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Undergraduate Writing Award

Founded in 2015, the Saint Louis University Undergraduate Writing Award honors undergraduate literary achievement in three rotating genres: short fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction.

Our mission is to foster a culture in which literary effort across SLU's entire undergraduate body is encouraged and recognized, and excellence is rewarded.

2024-25 Guidelines

Poetry

This year, the committee will be accepting poetry submissions.

Eligibility

The contest is limited to SLU and SLU-Madrid undergraduates with active enrollment status in the spring 2024 semester. 

Submission Requirements

Submissions must be 5,000 words or less, in English, and unpublished. There is a limit of two entries per person. Entries must be in 12-point Times New Roman font, formatted with one-inch margins, and saved as a PDF. Do not include your name, email, or other identifying information in your submission, as entries are judged anonymously; our online form links your name with your entry. Simultaneous submissions to other contests are allowed. Entrants retain all rights to their work.

Submit Your Entry

 Timeline

  • Submission Deadline: October 1, 2024 to March 7, 2025
  • Notification of Results: TBD
  • Award Presentation Ceremony: TBD

Judging

Entries are judged anonymously by the following panel:

  • Ron Austin is an assistant professor of English and creative writing at SLU, and the author of "Avery Colt Is A Snake, A Thief, A Liar" (2019).
  • Paige Chant is a University Core librarian at SLU. She earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Washington in Seattle and is chair of the Undergraduate Writing Award Committee.  
  • Andy Harper is an assistant professor of English at SLU teaching and writing about 19th- and early 20th-century American literature and creative nonfiction.
  • Edward Ibur is the executive director of the St. Louis Literary Award Programs at SLU and a former English and creative writing teacher.
  • Sheri McCord is the faculty liaison support coordinator for English in the 1818 Accelerated College Credit Program.  
  • Frances Pestello has a Ph.D. in sociology and teaches for the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at SLU. 

  • Maryse Jayasuriya is a professor of English at SLU teaching and writing about postcolonial and 20th- and 21st-century British literature. She is the author of "Terror and Reconciliation: Sri Lankan Anglophone Literature, 1983-2009," editor of "Critical Insights: The Immigrant Experience," and associate editor of South Asian Review.

  • Brian Yothers is a professor of English specializing in early American literature and chair of the Department of English at Saint Louis University. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, most recently "Why Antislavery Poetry Matters Now" (2023) and editor of "Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies."

Copyright

If your entry wins a cash prize, you agree to give Saint Louis University a nonexclusive license to publish your work online. We may ask you for permission to print your entry as well. Your entry will not be published in print without your consent, and you retain all other rights. You are free to publish your work in print or online elsewhere, and to enter it into other contests, whether or not you win a prize in this contest.

Assistance

If you have questions, please email paige.chant@slu.edu