The Nitty-Gritty - Official Rules
The 2010 Writing Award winners have been chosen, please try again next year.
NO EMAIL SUBMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED!
Six $500 prizes will be awarded to CU-Boulder students in the spring of 2010 for entries with Western American topics.
We invite submissions in the following categories:
- Graduate Nonfiction: including academic papers
- Undergraduate Nonfiction: including academic papers
- Graduate Fiction: including short stories, novels, plays, and screenplays
- Undergraduate Fiction: including short stories, novels, plays, and screenplays
- Poetry: single poems only (no collections) - open to students at all levels of study
- Memoir/Creative Nonfiction: including journalism, and essays - open to students at all levels of study
Each category may be entered only once. Each work may be entered into only one category (for example, a journalistic piece may not be entered in both non-fiction AND memoir categories). All submissions must be previously unpublished and unsold.
- Writing Entries Must Include:
- Four duplicate titled paper manuscript copies without any author identification.
- One coversheet available for download here
Entries missing any of the items listed above will not be considered. Manuscripts and CDs will not be returned.
- Eligibility: Contestants must be enrolled in a degree program at CU-Boulder for the duration of the fall 2009 semester and/or the duration of the spring 2010 semester, or have graduated from a degree program at CU-Boulder in the spring 2009. Students may enter no more than one manuscript per prize category. Graduate students may not enter work into undergraduate categories, even if written while an undergraduate student.
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Criteria: Entries will be evaluated on relevance to an understanding of the American West*, and level of appeal to a broad, informed audience. Writing entries must be proofread carefully and, with the exception of poetry, follow standard manuscript form (double-spacing, paragraphs indented five to eight spaces, page numbers included, etc.). Grammar and mechanics should be precise, and organization should be strong. If you submit a novel or screenplay, consider submitting the strongest section, otherwise do be aware that our readers may only read the first act of a screenplay or play and the first chapter or two of a novel.
*It is no easy matter to define the West or the quality of "Westerness." In general, we think of the West as the territory between the 100th Meridian and the Pacific Coast , though Alaska or Hawaii should not be so easily excluded. We recognize that the Myth of the West has played a great role in history and still carries much influence in regional life today, and so we understand that some eligible writings will address the material reality of the West (cities, highways, ranches, mines, resorts, suburbs, national parks, dams, wildlife, etc.) and some equally eligible writings will address the West of dreams, expectations, hopes, and imaginings (factors which, in truth, shape material reality and human behavior in very concrete ways).
NO EMAIL SUBMISSIONS will be considered. CDs will not be returned. - Display, Delivery, and Return of Winning Entries: Winners chosen as either an honorable mention or first prize will be invited to an awards banquet in their honor. All first place winners in the writing categories will have the opportunity to read from some or all of their winning entry.
- Publication Consent: Submission of material in the writing categories implies author's guarantee that the work has not yet been published and is not scheduled for publication. Submission of a piece into this contest guarantees that the artwork submitted is the property of the artist, has been created by the artist, and has not been sold to someone else. It also implies consent for the Center of the American West to use the winning and honorable mention entries as marketing materials and for website posting. Should the entry win or recieve an honorable mention, the winning authors will be required to sign a publication consent form before prize will be awarded.
- Submission Deadline: Submissions must be received in their entirety at our office by Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 5:00 PM. Late and incomplete submissions, regardless of postmark date, will not be considered. Faxed submissions will not be accepted.
- Prizes will be awarded at the discretion of the judges. A prize may not be awarded in a category if no entry is deemed worthy. All entries will be submitted to a plagiarism detection service.
- Deliver submissions to:
Center of the American West
University of Colorado at Boulder
Macky Auditorium, Room 229A
282 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309