Competitions Policy & Rules

• The winner and three finalists of the Short Story and Flash Fiction competitions will be published in the December 2024 edition of Mslexia.
• The full shortlist of 12 entrants for each of the Short Story and Flash Fiction competitions will be announced in Mslexia magazine and on the website, and published in the ebook anthology Best Women’s Short Fiction 2024 on 1 December 2024.
• Copyright of any entry remains with the author, but Mslexia has the unrestricted right to publish the winning entries or extracts in its magazine and on its website, plus unrestricted rights to use the winning entries and any related material for PR purposes.

Eligibility

• Entries should be in English (or English dialect) and should not have been published or accepted for publication in print or online by a third party.  
• Entries that have won other competitions are not eligible.
• The Children’s & YA Novel Competition is for unpublished novelist only. Women who have had a text novel published by a mainstream or independent publisher, for any age group, in any country, are not eligible. 
• All of part of self-published manuscripts with sales of fewer than 500 copies are eligible.
• Entries should not be a translation of another author’s work.
• We will accept entries from women of any nationality from any country.
• You do not have to subscribe to Mslexia to be eligible, but you do have to self-identify as a woman. 
• Employees of Mslexia are not eligible. 

For a more detailed explination of 'published' visit our Entry Instructions page.

How to enter

• All competition categories open for entries on 1 June 2024 and close at 23.59 GMT on 23 September 2024.
• You may enter online or send your entry by post. If entering online, there are full instructions on the website.  
• If entering by post, please print out and complete the submission form on our website, mark your envelope ‘Mslexia Fiction Competition’ and send it to: Mslexia Publications Ltd, PO Box 656, Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 1PZ.
• If entering by post, please pay by cheque (payable to Mslexia Publications Ltd.) or by debit/credit card (phone +44 (0)191 204 8860 with your details). 
• You may enter as many competition categories as you like, with as many submissions as you like, but you must enter each submission separately, accompanied by a separate fee.
• Entry fees must be in pounds sterling. For overseas entries, international online card payments are accepted. 

Prize Terms

Novel Comeptition

• Manuscript feedback from The Literary Consultancy is optional. Practical arrangements should be agreed between the finalists and TLC. 
• The pitch training is a day-long professional workshop in Newcastle upon Tyne. The personal introduction to agents and editors will take place at a Talent Party in central London. Both events are arranged in partnership with New Writing North. These parts of the prize are also optional. Mslexia will contribute a total of £100 towards each finalists’ travel expenses. 
• These additional prizes must be taken before 30 September 2024. 

Short Story Competition

• Payment for each of the eight additional shortlisted stories, that will be published along with the four winners in the ebook anthology Best Women’s Short Fiction 2024, is £25. 

Flash Fiction Competition

• Payment for each of the eight additional shortlisted flash fictions that will be published along with the four winners in the ebook anthology Best Women’s Short Fiction 2024, is £25.   

The closing date for all three fiction competition categories is 23 September 2024

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Women's Poetry & Poetry Pamphlet Competition 2024 Rules & Prize Terms

All entries

• Type each poem, single-spaced, on A4 pages. If a poem is longer than one page, please number the pages. Write the title on the same sheet as the poem. This applies to single poem entries as well as to poems that are part of pamphlet entries.
• Your entry will be judged anonymously, so do not put your name on the page with your poem/s.
• No alterations may be made to an entry once it has been submitted.
• Winners will be contacted in February 2025 and all winning poems will be published in the Mar/Apr/May 2025 issue of Mslexia magazine.
• Copyright of each poem remains with the author, but Mslexia and Bloodaxe Books have the unrestricted right to publish the winning poems or pamphlet in their magazine and on their website, plus unrestricted rights to use the winning poems and any related material for PR purposes.  

Single Poem Competition

• Poems may be in any style, of any length, on any subject. Sequences of differently-titled poems must be entered as separate poems. A poem that is structured in several parts may be entered as one poem.
• You may enter any number of poems, but may only win one prize in the single poem competition. This is to allow the maximum number of entrants to receive recognition.
• Entrants who have not had poetry published (see definition under ‘Eligibility’) are also invited to enter the Unpublished Poet Prize by ticking the ‘Unpublished’ option on the online or postal entry form.
• You may enter any poem from a pamphlet entry into our competition for single poems, provided it fulfils the entry requirements. These are separate competitions, so you would need to make a separate entry. Success in one competition will not affect your chance of success in the other competition.

