Opportunities for Writers in Europe
Summer round-up of literary events and opportunities, online and in person
Dear Friends,
Summer is upon us, and there is so much going on around Europe! We were delighted by the positive response to our first listings email and would love to hear from you if there are other things you’d like us to feature.
We’ll be taking a break during the quiet month of August. Meanwhile, enjoy your summers of writing, flaneuring and reading. We look forward to seeing many of you at our Annual Salon in September!
Grants and fellowships
Venice-based Scuola Piccola Zattere provides grants and workspace to emerging artists, curators, authors. Lasting 3 or 5 months, it’s an opportunity to focus on research or projects in dialogue with the Scuola’s artistic community. They also offer residencies.
The Jerwood Fellowship for Emerging Writers at New Writing North will be awarded to 3 early-career writers currently living in the North of England. Each writer will receive a bursary of £10,000 and a bespoke package of support, including mentoring, over the course of a year.
The RSL Literature Matters Award is an annual project award of £20,000 in total, rewarding and enabling literary excellence and innovation. The 2025 awards are now open for submissions until Friday 8 August. The winners will be announced in November 2025.
Competitions and submission calls
Simon & Schuster UK are launching the New Chapter prize exclusively open to un-agented, currently not under contract fiction writers of colour. The winner will receive a 2-book UK publishing contract with S&S UK with a 6-figure advance.
The Emma Press is open for submissions 1-15 August. They are seeking: poetry pamphlets, memoir, novellas, short story collections, children’s poetry books and translations. Full details here.
Fly On The Wall Press is open for submissions of novels and novellas until 31 July. Details here.
Fitzcarraldo has a Poetry In Translation Prize open until 15 August. Prize £5000.
Temple In A City is an online journal open for submissions of flash, poetry, art and letters until 5 August. Full details here.
Ascent Novel Prize is an international competition open to un-agented writers from across the world from the 1 July to the 1 November. Submit your opening 3,000 words, a 1-line pitch and a 1-page synopsis. Every entry is guaranteed a paragraph of personalised feedback and the Under-represented Writers' Award ensures every voice is heard.
The Berlin Review is open for submissions of fiction, poetry and travel writing. Full details here.
The Amsterdam Review is open for submissions of flash, poetry, essays and reviews. Full details here.
Fahmidan is open for your submissions year-round and always pays writers. They accept poetry, flash, fiction and non-fiction.
Call for papers: Interdisciplinary Journal Age, Culture, Humanities invites abstracts for a special issue Older Age: Annie Ernaux and the Life Course, focusing on what Ernaux’s various texts can teach us about ageing and the life course. Full details here.
Conferences and festivals
Dublin: International Dublin Writers Festival is 19-22 September and is an opportunity for writers everywhere to connect with the literary culture of Dublin and to learn from experts and peers.
Florence: There is a Publishing Day event organised by the Florence Literary Society on October 25, 2025. It will be a lively and practical day for writers of all genres, focused on navigating the world of publishing – from traditional to indie to hybrid pathways.
Switzerland: Geneva Writers' Conference is later this year on 14-16 November. Expect a fun weekend of English-language workshops and panel discussions led by authors, agents, and publishers working in a range of genres.
Birmingham: Birmingham Literature Festival will take place from the 9–13 October 2025. To get a taste of the event, check out last year’s programme on their home page.
Utrecht: The International Literature Festival Europe takes place in September and October and has a fantastic line-up of events.
Residencies and Retreats
Oh, the FOMO we get when writing this part….
Brussels: Every year Passa Porta receives up to 9 foreign writers in residence, who will receive a 1-month stay in a spacious apartment and a stipend. Passa Porta can also involve you in Belgian cultural life and the network of the House of Literature. Literary authors can apply in July and August for a residency the following year. Send a CV, a list of publications and published translations, and a 1-page description of the writing project you wish to work on during the residency to residences@passaporta.be.
Granada: International Programme for Writers in Residence is open until 31 August. A 30-night stay in Granada for two writers, from November 3 to December 2, 2025 (inclusive), at the Corrala de Santiago, a guest residence of the University of Granada. Travel and accommodation included. Full details here.
