Cal Poly Accepting Submissions for 2015 Creative Writing Contest

Cal Poly’s English Department is accepting submissions for their annual Creative Writing Contest.

Fiction or poetry entries may be submitted in a PDF or Word (.doc) format and must be submitted via email by noon Friday, Feb. 6. Winners will be notified by phone or email.

Any student enrolled at Cal Poly may submit poems or stories. Past winners have included students from all colleges at Cal Poly.

Started in 1970, the contest has resulted in numerous winners who have gone on to distinguished careers in a variety of writing and publishing fields.

First-, second- and third-place winners will receive cash prizes, and the entries will be published in the English Department’s literary annual, Byzantium. Editor’s choice selections will also appear in Byzantium.

For questions, contact Professor Kevin Clark, 805-756-2506 or  kclark@calpoly.edu.

Submission guidelines:

1. Contestants must use a pseudonym on all entries.
2. Poetry and fiction should be submitted in separate emails. Submissions should be sent as an attachment via email to either Fiction (engl-byz-fiction@calpoly.edu) or Poetry (engl-byz-poetry@calpoly.edu).
3. Contestants should submit no more than three poems totaling a maximum of 150 lines and/or two stories totaling no more than 30 double-spaced pages.
4. In order to preserve anonymity, students should not save their real name anywhere on the document, including the filename under which it is saved. If possible, students should erase their actual name in the file before saving and sending. The student’s real name, phone number, and email address should only be in the text of the email, not in the attached document itself.
5. Students should place all poems in one document and all stories in one document.