Winning Writers Celebrates 25th Anniversary Serving the Literary Community

NORTHAMPTON, Mass., Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Winning Writers celebrates its 25^th anniversary this year. The literary contest and resource site was founded in New York City in 2001, in the week before 9/11, and moved to Western Massachusetts in 2003. From the beginning, Winning Writers has offered a welcoming place for diverse authors and stories, with a culture of listening to people of all genders, backgrounds, and abilities.

Winning Writers contests are highly competitive. In the most recent contest year, its Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest received 4,825 submissions, its North Street Book Prize received 1,734 submissions, its Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest received 1,757 submissions, and its Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest received 2,471 submissions. All contests except the Book Prize are judged anonymously.

Winning Writers strives to award generous prizes. In 2027, it will award $23,500 in its North Street Book Prize competition, $5,100 in its Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest, and $12,000 each in its Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest and Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. In the latter contest, a single poem can win $3,500.

Says 2014 Margaret Reid Prize winner B.J. Buckley, "This contest especially is a labor of love, an effort to elevate and celebrate poets who most often are far from the mainstream, just ordinary people who love poetry and write it seriously, in the midst of their other life obligations…These are THE BEST FOLKS. If you only entered one contest this year, this would be the one."

The North Street Book Prize is one of the largest contests for self-published and hybrid-published books, with a $10,000 grand prize. Everyone who enters online can choose to receive feedback on their book at no extra charge. The contest exemplifies Winning Writers' mission to assist categories of writers who are underserved (even exploited) and to benefit writers beyond the prizewinners.

Says 2025 North Street grand prize winner Teresa Tennyson, "I heartily encourage indie writers who may feel trepidation about entering contests to consider this one. It's real, it's amazing, and people really win. Winning Writers is incredibly generous and cares about authors."

The Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest has no entry fee. In its early years its goal was to spoof "vanity contests" that dole out flowery praise and expensive anthology publication to most poems submitted, good or bad. Today the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest celebrates parody, satire, light verse, and humor poems of all kinds.

Winning Writers was founded by Jendi Reiter and Adam Cohen, both graduates of Harvard University. Jendi Reiter is the author of nine published books of poetry and prose. Adam Cohen previously served as circulation director at The Atlantic. Together they give Winning Writers a pro-author attitude that provides exceptional customer service. Entries are carefully screened to resolve problems before they reach the judges. For problems that can't be resolved, entry fee refunds are issued within days. Customers can reach Winning Writers via email, mail, and even a toll-free number, a rarity among literary enterprises.

63,000 poets and writers subscribe to Winning Writers' free monthly newsletter, which provides contest news, resource links, literary comics and advice on writing. Everyone who subscribes gets free access to The Best Free Literary Contests, an online database with 200+ detailed profiles of contests that are free to enter.

Winning Writers has been chosen as one of the "101 Best Websites for Writers" by Writer's Digest in 2015-2019 and 2022-2026. Its contests have also received recognition from Reedsy and the Alliance of Independent Authors.

Contact:
Adam Cohen
[email protected] 
413-320-1847

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