Please consider submitting your work for consideration in any or all of these four categories (one entry per category):

  • The Nixeon Civille Handy Poetry Competition: A poem of no more than 50 lines
  • The Sandler Critical Essay Competition: An analytical paper from a 300- or 400-level English class
  • The Esther Wagner Fiction Competition: A short story of no more than 25 pages
  • The Rosemary VanArsdel Nonfiction Competition: A piece of journalism or creative nonfiction prose, no more than 12
    pages, written for (or developed from) an English course assignment

Winners will receive a cash prize and be announced at our end-of-year event (Wordstock!) on April 19, 2024.

The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2024.

  • Entries should be uploaded using this form: Writing Contest Submissions.
  • Your name and email address must only be recorded in the contest submission form and not on the entry itself. Please do not include identifying information on the poem, essay, story, or nonfiction piece itself.
  • Entries should be typed, double spaced with 1” margins on all sides.

Students must be currently enrolled at the University of Puget Sound.