2022-23 Creative Writing Contest

Please scan and send entries to boone-story.readingcouncil@gmail.com

General Creative Writing Contest Guidelines

The Iowa Reading Association is sponsoring our annual Young Authors CREATIVE WRITING contest for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade during the 2022-23 school year. Students may write and submit an ORIGINAL poem or short story in prose form and may enter one or both styles of writing.A student may have one entry in the creative writing and one entry in the poetry contest. Teachers should offer the opportunity to all students, but should respect any student who is not interested in participating.

PLEASE NOTE: All entries must be submitted to the local council (Boone-Story Reading Council) for judging. Any building wishing to submit entries must have at least one person who is a MEMBER of the local council to qualify to enter the Creative Writing contest!

In all cases, the entries must be proofread before entering the contest (this can be done with teacher, peer, or parent). Spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors must be corrected! Doing so not only provides opportunity for further writing education, but it also produces the desired finished product. (If any co-authors are entered from the same grade level, they will be judged along with their respective grade level single author entries.)

At the local level, there will be three poems and three short stories recognized in each of the grade levels. Congratulatory letters and certificates will be mailed to the second and third place winners at each level. First place winners will be notified through a congratulatory letter and also be invited to the local Young Author's Celebration to be held in April or May.

Entries selected as first place at the local level also advance to the state-level competition. State first place winners and their teachers will be notified by mail and will be invited to attend the Young Authors Celebration during the Iowa Reading Association’s Annual Conference in Ames, where they will be recognized and honored at a reception. First, second and third place state winners will be posted on the Iowa Reading Association website.

Only stories and poems labeled correctly, including ALL information, will be considered for the Creative Writing Contest.

Creative Writing Contest Entry Forms for 2022 -23

Entries due by : February 15, 2023