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
Children’s Laureate Wales – 16 March
Are you a poet or a writer who loves to work with children? Do you believe in the power of literature to inspire, improve and brighten lives – especially the lives of young people? Are you passionate in celebrating and representing the rights and aspirations of Wales’ youth – and willing to take that passion to national platforms? Then we want to hear from you.
To view the open call-out and recruitment pack in full, click on this link.
Bardd Plant Cymru – 16 March
Applications are now open for the next Bardd Plant Cymru (2023-2025)!
Are you a creative individual and enjoy working with young people? Are you eager to celebrate and represent Wales’ youth? If so, we want to hear from you!
More information can be found by clicking this link.
Work Opportunities
NoFit State Circus: Receptionist/Administrator – 17 March
NoFit State is the UK’s largest touring contemporary circus company. Every year the company engages with 120,000 – 150,000 people of all ages and backgrounds from across Wales, the UK and the world. NoFit State is looking to recruit a new person into ita strong and thriving reception team.
Location: Cardiff
Salary: £22,880 pro-rata
For more information, please click on this link.
Theatr Clwyd: Venue Technician – 24 March
The purpose of the role is to work as part of the technical team and, overseen by the Venue Technical Manager, deliver a service to all visiting productions of the highest possible standards. Responsibilities include providing technical support to all users of the venue and to provide technical cover during performances as required. 20 hours per week. Salary: £22,415 (pro-rata) starting salary.
For full details on duties and responsibilities please visit this link.
Call-outs
Arts Council Wales: Creative Steps – 31 March (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.
FBA New Voices is a writer development programme looking for the best emerging underrepresented voices in fiction. Open to previously unpublished fiction writers who consider themselves underrepresented on the UK’s bookshelves, be that through ethnicity, disability, sexuality, gender, class or any other circumstances.
Applicants must be over the age of 18 and based in the UK or Ireland. Writers should be working towards a full-length work of adult fiction (not YA or Middle Grade). This can include novels, novellas or short story collections.
Bothy Project: Open call for Self-Directed Residencies 2023 – 2 April
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.
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 Rhys Davies Short Story Competition – 16 March
The distinguished national Rhys Davies Short Story Competition for writers born in, or living in Wales returns for 2023, with award-winning Welsh writer Jane Fraser as guest judge. The competition recognises the very best unpublished short stories in English, in any style and on any subject up to a maximum of 5,000 words by writers aged 18 or over who are from, or living in, Wales.
First prize receives £1000 and will have their winning entry published in an anthology of short stories by Parthian Books. Eleven runners-up/finalists will each receive £100 and their story will also feature in the short story anthology by Parthian Books.
Click this link for more information.
Jane Martin Poetry Prize – 17 March
Now in its 13th year, this national prize for young poets is a key part of the College’s support for poetry and will be of interest to all those who are serious about literary excellence. The competition is judged by experts drawn from across the literary world and academia. In 2022, the panel of judges was led by Parwanna Fayyaz and Claudine Toutoungi.
The winner receives a cash prize of £700 and will have an opportunity to give a reading at a celebratory event at Girton College at which the prize will be awarded. There will also be a second prize of £300 cash. Entrants must be resident in the UK and (on February 1st 2023) be between 18 and 30 years of age.
BBC Young Writers’ Award 2023 – 20 March
Now in its ninth year, the BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University challenges young people in the UK aged between 14-18 years to submit stories of up to 1,000 words. Shortlisted writers’ stories are professionally recorded and made available on the BBC, with the shortlist invited to an award ceremony broadcast live on BBC radio, where the winner is announced. More information is available at bbc.co.uk/ywa
2023 International Rubery Book Award – 31 March
They accept fiction (all genres), young adult, children’s, biographies, non-fiction, self-help, cookery, poetry, photography etc. They accept books and ebooks. There is no publication date restriction.
To find out more, visit this page: 2023 International Rubery Book Award :: National Association of Writers in Education :: (nawe.co.uk)
2023 Bristol Short Story Prize – 26 April
20 stories will be shortlisted and published in Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 16 by Tangent Books. The winner and 2 runners up will be selected from the shortlist and announced at an awards ceremony in October 2023.
1st prize is £1,000, 2nd prize is £500, 3rd prize is £250. 17 further prizes of £100 will be presented to the remaining shortlisted writers. All shortlisted writers will receive 2 free copies of the anthology.
The 2023 judging panel is: literary agent, Abi Fellows; writer, editor and creative producer, Heather Marks; writer and independent bookshop manager, Daniel Ross. The competition is open to all published and unpublished writers. There is no geographical restriction on entry – the 2023 Bristol Short Story Prize is open to everyone, whether they are based in the UK or outside the UK.
For more information, click this link.
The Candlestick Press Wonky Animals Poetry Competition 2023 – 30 April
Mo Siewcharran Prize – 8 May
The initiative, named in memory of Nielsen BookData’s former director of marketing and communications, aims to nurture talent from under-represented backgrounds writing in English. For 2023, the prize will be hosted by Hachette Children’s Group, and they are looking for fiction writing in the picture book genre.
Entrants must be unagented at the time of entry and previously unpublished, aged 18 or over, resident in the UK and from a Black, Asian, mixed heritage or minority ethnic background.
Click this link for more information and entry requirements.
Creative Future Writers’ Award – 14 May
An annual national writing competition and development programme open to all underrepresented writers. Prizes: £20K in cash & professional development. Free entry.
Submit one piece of writing in the following categories:
Poetry: maximum 50 lines
Fiction: maximum 2000 words
Creative Non-Fiction: maximum 2000 words
Click this link to find out more.
Bridport Prize – 31 May
Now open for entries! The Bridport Prize is committed to discovering new writers in poetry, short story, flash fiction and the novel. The 2023 judges are Roger Robinson, Colin Barrett, Christopher Allen, Sarah Hall and Cathy Rentzenbrink.
Click here for more information.
The Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize – 30 June
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.
Click on this link for more information.
The 2023 Anthology Short Story Competition – 31 August
Established to recognise and encourage creative writing and provide a platform for publication, this short story competition is open to original and previously unpublished short stories in the English language by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. There is no restriction on theme or style. Stories submitted must not exceed the maximum of 1,500 words.
For information on prizes and eligibility, click here.