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
Writing Well – 13 March
Applications are now open for Sgwennu’n Well | Writing Well! This is our 15-month development programme in two parts for literary facilitators in Wales. Part one offers intense training aiming to enhance the skills needed to facilitate literary activities in the community, and part two will support the cohort of facilitators to create and deliver participatory projects which benefit the health and well-being of participants. Writing Well – Literature Wales
Work Opportunities
Hijinx: Associate Producer – 31 January
Hijinx is recruiting an Associate Producer on a part-time basis to support the Head of Film with all aspects of Hijinx’s film programme. As Associate Producer, you are a key member of the creative team and are responsible for assisting the Head of Film to create high quality documentaries, short films and feature films that showcase Hijinx actors and reflect the lived experience of learning disabled and/or autistic people. You also support the planning and delivery of Unity Film Festival. Associate Producer | Arts Council of Wales
Hay Festival Academy internships – 3 March
Looking to break into the creative industries? Hay Festival is the perfect place to get experience, meet new people, and kickstart your career! They are looking for 29 young people to join their team and work on one of the world’s leading art and literature festivals.
Hay Festival Academy is a skills development and practical apprenticeship programme based in Hay-on-Wye in Wales for young people aged 18-25. It gives young people the opportunity to learn, train and practically experience how festivals and live events are created and produced from some of the industry’s most experienced events practitioners.
There are openings for Event Management interns (closing date 3 March, ideal for those aged 20-25) and Journalism and Content Creation interns (closing date 3 March) for the duration of the festival, 22 May – 1 June 2025. Accommodation and meals are provided, and travel costs within the UK are covered.
Hay Festival welcomes and encourages applications from candidates who are under-represented in the creative industries. Full details here: https://www.hayfestival.com/academy
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 publishes a small selection of literary criticism in each print issue, as well as online book reviews and regular round-ups of new releases. We are interested in English-language fiction and non-fiction, published by Welsh or Wales-based authors and/or publishers, as well as those with a Welsh theme, setting or connection. If you’re a publisher, publicist or author and would like to flag a book you think we should know about, you can do so via the form here: Tell Us About a Book – Folding Rock: New Writing from Wales and Beyond
Call for Submissions: M2M Books – 14 February 2025
M2M Books welcome submissions for:
- Literary Fiction for marginalised audiences
- Nonfiction for marginalised audiences
- Children’s Books for marginalised audiences
- Poetry Collections for marginalised audiences
- Individual poems (for poetry anthology for marginalised audiences)
Artists Open Call: Two-week residency at Ynys Enlli – 16 February
For emerging and established artists from Wales. This opportunity offers dedicated time and space away from daily life for artists to develop their work and engaging with the island’s unique environment and heritage. The Arts | enlli
Bleddfa Centre – Artist Residency 2025 – 18 February
With generous support from The Ashley Family Foundation, Bleddfa Centre are offering a 9-month artist residency commencing in spring 2025 and completing by December 2025. The residency is aimed at artists with a strong socially engaged practice and who are interested in working collaboratively with individuals and community members and regional partners to help generate and promote new creative activity at the Centre. Bleddfa Centre – Artist Residency 2025 | Arts Council of Wales
Volume 3 of ‘Tatws Siôn Cent’ – 28 February
Tatws Siôn Cent are launching a poetry callout for Volume 3 of ‘Tatws Siôn Cent’! If you have a connection to the Aber Valley, then they’d love to receive something from you! You don’t need to have any previous experience of writing poetry, and it can be in any style and any language.
THEME: Each edition has a theme linked to a selected area in the Aber Valley with people then asked to write a poem based on that area. The aim is to encourage people to engage with their local area, and that might involve visiting it for inspiration or simply looking at the map itself.
Vol 1 was based in Abertridwr, and Vol 2 was based in Senghenydd. For this edition they have selected an area that covers both! The area selected for the third edition can be found through this google maps link (if it doesn’t open fist time on your phone, click the ‘try again’ link and it should appear) . If you have any issue with accessibility, either seeing the map or visiting the area, let us know in case we can help out. E-mail: tatwssioncent@gmail.com
Year of Wales Japan 2025: Call for Expressions of Interest – 5 March
Wales Arts International and British Council Wales, supported by Welsh Government, are inviting expressions of interest for funding towards arts focussed activity that will take place between Wales and Japan and between April and December 2025.
2025 is the Welsh Government Year of Wales Japan. Arts, culture and well-being have played a significant role in developing rich and cultural connections between Wales and Japan and are a key part of the year’s focus.
Wales Arts International and British Council Wales, supported by Welsh Government, are inviting expressions of interest for funding towards arts focussed activity that will take place between Wales and Japan and between April and December 2025.
This funding opportunity aims to:
- extend and amplify existing arts partnerships and collaborations between Wales and Japan
- develop new artistic and cultural connections and collaborations that will build long-term sustainable relationships between artists, arts organisations and cultural practitioners
It is open to individuals and organisations working in the arts in Wales.
