- THEME: Kyoto — English-language submissions only
- DEADLINE: April 30th, 2026 (23:59 JST)
- GENRE: Short Shorts — unpublished material only
- WORD LIMIT: 300 words, on a single page
- FORM: Short poems, character studies, essays, travel tips, whimsy, haiku sequence, haibun, wordplays, dialogue, experimental verse, etc. In short, anything that helps show the spirit of place in a fresh light. A clear connection to Kyoto is essential.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
- Limited to one submission per person
- Entrants do not need to be located in Kyoto to participate. We accept submissions from anywhere in the world.
- Submissions must be in Microsoft Word attachment file. Those sent in other formats (such as PDF attachment, or within the body of an email) will not be accepted.
- At the top of the Microsoft Word attachment — not in the body of the email — please include the following personal information:
Full Name, E-mail Contact, Nationality, Current Residence (Town, Country). - Please do not use any special formatting. Entries will be placed in a single file to be blind-judged, so we request your personal information at the top with the text directly below. We encourage entrants to use Times New Roman, 12 pt.
- Please send your Microsoft Word attachment file to: kyotowritingcompetition2026@gmail.com
TOP PRIZES
Kyoto City Mayoral Prize
¥20,000 cash prize; copy of Future of Kyoto (Writers in Kyoto Anthology 6); one-year complimentary WiK membership (April 2026-March 2027); a complimentary space in an online-access Book Proposal Masterclass (valued at £679, or around 140,000 JPY) by Beth Kempton (WiK Member and Author of books including Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life and The Way of the Fearless Writer); publication on the WiK website; and inclusion in a future WiK Anthology
Yamabuki* Prize (awarded to the national of a country in which English is an official language)
Copy of Future of Kyoto (Writers in Kyoto Anthology 6); publication on the WiK website; and inclusion in a future WiK Anthology
Unohana* Prize (awarded to the national of a country in which English is not an official language)
Copy of Future of Kyoto (Writers in Kyoto Anthology 6); publication on the WiK website; and inclusion in a future WiK Anthology
* Yamabuki (Japanese yellow rose, or Kerria japonica) and unohana (Deutzia crenata) are both flowers which frequently appear in haiku.
OTHER PRIZES
Japan Local Prize
A selected ceramic piece from the Robert Yellin Yakimono Gallery
Book Prizes
Members of Writers in Kyoto have generously donated signed copies of their respective books as prizes (listed alphabetically by authors’ names below). These will be awarded based on the judges’ determination of which book is best suited to each winning piece.
Kyoto: A Literary Guide (2020), edited by Writers in Kyoto founder John Dougill
One Hundred Poems from Old Japan (2025), translated by Michael Freiling
The Blue of You (2025), by Amanda Huggins
River of Dolls and Other Stories (2024), by Suzanne Kamata
Channeling Shakespeare (2025), by Marianne Kimura
The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper (2019), by Rebecca Otowa
PUBLISHING RIGHTS/COPYRIGHT
Writers in Kyoto reserve the right to publish entries on our group’s website. The top three prize-winning pieces will be eligible for publication in a future WiK Anthology. All authors retain the copyright of their own work.
SUPPORTERS
In addition to the aforementioned entities, supporters of the Writers in Kyoto Tenth Writing Competition include Kyoto City International Foundation (kokoka) and Kyoto Journal.
The WiK Competition logo was designed by Rebecca Otowa, author of At Home in Japan (2010) and My Awesome Japan Adventure (2013).