pet connection

The Sept. 1 deadline for the Dog Writers Association of America’s annual communications contest is fast approaching.

With that in mind, I thought I would do a little more research on contests for writers and other kinds of communicators and see what I could come up with. I  found there are alot of contests. Many are for a specific type of writing  — such as poetry or fiction  — but many also have more than one category.

Contests can be fun as long as you don’t take them too seriously. There can be a lot of competition, and it’s hard to know what the judges are thinking. But if you like to compete, want to see how your work fares against other peoples’ work, and you won’t be devastated if you don’t win  —  go ahead and have some fun.

Now I haven’t checked out all of these so do your own research prior to entering your work. Make sure you read the rules; some ask for electronic entry only. Some require an entry fee while others do not. Some have a theme while others allow you to write about anything.

Dog Writers Association of America. Annual contest; deadline Sept 1st. Categories for published writing in various categories, such as photography, illustrations, websites, blogs and more. www.dwaa.org

Cat Writers Association. Annual contest. Categories for published writing in various categories. www.catwriters.org/contest

Dogs and the Women Who Love Them Contest. Deadline Sept 30th. Creative nonfiction. www.angelanimals.net/contestrules.html

Real Simple magazine Life Lessons Essay Contest. Theme, “When did you realize that you had become a grown up?” Deadline Sept 7th.  www.realsimple.com/lifelessonscontest

Arizona Literary Contest. Open to everyone (not just AZ residents). Short stories, poems, articles, and more. www.azauthors.com/contest_index.html

Arizona Commission on the Arts. Poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction. Residents of AZ only. www.azarts.gov

Bear magazine Doug Fir Award. Short story competition with the subject being the natural world, sense of place, or environmental issues. www.orlo.org

Narrative magazine Story Contest. Awards three times yearly. Short stories, essays, or excerpts from fiction or creative nonfiction. www.narrativemagazine.com

You can find many more by doing an internet search for writing contests, photography contests, illustration contests, or poetry contests.

Good luck!