In many ways, 2025 is turning out to be 👏not👏the👏one.

However! We hope your writing endeavors are going successfully. It always seems like going into Autumn is a great time to take stock and really decide what you want to achieve for the rest of the year. Being a creative of any kind is a grind, and so we wanted to help by adding a few extra submission or development opportunities to your plans for the coming month or so.

As ever, please make sure to read all the guidelines set out by the links we provide! There’s nothing worse than putting all your effort into the perfect submission and then realising you’ve sent it in the wrong document type.

If there’s anything you feel we should be including here, then let us know at stghostycreatives@gmail.com. We’ve got a project we’re very excited about coming up this month, but will be posting more about that further down the line.

STAGEWRITE – Liverpool Royal Court (Theatre, Writers)

Stagewrite is run by Liverpool’s Royal Court specially for new writing and new voices. Leading up to performances in their more intimate studio spaces, they are looking for submissions of full length scripts for theatre. By full length, we’re talking 70 pages minimum, and this is for theatre only so no film scripts or short treatments.

Liverpool’s Royal Court is an amazing regional venue that achieves so much given how tight resources are across the entire country. With a focus on prioritising new stories and bold voices, Stagewrite is a great way to push your finished script forward . While they can’t provide individual feedback to unsuccessful applications, the chance to be a part of their studio showcases is a highly valuable one, and you can be sure that each script is given the time and consideration it deserves.

If you’re unsure whether your work would fit their programming or style then as per usual take a look through their shows and resources to get a better idea of them. We’ve put some of their guidelines below:

• Submissions must be full-length plays (a minimum of 70 pages)
• It must be a script writen for theatre – not for tv, film, radio or written in prose
• The script should have a cover page with your name, the title of the play and the date that this current draft was completed
• All scripts should be in size 12 font
• Include a list of characters on the first page
• Every page of the script must be numbered
• The writer’s name should be in the header of each page
• Please do not send more than one script at any given time
• It must be an original play. Screenplays, novels, adaptations and works in translation will not be accepted.
• Plays can only be submitted once, please do not resubmit a play that has already been read
• Writers should be based in the UK and Ireland (please let them know where you are based in your cover letter)

Website for more details here:

The Berlin Review – (Non-Fiction, Fiction and Poetry)

The Berlin Literary Review are accepting submissions for original Non-Fiction, Fiction (especially Flash and Short Fiction) and Poetry for their upcoming issue. They are accepting English-language submissions.

The review have a great track record of high quality and diverse international publications, and even you don’t submit I’d definitely reccomend giving them a read (and maybe even supporting them if you’re able to.) Their website has copies of previous issues.

Please note that the Berlin Review gets first serial rights of your work. This means that after the issue has been published, the ownership reverts back to you as the creative, however they kindly ask that you acknowledge them as the original publisher.

While this is an unpaid opportunity, it’s worth noting that work that features in the review can also be put forward for various international awards by the review itself, such as the Pushcart Prize.

Their request is to submit no more than 5 poems in the same .doc or .docx attachment alongside a brief bio of no more than 100 words.

Submission and more info here:

Guildford House Gallery – (Visual Artists)

Guildford House Gallery are opening their doors to accept submissions of works for their annual opportunity for artists – The Guildford House Open. This gives artists an opportunity to have work exhibited at their 17th century townhouse located in the heart of the Surrey town. These can include paintings, sculpture, drawings, photographs, moving image, textile, prints or mixed media and digital prints.

They are committed to seeing the work of contemporary artists, so don’t feel as if this is something you should only go for with traditionally stylised or archetypal works. The selecting committee will choose roughly 100 works to be shown at the house in November 2025, with one winner receiving £1000 and a solo exhibition further down the line.

Submissions and info here:

DUST Poetry Magazine – (you guessed it…poetry)

Online and international poetry installment Dust Poetry have open submissions until the 20th September 2025 for their next issue of their magazine. This issue will have the theme (and title) of ‘Dear World’, and the organisation is specifically looking for new writers and voices which are usually excluded from creative and literary organisations and work.

You can send up to three new, unpublished poems as an email attachment or in the body of an email, as well as visiting the link below for more information. We’ve also copied some of their guidelines here:

• Please email up to three poems as an attachment or within the body of your email, to dustpoetrymagazine@gmail.com
   
• Poems should be unpublished elsewhere. Simultaneous submissions are accepted but please let them know as soon as your poems are accepted elsewhere.
   
• They will respond to all submissions before 31st October 2025.
  
• Copyright for your work remains with you. 
   
• Submissions to Dust are, and will remain, free. However this also means that Dust is run on a voluntary basis and therefore cannot offer payment for work. 
  ​
• Dust does not accept submissions that contain graphic sexual content, gratuitous violence, or work that is racist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, or ableist. 
   
