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
Pencerdd – 20 January
Pencerdd is a Welsh-language opportunity for poets to develop the ancient craft of cynganeddu*; the programme is run in partnership between Literature Wales and Barddas. The aim is to develop poets that are new to the tradition and nurture new voices and perspectives within the cynganeddu tradition in Wales, raising the profile of the canu caeth scene. Pencerdd – Literature Wales
Work Opportunities
Theatr Clwyd: Marketing Assistant – 23 December
The Marketing Assistant implements marketing campaigns supported by the line manager. They will have a focus on our website and solus e-mail system to ensure both areas deliver a high-level audience experience. This role is part of a close knit, sales-focused team, with an emphasis on maximising show income through the implementation of campaigns. They work as part of the Marketing Team to ensure we hit targets, maximum audiences, bring in new visitors, maintain high levels of earned income and gain excellent brand recognition. They also support the broader activity of our work (including Creative Engagement, Bryn Williams and Theatr Clwyd Music) to raise the profile of the organisation.
Contract Type – Permanent. Hours – 37 per week. Starting salary – £23,407. Marketing Assistant | Arts Council of Wales
Theatr Clwyd: Press and Content Assistant – 23 December
The Marketing Assistant implements marketing campaigns supported by the line manager. They will have a focus on our website and solus e-mail system to ensure both areas deliver a high-level audience experience. This role is part of a close knit, sales-focused team, with an emphasis on maximising show income through the implementation of campaigns. They work as part of the Marketing Team to ensure we hit targets, maximum audiences, bring in new visitors, maintain high levels of earned income and gain excellent brand recognition. They also support the broader activity of our work (including Creative Engagement, Bryn Williams and Theatr Clwyd Music) to raise the profile of the organisation.
Contract Type – Permanent. Hours – 37 per week. Starting salary – £23,407. Press & Content Assistant | Arts Council of Wales
British Council: Arts Manager Wales – 5 January
The Arts Manager delivers a diverse portfolio of Arts and Creative Industry programmes funded by British Council grant, other partners or client-funders. They will implement activities in Wales delivered through the Arts four global programmes: Culture Connects, Spotlights on Culture, Creative Economy and Arts Responds to Global Challenges.
Salary: £30,839. Location: Cardiff (successful candidate will be required to work in the Cardiff office at least twice a week)
Contract type: Indefinite (permanent) Arts Manager Wales | Arts Council of Wales
Theatr Clwyd Cultural Heritage Trail – Research Assistant – 22 January
Theatr Clwyd is seeking to engage an Assistant Researcher to support a research project led by Jude Rogers, based on the heritage of the Theatr Clwyd building at Raikes Lane, Mold and compile a body of work based on the resultant research. Contract Type – Freelance. Hours – 20 days. Fee: £175 per day. Theatr Clwyd Cultural Heritage Trail – Research Assistant | Arts Council of Wales
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
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
Seren Books: 2024 Fiction Call-out for Submissions (Welsh Gothic and Fantasy) – 6 January
Seren Books is now open to fiction submissions by Welsh writers in two genres: Welsh Gothic and Fantasy.
N.B: A Welsh writer is defined as anyone who was born, educated, or living in Wales, or who has spent a considerable amount of time here. We regretfully cannot accept submissions from writers based outside of the UK. Submissions – Seren
Modern Poetry in Translation – 10 January
For our April 2025 issue, we invite translators to submit their experiments with translation, ‘afters’, plays with form, translations of the avant-garde (taking into account the complications the category entails in terms of different cultures/languages), translational transgressions and everything else that seeks new possibilities in poetry and translation. April 2025 | Call for submissions: Translational Experiments – Modern Poetry in Translation
Call for Scripts: King’s Shorts Festival of Ten Minute Plays 2025 – 13 January 2025
The Festival is open to all writers and playwrights, worldwide, even if you have never written a play before. Plays should not exceed 10 minutes (total stage time), suggested 12-point Courier font, can be of any genre (comedy, tragedy etc.), have a limited number of characters (1-6), and should not have been previously produced in any form. https://www.kingstheatre.ca/about/kings-shorts-info/
The Media Cymru x Ffilm Cymru Wales Climate Stories Fund – 17 January
Applications open now: The Media Cymru x Ffilm Cymru Wales Climate Stories Fund will support R&D projects for innovative feature films or immersive experiences, which tell climate stories in fresh and compelling ways. Find out more & apply here: https://ffilmcymruwales.com/news-and-events/media-cymru-and-ffilm-cymru-wales-new-fund-find-innovative-ways-share-climate
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)
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
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 Women’s Prize Trust: Discoveries 2025 – 13 January
The Women’s Prize Trust is thrilled to launch Discoveries 2025 – the fifth year of our popular writer development programme and prize for unpublished and unagented writers, run in partnership with Audible, Curtis Brown Literary and Talent Agency and the Curtis Brown Creative writing school.
We are delighted to invite women in the UK and Ireland to submit the opening of their novel in any genre – up to 10,000 words – for the chance to take part in a bespoke creative writing course, secure personalised mentorship packages, access expert feedback, and join a supportive community of emerging writers, with one overall winner receiving representation with a literary agent and £5,000.
We have three authors on the judging panel for 2025 – Claire Kohda, Dreda Say Mitchell, and Chloe Timms. They will be joining Women’s Prize Founder Director, Kate Mosse (chair), Curtis Brown literary agent Jess Molloy and MD of Curtis Brown Creative Anna Davis, in the search for undiscovered writing talent in the UK and Ireland.
Details on how to enter can be found at www.womensprize.com/discoveries.
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! 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.