Writer’s Digest hosting fall awards competitions

This is probably something I should be charging a fee for (yeah, right :), but I figured I’d mention it since it’s relevant and many Protagonists are aspiring professional authors.

Writer’s Digest, the popular American magazine for both beginning and established authors, is hosting a couple of different contests that you might be interested in participating in.

The first is the 4th Annual WD Popular Fiction Awards, which has five potential categories available for short story submissions. The deadline for entry is November 8th, and there are some decent prizes for the winners:

The Grand Prize-Winner will receive $2,500 cash, $100 worth of Writer’s Digest Books and the 2009 Novel & Short Story Writer’s market.

Interestingly, you can enter as many times as you like in each category, with each “manuscript” being 4,000 words or shorter. The cost to enter is $12.50, which is quite reasonable (especially when compared to what I’ve paid recently to enter certain competitions with Protagonize…), and you still have a good four weeks to get your submissions in. There’s a FAQ on the competition’s homepage in case you’re interested, and you can enter here.

Writer’s Digest is also hosting their annual Poetry Awards Competition, for those with a more poetic slant to their writing. The Poetry Awards entry deadline is December 19th, with a 32-line limit to your work (though subject material and style seems totally open), and the cash prizes are a little smaller ($500 for 1st place vs. $2,500 in the Short Story Competition), though the winner does get the option of a free package from Lulu.com, a site that lets you self-publish your work. If you’re feeling up to it, you can enter the Poetry Awards competition here.