Deadlines can be very useful to get you focused on completing your work. If you don’t win, you can always add the text to your inventory and submit elsewhere. Here are a selection of upcoming dates for your calendar:

• Apr 7: Stratford-on-Avon Fringe Festival Contest: Avon Fringe Festival presents a “Realised Play- Script competition. Entries are invited from anyone of any age with a short play to offer” …MORE

• Apr 14: Narrative Magazine are one of the best online destinations for new fiction of the highest quality. Their “free reading period” runs for the first two weeks of April …MORE

• May 21: BBC Writersroom is the clearing-house for new writers looking to attract the BBC’s attention across all television and radio channels. They have three Calls for Scripts each year: the Spring Deadline comes in May …MORE

• 31st May: Bridport Prize has three categories: poems, short stories, and flash fiction …MORE

• 29th June: The McLaverty Short Story Award is open to writers born in Ireland …MORE

• 31st July: The Sean Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition is a prestigious contest with appealing prizes …MORE