Competition Guidelines

ELIGIBILITY

A contestant must be a student enrolled for credit in a League for Innovation board member college in at least one semester of the 2008-2009 academic year. Enrollment must be verified by the local competition coordinator.

Entries must be original works written during the student's enrollment in credit courses at the college. Each entry MUST have the signature of a sponsoring faculty member.

Winning entries from League board member college competitions will, in turn, be entered in the national competition.

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SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Entries must be submitted by campus coordinators.  Students can not submit their entries directly.

Entries must be submitted in two forms, one printed and one digital:

• Printed: a hard copy, typewritten or word processed, and double-spaced on 8.5 x 11 inch white paper.
• Digital: an electronic copy submitted on CD or via the Web.
  Campus coordinators may submit the local winners' entries online.

A cover page for each entry must include:

• Author's name,
• Home address and phone number,
• Institution,
• Title of entry, and
• Author's ID# (your school acronym and the genre, for example: aacc-fiction).

The upper right corner of each page of the entry must include:

• Title of entry,
• Author's ID# (your school acronym and the genre, for example: aacc-fiction), and
• Page number.

The author's name must not appear on any page of the entry itself.

The official League for Innovation Student Literary Competition Entry Form must be completed, signed (student and faculty sponsor), and enclosed with each entry. Students can obtain the official entry forms from their campus coordinators.

Maximum Length Requirements:

• The Poem must not exceed 67 lines.
• The Personal Essay must not exceed 2000 words.
• The One Act Play must not exceed 3000 words, including stage directions and production notes.
• The Short Story must not exceed 3000 words.

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JUDGING

• In each category, the judge is a nationally recognized writer. The decisions of the judges are final.

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AWARDS

Prize money for winners of the national contest will be distributed in each category as follows:

• First Prize $500
• Second Prize $200
• Third Prize $100

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DEADLINES

Students must win a literary competition at their local campuses before their work is forward to the national Wordscapes Competition. The Deadline for Local Competitions will be announced by the local colleges.

Local, college-wide winning entries must be submitted by campus coordinators to the national coordinator by April 30th.

National Coordinator:
Susan Cohen, Department of English & Communications,
Anne Arundel Community College,
101 College Parkway
Arnold, MD 21012
410-777-2545
sacohen3@aacc.edu

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Winners of the national competition will be announced June 15th.
All winning entries will be published in a League for Innovation student literary publication.

By entering the competition, the student grants the League permission to reproduce their submission in print and digital forms.

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