The First Pages Prize supports emerging writers worldwide. To date, we’ve awarded US$18,000 in prize packages to 19 past winners. In 2020, NZ author Pip McKay won with the opening of her historical fiction, The Telling Time.

We welcome entries of the first 5 pages of a longer work of fiction or creative nonfiction. Lan Samantha Chang, director of the esteemed Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is this year’s judge.

Five winners will receive cash awards (US$2,000 1st, $1,250 2nd, $750 3rd, $500 4th & 5th), a developmental edit to support the completion of their manuscript, and an agent consultation with Caroline Hardman, of London literary agency Hardman & Swainson.

Open worldwide, the competition is for writers who are currently un-agented. Entries must be unpublished, original and written in English.

Our judging criteria are: writing craft, a sense of a bigger story emerging, and how hooked we are by your pages. The review process is anonymous, uses Submittable, and involves an international panel of readers.

Enter by February 7, 2021, or by the extended deadline of February 21, 2021. A reading fee of US $20 or $35 (extended) applies.

The longlist, shortlist and winners will be notified in April 2021.

For full guidelines, terms & conditions, and to enter, visit the First Pages Prize site: https://www.firstpagesprize.com.