2020 is here and with it our brand new creative writing competitions. You can now submit up to two novellas and two pamphlets and be in for a chance to win coveted Lucent Dreaming merch, publication, as well as a cash prize! All entries will be considered for publication and will receive feedback from the judges where requested. Entries are £4 per novella or £5 per pamphlet, or free for low-income writers.
Read the winners of the 2020 poetry and short story contests: https://lucentdreaming.com/lucent-dreaming-2020-poetry-and-short-story-contest-winners-announced/
- 2020 Pamphlet Contest Closes 4 December 2020
- 2020 Novella Contest Closes 4 December 2020
- 2020 Flash Fiction Contest Closed 31 July 2020
- 2020 Poetry Contest Closed 30 May 2020
- 2020 Short Story Contest Closed 30 May 2020
This competition is open only for diaspora, migrant and refugee poets in the UK who have not previously published a poetry collection. We welcome and highly encourage submissions from Black poets living in the UK.
If you/your family has been removed from, fled, left your/their homeland, or you're a 1st, 2nd, etc. gen immigrant, this is for you.
Rules
- Your pamphlet should have a title.
- Your pamphlet should include 20 poems.
- Your submission may comprise poems previously published in competitions, anthologies or magazines so long as you retain the rights to republish elsewhere.
- You must be 18+ to enter.
- Your poems must be written by you!
- You must submit your entry as a document file. This document should contain a contents page and be formatted to include a page break between each poem.
- You can submit twice per round.
- We must receive your entry by our deadline on December 4th 2020 at 6pm UK time.
- Each entry, excluding free entries, must be accompanied by a £5 entry fee which you can pay via our shop or via PayPal.
- Entries are free if you can't afford the free, especially for those who are low-waged or from low-income backgrounds, from households earning £16,000/$20,000 or less per year. There is no need to declare or prove your income threshold.
Any entries that don’t follow these rules will be automatically disqualified
How to enter
Pay your entry fee through our shop, then go to Tinyurl.com/LucentPamphlet and fill out our entry form. If you qualify for free entry, or cannot afford to pay an entry fee, skip the payment step. If you can’t submit through our Google form, attach your .doc or .docx file with your pen name, contact details and pamphlet title to lucentdreaming@outlook.com with the subject 2020 PAMPHLET CONTEST by the deadline.
Judging
Your pamphlet will be judged on: the quality of writing; whether we respond emotionally and/or intellectually and your pamphlet’s overall coherence/style. We will announce the winners of the contest in July 2021.
Prizes
(Awarded if we receive 50 or more qualifying submissions)
1st Prize
£100
Your pamphlet published on our website and/or in print
Limited edition merch
2nd Prize
£50
Your pamphlet published on our website and/or in print
Limited edition merch
3rd Prize
£25
Limited edition merch
Terms and conditions
Our prizes are only awarded if we receive 50 or more qualifying submissions.
We’ll disqualify entries that don’t follow our rules, are offensive or otherwise inappropriate.
We can’t accept poems not written in English.
By submitting to the competition you agree that if you win or place 1st or 2nd in the competition, you grant Lucent Dreaming the unrestricted right to publish and broadcast your work in print, online, audio, performance and video (although you also retain copyright of your work).
Your pamphlet may be published on our website or in print depending on the overall quality of submissions and our budget.
We’ll use your email address to contact you regarding your contest entry. We may contact you about publishing single poems in our upcoming issue.
Entries are free for those from low-income backgrounds, from households earning approximately £16,000 or less per year. There is no need to declare or prove your income threshold.
We reserve the right to amend terms, conditions, judging, rules and prizes as appropriate.
Lucent Dreaming's decision is final.
Lucent Dreaming 2020 Novella Contest
Rules
- Your entry must be between approx. 15,000 and 40,000 words.
- Your entry must be previously unpublished.
- You cannot submit a story you have currently submitted elsewhere, i.e. No simultaneous submissions.
- You must be 18+ to enter.
- Your entry must be written by you!
- You must submit your entry as a .doc or .docx file.
- We must receive your entry by our deadline on December 4th 2020 at 10pm UK time.
- You can submit up to 2 entries per round and you cannot resubmit or edit your entry once we have received it.
- Each entry, excluding free entries, must be accompanied by a £4 entry fee which you can pay via our shop or via PayPal.
- Entries are free for those from low-income backgrounds, from households earning £16,000/$20,000 or less per year. There is no need to declare or prove your income threshold.
Any entries that do not follow these rules will be automatically disqualified.
