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UML Writing Contest Ends June 30
This post originally ran on March 12, 2021, but it’s being repeated here as a reminder of the approaching contest deadline.
ATLANTIC CURRENTS II
Enter Your Original Writing—Compete for Cash Prizes
Attention, writers! Alumni and students of UMass Lowell and University College Cork are invited to submit original prose or poetry for a writing competition this spring. Winners will be awarded a cash prize up to $500. The competition is funded by the Independent Alumni Association of UML in collaboration with the University College Cork, Ireland. Writing pieces should be about a positive learning experience, broadly defined, in school or out of school at any age. Deadline is June 30, 2021. The competition will culminate in an anthology Atlantic Currents II. This program is part of the UNESCO learning cities program, where cities connect to become centers of lifelong learning. Read the full brief:
Writing Prize Competition
Atlantic Currents II: Campus to Campus
In 2019 we completed a project whose objective was to create connections between two communities (the cities of Lowell, Massachusetts, US, and Cork, Ireland) committed to the values and goals of the Learning Cities program of UNESCO. Writers associated with Cork and Lowell were asked to contribute fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, criticism, experimental and mash-up forms on any subject, bearing in mind community standards for humane expression. We had many excellent submissions that resulted in the inclusion of a wide range of writing and poetry by some 40+ authors in an anthology, Atlantic Currents: Connecting Cork and Lowell, published in April 2020 by Loom Press of Lowell, Massachusetts.
To continue to promote and support creative and experiential writing, we are creating a similar anthology containing work written by students and any alumni of the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) and University College Cork (UCC). The competition is open to any currently enrolled undergraduate or graduate students and any alumni of UML and UCC.
The funding for this activity is generously provided by the Independent University Alumni Association of the University of Massachusetts Lowell and University College Cork, Ireland.
To encourage and support this work we are offering the following prizes and awards:
UML Students: 1st. Prize $500, 2nd. Prize $300, 3rd. Prize $200
UML Alumni: 1st. Prize $500, 2nd. Prize $300, 3rd. Prize $200
UCC Students: 1st. Prize $500, 2nd. Prize $300, 3rd. Prize $200
UCC Alumni: 1st. Prize $500, 2nd. Prize $300, 3rd. Prize $200
An Awards Committee will consist of 6 contributors to Atlantic Currents: Connecting Cork and Lowell (3 from each city). Their decision will be final. The winning submissions will be published in the anthology Atlantic Currents II: Campus to Campus in the Fall of 2021.
Requirements
Prose (fiction or non-fiction) no longer than 20 double-spaced pages will be accepted. Poems should be no more than 80 lines. Existing or new unpublished work are both acceptable and encouraged.
Topic
The topic should be some aspect of a positive learning experience that the author has experienced in their lifetime. Such experience need not be in an academic or school setting. It may be about a memorable mentor or encompass a life-experience that led to greater understanding of an issue, problem, or event. It may also be about a moment when the author felt or experienced a new insight or revelation (for example, viewing a piece of art, attending a play or a concert).
Submissions should be submitted electronically in Word format, double-spaced, no bold or underlined title, with name and contact information on page one of the submissions.
Please contact atlanticcurrents2021@gmail.com if you have any questions about this writing contest.
Submission should be emailed to atlanticcurrents2021@gmail.com by June 30, 2021. Winners will be notified by email and be expected to participate in an awards ceremony.