Continuing the series of Frequently Asked Questions about the West Virginia Writers, Inc., Annual Writing Competitions.  To see all of the questions, please click HERE.

QUESTION: I have about a dozen poems in a group, written over the past 40 years. Must I send $10 for each or will the $10 fee cover them all?

ANSWER: It all depends on which category you are submitting to. If you enter Short Poetry or Long Poetry for instance you would be entering individual poems which would each require a $10 fee. If you are submitting the group of poems as a chapbook, however, you could submit to the Poetry Chapbook category, which accepts up to 30 pages of poetry for a $12 entry fee. You should know, though, that many chapbooks are collected based on a theme and not simply random poetry (though those exist in chapbook form too, I’m sure). So you’ll possibly be competing with folks who are thematically-oriented which may affect judging–as per the determination of the judge.

Continuing the series of Frequently Asked Questions about the West Virginia Writers, Inc., Annual Writing Competitions.  To see all of the questions, please click HERE.

Question: Hello is there a way to read the winners stories for the past years?

Answer:  Technically, yes, but probably not in the way most folks expect. Some of the winning entries from 1977-2008 have been published in five separate collections. These were done on a piece by piece basis, since WVW retains no rights to publication of the winning pieces, so even the collections do not contain ALL contest winners, but only a majority of them. The last such volume, Seeking the Swan, was published in 2008. (You can find these listed on Amazon. If you attend a WVW Summer Conference, I feel certain we can find a copy of it for you, and possibly most of the others.)

We have not published such a volume in the last 10 years, but have talked about possibly doing an online publication.

Continuing the series of Frequently Asked Questions about the West Virginia Writers, Inc., Annual Writing Competitions.  To see all of the questions, please click HERE.

QUESTION: Is there an address where one can send the submission fees? Don’t have a credit card or use of Pay-pal, but would like to enter several of the contests. How do I pay the fees?

ANSWER: If you enter the contest by mail, you can send a check for submission fees. Just download the contest entry form you need from our CONTEST PAGE (either the Adult Contest Form or New Mountain Voices Student Contest form) and follow the instructions.  The address to send submissions to is on each form.   Find them at... http://wvwriters.org/home/annual-writing-contest/

Continuing the series of Frequently Asked Questions about the West Virginia Writers, Inc., Annual Writing Competitions.  To see all of the questions, please click HERE.

QUESTION: I have a student interested in entering the Middle Grades Books/Young Adult Book contest, and is curious about whether she can submit a payment online or if she needs to send in a check?

ANSWER:  She can submit a payment online if she is entering via our online submission service Submittable. It’s an easy way to upload the submission and pay all at the same time. You can find the link to it at https://westvirginiawriters.submittable.com/submit. Otherwise you can submit a check along with the manuscript and contest entry form, via U.S. mail, with the 7.

Continuing the series of Frequently Asked Questions about the West Virginia Writers, Inc., Annual Writing Competitions.  To see all of the questions, please click HERE.

QUESTION:  Regarding the Social Change (Pearl S. Buck Award), would it be appropriate to include a photo I took with a story?

ANSWER:  A photo would probably be fine to include provided it does not include images that could lead the judge to be able to identify you the author. So you should definitely not appear within it, nor, probably should anyone in your family. Chances aren't high that the judge would know anyone, but because the contest is blindly judged we like to remove all possibilities of that happening.