The Ringling College of Art and Design Creative Writing Program was created to support, empower, and honor young writers. It’s an exciting time to be a writer thanks to the increasing number of narrative possibilities that new technologies and media offer. We believe that well-told stories can speak truths and communicate ideas in a way that nothing else can.
To that end, we’re inviting all high-school age students to submit unpublished, original English-language stories of up to 2,000 words in length for the 4th Annual “Storytellers of Tomorrow” Contest. The criteria for earning prizes in this contest is simply overall quality, meaning that well-edited, engaging, and evocative stories have the best chance of winning over the judges.
Submission Guidelines
- Send your stories as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf attachment through email. Along with your submission, please include:
- Your full name
- Your current high school
- Your current grade level
- A few sentences about your background in writing, your hobbies/interests, and/or anything else you’d like to share to give us a stronger sense of who you are
Submission Category 1: Literary Stories
- Examples of this type of writing? Short fiction, flash fiction
- Examples of writers who work in this vein? Tim O’Brien, O. Henry, John Green, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Robert Olen Butler, Amy Tan, Sandra Cisneros, and Lorrie Moore
- Examples of this type of writing? Horror stories, fantasy stories, mystery stories, science fiction, thriller stories
- Examples of writers who work in this vein? Neil Gaiman, Edgar Allen Poe, J.K. Rowling, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R.R. Martin, Philip K. Dick, and Patricia Highsmith
- Examples of this type of writing? Autobiographical essays, personal essay, creative nonfiction (including very well-written, story-based travel writing, nature writing, science writing, and/or biography)
- Examples of writers who work in this vein? Lauren Hillenbrand (Unbroken), Jeannette Walls (The Glass Castle), Oliver Sacks (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat), John Burroughs (“In Mammoth Cave”), Chuck Klosterman (Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs), Jorge Luis Borges (“Blindness”), E.B. White (“Once More to the Lake”), and Annie Dillard (“Seeing”)
Submission Address:
creativewritingATringlingDOTedu (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )
(please include “Storytellers of Tomorrow 2019” in the subject line)
Submission Period
October 15, 2018 – Jan 15, 2019
(Winners will be notified in February 2019)
Initial Judges
The Ringling College of Art and Design Creative Writing Program faculty
Entry Fee: None
Prizes in Each Category
1st prize:
$150
A Ringling College of Art and Design t-shirt
An iPad
Plus an iPad for the winner’s high school writing teacher’s classroom
2nd prize:
$100
A Ringling College of Art and Design t-shirt
3rd prize:
$50
A Ringling College of Art and Design t-shirt
Honorable Mentions:
A Ringling College of Art and Design t-shirt
FAQs
Will the contest entries be published?
The top winner in each category will be offered the opportunity for their work to be published in Shift, the Creative Writing Program’s literary arts journal. Beyond that offer of one-time publication, authors retain all rights to their stories.
What if I win first prize but don’t want my work published?
That’s a decision we will respect.
Can I submit to more than one category?
Yes. Though each piece can only win a prize in a single category so please send different pieces if you’ve like to contend in more than one contest category.
You say you want “unpublished” work. What does that mean?
If you wrote something for a school assignment, that’s fine. If your piece ran in your school newspaper or school literary magazine, that’s fine too.
If your piece ran in a national periodical of any type (USA Today, Reader’s Digest, Boy’s Life, Seventeen, etc.)? That’s published. The same is true with posting your piece in online forums, blogs, and websites (personal ones or Wattpad). And if your piece was included in any textbook or anthology, that too counts as being published.
If you have any questions about this, please email us to ask.
I want to send in something different than a traditional short story. Can I do that?
Absolutely. While many submissions will be traditional short stories, we are also quite open to graphic narratives, scripts, picture book manuscripts, comics, and other literary forms/blends.
I’m a poet. Can I submit a poem?
You may submit anything you choose up to 2,000 words long, though poetry without an extremely strong narrative component likely doesn’t fit well in any of the submission categories. This is primarily a prose narrative contest.
What type of stories/subjects/themes do you want?
That’s entirely up to you, though a familiarity with the genre/style you’re writing in will surely be of help to you.
What are the judges REALLY looking for?
High-quality writing that engages the reader.
What are the common issues with most submissions?
Here are three of the top reasons most entries don’t make the cut..
Failure to follow the contest guidelines
Poor editing/proofreading
Cliché ideas/plots
I’m not an American citizen. Can I still submit?
If you’re a high-school-age student enrolled in a high-school curriculum and you’re writing in English? Yes.
I’m homeschooled. Can I enter the contest?
If you’re a high-school-age student enrolled in a high-school curriculum and you’re writing in English? Yes.
Is Ringling College associated with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus?
John Ringling was involved with the launching of the institution in 1931, but beyond that, we have no relationship to the circus beyond the association of his name. So the circus’ closing in 2017 had zero effect on Ringling College.
I’ve got a question that doesn’t seem to be answered anywhere. What do I do?
Send in your question via email to:
creativewritingATringlingDOTedu (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )
with the subject line “Contest Question.”
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