Ģ������Ƶ

North Carolina high school students are invited to submit original short stories, literary essays (creative nonfiction), or poems for a chance to win a cash prize and be recognized at the 2025 Spring Literary Festival. Click the button below to enter your work into this year's competition.

Judged by Ģ������ƵEnglish Studies faculty. 

WCU’s Department of English Studies is proud to announce our new short story competition. We invite all current Ģ������Ƶstudents, both undergraduate and graduate, to submit original short stories inspired by the painting “Boat Dock,” reproduced below.

Stories must be 3,000 words or less.

The winning stories will be shared with the contest’s sponsor and will be considered for publication in WCU’s Nomad or Yonder. (The author retains all rights to their work.)

Judged by Ģ������ƵEnglish Studies faculty.

Submit to Beyond the Frame Competition

Undergraduate students at Ģ������Ƶmay submit their original poems, stories, and literary essays for a chance to receive a cash prize, publication in Yonder, and a spot to read at the 2025 Spring Literary Festival. 

Kathryn Stripling Byer Prize in Poetry

Submit up to three poems.

Judged by , author of the four poetry collections, including her most recent, The Animals of My Earth School. She is an associate professor at University of North Carolina-Asheville and coordinates the Poetrio Reading events at Malaprop’s Independent Bookstore/Café. 

Prize in Fiction

Submit stories of up to 2000 words.

Judged by author of the novel Tell It to Me Singing. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in LitHub, The Normal School, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband and their two sons, and teaches creative writing at Elon University. 

Prize in Literary Nonfiction

Submit creative nonfiction of up to 2000 words.

Judged by , author of the poetry collection Intimacies in Borrowed Light (2022) and the lyrical memoir Be Not Afraid of My Body (2024). He holds MFAs in poetry and creative nonfiction from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin and the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa. In 2021, he received the inaugural Emerging Writer Award from the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame. He is a Lulu “Merle” Johnson Doctoral Fellow in English at the University of Iowa. He lives in Iowa City with his dog, Gizmo.

Graduate students at Ģ������Ƶmay submit up to three original short stories (up to 3000 words each), literary essays (up to 3000 words each), or poems for a chance to receive a cash prize, publication in Yonder, and spot to read at the 2025 Spring Literary Festival.

Judged by , author of They All Fall the Same and Hillbilly Hustle. He lives within the Kentucky River Basin in Madison County, Kentucky. He has practiced law as a criminal defense attorney, prosecutor, and public defender in Appalachia for over 24 years. He also helps run his family's pizza shops.

Submissions should be 12 point, Times New Roman font, double spaced, 1" Margins, files in Word.docx, doc, or PDF format. No identifying information (name, etc.) on the submitted work. All files should be saved as follows [FirstName.LastName.Category]

Submit to Grad Lit Contest