Young student writers have until January 15 to submit their short stories, memoirs and poems to the first ever University of Idaho Hemingway Festival High School Writing Contest.
Every year, the University of Idaho’s Creative Writing Program hosts the Hemingway Festival to honor the annual Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award recipient.
This year, the University of Idaho’s English Department and the College of Letters Arts and Social Sciences teamed up to offer the UI Hemingway Festival High School Writing Contest, that is open to all high school juniors and seniors across the country.
The aim of the contest, according to the University, is to develop young writers and show them how they have the power to change the world through the written word.
Calling upon Mary Hemingway’s own vision for establishing the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, UI’s writing contest was designed “for the purposes of awakening, sustaining an interest in, promoting, fostering, stimulating, supporting, improving and developing literature and all forms of literary composition and expression.”
Students can submit on piece of work per category for the contest. The categories are:
1) Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, including short stories, personal narratives, memoirs, travel stories, or journalism feature pieces;
2) Academic Essay, including research papers; and
3) Poetry, including an individual poem or collections of up to five poems.
All entries by contestants must be original, unpublished works of 1,500 words or fewer.
Young writers have until January 15, 2016, to submit their work and winners will be notified by February 15, 2016.
Winners and finalists will be recognized at the 7th Annual University of Idaho Hemingway Festival in March and cash prizes will be awarded in each category, thanks to donations from Quad Cities Nissan in Moscow, Idaho, and the University of Idaho Office of Alumni Relations.
There will be one winner and one finalist in each category with one overall grand prize winner who will be awarded $500.
Hemingway scholar and professor of English at the University of Idaho, Ron McFarland, as well as editors from the literary journal, “Fugue”, will judge the competition.
Winners will also be considered for publication in an online University of Idaho publication.
For more information on the competition or to enter, click here: https://uihemingwayfestivalwritingcontest.submittable.com/submit
In addition to the High School Writing Contest, the University of Idaho Hemingway Festival and the Cuba Journal are partnering together to award a paid internship opportunity to an undergraduate or graduate student.
The internship will be awarded to a college and university student (undergrad or grad) on the basis of an article submission in connection with the University of Idaho’s Hemingway Festival and should address aspects of Ernest Hemingway’s connection to Cuba and should be appropriate for publication by the CubaJournal.co.
Articles should be 1,000 words and the deadline for submissions is February 25, 2016. Submissions should include the writer’s resume.
The winner of the internship will also be announced during the UI Hemingway Festival and will have their piece published by the Cuba Journal.
To submit articles for consideration, please email them to internshipaward@cubajournal.co.
For more information on the internship opportunity, click here.