  
  As a volunteer-run, online poetry magazine, any donations via their ko-fi donations  page are hugely appreciated to help keep Dust up and running. If you’re able to, it’s always good to support independent creative organisations.
  

Submissions and info here:

Sherman Theatre – Open Script Submissions (Theatre, Writing, Welsh born/based artists)

Based out of Cardiff, Sherman Theatre is committed to recognising local voices from Welsh born/based writers. As such, they open their doors to script submissions year round.

What they’re looking for:

• Plays from Welsh and Wales-based artists.
  
• Plays written in English, Welsh or bilingually.
  
• Plays written for the stage.
  
• Full length plays. This would usually be at least 60 minutes of dialogue, or 45 minutes for a monologue.
  
• They’re unable to accept more than one submission from a writer at any one time.
  
• We cannot consider resubmissions or new drafts of plays they have already responded to.

When you submit your script, you will receive an automatic acknowledgement. We then aim to respond to all scripts with a specific outcome within four months.

If you would like to submit an unsolicited script, please format it as a PDF or Word document and send it to: scripts@shermantheatre.co.uk

Website and more details here:

INK Festival – Short Play Submissions (Theatre, Writing)

As a leading producer of new, short plays in the UK – the INK festival is fantastic place to start work that’s either shorter in nature or yet to be developed into a longer piece. Based in Halesworth, Suffolk, ore than 70 seleceted scripts will feature in the 10th festival of INK’s diverse and engaging history.

The deadline for this is 26th September, with an extended deadline for students on 31st October. The festival itself will be held 16th – 19th April 2026.

INK are committed to acting as a launchpad for new writing into both stage and radio, and so have multiple categories that you can submit to with short scripts – as well as allowing writers to submit up to two scripts at once. We’ve left a copy of their guide to their categories below, as well as a link their website for more details and info.

1, OPEN TOPIC
20-minute or under play on a subject of your choice. We are delighted if the script includes the potential for imaginative lighting, projection and staging.

2, 10
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the INK Festival, 20-minute or under play which includes the number 10.

3, COMEDY
20-minute or under comic play in partnership with Aldeburgh Comedy Weekend.

4, PLAY ON A BUS
20-minute or under play, for two characters, set in and performed on a 16-seater static Hoppa Bus. Movement for the actors is restricted to the front of the bus and the aisle, with the audience seated on each side. The actors can sit, if necessary, but only briefly as this restricts visibility to most of the audience. Windows are not blacked out and there isn’t capacity for sound or lights. There is an entrance at the front and rear of the bus.

5, PLANET INK
Do you feel the world shifting beneath your feet? Here in Suffolk it literally is. The insatiable appetite for energy, houses, roads, jobs, cars and commercial space is reshaping the coastline and our rural future. Is the cost of progress a price worth paying? Can you paint the big picture in a 20-minute or under play?

6, VOICES FROM THE LARDER
20-minute or under play that will be performed in a food bank.

7, WICKED WITCH OF HALESWORTH
The title for a 45-minute FAMILY play. Please initially submit just 4 pages, (i.e. 8 sides), along with a 50-word synopsis. If we like the script, we will ask for the full-length version.

8, 18 OR UNDER – on 31 October 2025
As Alex ran out of the room, Micky exclaimed, “Once you go through that door …” 15-minute or under play, for 2 or 3 characters, that includes the above dialogue somewhere in your script.

PLAYS FOR RADIO:

1, LONG RADIO:
45-minute radio play on a subject of your choice. Please submit just 4 pages, (i.e. 8 sides), along with a 50-word synopsis. If we like the script, we will ask for the full- length version. Please DO NOT send the full-length LONG RADIO script when you initially submit

2, RADIO COMEDY
20-minute or under comic radio play that will amuse!

More details and website here:

Sláinte! Theatre- Femme and Non-Binary Short Play Night (Theatre, Writing, Celtic, Femme and Non-Binary Creatives)

Sláinte! Theatre are an emerging theatre company, based in London, who focus on platforming Celtic voices and creatives. They provide support to Celtic Creatives in all aspects of their theatre making and are big into developing greater, broader and more in-depth networks for Celtic theatre makers in the capital.

The deadline is on the 9th September – so you’ll need to hurry! Not much notice on this one I’m afraid but it’s shaping up to be a great night, so even if you can’t submit I would highly consider going if you’re London based.

This short play night will feature submissions of 20 minute pieces which are contained stories. For this event, they are exclusively looking for Femme and Non-Binary artists to submit work as an unpaid opportunity. They are open to either collectives or independent artists, as they can provide some support with casting and creatives to an extent. You’ll have the opportunity to rehearse during the day and the performance itself can be script in hand.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, then you can submit via an online form here.

Good luck!

The Ghosty Team x