by Arts Council of Wales.
This opportunity for professional development for Welsh writers will take place during Hay Festival (21 May – 31 May) from Friday 22 May to Sunday 31 May 2026. The fully programmed 10 days will allow selected writers to attend masterclasses, workshops, and to network with Welsh, UK based and international writers, publishers, press and agents. More.
Writer Development Programme
Literature Wales is proud to launch a programme of FREE virtual talks to inspire and educate the writers of Wales over the coming months. You’ll meet editors, publishers, successful authors and those who work within the literature and publishing industries in Wales and beyond. Browse our programme and register today!
Tŷ Newydd Creative Writing Courses
We have a range of creative writing courses and retreats available at Tŷ Newydd – the National Writing Centre of Wales. Why not have a look and discover what’s on offer.
Work Opportunities
Sinfonia Cymru: Marketing Assistant – 5 March (10am)
Sinfonia Cymru has a vacancy for a Marketing Assistant, to work closely with our Marketing Consultant, Heulwen Davies and Marketing Strategist, John Holmes. You will support and contribute to our marketing campaigns across social and traditional marketing channels.
This is a part-time role of 3 days a week at a salary of £14,400 per annum (based on a Full Time Equivalent salary of £24,000 per annum). We are a small organisation and operate a flexible work environment, and offer a hybrid of home-based working and working from performance venues all over Wales. We’re hiring! – Marketing Assistant | Arts Council of Wales
Theatr Iolo: Marketing and Communications Manager – 20 March
Theatr Iolo’s vision is for a society in which all children can feel empowered and inspired. We are looking for a Marketing & Communications Manager to be responsible for devising and implementing all marketing, audience development and engagement strategies and campaigns for all aspects of the company’s work to deepen engagement and diversify our audience. Marketing & Communications Manager | Arts Council of Wales
Call-outs
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.
Folding Rock – Rolling
Folding Rock is always on the hunt for the best new creative fiction and non-fiction in, from and connected to Wales. We accept work by writers at any stage and age, and we pay for every piece we publish. Submissions are always open but specific themed call-outs for each issue will be made three times a year. We also take pitches for translations, visual essays and multi-media work – check out our website for more details: https://foldingrock.com/submit-your-work/
If you’re an author or publisher with a book out that’s connected to Wales, tell us about it here: https://foldingrock.com/tell-us-about-a-book/
New Croton Review – Rolling
While the New Croton Review seeks poetry, fiction and non-fiction in English, we welcome the submission of translations of work written in other languages (as long as, if the author of the translated work is still entitled to copyright, the author has given permission for the translation). Those who submit English translation of their own work in Welsh may also submit the original Welsh version and should indicate whether they prefer that, if the translation is accepted for publication, the original version be included.
There are no geographical or age limitations. Click here to read the submission guidelines on our website. If your work is accepted, we’ll ask you to grant us the right to publish it, but you retain the copyright and the right to publish it elsewhere.
M2M Books: Open Call for Poetry & Prose Submissions: 2026 Anthology – 13 March
Margin to Margin Books is excited to announce an open call for submissions for our second multi-community anthology. Provisionally titled Margin to Margin, this collection seeks to amplify a range of voices from the literary periphery.
For this second volume, we are expanding our horizons. While poetry remains at the heart of the project, we are also opening the door to prose. We invite submissions that speak to Marginalised Communities in the following categories:
- Poetry: Bold, beautiful, unfiltered.
- Short Stories: Narrative fiction exploring the complexities of identity and place.
- Essays: Personal reflections, social critiques, and lived experiences.
Open Call for Poetry & Prose Submissions: 2026 Anthology – Margin to Margin Books
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.
The Tower Poetry Competition – 19 February
The Tower Poetry Competition offers the UK’s most valuable prize for young poets. The competition is free to enter and it is open to students between 16 and 18 years of age who are educated in the UK.
The competition is judged by two guest judges and the Christopher Tower Student, Dr Anna Nickerson. Each year the theme is chosen with the intention of giving entrants free rein to interpret it as widely as they like.
The poet who writes the single best poem on the theme receives £5,000. There will be a second prize of £3,000, and a third prize of £1,500. Along with these, there will be ten runners up, who will each receive £500. The top three winners will also be offered a place on the Tower Poetry Summer School. The 2026 Competition is now open. The theme is ‘A Riddle’.
Enter the Tower Poetry Competition | Christ Church, University of Oxford
Next Generation Story Awards – 26 February
A not-for-profit awards program open to authors writing short stories worldwide is now accepting entries written in English.
Enter by February 26, 2026 to take advantage of this exciting opportunity to have your short story considered for cash prizes, awards, exposure, and recognition as one of the top short stories written this year! Next Generation Short Story Awards – Welcome
The 2026 Forward Prizes for Poetry – 15 March (11:59pm)
Whether you’re a publisher championing brilliant new voices, an editor celebrating outstanding single poems, or a performance poet ready to share your work – we want to hear from you.
Four categories, £17, 000 in prizes:
Best Collection (£10,000)
Best First Collection (£5,000)
Best Single Poem – Written (£1,000)
Best Single Poem – Performed (£1,000)
Forward Prizes for Poetry – Forward Arts Foundation
BBC Young Writers’ Award 2026 – 23 March
The BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University gives people in the UK aged between 14 -18 years the opportunity to submit short stories of up to 1,000 words.
There are amazing prizes and opportunities to be won. The five shortlisted writers will:
- have their story printed in an anthology
- have their story recorded by a professional actor, and available to listen to on BBC Sounds.
- receive experience days at Cambridge University and at BBC Broadcasting House including workshops with published authors.
- attend the award ceremony at the BBC’s Radio Theatre in London, where the overall winner of the 2026 BBC Young Writers Award and the 2026 BBC National Short Story Award will be announced live on Radio 4
- the winner of the 2026 BBC Young Writers’ Award will also receive one-to-one writing support from one of the judges and have the chance to pitch a short story idea to a BBC radio producer.
You can find out more information on the YWA Website www.bbc.co.uk/ywa and find lots of great tips and hints here www.bbc.co.uk/teach/articles/z8phm39
Royal Mint Museum Short Story Competition – 17 April
The Royal Mint Museum are passionate about increasing accessibility to our collection, promoting literacy and supporting community and they run a short story competition every year for 7- to 11-year-old children in the UK. Their next competition is opening soon and stories can be submitted between 16 February – 17 April 2026.
The first-place winner will receive a gold coin, £5,000 for their school or local library, and their story illustrated by an artist, and there are more prizes to be won! You can view all the latest information here: https://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/learning/short-story-competition/
Bridport Prize – 31 May
The Bridport Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in the literary world, so you’re in good company. Whether you’re writing poetry, a short story, flash fiction, novel or a memoir, we can’t wait to read your words. Home – Bridport Prize
Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize – 30 June
The seventeenth edition of the prize is now open for original entries and entries in translation across Fiction, Life Writing, and Poetry.
Representing more of the globe than any other prize of its kind, the prize supports writers who have not published book-length works, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background. The winners of each category will receive a £1,000 cash prize and publication in Wasafiri. All winners and shortlisted writers will be offered the Chapter and Verse or Free Reads mentoring scheme in partnership with The Literary Consultancy (dependent on eligibility), and a one-year print subscription to Wasafiri.