Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: Updated Eponymous Guide to Literary Contests and Competitions

By now, many of you know that I’m into the tenth year of publishing a free monthly newsletter for writers. Titled “The Practicing Writer,” the newsletter has evolved over time to include ONLY no-fee competitions and paying calls for submissions, plus other news and resources for writers of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. (Read the current issue.)

Over the years, I’ve offered new newsletter subscribers an exclusive benefit: a guide to “eponymous literary contests and competitions.” I’ve previously titled this guide “From (A)lgren to (Y)eats.” But in the latest update–which I concluded a few days ago–I decided that, in keeping with my newsletter policies, I should limit the contests and competitions listed in the guide to opportunities that don’t charge fees. Sadly, I can’t find any Yeats-related contest that is also fee-free. So this edition of the guide brings a title change: “From (A)lgren to (W)illiams.”

The guide goes out automatically to new subscribers, but the file is available to current subscribers as well. (NB: If you’re a newsletter subscriber but you have trouble accessing the file, please read this for advice. I hope that will help!)

UPDATE, 8:00 AM: I can’t help but wonder if this post, which went live shortly after midnight, is what attracted the attention of the nefarious hacker who evidently hacked into my Yahoo! account a few hours ago. In any case, I apologize profusely for any nasty messages any of you have received from “me.” Hopefully, the situation has been remedied. Thank you for your understanding.