Entries open for PEN America Literary Awards (US)
www2.fundsforngos.org – Wednesday July 8, 2026
The PEN America Literary Awards recognize outstanding writers, translators, and literary professionals across a wide range of genres, including fiction, poetry, essays, biography, drama, children’s literature, science writing, sports writing, and translation. The program distributes nearly USD 350,000 annually through awards, fellowships, grants, and prizes, with submissions accepted only from eligible publishers or literary agents.
PEN America Literary Awards
The PEN America Literary Awards celebrate exceptional literary achievement by recognizing outstanding books, authors, translators, and literary works published during the current award year. The awards honor excellence across multiple literary genres while supporting creative expression, literary innovation, and diverse voices in literature.
The program is one of the most prestigious literary award initiatives in the United States and provides national recognition alongside financial awards that help promote outstanding literary works.
New Magazine Listing: MQR Online
firstwriter.com – Wednesday July 8, 2026
Online-only companion to a longstanding print journal, publishing book reviews, essays, arts and culture features, and author interviews. Accepts pitches year-round.
Pentabus Opens Applications For 2026 National Young Writers Programme
theqr.co.uk – Tuesday July 7, 2026
Pentabus and Rural Media are looking for their next cohort of young playwrights. Applications have just opened for the 2026 National Young Writers programme. If you are aged between 18 and 30 and want to try your hand at scriptwriting, this free eight-month online course is well worth your attention.
Trading the Stage for the Screen
The QR keeps a close eye on Pentabus. They routinely do the heavy lifting when it comes to bringing high-quality new writing into rural communities. London (and Edinburgh every August) often dominate the theatrical conversation, so companies committed to developing regional talent matter. We thoroughly enjoyed their digital production of The Silence & the Noise. In fact, if you want to see Tom Powell’s Papatango Prize-winning play on stage, a live co-production is running at London’s Park Theatre this winter from 25 November to 12 December.
This 2026 writers’ programme, however, trades physical boards for your phone screen. The brief tasks participants with creating three 90-second micro-plays specifically designed for social media. Writers will film these shorts on mobile phones, with professional actors performing the scripts. The organisers suggest the three pieces could connect via a shared theme, issue, or location.
New Literary Agent Listing: Leah Petrakis
firstwriter.com – Tuesday July 7, 2026
Handles fiction ranging from debuts, literary work, general fiction, mystery, horror, and thrillers, with additional interest in projects blending literary and pop‑culture sensibilities. Works on nonfiction including business, investing, finance, cooking, humor, illustrated art, lifestyle, memoir, narrative nonfiction, pop culture, sports, true crime, and general nonfiction, as well as advice and relationship titles. Also engages with music‑related books, memoirs, and illustrated projects.
How AI is changing language
theguardian.com – Sunday July 5, 2026
As allegations of LLM use rock the literary and media worlds, linguists explain what really distinguishes human and machine writing, while novelists including Jennifer Egan and Jeanette Winterson reflect on the future of fiction in an age of ChatGPT
Three paragraphs, from three different hotel reviews. Can you tell which, if any, were AI‑generated?
“The hotel is in a great location for everything. Lots of places to eat and drink. The hotel itself is always abuzz. The tavern located on the ground floor is definitely a must. Food, service, prices and atmosphere were great.”
“A good hotel, though the room had the proportions of a well-appointed lift. Slept well, shower was excellent, staff were friendly. Breakfast was busy but competent. Would return, though probably not with a very large suitcase.”
“Excellent base for a London trip. The room was quiet, the bed comfortable, and everything worked exactly as it should. Staff were helpful without hovering. A smooth, unfussy stay from start to finish.”
How do you reckon you did? Most people, says Claire Hardaker, a professor of forensic linguistics at the University of Lancaster, get this kind of judgment right only about 60% of the time. Her online test, Bot or Not, asks users to identify the fakes in a series of 15 reviews. The middling success rate might come as a surprise to those convinced they can spot AI writing at 50 paces. When doubts were raised in May about the authenticity of a prizewinning short story by Jamir Nazir, social media users were lightning-quick in their condemnation. “If you know, you know,” commented one. Nazir later told The Atlantic that he didn’t use AI.
