Friday, July 25, 2014

EPWL contest categories, rules and guidelines & entry form

EL PASO WRITERS’ LEAGUE 2014 ANNUAL CONTEST

CONTEST-CATEGORIES:

-POETRY: ANY TOPIC (Nature, Southwest, Humorous, or whatever inspires you.)

Traditional:  Poetrydistinguished by the prosody of historic structures of meter, rhythm, rhyme,and versification, (including Blank Verse).

Closed Form:  Poetryin specific and traditional patterns recognizable by their structure, e.g.couplets, ballad, sonnet, villanelle, limerick, sestina, among others.

Open Form (Free Verse):  Poetry that does not conform to any established or historicmeter, rhyme, or stanza structure. Such poetry derives its poetic qualitiesfrom the repetition of words, phrases, grammatical structures, arrangementof words or lines on the printed page, or any other innovative means of expression.

Haiku, Tanka, Senryu, Ghazal, and other forms of international poetic expression.

Children’s:  Poetrythat consists of whimsical, lyrical, laughable, lovable expressions of wit andwisdom. ANY FORM.

-PROSE, NON-FICTION (2,000 words MAX.)

Inspirational:  Think Chicken Soup stories.  What are thewords of wisdom that have guided you along your life’s path? What inspiringmessage or insights would you like share with others?

Op-Ed/Feature Article: Discussion of a single subject from a personal point of view.  Thinknewspaper Editorial Page or Living Section. Challengeothers to think about, act upon, or appreciate your perspective on issues ofcommon interest or concern.
Character Profile:  Description of the qualities and characteristics that contributeto a particular person op-et’s unique personality.

Southwest / Travel: Anarticle or essay describing and detailing the cultural, geographic, orhistorical significance and/or current events impacting an interestinglocal, national, or international location you have experienced.

Reminiscence/Memoir/Personal Essay:  An account of your personal reflections about memorable time orevent that had a significant impact upon you and your life.


-PROSE, FICTION

Adult Short Story:  3000 words MAX.

Adult FLASH Fiction:  500words MAX.

Children/ YA Story:  1500 words MAX. Please specify appropriate age group.

Book Chapter: First chapter or 20 pages MAX.
               1. Mystery-Suspense/Sci-Fi/Action
               2. Romance/Women’s Lit  

Theater/Screenplay:  A one-act play, or the first ten pages of a longer play. 



EL PASO WRITERS' LEAGUE 2014 RULES & GUIDELINES 

-ELIGIBILITY
Thecontest is exclusive to EPWL members who have paid their annual dues in fullbefore the contest deadline.

-CRITERIA
-    Submissions must be original andunpublished.
-    Submissions may not have been awardedprizes in either an EPWL or any other literary contest.
-    Manuscripts being considered, but notunder contract, by publishers are eligible for submission in this contest.
-    All entries must follow the ruleswritten in this document.

SUBMITTING ENTRIES
A member may enter any or all categories, but no more than twoentries per category.

Submit two copies ofeach entry along with an official Entry Form to the contest chairs bythe deadline: Sept. 13, 2014.

Entry fees
$20 for 1-5 submissions and $3 for each additional entry. If acontest entrant brings in a sponsor of $60 or more, the$20 entry fee will bewaived.

Minimum entries
Categories with fewer than five entries will be assigned to thesecond choice category.

How-to submit
-      All submissions are to besubmitted anonymously, enclosed in the manila envelope provided, with the nameand telephone number and e-mail address of the author on the label on theoutside of the envelope.
-     Use standard size, plain whitepaper. Do not staple the pages ofyour entry. Instead, hold the pages together with are movable clip.
-      All contest entries must be typed, and with the exceptionof poetry, double-spaced. Use one-inch margins all around. Indent the firstline of each paragraph 5 to 7 spaces.Entriesmust be typed according to appropriate, professional form. Contest entriesmust be clean and neat. Misspellings, strike-overs, hard-to-read, and old or yellowed manuscripts are not acceptable.
-      Do not use fancy or scriptfonts for your text, except when stating character’s thoughts. Those go initalics. Stick to Times New Roman or one of the other fonts that mostpublishers use. Use 12point size.
-      The category and subjectmatter of each entry must appear in the lefthand margin of the first page. (Example: Fiction: Romance or Book Length:Nonfiction or Poetry: Children’s, etc.)Word count of prose entries needs to appear on the right.Wordcount for poetry is unnecessary. On the following pages, type a key wordfrom the title of the contest entry in the upper left-hand corner and pagenumber in the upper right-hand corner. Donot put your name on any page of the manuscript.
-      Do not include a coverpage, illustrations, or pictures in the manuscript.
-      Please sign your officialEntry Form (to be given out at the August meeting) with your name, the titlesof your entries, and the amount of money you submitted with the entries.
-      Any deviation of these rules could be basis for disqualification.


-DEADLINE

The contest deadline is Saturday, September 13, 2014. If youwant to submit prior to the contest deadline, please send the completed EntryForm (August meeting), two copies of each entry, and theentry fee to:

El Paso Writers’ League
P.O. Box13567
El Paso, TX 79913

No entries will be accepted after the close of the EPWL meeting onSaturday, September 13. 2014

Need help?
If you have questions, feel free to call Tina Dwyer at 915-239-7284,or send an email to

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El Paso Writer’s League Annual Contest: 2014 Official Entry Form

Name (please print or type): ______________________________________________________ 

Number of entries: 1 to 5 $20.00 total number of entries: = ___________________________________

Additional entries a $3/entry: ______________________________________________________                                        

Total $ amount:_______________________________________________

NO MORE THAN TWO ENTRIES PER CATEGORY. NO MORE THAN ONE TITLE PER LINE

POETRY:

Traditional:
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Closed Form:
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Open Form (Free Verse):
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Haiku, Tanka, Senryu, Ghazal, & other forms: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Children's:
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NONFICTION:

Inspirational:
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Op-Ed/Feature Article:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Character Profile:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Southwest/Travel:
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Reminiscence/Memoir/Personal Essay
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FICTION:

Adult Short Story:
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Adult Flash Fiction:
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Children/Young Adult:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Book Chapter:
            -Mystery-Suspense/Sci-Fi/Action:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
            -Women’s Lit/Romance:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Theater/Screenplay:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________