Funding available: We have a total of £150,000 available. You can apply for funding between £1,000 and £40,000. Year of Wales Japan 2025: Call for Expressions of Interest | Arts Council of Wales
New Croton Review – 8 March
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.
If you have unpublished poetry, fiction, nonfiction, photographs, or visual art that you’d like the New Croton Review to consider, please email it to Review@CrotonArts.org. The Review is published worldwide on Amazon (full-color paperback and Kindle), and on Google Play and Apple Books (digital e-book).
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.
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 Rheidol Prize: For Prose with a Welsh Theme or Setting – 31 January
The Rheidol Prize: For Prose with a Welsh Theme or Setting continues with a winning prize of a £1000 development publishing contract, with either a 2-night stay at Gladstone’s Residential Library and a residential course at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre for two runner up entries.
The Borzello Trust Poetry Prize – 31 January
The winner of this prize will receive a £500 development poetry publishing contract. For full competitions terms and eligibility click here.
The 2025 Bristol Short Story Prize – 31 January
The competition is open to all writers around the world whether published or unpublished, UK or non-UK based.
30 stories will be longlisted and 15 shortlisted and published in Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology, Volume 17. The winner and 2 runners up will be selected from the shortlist and announced at an awards ceremony in June 2025.
1st prize is £1,000, 2nd prize is £500, 3rd prize is £250. 12 further prizes of £50 will be presented to the remaining shortlisted writers.
All shortlisted writers will receive a free copy of the anthology. Prizes will be sent to any writer on the shortlist who is unable to attend the awards ceremony.
The judging panel consists of EU Award for Literature novelist and short story writer, Jan Carson, Wolf Literary agent Kate Johnson; and Women’s Prize for Fiction longlisted novelist and short story writer Peace Adzo Medie.
Entry fee is £12 per story. 250 free online entries are available to those for whom the entry fee is a barrier to submitting to the 2025 Bristol Short Story Prize on a first come, first served basis. One free entry per person. No email request or any other method of application is necessary to use the free entry option.
Full details and rules of the 2025 Bristol Short Story Prize are available here: https://bssp.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/entry-form/ .
2024 Keats-Shelley Essay and Poetry Prizes – 31 January
Poets are asked to write a new work inspired by this year’s prize theme of “Exile”. The prizes include the Keats-Shelley Prize for essays and poems and the Young Romantics Prize, also for essays and poems, open to those aged 16 to 18yrs. Entrants are welcome from around the world. The Chair of this year’s prizes will be acclaimed author and historian Tom Holland. Returning as judges for this year’s poetry prizes will be award-winning poet Will Kemp and Professor Deryn
Rees-Jones, and for the essay prizes Professor Simon Bainbridge and Professor Sharon Ruston. 2024’s Keats-Shelley and Young Romantics Prizes Are Open – News from the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association
Poetry Wales Award – 17 February
The Poetry Wales Award is a single-poem competition open to poets worldwide to share their new, never-before-published work. Various prizes available, including a residential course at Ty Newydd or a stay at Nant cottage for the first-prize winner! The competition this year is judged by Jeremy Dixon, who is himself a prize-winning poet and has several collections published. Poetry Wales Award 2024-25 – Poetry Wales
2025 Next Generation Short Story Awards – 27 February
Are you someone who loves writing short stories? Have you been wanting to share your short story (or stories) with others or get recognized for your writing? If so, we’d love to introduce you to the Next Generation Short Story Awards, a not-for-profit awards program open to authors writing original short stories (5,000 words or less per story) in English. Full details: Next Generation Short Story Awards – How To Enter
THE OXFORD/42 NEW WRITING PRIZE – 30 April
The Oxford/42 New Writing Prize is looking for talented new voices in storytelling, and is open to aspiring novelists, playwrights, and screenwriters. They are interested in experimental writing as well as work that would appeal to a broad audience.
The competition is open to anyone over the age of 18 living, working or studying in the UK and Ireland at the closing date for submissions. The winner will receive £1500 along with professional representation by 42.
To enter the competition, you need to submit a synopsis (up to 300 words) and an elevator pitch of no more than two sentences for a work of fiction, along with one of the following:
Novel – the first 10,000 to 15,000 words
Stage or radio play – a complete script of between 30 and 90 pages
Screenplays – a script of between 30 and 60 pages for episode one of a TV show or a complete feature-length film script of 90 pages.
They are now accepting entries. Please email them to: Oxfordwritingprize@42mp.com
Never Too Late 60+ award – 31 May
This £500 award is for the highest placed writer aged 60+ across poetry, short story, novel or flash fiction.
The Never Too Late Award unlocks the hidden talent of older writers. Writers in later life often struggle to be seen despite a wealth of experience, creativity and stories to tell.
Championed by best selling author Kit de Waal (aged 64) and London Literary Agent, AM Heath (in business for over a century), this award aims to recognise success over sixty and a ‘never give up’ resilience that is the mainstay of writers. The winner will receive a Zoom session with Mary-Anne Harrington from Tinder Press (part of Hachette) about the publishing industry and two signed copies of Kit de Waal’s books.