Welcome to New Writers UK
NewWriters.org.uk helps creative writers find trusted competitions, craft advice, and community-guided support. Our up-to-date, curated list of writing competitions features opportunities for writers based in the UK and globally.
We also provide selected resources and practical writing guides for new writers and experienced authors. Our mission is to help you write better stories or poems, more regularly, and to find the right platforms to share your work.
New Writers 100-Word Writing Competition 2026
The New Writers 100-Word Writing Competition 2026 is open for entries until 30th April 2026. With a top prize of £1,000, and four runners-up prizes of £100 each, it’s certainly worth entering. The five winning entries will be published in a future issue of the New Writers Anthology.
If you’d like any writing inspiration, read the winning entries from previous competitions in the New Writers Anthology – Issue 1.
The winners of the Flash Fiction Competition 2026 will be announced by 27th March 2026. The winners of the New Writers Historical Flash Fiction Competition 2025 have been announced and can be found HERE. You can also read the winning entry to the Festive 50-Word Competition 2025.
What Do You Want To Write?
Short Fiction
Whether you want to write short stories, flash fiction or even – for those in a hurry – micro fiction, we’ll provide useful resources to help you develop ideas and produce great stories.
Novels
Whether you’re aiming to be the next Stephen King or Zadie Smith, or you have always dreamed of finishing a novel, we’ve got lots of information that could help you on your journey.
Poetry
If poetry talks to you, moves your soul, enlivens your spirit, well, why not write some of your own? Whether you start with a haiku or a sonnet or you plump for free-form, stream of consciousness verse, let your inner poet out.
Writing is part of the journey…
But the editing and revising process is as important as the first draft. Fail at this stage and your writing will not be as good as it could or should be.
Don’t Fear The Blank Page
Every sonnet Shakespeare wrote, every novel penned by the greats from Cervantes to Austen to Dickens to JK Rowling, began with a blank page. And anything you write will begin to fill the space on that blank page (or computer screen, if you prefer).
Some people become fearful when faced with the pure white unsullied page, overawed by the infinite possibilities. But fear not. It’s just a page. And as soon as you write your first word, the page will no longer be empty and its power will diminish.
So fear not… and write.
To help you out, we’ve produced, begged and borrowed various writing exercises and prompts to help you make progress with your next poem or work of prose fiction.
Writing resources to push you further
There are loads of books about the craft of writing, writing courses and writing websites out there but which is right for you?
For those who don’t have time to research the numerous options (and, after all, that is time you could use for writing!), we’ll outline some of the best resources to help you progress towards your writing goals.