How to enter
Pay your entry fee through our shop, then go to Tinyurl.com/LucentNovella and fill out our entry form. If you qualify for free entry, or cannot afford to pay your entry fee, skip the payment step. If you can’t submit through our Google form, attach your .doc or .docx file with your word count, pen name and submission title to lucentdreaming@outlook.com with the subject 2020 NOVELLA CONTEST by the deadline.
Judging
Your short story will be judged on its premise; the quality of writing; whether we feel for your character and your story’s overall coherence. We will announce the winners of the contest in February 2021.
Prizes
(Awarded if we receive 20 or more qualifying submissions)
1st Prize
- £100
- Fiction Bundle
- Your story published on our website and/or in print
- Limited edition merch
2nd Prize
- £50
- Your story published on our website (or not if you prefer)
- Limited edition merch
3rd Prize
- £25
- Your story published on our website (or not if you prefer)
- Limited edition merch
Terms and conditions
- Our prizes are only awarded if we receive 20 or more qualifying submissions.
- By submitting to the competition you agree that if you win or place in the competition, you grant Lucent Dreaming the unrestricted right to publish and broadcast your work in print, online, audio, performance and video.
- Winning entries may not be published elsewhere until December 2021.
- We’ll disqualify entries that don’t follow our rules, are offensive or otherwise inappropriate.
- We can’t accept entries not written in English.
- We’ll use your email address to contact you regarding your contest entry. We may contact you about publishing your entry in an upcoming issue.
- Entries are free for those from low-income backgrounds, from households earning approximately £16,000 or less per year. There is no need to declare or prove your income threshold.
...
Lucent Dreaming 2020 Flash Fiction Contest
Rules
- Your entry must be between 800 and 1,500 words.
- Your entry must be previously unpublished.
- You cannot submit a story you have currently submitted elsewhere, i.e. No simultaneous submissions.
- You must be 18+ to enter.
- Your entry must be written by you!
- You must submit your entry as a .doc or .docx file.
- We must receive your entry by our deadline on July 31st 2020 at 10pm UK time.
- You can submit up to 5 entries per round and you cannot resubmit or edit your entry once we have received it.
- Each entry, excluding free entries, must be accompanied by a £4 entry fee which you can pay via our shop or via PayPal.
- Entries are free for those from low-income backgrounds, from households earning £16,000/$20,000 or less per year. There is no need to declare or prove your income threshold.
Any entries that do not follow these rules will be automatically disqualified.
How to enter
Pay your entry fee through our shop, then go to Tinyurl.com/LucentFlash and fill out our entry form. If you qualify for free entry, or cannot afford to pay your entry fee, skip the payment step. If you can’t submit through our Google form, attach your .doc or .docx file with your word count, pen name and submission title to lucentdreaming@outlook.com with the subject 2020 FLASH FICTION CONTEST by the deadline.
Judging
Your short story will be judged on its premise; the quality of writing; whether we feel for your character and your story’s overall coherence. We will announce the winners of the contest in September.
Prizes
(Awarded if we receive 50 or more qualifying submissions)
1st Prize
- £100
- Fiction Bundle
- Your story published on our website and in our magazine
- Limited edition merch
2nd Prize
- £50
- Your story published on our website and in our magazine
- Limited edition merch
3rd Prize
- £25
- Your story published on our website
- Limited edition merch
Terms and conditions
- Our prizes are only awarded if we receive 20 or more qualifying submissions.
- By submitting to the competition you agree that if you win or place in the competition, you grant Lucent Dreaming the unrestricted right to publish and broadcast your work in print, online, audio, performance and video.
- Winning entries may not be published elsewhere until July 2021.
- We’ll disqualify entries that don’t follow our rules, are offensive or otherwise inappropriate.
- We can’t accept entries not written in English.
- We’ll use your email address to contact you regarding your contest entry. We may contact you about publishing your entry in an upcoming issue.
- Entries are free for those from low-income backgrounds, from households earning approximately £16,000 or less per year. There is no need to declare or prove your income threshold.
...
Lucent Dreaming 2020 Poetry Contest
Rules
- Your poem must be between 1 and 56 lines long (including line spacing).
- Your entry must be previously unpublished.
- You cannot submit a poem you have currently submitted elsewhere, i.e. No simultaneous submissions.
- You must be 18+ to enter.
- Your poem must be written by you!
- You must submit your entry as a document file.
- You can submit up to five poems per round and you cannot resubmit or edit your entry after it has been submitted.
- We must receive your entry by our deadline on May 30th 2020 at 10pm UK time.
- Each entry, excluding free entries, must be accompanied by a £4 entry fee which you can pay via our shop or via PayPal.
