Students in Grades 7-12 enrolled in public, independent, or home school settings throughout Mississippi are encouraged to submit their creative writing entries to the Scholastic Writing Awards Program, administered in the state by the Eudora Welty Foundation. The deadline is December 15, and the Mississippi-specific guidelines are shared in the pdf at the end of this article.
Categories include critical essay, dramatic script, flash fiction, humor, journalism, novel writing, personal essay/memoir, poetry, science fiction/fantasy, and short story. Seniors may also submit a writing portfolio containing several of their works.
Students must register and submit electronic copies of their manuscripts at https://www.artandwriting.org/. One copy of each signed submission form and accompanying entry fees (or fee waiver request form) must arrive at the Eudora Welty Visitors Center no later than 5:00 pm on Thursday, December 15, 2022. Please contact Sally Birdsall, Scholastic Administrator for the Mississippi Region, at 601-540-2691 or sallybirdsl@gmail.com with any questions.
On April 10, 2022, more than 100 students received awards at the Welty House & Garden, the first in-person awards program in two years. Several received national awards. Mississippi’s Poet Laureate Catherine Pierce, Professor of English and Creative Writing at Mississippi State University, was the keynote speaker. The 2023 awards program will also be held in April at the Welty House & Garden. Details are forthcoming.
The Scholastic Writing Awards Program began in Mississippi in 2008, coordinated by the Welty Foundation in partnership with the Welty House & Garden, a museum of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Originally the program was piloted in Hinds, Rankin, and Madison Counties, then expanded to 20 counties. Thanks to the generous support of the C Spire Foundation, Scholastic began being offered statewide in 2013.
