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
Little Wonder: Marketing Manager – 19 March
Little Wander is a comedy production company which creates festivals, tours, live events, TV, radio and podcasts. This role requires you to devise and deliver strategic marketing campaigns across our portfolio of work with support from the Admin & Marketing Assistant and Production Co-ordinator. Applicants should be looking for a role which demands a lot of administrative tasks as well as creative ones. It is an exceptionally busy company so candidates should be prepared for a huge variety of responsibilities across all departments and have the ability to re-prioritise work regularly.
Hours: Full-time, flexible work schedule
Location: home based, remote working, anywhere in the UK
Salary: £30-35,000 depending on experience. Marketing Manager, Little Wander | Arts Council of Wales
Interim Executive Director (Joint CEO): National Dance Company Wales – 31 March
National Dance Company Wales is looking for an Interim Executive Director (Joint CEO).
We’re looking for a leader with skills in people management, finance, managing change, and with knowledge of multiple income streams. You will have significant leadership experience and will be confident in all aspects of financial management. You will probably have worked in the arts and/or third sector and be used to leading dynamic teams. There is no hard closing date for this role. Applications will be reviewed as they are received. Interim Executive Director (Joint CEO). | 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
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.
Velindre Artist in Residence – 21 March
Velindre Cancer Centre is looking for an imaginative and motivated visual artist to become Artist in Residence within our Radiology Department. The Arts in Health programme at Velindre aims to bring art and creativity into the hospital environment with a varied programme of participatory projects on and off-site. We are keen to expand this work further as there is a growing body of evidence that art in a hospital environment improves the mental health, resilience, social support and communication of people with cancer.
Dates: May – September
Duration 20 days (1 day a week)
Fee: £4,999 (£250 a day). Materials budget: £2000. Velindre Artist in Residence | Arts Council of Wales
Hay Festival: The Platform – 3 April
Hay Festival has announced the return of The Platform, an open call for creatives aged 21–28 to submit their new work to be showcased in Hay-on-Wye this summer.
Successful artists will have the chance to share their work with Festival audiences on Wednesday 28 May in the Festival’s Creative Hub space, plus meet and network with established artists over a three-day visit. All Festival expenses will be paid and each artist will receive an event fee for their work.
The Platform is open to a range of art forms, including performance (theatre, dance, street), poetry, digital art, film, audio, music, and literature and aims to bring together a diverse and representative group of artists from across the UK. The Platform at Hay Festival
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.
BBC Young Writers’ Award 2025 – 24 March (9am)
Now in its 11th year, the Award challenges young people in the UK aged between 14-18 to write a short story of up to 1,000 words – no theme, no subject, just great storytelling. 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
Previous winners have gone on to win other national and international writing competitions, and even achieve professional book deals.
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
Wirral Poetry Festival Open Poetry Competition 2025 – 30 May
Poems on any subject, of not more than 40 lines, in English. Open prizes adjudicated by Helen Ivory and Martin Figura; Wirral Prizes by Pauline Rowe.
Open prizes:1st prize £250, 4 £25 runner-up prizes. Wirral prizes (for entrants living/working in Wirral): 1st Prize £100, 2 £25 runner-up prizes. Entry: £4 per poem / £10 for 3 poems. Full details and online entry at www.wirralpoetryfestival.org.uk .
Winners to be notified by 11 July 2025 and invited to a competition celebration during the Wirral Poetry Festival in October. Competition results posted online on 18 July 2025.
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.