CONTEST
CATEGORIES
POETRY: ANY TOPIC (Nature, Southwest,
Humorous, or whatever inspires you.)
Traditional: Poetry
distinguished by the prosody of historic structures of meter, rhythm, rhyme,
and versification, (including Blank Verse).
Closed Form: Poetry
in 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
historic meter, rhyme, or stanza structure. Such poetry derives its poetic
qualities from the repetition of words, phrases, grammatical structures, arrangement of 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: Poetry
that consists of whimsical, lyrical, laughable, loveable expressions of wit and
wisdom. ANY FORM.
PROSE, NON-FICTION (2,000 words MAX.)
Inspirational: Think Chicken
Soup stories. What are the words of
wisdom that have guided you along your life’s path? What inspiring message or
insights would you like share with others?
Op-Ed/Feature
Article: Discussion of a single subject from a personal point
of view. Think newspaper Editorial
Page or Living Section.
Challenge others to think about, act upon, or appreciate your
perspective on issues of common interest or concern.
Character Profile: Description
of the qualities and characteristics that contribute to a particular person or
pet’s unique personality.
Southwest / Travel:
An article or essay describing and detailing the
cultural, geographic, or historical significance and/or current events impacting an interesting local, national, or
international location you have experienced.
Reminiscence/Memoir/Personal
Essay: An account of your personal reflections about a
memorable time or event that had a significant impact upon you and your life.
PROSE, FICTION
Adult Short Story: 3000 words MAX.
Adult FLASH Fiction: 500
words 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/Screen
Play: A
one-act play, or the first ten pages of a longer play.
The El Paso Writer’s League
2013
Writing Contest Guidelines
ELIGIBILITY
The contest is exclusive to EPWL
members who have paid their annual dues in full before the contest deadline.
CRITERIA
✔
Submissions must be original and
unpublished.
✔
Submissions may not have been awarded
prizes in either an EPWL or any other literary contest.
✔
Manuscripts being considered, but not
under contract, by publishers are eligible for submission in this contest.
✔
All entries must follow the rules
written down anywhere in this document.
Submitting
entries
A member may enter any or all categories, but no more than
two entries per category .
Submit two copies of each entry along with an official Entry Form to Jan Brooks or Sarah Purcell by the
deadline: Sept. 14, 2013.
Entry
fees
$20 for 1-5 submissions and $3 for each
additional entry. If a contest entrant brings in a sponsor of $60 or more, the
$20 entry fee will be waived.
Minimum
entries
Categories with fewer than five entries
will be assigned to the
second choice category.
How
to submit
·
All submissions are to be submitted
anonymously, enclosed in the manila envelope provided, with the name and
telephone number and e-mail address of the author on the label on the outside
of the envelope.
·
Use standard size, plain white paper.
Do not staple the pages of your entry. Instead, hold the pages together with a
removable clip.
·
All contest entries must be typed, and
with the exception of poetry, double-spaced. Use one-inch margins all around.
Indent the first line of each paragraph 5 to 7 spaces. Entries must be typed
according to appropriate, professional form. Contest entries must be clean and
neat. Misspellings, strikeovers, hard-to-read, and old or yellowed manuscripts
are not acceptable.
·
Do not use fancy or script fonts for
your text, except when stating character’s thoughts. Those go in italics. Stick
to Times New Roman or one of the other fonts that most publishers use. Use 12
point size.
·
The category and subject matter of each
entry must appear in the left hand 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. Word count for poetry is unnecessary. On the following
pages, type a key word from the title of
the contest entry in the upper left-hand corner and page number in the
upper right-hand corner. Do not put your name on any page of the manuscript.
·
Do not include a cover page,
illustrations, or pictures in the manuscript.
·
Please sign your official Entry Form
(to be given out at the August meeting) with your name, the titles of 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 14, 2013. If you want to submit prior to the contest deadline,
please send the completed Entry Form (August meeting), two copies of each entry, and the entry fee to:
Sarah Purcell
El Paso Writers’ League
11116 Voyager Cove Drive
El Paso, Texas 79936
No entries will be accepted after the
close of the EPWL meeting on Saturday, September 14.
Need
help?
If you have questions, feel free to
call Sarah Purcell at 915-494-4632, or send an email to
