WC&C Scholarship Competition

Writers’ Conferences & Centers is conducting its annual competition to provide scholarships for emerging writers who wish to attend a writers’ conference, center, retreat, festival, or residency. The scholarships will be applied to fees to attend any of the members of WC&C, an association of outstanding conferences, colonies, and festivals for writers.

View a complete directory of WC&C Members

The competition is open to all writers who would like to attend a WC&C member program. To enter the competition, please follow the guidelines below. Two scholarships of $500 will be awarded.

Writers' Conferences & Centers is a division of The Association of Writers & Writing Programs, a nonprofit association of writers and writing programs.

2009 Judge:   

Jerod Santek

Guidelines for Submissions:

• Submissions in fiction and poetry will be considered. Separate submissions in each genre are permitted.
• Writers’ names must not appear on submissions. A separate cover sheet must accompany submissions and include the following: Name, Address, phone number, email address, title, and genre. Please bind submissions by staple, binder clip, or paper clip. If you wish to be notified that your manuscript was received please include an SASE postcard.  
• All manuscripts must be single-sided and typed. Prose must be double-spaced. A maximum of one short story (or novel excerpt) up 25 pages or 10 pages of poetry will be considered. Each new poem must start a new page.
• You may enter in more than one genre, and you may also enter multiple manuscripts in one genre, provided each manuscript is accompanied by its own entry fee.
• Former or current students of the judge are ineligible.  Previous recipients of WC&C Scholarships are also not eligible to submit. 

Submissions must be postmarked between December 1st and March 30th of each year. Please address submissions to:

WC&C Scholarship Competition
Association of Writers & Writing Programs
MS1E3, George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

A $10 reading fee, either a check or money order in US dollars made payable to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, must accompany all submissions. Winners will be notified by May 15th. All submissions should be accompanied by a SASE for notification of winners.

Two winners will receive $500 scholarships to attend a WC&C member program; funds are paid directly to the program selected. (Member conferences reserve the right to determine participants in their programs; winners select a first choice and two alternates.) Winners and finalists also receive a one-year individual membership in AWP.

2009 Scholarship Winners:

Poetry- Celeste Doaks, poet and journalist, is the recipient of the 2009 Academy of American Poets Graduate Prize; she has also been awarded a residency at the Atlantic Center of the Arts, a Poets and Writers reading grant and the Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker scholarship to attend the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her work has appeared in the Village Voice, Time Out New York, and QBR (Quarterly Black Book Review). In her adopted home of Brooklyn, the Midwestern native founded the Speakeasy reading series, which has featured many notable NYC writers. Now Celeste is pursuing her MFA degree at North Carolina State University and working as an undergraduate creative writing instructor. Like many cash-strapped grad students, she enjoys she enjoys crafting meals using Harris Teeter free cheese samples.

Fiction- Kelly Luce's collection of Japan-related short stories won the 2008 Jackson Award from the San Francisco Foundation, and her work has been recognized by fellowships to the MacDowell Colony, Jentel Arts, and Fishtrap. She is the winner of the 2008 Danahy Prize from Tampa Review, and has recently published fiction in The Gettysburg Review, The Southern Review, Massachusetts Review, and North American Review. She keeps a hula hoop in her car. Find her online at Crazy Pete's Blotter: www.thecrazypetesblotter.blogspot.com.

2008 Scholarship Winners:

Poetry- Christina Lovin attended the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.

Fiction- Jeffrey Voccola attended the Prague Summer Program hosted by Western Michigan University.

2007 Scholarship Winners:

Poetry- Ching-In Chen attended the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Workshop.

Fiction- Deirdra McAfee attended the Wesleyan Writers Conference.

2006 Scholarship Winners:

Poetry- Jocelyn Casey-Whiteman attended the Paris Writers' Workshop.

Fiction- Hosanna Patience attended the Tin House Writers' Conference.

2005 Scholarship Winners

Poetry- Jillian Weise attended the Sewanee Writers Conference.

Fiction- Morgan McDermott.

2004 Scholarship Winners

Poetry- J.W. Richardson attended the Santa Fe Writers’ Conference.

Fiction- Heidi Durrow attended the Tin House Summer Writers’ Workshop.

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