April 11, 2026
Contest is open now.
Enter to win a scholarship to the 2026 Santa Barbara Writers Conference, June 21-26
• No entry fee
• You may share this opportunity with others.
• There are 4 categories. One entry per email. One entry per category, per person. Indicate in subject line which category you are entering.
• Send entries by attached Word Doc or PDF to info@sbwriters.com
Contact information should include:
Name · Phone number · Email address · Mailing address
• Put category of entry in the email subject line.
• This must be your original work.
• Scholarship recipients must be able to attend the conference this year. If not, the scholarship will be awarded to another contestant.
Contest opens: NOW April 11, 2026. Submission period closes MIDNIGHT, May 7, 2026 PDT. Submission period is slightly over 3 weeks, so don’t procrastinate.
Four full tuition scholarships to the 2026 Santa Barbara Writers Conference will be awarded ($899 value, each). SBWC reserves the option of awarding more than one scholarship in a particular category, if any other category lacks a winner. But the goal will be to have four winners total from the four categories.
Winners will be announced approximately one week after the contests close, as soon as the judges have completed their work.
Categories:
FICTION: Limit 500 words. This may be the opening of longer fiction or an entire flash fiction story. Please indicate which in your cover email.
NONFICTION: Limit 500 words. This can be a short essay, memoir piece, or the opening to a longer nonfiction piece. Please indicate which in your cover email
POETRY: Limit 50 lines
ANOTHER Of YOUR CHOICE: Limit 500 words.
The judging teams will look for writing excellence appropriate to each category. All the judges are award-winning, published authors who are associated with SBWC. We do not announce the names of the judges.
2026 Dark and Stormy Night Multi-Genre Contest