Why AI fiction still feels flat: New test shows characters lack mystery and complexity
techxplore.com – Friday July 3, 2026
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found that while artificial intelligence can spin increasingly convincing stories, its characters may still lack one of the qualities that make human-written fiction memorable: mystery.
As AI writing tools become more common in publishing and entertainment, Carolina researchers wanted to understand whether the characters created by these systems are as varied and nuanced as those crafted by human authors. Their findings suggest that, despite advances in technology, AI still tends to rely on familiar patterns.
The study examined how characters in stories generated by AI compare with those written by people. Drawing on ideas from literary theory, the researchers analyzed eight different aspects of character portrayal, including whether characters seem realistic or exaggerated, whether they evolve over time, and whether they remain mysterious or fully understood by the end of a story.
To do this, the team developed CASPER, an automated framework that evaluated thousands of stories and measured character traits in ways that had never before been systematically applied to AI-generated fiction.
Electric Literature Is Launching Its First-Ever Emerging Writers Contest | $1,000 Prize, Publication, and a Residency | Enter by July 15
brittlepaper.com – Wednesday July 1, 2026
Electric Literature, the nonprofit literary platform that has spent seventeen years dedicated to uplifting emerging writers, has launched its very first Emerging Writers Contest, with categories in fiction and poetry. It is open to international writers, meaning African writers are eligible, and the prize package is one of the more generous on offer from an independent literary platform right now.
One winner in each genre will receive $1,000, publication in either Recommended Reading (fiction) or The Commuter (poetry), and two weeks at the Writing Downtown residency program in Downtown Las Vegas. Second-place winners will receive $250 and third-place winners $100. All fiction finalists will additionally receive a review with feedback from a literary agent. Winners will be announced in early 2027.
Alberta author urges caution after book publishing deal cost him more than $40,000
cbc.ca – Sunday June 28, 2026
Two years after publication, Charles Schroder says his book is apparently discontinued
An Edmonton-area writer who spent more than $40,000 on a publishing service is urging other aspiring authors to be cautious when looking to put out a book.
Charles Schroder, an 88-year-old writer whose gardening column is a regular feature of the St. Albert Gazette newspaper, told CBC it’s not even possible anymore to buy a copy of his book Urban Gardening: Planning to Preserving, which was published in April 2024.
“As far as I know, Amazon has discontinued it,” Schroder told CBC News this week. “I'm not sure about Barnes and Noble, and I have received no inquiries from any other booksellers.”
Schroder used a Florida-based company called Writers Clique, which he learned about from a friend. He put together a draft, made up of his columns, and submitted it.
"They gave it to one of their writers who wrote an absolutely beautiful review of the book,” Schroder said. “I thought it'd be a bestseller. She had written [the review] so well. And so I was hooked.”
New Literary Agent Listing: Tess Callero
firstwriter.com – Friday June 26, 2026
Represents platform‑driven nonfiction across self‑development, business, mind/body/spirit, health, wellness and related areas, developing proposals from initial concept to full submission. Also handles adult mystery, thriller, suspense and romance. Clients include bestselling authors appearing on major US, UK and Canadian lists.
Nominations open for Val Wood Prize for Creative Writing 2026
www2.fundsforngos.org – Wednesday June 24, 2026
The Val Wood Prize 2026 invites writers aged 16 and above to submit original, unpublished short fiction inspired by the titles of Val Wood’s books. The competition theme is “Titles,” and each entrant may submit only one entry based on a title from Val Wood’s published works list.
The prize includes £100 and a signed copy of Val Wood’s upcoming novel for the winner. Two runners-up will each receive a signed copy of the novel, and the winning entry will be published on the Val Wood website and promoted on social media.
What is the Val Wood Prize 2026?
The Val Wood Prize 2026 is a short fiction writing competition for writers who want to create an original story inspired by the title of one of Val Wood’s published books.
The competition encourages writers to explore how a title can shape a story’s idea, mood, character, setting and direction.
The 2026 competition theme is “Titles.”
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