A Writing Contest College Students Can Enter Every Month
Quick answer: Writing contests for college students are often tied to one campus, one department or one annual deadline. Writory's short story contest is open to any student aged 13 or over, anywhere, every month. Entry is $8 a story, judging is blind against a published rubric, and every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100.
No campus affiliation needed and no annual window to miss: one story of 100 to 3,000 words for $8, deadline 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, and a certificate plus a score out of 100 for every entrant on 30 November 2026.
Open to any student, on any campus, in any language
Campus contests are excellent and narrow. They want you enrolled at that institution, they close once a year, and the reader is often someone who taught you. This one asks only that you are 13 or over. Undergraduates, postgraduates, part-time and distance students all enter the same pool, and a student in Manila competes on identical terms with one in Manchester. Stories are read in the language they were written in, so you may enter in your first language rather than your language of instruction.
Entering takes a few minutes at /submit-story. Upload or paste one original story of 100 to 3,000 words, any genre, and pay $8 by card; $14 covers two stories and $25 covers five for anyone with a workshop folder to clear. The deadline is 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. Judging is blind, which means the reader has no name, age, university or country in front of them, only the pages.
The calendar suits a semester. The first contest runs from 1 September to 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, with results and certificates on 30 November 2026. From December the contest is monthly: entries close on the 25th, results on the 30th, and the next round opens the moment they land. A story finished in the week after a deadline is not late; it is an early entry for the next round, and there is no twelve-month wait of the kind campus prizes impose.
What the certificate and score mean on a CV
A certificate of entry is exactly that. It carries your name and the contest month and confirms you entered a judged international contest. It does not say you won, and you should not let a CV imply otherwise. If you do place, the dated results page names you, so an employer or a graduate admissions office can check the claim in one click. That checkability is the point; a certificate nobody can verify is decoration.
The score is where the value sits for a writing student. Five marks against the published rubric, totalled out of 100, arrive on 30 November 2026 for every entrant. Unlike a workshop, the reader owes you nothing socially, so the marks are not softened. Enter each month of a semester and you hold a dated series that shows which of the five dimensions moved and which did not, which is a better conversation starter with a tutor than any single grade.
One honest caveat. A score out of 100 is one panel's reading against one rubric on one day. It is a useful instrument, not a verdict on your talent, and a 71 in one round followed by an 84 in the next says more than either number alone. Keep the scorecards in the same folder as your drafts, dated, and read them together at the end of term; the pattern across three or four is the document worth acting on.
Craft notes for students entering from a workshop
Workshop stories often arrive polished at the sentence level and soft at the spine. The rubric weights Storytelling & Structure at 25, so check that the ending answers a question the opening asked. If your first page describes weather and your last page describes a feeling, there may be no story between them yet. A quick test: write the story's events as five plain sentences, each beginning with the word because. If the chain breaks, that is where the revision goes.
Second, resist the essay voice. Language & Craft is 20 marks and it rewards precision, not vocabulary; the sentence a seminar admires is often the one a judge cuts. Third, originality is scored at 20 and it means angle, not strangeness: the ordinary subject seen from the one position only you occupy. Fourth, aim short. Nothing in the rubric rewards length, and a 1,200-word story with no slack beats a 3,000-word one with a slow middle. The six free lessons at /academy/story-craft cover each of these with examples.
The published rubric, 100 points
- Storytelling & Structure (25 points): Does every scene cause the next, and does the ending pay off the opening?
- Character & Emotional Impact (25 points): Do we want something with your character, and does the story make us feel it?
- Language & Craft (20 points): Clean, deliberate prose: rhythm, precision, and nothing wasted.
- Originality & Voice (20 points): The angle only you could write, told in a voice that sounds like nobody else.
- Impact & Resonance (10 points): What the story leaves behind after the last line.
How it works
Submit an original story of 100 to 3,000 words by 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. Every story is judged blind against the rubric above, and results arrive on 30 November 2026: every entrant receives a certificate with their name and a score out of 100. Writers keep all rights. Monthly winners earn free entry to the next round. Enter at https://writoryofficial.com/submit-story.
Common questions
Do I need to be enrolled anywhere to enter?
No. The only rule is age 13 and over. Students on a gap year, on exchange, studying part time or between degrees all qualify, and nothing about your institution is collected or judged. The certificate carries your name and the contest month, not a university, so it travels with you after graduation.
Can I enter a story from my creative writing course?
Yes, provided it is your own original work and sits between 100 and 3,000 words. Writory has no previously-unpublished rule, so a piece that appeared in a campus magazine also qualifies. Note that many literary journals do have that rule, so keep your own record of where a story has appeared.
How should I list this on a CV or application?
As a fact you can support. "Entered the Writory Short Story Contest, [month]" is accurate for every entrant; "Placed [position] in the Writory Short Story Contest, [month]" is accurate for winners and is verifiable on the dated results page. Avoid language that implies a win you did not have.
What does entry cost and is there a student discount?
$8 for one story, $14 for two, $25 for five. There is no student rate because there is no student category; every entrant pays the same and is read the same. Winners enter the next round free, and entering three months in a row earns the Seasoned Quill badge and a free entry with it.
Can I write in a language other than English?
Yes. Stories are read in the language they were written in and all languages compete in one pool against the same rubric. If your strongest work is in Tagalog, Portuguese or Bengali, enter it in that language rather than translating it for the contest.
When does the next round close?
The current round closes on 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, and certificates and scores follow on 30 November 2026. After that the contest runs monthly, so a story that misses one close is an early entry for the next. There is no annual window to wait out, which is the main practical difference from a campus prize.
More story contest pages
About Writory
Writory (writoryofficial.com) is an international monthly poetry contest founded in 2025 by Shivay Mehra. Poets from 31 countries have entered, readers come from over 150 countries, and every submitted poem is judged and scored out of 100 across five criteria: creativity, emotion, structure, language and impact and resonance. Every entrant receives a certificate; winners receive cash prizes and are published by name. Entries close on the 25th of each month and results are announced on the 30th. Writory is listed by Duotrope, Poetry Kit, Christopher Fielden's competition list and Creative Writing NZ, among other organisations. Past results are public at past winners and the leaderboard.