Paris: The Cité internationale des arts and the Institut français are launching the 2026 edition of the Institut français x Cité internationale des arts programme. This programme is aimed at artists and cultural professionals (including writers) who wish to develop a research and creative project in Paris during a residency lasting 3, 6 or 9 months, between April 2026 and April 2027. Participants gain the opportunity to develop a research and creative project at the Cité internationale des arts in the heart of Paris. Apply here until 12 October.
Côte d’Azur, France: La Napoule Art Foundation is offering international funded residencies including a small stipend. The guiding principle is to encourage artists to engage in cultural interchange and the creation of art that impacts the world for the common good. LNAF welcomes those engaged in a wide spectrum of artistic practice and varied backgrounds. Each room has sea or garden views and all participants also get a private studio. Get me there! Residency in March 2026. Apply by 3 September.
Prague: City Of Literature Residency Programme. Prague UNESCO City of Literature is holding an open call for applications for their 2026 residency programme. They are looking for authors whose projects are thematically connected to Prague. They are offering eight 2-month residencies at Franz Kafka´s House with accommodation, stipend and travel expenses included. Apply by 18 August. Details here.
Switzerland: Applications for the Jan Michalski Foundation-funded residencies (including travel and stipend), pictured above , are open until 27 August – beginners can also apply.
Cèvennes, France: Poet Sharon Black runs Gardoussel Retreat and Abri Creative Writing in the Cèvennes where this year they're running a residential 'Writers Open Retreat' from 9-16 August 2025. They also have self-catering gites and can host solo writers or groups of writers who want to do their own thing.
Italy: DiTrapano Foundation. All residencies are fully funded, including airfare and full room and board at this 17th-century villa and cultural center in Sezze Romano, Italy. They are currently offering residencies for two weeks each in the spring and autumn. Apply by 31 July. Details here.
Wales: Mud and Wool are taking applications for their winter residency (2-4 weeks) in West Wales. The aim of the residency is to give the creator the time and space for a month to fully concentrate on their chosen creative pursuit in a beautiful quiet rural environment . They are looking for people who are wanting to further their creativity and are looking for the time and space to do this without any outside pressures. Details here.
Some ways you can find more residencies in Europe include:
This map created by Recit
This Facebook group of open calls for residencies
Check out Res Artis which lists open calls - paid and funded residencies
In-person events
The Netherlands: We’ve come across this fantastic round-up of literary events collated by International Writers Collective, including talks by Deborah Levy, Ali Smith, Elizabeth Strout, regular open-mic events and much more. Read it here. They also run regular courses.
Berlin: If you’re in Berlin, make sure to subscribe to follower Bettina Rolyn’s newsletter covering English language literary arts/adjacent events.
Online events
Brunel University of London is hosting a series of writing workshops and publishing webinars for aspiring writers, running until 6 August. Check it our here.
The Off-Topic Writers’ Conference takes place online 9-10 August. Off Topic celebrates good writing by forging a community of readers and storytellers. The conference has a range of workshops and sessions. Full programme and booking here.
Member postings
Lausanne, Switzerland: Writer Leslie Farnsworth got in touch to tell us about a small writing group she runs in Lausanne. They would welcome new members in the area, if anyone in the European Writers Salon might be interested. At present, they meet monthly. Meetings are in English and most people write in English, though some write in English and another language as well (mainly French). Get in touch here.
Looking for Beta readers! Follower Shannon Savvas is a Kiwi writer based in Cyprus. She says ‘After a long break in my writing, I am trying to get going again, but have no access to objective beta readers. If anyone is willing to sporadically read my work to give criticism, I would be grateful and happy to reciprocate. If there is already a reading group around, perhaps I could join in.’ She writes novels and short stories. Email Shannon at shannonsavvas@gmail.com.
If you would like to post something in our next newsletter, email contact@saloneurope.org.
Putting together these emails is a lot of work. Please consider supporting us!
EWS is funded entirely by your support, and every penny goes back into our events. Support from our patrons allows us to put on better events, and to provide bursaries for writers who couldn’t attend otherwise.
Supporters receive a few perks:
Discounts and early booking for our events (with a better chance of a salon reading spot)
Discounts from literary organisations
Free access to Café Littéraire: European Book Club
And of course, our eternal gratitude! We couldn’t do it without you. You can support us simply by becoming a paying member of our Substack.
That’s it for now! Enjoy your summers.
The EWS Team