- Entries are free for those from low-income backgrounds, from households earning £16,000/$20,000 or less per year. There is no need to declare or prove your income threshold.
Any entries that don’t follow these rules will be automatically disqualified.
How to enter
Pay your entry fee through our shop, then go to Tinyurl.com/LucentPoetry and fill out our entry form. If you qualify for free entry, or cannot afford to pay your entry fee, skip the payment step. If you can’t submit through our Google form, attach your .doc or .docx file with your line count, pen name and submission title to lucentdreaming@outlook.com with the subject 2020 POETRY CONTEST by the deadline.
Judging
Your poem will be judged on: the quality of writing; whether we respond emotionally and/or intellectually and your poem’s overall coherence/style. We will announce the winners of the contest in July 2020.
Prizes
(Awarded if we receive 30 or more qualifying submissions)
1st Prize
- £100
- Poetry Bundle
- Your poem published on our website and in our magazine
- Limited edition merch
- Free editing for a year
2nd Prize
- £50
- Your poem published on our website and in our magazine
- Limited edition merch
3rd Prize
- £25
- Your poem published on our website
- Limited edition merch
Terms and conditions
- Our prizes are only awarded if we receive 30 or more qualifying submissions.
- We’ll disqualify poems that don’t follow our rules, are offensive or otherwise inappropriate.
- We can’t accept poems not written in English.
- By submitting to the competition you agree that if you win or place in the competition, you grant Lucent Dreaming the unrestricted right to publish and broadcast your work in print, online, audio, performance and video.
- Winning entries may not be published elsewhere until May 2021.
- We’ll use your email address to contact you regarding your contest entry. We may contact you about publishing your entry in our upcoming issue.
- Entries are free for those from low-income backgrounds, from households earning approximately £16,000 or less per year. There is no need to declare or prove your income threshold.
...
Lucent Dreaming 2020 Short Story Contest
Rules
- Your entry must be between 2,000 and 7,500 words.
- Your entry must be previously unpublished.
- You cannot submit a story you have currently submitted elsewhere, i.e. No simultaneous submissions.
- You must be 18+ to enter.
- Your entry must be written by you!
- You must submit your entry as a .doc or .docx file.
- We must receive your entry by our deadline on May 30th 2020 at 10pm UK time.
- You can submit up to 5 entries per round and you cannot resubmit or edit your entry once we have received it.
- Each entry, excluding free entries, must be accompanied by a £4 entry fee which you can pay via our shop or via PayPal.
- Entries are free for those from low-income backgrounds, from households earning £16,000/$20,000 or less per year. There is no need to declare or prove your income threshold.
Any entries that do not follow these rules will be automatically disqualified.
How to enter
Pay your entry fee through our shop, then go to Tinyurl.com/LucentContest and fill out our entry form. If you qualify for free entry, or cannot afford to pay your entry fee, skip the payment step. If you can’t submit through our Google form, attach your .doc or .docx file with your word count, pen name and submission title to lucentdreaming@outlook.com with the subject 2020 SHORT STORY CONTEST by the deadline.
Judging
Your short story will be judged on its premise; the quality of writing; whether we feel for your character and your story’s overall coherence. We will announce the winners of the contest in July.
Prizes
(Awarded if we receive 20 or more qualifying submissions)
1st Prize
- £100
- Fiction Bundle
- Your story published on our website and in our magazine
- Limited edition merch
- Free editing for a year
2nd Prize
- £50
- Your story published on our website and in our magazine
- Limited edition merch
3rd Prize
- £25
- Your story published on our website
- Limited edition merch
Terms and conditions
- Our prizes are only awarded if we receive 20 or more qualifying submissions.
- By submitting to the competition you agree that if you win or place in the competition, you grant Lucent Dreaming the unrestricted right to publish and broadcast your work in print, online, audio, performance and video.
- Winning entries may not be published elsewhere until May 2021.
- We’ll disqualify entries that don’t follow our rules, are offensive or otherwise inappropriate.
- We can’t accept entries not written in English.
- We’ll use your email address to contact you regarding your contest entry. We may contact you about publishing your entry in an upcoming issue.
- Entries are free for those from low-income backgrounds, from households earning approximately £16,000 or less per year. There is no need to declare or prove your income threshold.
...
Lucent Dreaming is an independent creative writing magazine publishing beautiful, imaginative and surreal short stories, poetry and artwork from emerging authors and artists worldwide. Our aim is to encourage creativity and to help writers reach publication! Subscribe to Lucent Dreaming now, support us on Patreon and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.