The 2026 NEST Unpublished Scene Contest is Open for Entries!! – Check out our 2025 Winners…

Are you an aspiring author? Published author? Somewhere in between? Enter a scene from your fiction Work in Progress in the 2026 NEST Unpublished Scene Contest sponsored by Central Region Oklahoma Writers…

Contest Details:

Entries capped at 50 for each subcategory – If you want to secure a spot but are not ready to submit the actual scene, you can pay the entry fee and send the scene any time before the deadline

Deadline January 24, 2026

• Winners announced on or around April 27, 2026
• Enter 1 scene from any place in your fiction WIP (Work in Progress). Maximum word count 2,000
• $15 Entry Fee (For the first entry per author. Additional entries from the same author are $10 each)
• Any fiction genre
• Any heat level
• If your entry has not been published as of the contest deadline (January 24, 2026), it is eligible
• Your name should not appear on your entry
• Submit your scene in Word or PDF format
• Top prize: Trophy, $50 and a full manuscript assessment by an editor with Wild Rose Press Publishing
• Four runners up will receive certificates and a three chapter assessment by an editor with Wild Rose Press Publishing

For questions, contact coordinator Alicia Dean – Alicia@AliciaDean.com​

Click HERE to Enter

Pay your entry fee (if you enter more than one scene, you can pay it all in one payment) via PayPal to: Crow.OWFI.group@gmail.com or use the link: paypal.me/OWFICrow 

Congratulations to the 2025 winners…

NON-ROMANCE

First Place

The Sound of Silence by Brenda Clark Thomas

Second Place (tie)

A Lady in Pieces by Robert Herold

AND

Learning to Live Again by Linda Trout

Third Place (tie)

Embassy Row by Katherine McLellan

AND

The Tell-Tale Art: Prologue by Lawrence Rothstein

Fourth Place (tie)

Prequel to The Tell-Tale Art by Lawrence Rothstein

AND

Embargo! By Mark Reutlinger

Fifth Place

No Pain Wasted by Mark Jones

ROMANCE

First Place

The Courtesan’s Christmas Redemption by Kathy L Wheeler

Second Place

The Selkie and the Viking by Joan Koster

Third Place

Breaking the Heart’s Walls by Annette Miller

Fourth Place

A Duke She Couldn’t Refuse by Victoria Elliot

Fifth Place

Beautiful Mess by Mary Cope