One of the best ways to get your writing noticed is by entering your work into free writing contests. There is no greater proof that you are a well-skilled writer than the awards and prizes that you’ve won with your writing.

So in the spirit of giving your writing career that boost, I’d like to present the top 10 sites where you can submit your work for awards, cash prizes, or both. Truly free writing contests are hard to find, as most organization charge entrance fees if you want to enter. So bookmark this page and return often - this is a list of hard to find contests where you can submit your work for free!

The Top 10 Free Writing Contests on the Internet

Writer’s Digest is, by far, the premier spot on the Internet for writers looking to get published. The site is the online version of the print publication, but it offers a lot more than the magazine does. On the Writer’s Digest website, you’ll find a constant flow of contests, from short story competitions to poetry events and of course a large annual writing contest covering many categories of writing and offering a significant cash prize.

In fact, beyond the contests, the Writer’s Digest website offers some of the most valuable resources for aspiring writers, including tips on improving your writing skills, how to come up with ideas for stories and most importantly how to get your work published. This is the one site I’m willing to mention here even though the contests are not free simply because of the amazing amount of free tips and advice the website offers to writers as a whole.

The PEN/Faulkner Writing Contest

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation was created by William Faulkner with his Nobel Prize funds. It is an organization that truly promotes a simple love of all literature, and it does so especially through the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Five fiction writers can win this Award (one winner and four finalists), but the competition is pretty fierce. Usually about 300 entries are submitted (including entire novels). The top writer wins $15,000, and the other four each receive $5,000. Best of all, you will have the opportunity to read from your work at an award ceremony in May at the Folger Shakespeare Library - a true honor.

The Shenandoah writing Awards

The Shenandoah is an esteemed publication sponsored by Washington and Lee University. Submission to the publication is free, and by submitting you stand to win any one of five wonderful prizes (beyond the prize of being accepted and published in the first place).

Shenandoah wards the Goodheart Prize for Fiction ($1,000), the James Boatwrite III Prize for Poetry ($1,000), the Carter Prize for the Essay ($1,000), the Shenandoah/Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers ($2,000), and the Graybeal-Gowan Prize for Virginia Writers ($500).

MyAfricanDiaspora Short Story Competition

MyAfricanDiaspora is a website that embraces African Heritage, and in that spirit the site is offering an annual short story competition - open to anyone at all, regardless of country, gender or race.

The entry only needs to be 1500 words, and you stand to win the $500 grand prize. The only caveat is that the main character must have an African heritage.

Other Free contests - Folio Alley and L. Ron Hubbard

Sometimes you can find free writing contests in the most obscure places. Folio Alley is best known for the photography that you can find there, but the site also promotes writing and other creative endeavors. As a testiment to that, starting in 2009 they’ve started offering a writing contest. The fascinating thing about this contest is that the writing isn’t judged by a small panel, it’s judged by the entire FolioAlley community. If you can impress the membership - you’ll win the $500 prize!

If you like writing Science Fiction, another popular writing contest is the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contest This organization accepts free submissions, and every quarter they award cash prizes ($1,000 in many cases) to the top three writers. The Grand Prize Winner gets an additional $5,000 on top of that.

When you search for “free writing contests,” what you’ll find is that over 80 to 90 percent of online writing contests ask for entrance fees. You may find a large number of them ask for very modest entry fees, and if that works for you, then go for it - just make sure the sponsoring organization is respectable and legitimate. However, if you want to focus only on contests that are free - there are some out there, as this particular list shows - you just need to search in nonconventional places like at Universities and websites that offer content that’s indirectly related to writing.

Good luck, and I hope you win!

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Ryan is a technology writer and investigative blogger. He has been working as an online writer for numerous clients for over 5 years, and now consults webmasters and blog owners about effective SEO optimization. Ryan has 53 post(s) at Free Writing Center