Book Markers 05.24.12

College Writing Awards

    College students. Might there be any reading this page? Well, you family relation out there, here’s something of interest to pass on: Suffolk Community College is sponsoring creative writing awards for college writers. They come with prize money and online publication for the winners in four categories: poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and one-act play.

    The original, previously unpublished work must be submitted with no name on it. Poets have been asked to submit three poems, one per page, each with a title. For fiction writers, it’s one story up to 10 pages, double-spaced. A complete piece is preferred over an excerpt. The same length requirement applies to creative nonfiction, which includes memoir, “lyric essay,” and literary journalism. (That piece written for English class? The one where you argue counterintuitively that Wordsworth came not to praise nature but to wage war on it? Forget it. No academic prose will be accepted.) And last, plays can be up to 20 pages in a standard format.

    Students can submit work in more than one genre. The reading fee is $5, which is waived for Suffolk Community College students. All submissions must go through the following doozy of an online address: thescccreativewritingfestival.submishmash.com/submit.

    There’s time, as the deadline is Feb. 15 of next year. But if the last-minute all-nighter works for you, go for it.

Kids’ Lit Workshops

    Interested in writing for children? Space remains in the first session of children’s literature workshops from July 11 to 15 at Stony Brook Southampton’s coming conference, called Summer Arts Southampton.

    Emma Walton Hamilton is directing the workshops. Leading the young-adult novel session will be Cynthia Leitich Smith and Greg Leitich Smith. Peter H. Reynolds, an author and illustrator, will lead a picture book workshop, and the middle-grade novel session will be led by Kate McMullan, a Horn Book Award-winning writer who lives in Sag Harbor.

    The workshops are open to new, established, and aspiring writers, the college said in a release, and involve lectures, group discussions, and more. Applications and further details can be found online at southamptonarts.org.