Dig that manuscript out of the desk drawer and sharpen your pencil! The 2025 NB Writing Competition opened January 1 and runs until March 31. Open to all New Brunswick residents (English Only), as well as all Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick members, the provincial writing competition presents awards in eight categories:

• The David Adams Richards Prize for fiction manuscript, 
• The Douglas Kyle Memorial Prize for short fiction, 
• The Alfred G. Bailey prize for poetry manuscript, 
• The Dawn Watson Memorial Prize for single poem, 
• The WeyMedia Books for Young People prize, 
• The Sheree Fitch prize for Teen Writers (up to age 18), 
• The Narrative Nonfiction Prize,
• and The Jane LeBlanc Screenwriting Award

Though the New Brunswick writing competition has existed since 1985, not all New Brunswick writers who scribble in their spare time might know about the competition or take the time to enter every year. But winning it can be an important stepping-stone in any writer’s career.

“I won the David Adams Richards prize (for a collection of short stories) in 2005,” says Riel Nason. The author, who is based in Quispamsis, NB, has written eight books since winning the David Adams Richards prize, and went on to win the Commonwealth Prize for her first book, The Town that Drowned (2011, Goose Lane). “I was super happy to have that as a thing to mention in every single query letter I sent to agents and publishers trying to get published. My advice: Enter.” 

Writing competitions are also a great way for new writers to develop the discipline to meet deadlines and carefully observe submission guidelines, such as writing to a specific word count and formatting their submission to specific protocols. They also give more experienced writers a way to experiment with new forms of writing—a poet who wants to take on screenwriting, for example.

The competition is open January 1 – March 31 every year. Writers can check out the submission guidelines at https://wfnb.ca/Writing-Competition