Poetry Pamphlet Competition

• The Pamphlet Competition is separate from the Single Poem Competition and is for short collections of up to 24 pages of 18-20 poems.
• Pamphlet entries may contain poems of any length or style, providing each page contains no more than 40 lines of poetry, and there are no more than 24 pages of poetry in total.
• Poems must be typed, single-spaced, on A4 pages and in a single document.
• Poems submitted may not have been published previously as part of a pamphlet or full collection, but poems that have been published in magazines, anthologies, blogs and other media are eligible for inclusion.
• You may enter any poem from your pamphlet into our competition for single poems, provided it fulfils the entry requirements. These are separate competitions, so you would need to make a separate entry. Success in one competition will not affect your chance of success in the other competition.

Eligibilty

• Poems should be in English (or English dialect). 
• Poems should not be a translation of another author’s work. 
• Poems entered for the Single Poem Competition must not have been previously published or accepted for publication in print or online by a third party, or included in self-published works that are commercially available and have sales of over 300 copies.
• Simultaneous submissions are allowed, of individual poems or pamphlet collections, provided the poet withdraws their work from consideration in other competitions immediately upon notification of its placement in the Mslexia competition.
• We will accept entries from women of any nationality from any country.
• You do not have to subscribe to Mslexia to be eligible, but you do have to self-identify as a woman.

How to enter

• You may enter online or send your entry by post. If entering online, there are full instructions on the website. 
• If entering by post, please print out and complete the submission form on our website, mark your envelope ‘Mslexia Poetry Competition’ and send it to: Mslexia Publications Ltd, PO Box 656, Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 1PZ.
• If entering by post, please pay by cheque (payable to Mslexia Publications Ltd.) or by debit/credit card (phone +44 (0)191 204 8860 with your details).
• Single Poem Competition: The entry fee of £10 allows you to enter up to three poems. You may enter as many times as you like, provided each set of poems is accompanied by the £10 entry fee.
• Poetry Pamphlet Competition: The £20 entry fee allows you to enter one pamphlet. You may enter as many times as you like, provided each collection is accompanied by the £20 entry fee.

Prize Terms

Single Poem Competition

• 1st Prize: £2,000.
• 2nd Prize, £500; 3rd Prize, £250; Unpublished Poet Prize, £250. 16 additional finalists win £25 each.
• The Unpublished Poet Prize may be awarded in addition to a finalist prize, but not in addition to a 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize

Poetry Pamphlet Competition

• The prize is £250 plus publication by Bloodaxe Books.
• The winning poet will be offered Bloodaxe Books’ standard publishing agreement in which copyright for the poems remains with the author, but Bloodaxe reserves the right to publish the work in its entirety or in part in the UK, Ireland, and the rest of the world for three years following the publication of the pamphlet. All rights will revert to the author at the end of this time.

Closing date: 
23.59 GMT, 9 December 2024

 

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Our Policy

Mslexia is staffed mainly by writers and we treat your work with the same respect we would wish for our own writing. Submissions are assessed by authors, agents and tutors at the top of their professions.

Monitoring diversity

Everyone published in Mslexia is sent a diversity monitoring form to help us assess whether we are reaching the broadest possible population of women writers, and responding appropriately to your interests and challenges. When considering those interests and challenges, we include issues of income, class, race, age, gender identification, sexuality, caring responsibilities, location, disability, mental and physical health and any other issue that that affects your skill, time and confidence to write and submit your work, and your reception when you do so.

Republishing work after it appears in Mslexia 

If your work wins or is a finalist in a Mslexia competition, we are happy for you to reprint it on your own website or social media, or submit it for possible publication elsewhere, provided this occurs after the original date of its publication in Mslexia and provided Mslexia is credited as follows: ‘This piece was originally published in Mslexia, the magazine for women who write, mslexia.co.uk’. 

Donated Competition Entries

We operate a ‘Donate an entry’ scheme for all of our competitions. This allows us to offer sponsored entries to low-income writers. Click for here for eligibility criteria if you'd like to apply for a sponsored entry and details of how to donate can be found below.

Donate an Entry 

Please visit our Entry Instructions page for a detailed look at eligibility criteria, information on what happens after you've submitted, and instructions on how to enter.

And our full Terms & Conditions can be found here.