Enter a competition with just the first 5 pages of your manuscript

Want the chance to win money for the first five pages of a fiction or creative non-fiction manuscript?

The First Pages Prize is all about supporting emerging writers who are currently unagented. According to the press release, “Five winners will receive $5000 total in cash awards, a developmental edit to support the completion of their manuscript and an agent consultation.” Plus, it is open worldwide.

The judge for this year is Lan Samantha Chang and the judging criteria are, according to the press release, “writing craft, a sense of a bigger story emerging, and how to hook the reader in by your pages”.

First prize last year was New Zealand author P. J. McKay, who won with the opening of her historical novel, The Telling Time (Polako Press, 2020). She is now represented by Highspot Literary and was shortlisted for the 2020 NZSA Heritage Literary Award.

The competition closes on 7 February 2021 with an extended deadline available.

To find out more and to enter, visit the First Pages Prize website.