Yansall Rasquides / Contributing Writer
Just last week FIU announced their annual literary award contest.
All students enrolled in fall 2020 and/or spring 2021 are welcome to participate in the awards. The submissions accepted will be for the following genres: poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Graduate and undergraduate students are welcome to submit their pieces.
The deadline for the contest is Friday Feb. 5, 2021 at 4 p.m.
As stated in the guidelines, graduate denotes only students enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing; all other students must enter as undergraduates.
Prose submissions must be typed, double-spaced, twelve-point font, one-inch margins. Poetry should be typed, single-spaced.
Fiction: one (1) story per entrant, not to exceed 5,000 words.
Poetry: limited to three (3) poems per entrant, not to exceed 250 lines total
Creative Nonfiction: one (1) essay per entrant, not to exceed 5,000 words
In each category in each division, there will be a first prize of $400.
Brianne (Bri) Griffith, a senior in the MFA Program, talked about her experience competing in the literary awards last year.
“I kind of went in with the expectation of not winning just because everyone in the MFA program is sending work, and they’re sending their best work,” Griffith said.
Griffith was one of last year’s winners and won with her poem “Hotboxing My Car in a Denny’s Parking Lot”.
The literary awards give students the opportunity to submit three poems, one fiction story, and one creative nonfiction essay per entrant.
Brittany Torres Rivera, a senior majoring in creative writing, was also one of last year’s winners.
Rivera won with her poem “Firearms Instructor”, which is about her father. Rivera and Griffith both mentioned how they submitted poems they had already written in the past, they did not write necessarily for the contest.
“Even though you’re a creative writing major, like, it’s so much, you kind of just at times end up writing, whatever it is to get your grade. But my thought process is always to write it as if I’m going to publish,” Rivera said.
Both Rivera and Griffith also mentioned that they did not expect to win the contest at all. They also emphasized the importance of knowing when to revise and when to know your piece is ready.
“Okay, I’m feeling comfortable with where this piece is, which, you know, it’s not to sound arrogant or anything, at some point, you have to take ownership and, because like I said, there will always be room for revision,” Rivera said.
Griffith shared similar sentiments.
“When I’m making changes to the poem and those changes aren’t making the poem better they’re just kind of making it different, I feel like the poem is as good as it can be right now. I could change the title but it won’t make it better…it’ll just make it a different poem.” Griffith explained.
When it comes to writing, they said, there is always room for improvement but there comes a point in the writing process where one must be confident enough in their writing and submit.
As stated in the guidelines, only the three genres listed will be accepted. Students must keep a copy of their manuscript as they will not be saved once submitted.
“It’s good to send your work out, even if you don’t win because someone’s engaging with it, which is nice… it’s good practice so I would encourage everybody who can submit even if you feel like you’re not good enough, or if you feel like you’re not going to win it really doesn’t matter,” Griffith said when asked to give tips for this year’s contest.
Rivera also made sure to let contestants know to be willing to ask for help.
“Don’t feel like writing is a solo act, because I have not talked to or met a writer who writes on their own,” said Rivera. “There’s always somebody whether it’s an editor, a friend, or colleague, who is part of that process.”
About Post Author
