General Rules and Information
Competition for 2012 is now closed. Winners have been notified.
The three writing categories:
- Fiction - Short Story: A work of fiction complete unto itself. It should not exceed 3,000 words.
- Creative Nonfiction: Literary essay in the style of a personal/autobiographical narrative or an opinion/editorial commentary on an issue of significant interest. The entry should not exceed 3,000 words. NOTE: The writing must demonstrate elements of an awareness of nonfiction as a literary genre; therefore, a “traditional research paper/essay” would not be appropriate for this category.
- Poetry: One poem or a group of poems (not necessarily related subjects), no more than four poems total, in any form of poetry (open/closed form or free verse). These will be judged on the whole entry, not a part. Poems may be typed on one page provided that short poems are not divided at the bottom of a page. The entry should not exceed 100 lines total. For purposes of submitting your entry in this category, a collection of poems counts as a single entry.
General Eligibility Requirements
- A contestant must be a student currently enrolled at the time of entry at a local high school or at CBC during the 2011-2012 academic year and as of the May 4 deadline. Home schooled students in grades 9-12 are also eligible to enter in the appropriate division. Entries from CBC employees (other than those classified as student workers) are not eligible for this writing competition.
- Entries must be original, non-published work; student works from classroom or school-sponsored publications, such as a school newspaper or classroom assignments, are eligible. Only one entry per category may be submitted by each individual.
- We will accept contest submissions between Wednesday, February 1 and midnight, Friday, May 4, 2012. Please note that all contest entries must be submitted electronically via our online submissions manager which can be found by clicking on 'Submit' below.
Specific Entry Requirements
- The manuscript should be typed. Fiction and Creative Nonfiction entries should be double-spaced. Poetry entries can be single-spaced.
- Entries should be submitted in one of the following file formats: .doc, .pdf, .docx, .rtf. NO OTHER FILE FORMATS WILL BE ACCEPTED.
- Do not put your name or any other identifying information in the pages of your entry.
- Type font should be 10 or 12 point, with one-inch margins on all four edges of the page.
- The title should appear on each page of an essay or short story and above each poem. There should be no separate title page. Pages should be numbered consecutively.
- If your entry is chosen as a winner, you will be asked to provide permission to publish your entry on the CBC LitFest website.
Judging Facts
The competition judges are full-time CBC English and Literature faculty. The decisions of the judges are final, and judges reserve the option to withhold an award in any category. Awards are given for the entry’s overall merit, based on the writer’s use of the elements of imaginative writing, including but not limited to: vividness of detail; development of tone, style, and voice; use of significant themes; use of literary elements appropriate to the genre (e.g., plot, imagery, dialogue, irony, lines and line breaks, etc); and the overall originality of the entry. Grammar and mechanics are also considered.
Awards
Writing competition winners will be notified via a letter or phone call in early May and announced publicly shortly thereafter. Award winners must be willing to travel to the CBC Pasco campus prior to that event to fill out the necessary paperwork for award processing. Failure to do so within 14 calendar days of being notified that you are a winner will result in delay of prizes. All entrants are invited to attend LitFest events, which are open to the public and are free of charge. For more information about LitFest, visit the Mid-Columbia Literary Festival web page.
Cash prizes
- $100 for first-place entries from each category in each division.
- $50 for second-place entries from each category in each division.
- $200 for one grand-prize entry selected from first-place winners of each category and division.
Publication of Winning Entries
Winning entries will be published in an online format accessible from the Mid-Columbia Literary Festival web page.
Competition Deadline
More Information
CBC Arts and Humanities Office: 509-542-5531
Disclaimer
CBC assumes no responsibility for lost, misdirected, stolen entries, or printing errors in the final publication. All contest entries become the property of CBC for the sole purpose of publishing on the Internet while not infringing on the copyrights of the applicants. CBC reserves the right in final publication to edit for spelling and grammatical errors. Entries will be screened for proper submission procedures. Applications will be rejected if they do not meet the general eligibility requirements or the specific entry requirements.