Scholarships available for creative writing
Joseph Starkloff
Scholarship prizes are available for contestants of the Maricopa County Community College District Creative Writing Competition.The competition includes poetry, fictional writings, essays and one-act plays. Each genre will be awarded separately, and students are allowed one submission per genre.
Participants can enter online at http://mcli.maricopa.edu/arts/creative-writing/entries. The entry deadline is Nov. 19. Contestants must be attending at least four credit hours at one of the Maricopa Community Colleges.
Josh Rathkamp, the MCC coordinator for the event, stated the contest is a rewarding outlet for students.
“This is a competition that really fosters writing (and) student involvement. This is a wonderful opportunity for individual voices to be heard. Anyone is eligible, it doesn’t matter if you taken a creative writing class or not,” he said.
Rathkamp also detailed the dollar amount granted to those who win in their category.
“Students win (scholarship) cash awards, and they will also receive recognition from the chancellor . during a rewards banquette in the spring semester. The first place award is $300, the second place award is $200, the third place award is $150, and then there’s up to three honorable mentions in each genre which are $100 each,” he said.
The creative writing competition has occurred every fall semester for nearly 15 years.
Rathkamp correlated similarities of previous winning submissions.
“One thing that’s constant with all the winners is that there’s an attention to language. There’s an attention to creativity and imagination. All the winning entries have been imaginative, have been original and unique,” he said.
