MCC Creative Writing Competition Guidelines, Spring 2024
Please read all following guidelines as a submission not meeting the entry requirements may not be considered
Mesa Community College (MCC) is pleased to announce its creative writing competition for 2024. All eligible MCC students are encouraged to submit to the poetry category, prose category, or both.
General Eligibility
1. A contestant must be a currently enrolled “for credit” student at Mesa Community College during the semester of the competition (spring 2024). All faculty are excluded. Entries must be works written during the student's enrollment in credit courses at MCC.
2. Entries must be unpublished works that have not won previous awards.
3. Students who have previously won first place in a category are not eligible to participate in that category again.
4. Entries must be received by Jeremy Broyles, the director of the creative writing program, no later than 5:00 p.m. Arizona time on Friday April 5, 2024. All entries must be emailed to jeremy.broyles@mesacc.edu. Please adhere to the following guidelines when submitting an entry.
- Within the subject line, write “MCC Creative Writing Competition—[Genre]—[Student’s last name].” As a sample, then, consider the following:
- MCC Creative Writing Competition—Poetry—Johnson
- Do not place your name anywhere within the actual writing submission itself. All entries will be judged anonymously.
- Prose entries should be double-spaced with the word count listed in the upper right-hand corner of page one.
- Poetry entries should be single-spaced unless the poem’s formatting demands otherwise.
- Please title your submission.
- Each entry should include two attachments: the entry form, found as an attachment at the bottom of this page, and the writing submission itself. Ensure the attachments are .doc or .docx documents. Google Docs are also acceptable.
5. Only one entry per category may be submitted by one individual. Contestants must include a completed MCC Creative Writing Competition entry form with each entry. That form is included at the end of this document.
6. Please note the entry length maximums.
- Poetry – No more than 100 total lines
- Prose (fiction and nonfiction) – No more than 3,000 total words
Judging and Awards
All judges will be current MCC faculty. All decisions of the judges are final. Awards will be distributed in the following manner for both the poetry category and prose category.
- First place - $600
- Second place - $400
- Third place - $200
- Honorable mention(s) - $100
Up to three honorable mention awards per category may be granted. MCC reserves the right to disperse funds as outlined above. Additionally, MCC reserves the right not to disperse funds should there not be a sufficient number of entries to warrant the granting of awards.
All cash prizes will first be directed toward any debt owed the college. If no student debt is owed, the award will be distributed in cash.
Contact
- All questions, concerns, and entries should be delivered to Jeremy Broyles, creative writing program director. He can be reached at jeremy.broyles@mesacc.edu.
MCCCD EEO/Nondiscrimination Policies
The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) is an EEO/AA institution and an equal opportunity employer of protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, or national origin. A lack of English language skills will not be a barrier to admission or participation in the career and technical education programs of the District.
The Maricopa County Community College District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in its programs or activities. For Title IX/504 concerns, call the following number to reach the appointed coordinator: (480) 731-8499. For additional information as well as a listing of all coordinators within the Maricopa College system, visit http://maricopa.edu/non-discrimination.