Find three opportunities below for undergraduate and graduate students at WCU to submit their creative work.
Undergraduate students may submit creative writing and visual art for the LitFest Creative Writing Competition and the Water Works Creative Competition. Winners and runners-up in each genre will receive a cash prize, publication in Nomad, and a chance to read at the Spring Literary Festival.
Graduate students may submit creative writing to the Grad Lit Competition. Winners will receive a cash prize, publication in Yonder, and a chance to read at the Spring Literary Festival.
The deadline to submit your work is February 4, 2022. Details below. Winners announced March 11.
Undergraduate students: Submit your work to thenomad@wcu.edu with “Student Writing Competition” in the subject line. Submissions will be considered for the competition and for publication in Nomad.
Winner: $250
Runner-up: $50
Submit up to three poems thenomad@wcu.edu.
Judged by Eduardo C. Corral . Corral is the author of Guillotine, published by Graywolf Press, and Slow Lightning, which won the 2011 Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition. He teaches in the MFA program at NC State.
Winner: $250
Runner-up: $50
Submit a short story of up to 2000 words thenomad@wcu.edu.
Judged by Kerry Howley . Howley is the author of Thrown, a New York Times Notable Book and New York Times Editor’s Choice. She is a Feature Writer at New York Magazine and is currently at work on a nonfiction thriller about the American surveillance state, forthcoming from Knopf.
Winner: $250
Runner-up: $50
Submit a literary essay of up to 2000 words thenomad@wcu.edu.
Judged by Rachel Yoder. Yoder is the author of Nightbitch, published by Doubleday. She holds MFAs from the University of Iowa and the University of Arizona and is a founding editor of draft: the journal of process.
Undergraduate students: Submit your work to jbjones@wcu.edu with "Water Works Contest" in the subject line
Winner: $200
Runner-up: $50
Submit 1 piece of visual art exploring the theme of water to jbjones@wcu.edu
Winner: $200
Runner-up: $50
Submit 1 piece of creative writing (poetry, fiction, or literary nonfiction) exploring the theme of water to jbjones@wcu.edu
Graduate students: Submit your work to yonderwcu@gmail.com with "Grad Lit Competition" in the subject line. Submissions will be considered for both the Grad Lit Competition and publication in Yonder.
Winner: $300
Runner-up: $200
Submit up to 5 poems or 5,000 words in fiction or creative nonfiction to yonderwcu@gmail.com
Judged by Ed Southern. Southern is the author of Fight Songs: A Story of Love & Sports in a Complicated South and Executive Director of the North Carolina Writers' Network.
Email Professor Jeremy Jones or the Nomad staff with questions.