Bi-Monthly Writing Contest for Members

Bi-Monthly Writing Contest for Members

AWG is pleased to announce six writing contests for AWG members each calendar year. The awards will be announced and presented at the monthly meeting following the competition deadline.

Additions or changes from the last contest are shown in red.

Winner's Stories

Awards and sponsors will be given to the top three stories/poems
First Place: $50 and a certificate, courtesy of Evan Swensen, Publication Consultants
Second Place: $35 and a certificate, courtesy of Barry Dearborn
Third Place: $20 and a certificate, courtesy of Nan and Cam Potts

Contest Genres
FICTION: February August
NON-FICTION: April November
POETRY: June (blank verse) December (rhyme)

Contest Rules
1. Entries must be received by the 5th of the contest month. Send to bcdearb@gmail.com.
2. Please put "BI-MONTHLY WRITING CONTEST FOR MEMBERS" in the subject line.
3. Entries must include a cover sheet containing the author's name, email
address and genre - cover sheet as one attachment, story as a 2nd attachment
4. Entries containing any reference to the author's identity within the submitted story
will be disqualified.
5. Obscene, offensive, defamatory, or libelous entries will be disqualified
6. Text must be double spaced, Times Roman type face, at font size 12 with
standard one inch margins.
7. Do not include art, any picture inserts or attach any other embellishment files,
unless the contest specifically allows such.
8. Only one entry per member per bi-monthly contest period.
9. Prose entries must be no longer than 2,500 words. Include the word count
on the upper right corner of the first page. Include page numbers at the bottom
of each page of the submission.
10. Poetry entries may be required to be composed about a topic provided in the
announcement. The form will either be blank verse or rhyme. (see above)
11. Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been
published or have won a prize in any other competition.
12. Late entries and those not meeting the above criteria will be disqualified.

13. (Feb 2013) - please submit both attachments as PDF files, if you can

Judging
Judges will not see the cover sheet (author's identity). Each judge will return to the coordinator a grade for each entry (A - D, using plus and minus at their discretion). Where grades are the same in the top three places, the judge will indicate which is the better story for the sole purpose of computing award scores. Starting February of 2013, there will be two male and two female judges.

For poetry, the above will be applied but evaluation is largely subjective.

Recognition
Besides the awards being presented during the AWG general meeting,
the first-place author will have the option of reading all (or up to five minutes)
of his/her story/poem. If that author is not present or declines, the option is
given to the second-place author. The final option goes to the third-place winner
if neither first nor second place authors choose to read their story/poem or are
not present.
All submissions receiving certificates will be published in PDF format under
the web page, Winner's Stories (see above)