Bucks County Community College, invites the public to enter its third annual Bucks County Short Fiction contest for a chance to win up to $200.
Bucks County residents who are 18 and older and out of high school are invited to submit one story of up to 12 typewritten, double-spaced pages by noon Thursday, Oct. 17. Stories must be previously unpublished, including in online formats.
Elizabeth Luciano, the literature professor who launched the contest, says the competition is an opportunity for writers to have their voices heard.
“The college has long played an active role in nurturing the creative writing community, most notably through the Bucks County Poet Laureate and Bucks County High School Poet of the Year contests,” Luciano said. “This project adds to that synergy by encouraging fiction writers throughout the county.”
All submissions must be entered online. Bucks County Community College employees (both full- and part-time) are not eligible. To enter, visit
bucks.edu/shortfictioncontest.
The contest will be judged blindly by Kelly Simmons, a Philadelphia-area writer whose books include “One More Day,” “The Fifth of July,” and “The Bird House.” Her fifth novel, “Where She Went,” will be released Oct. 1 by Sourcebooks.
The top three winners in the contest will receive honoraria of $200, $100 and $50, respectively. The winners will be invited to read their work at a public reception at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, in Tyler Hall on
the campus at 275 Swamp Road, Newtown. Simmons will also read from her works at the reception.
Contact Luciano at
Elizabeth.Luciano@bucks.edu or the Language and Literature Department at 215-968-8167.