Schools

Contest Offers Cash Awards to High School Writers

Winners receive up to $100 for their short stories; an Anne Arundel County student was among the finalists last year.

Do you know a local high school student who is an amazing storyteller? A short story writing contest sponsored by the Gaithersburg Book Festival encourages young writers to turn a sentence into a short story.

The contest is open to high school students from across the region in grades 9 to 12 during the 2011-12 school year.  Writers must live in Maryland, Virginia or the District.

An Anne Arundel County student was among the finalists last year. Peter Ramsey, a student at Rockbridge Academy, was recognized for his story, Playing the Hero. Peter's entry and other short stories appear on the Gaithersburg Book Festival's website.

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Stories must be no longer than 1,000 words and start with one of the following three lines, which were provided by award-winning mystery writer Brad Parks, author of Eyes of the Innocent and Faces of the Gone:

  • A 7-Eleven parking lot may not seem like the kind of place a miracle could occur, yet that's where Haley Parsons was standing when she became aware she was witnessing one….
  • The thing I tell people about starting a riot is this: Make sure you have some idea how you're going to stop it, unless you want to end up like me….
  • Lots of people have heard of love at first sight, but this was something else entirely….

Submit your entries as a Word document to writingcontest@gaithersburgbookfestival.org by midnight ET on Feb. 24, 2012.
 
Up to 10 stories will be selected as finalists and posted on the Gaithersburg Book Festival website prior to the festival. The first-, second- and third-place winners will be announced at the festival and will win $100, $50 and $25 gift certificates courtesy of the Johns Hopkins Montgomery County Campus.

Complete rules and regulations for the contest can be found in the attached PDF or the Gaithersburg Book Festival's website.

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Editor's note: This story originally appeared on and has been modified to include information about Anne Arundel County.


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