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
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
Folding Rock Magazine: Magazine Assistant – 11 June (12 noon)
We’re an independent literary magazine dedicated to publishing bold new voices and celebrating great writing from and connected to Wales. Thanks to local funding, we have the chance to offer a year-long position within our team, as part of an annual internship opportunity for hands-on experience in the creative industry – from our base in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan.
Hours: 2 days per week, flexible working options. Contract: 12 months fixed-term. Pay: £20k annual salary, pro rata.
Location: Barry, Vale of Glamorgan. Please note: due to the specific funding of this opportunity, applications from those currently living within Barry will be prioritised.
We’re looking for a Magazine Assistant – Folding Rock
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.
Broken Sleep Books – various closing dates
Broken Sleep Books are a working-class, small, innovative press, who publish a range of poetry and prose, from a range of writers. Our primary focus is in increasing access to the arts, in ensuring more people are able to engage with creativity regardless of their socioeconomic status. ABOUT US & SUBMISSIONS | Broken Sleep Books
Unlimited: Apply to be a Panel Member – 15 June (Midday)
Unlimited are seeking independent disabled panel members to select the next round of commissions, the Unlimited Partner Awards.
They create these awards in partnership with arts sector organisations across England, Scotland, and Wales. Unlimited and the partner organisations each match fund the awards. Take a look at who and what was funded in our last round.
The Ghastling: Open for submissions – 22 June
The Ghastling is a biannual magazine publishing literary fiction and illustration devoted to psychological horror, folk horror, ghost stories and the macabre. The theme for the next issue is Ghost Stories!
Open for Submissions of Ghost Stories & Summer Solstice Workshop! – The Ghastling
Arachne Press Call-out – 1 August
Following the success of A470: Poems for the Road/ Cerddi’r Ffordd, and Afonydd: Poems for Welsh Rivers /Cerddi Afonydd Cymru, we are looking forward to our next entirely bilingual Welsh/English anthology, Home Ground/Y Filltir Sgwâr. We hope to publish this book in Summer 2027.
We are looking for short poems in Welsh or English (or both if you are happy to do your own translation) that can be translated into the other language, and typeset side by side. Full details.
Competitions
Eisteddfodau Cymru – Ongoing
There are several literary competitions held by various Eisteddfod events across Wales annually.
For further information and closing dates, visit the Cymdeithas Eisteddfodau Cymru website.
POETRY KIT SPRING COMPETITION 2026 – 21 June (Midnight)
1st prize is £200. Entry fees are as follows; 1 poem £3.50, 3 Poems £8.00, 5 poems £10. Competition Judge; Lucy Turnbull. For more information, see: https://www.poetrykit.org/1-spring.htm
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.
Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize
Magma Pamphlet Poetry Pamphlet Competition – 1 July
MAGMA invites you to enter our fifth pamphlet competition, now open for entries. Judge: Marjorie Lotfi.
PRIZE: publication of the winning pamphlet + launch reading.
Poets on the shortlist of 10 will each get a paragraph of feedback from the judge. The winner and 3 others will have a poem published in Magma. All shortlisted poets will have a poem published on our website. Magma Pamphlet Competition – Magma Poetry
The HG Wells Short Story Competition – 7 July (11pm)
The annual HG Wells Fiction Short Story Competition offers a £500 Senior and £1,000 Junior prize and free publication of all shortlisted entries in a quality, professionally published paperback anthology. Theme: The Cheat. Full details.
Stephen Spender Prize – 31 July
The Stephen Spender Prize is an annual competition for poetry in translation that celebrates the creativity of young people across the UK and Ireland – and their teachers! The Prize has categories for schools, teachers and individual young people, which welcome translations from all languages, as well as a special ‘Spotlight‘ strand that each year focuses on a different widely spoken language. Our Spotlight language for 2026 is Polish.
The rules are simple: translate into English any poem from any language, or a Polish poem from our Spotlight booklet, and produce an accompanying creative response . . . for your chance to join the Stephen Spender Prize hall of eternal fame! Stephen Spender Prize – Stephen Spender Trust
The Sareeta Domingo Prize – 21 September
The Sareeta Domingo Prize is a free-to-enter writing prize created to discover and support unpublished writers from Black and Global Majority backgrounds, founded by bestselling author Dorothy Koomson in association with Sareeta Domingo’s family, Hachette UK, Jacaranda Books and David Higham Associates.
The prize has been created to honour the legacy of Sareeta Domingo, a much-admired editor and author, and a passionate champion of diverse stories and underrepresented voices, who passed away in 2025. Welcome to The Sareeta Domingo Prize | Hachette UK