WRITING CONTESTS
YOUTH WRITING CONTESTS – SHORT STORY and POETRY
Category 2: Grades 3, 4, and 5
Category 3: Grades 6, 7, and 8
Category 4: Grades 9, 10, 11, and 12
National Level: State Arts Chairman must send one state winning entry in each contest category, along with a cover letter listing the names for each entry to the national GFWC Writing Contests Chairman, postmarked on or before April 1 each year.
YOUTH WRITING CONTESTS – SHORT STORY and POETRY
- Entries must be typed, double-spaced, printed on one side only, with minimum margins of one-inch on all four sides, on 8.5 x 11-inch paper.
- Entries must be written during the contest year (January1-December 31).
- Entries must have the following on the top right hand corner of each page:
- Author’s name, email address, mailing address, and phone number
- Name of the GFWC club and State Federation submitting author’s work
- Category
- Title of work
- Grade Level Category
Category 2: Grades 3, 4, and 5
Category 3: Grades 6, 7, and 8
Category 4: Grades 9, 10, 11, and 12
- Authors must be amateurs; earnings from writing may not exceed $500 annually.
- Entries may not have been published prior to the competition and must be original works by the authors.
- A signed GFWC Creative Arts Waiver must be included with each submission.
- One entry per person per category.
- Short stories are limited to 2,000 words.
- Poetry entries can be any style, with a minimum length of eight lines and a maximum of 50 lines.
- Manuscripts will not be returned. Authors should keep a copy.
- No district winners will be chosen.
- Clubs must send entries to the State Arts Chairman for state judging by February 1, 2017 and 2018.
- State Arts Chairman shall select judges, who will evaluate submissions and select a first place winning entry in each category.
- By submitting your short story or poem to GFWC, you are providing GFWC with royalty-free perpetual license to use, reproduce, post, display, create derivative works, sell, license the work in any media known or later invented without limitation, for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
- A completed and signed GFWC Creative Arts Waiver must be submitted with each entry, which is located at the end of this section.
National Level: State Arts Chairman must send one state winning entry in each contest category, along with a cover letter listing the names for each entry to the national GFWC Writing Contests Chairman, postmarked on or before April 1 each year.