COPING WITH CRISIS
Our Timely Writing Contest For Writers 50 and OlderCOPING WITH CRISIS DEDICATED EXCLUSIVELY TO THE CONCEPT OF CRISIS IN ALL ITS FORMS
We are all caught in the jaws of a crisis, but no one has quarantined our creativity.
Coping With Crisis is the theme of this new writing contest, where the definition of “senior” has been expanded to include anyone age 50 and older. Submissions are being accepted through July 31 in the following categories:
CATEGORY 1
Creative nonfiction (essay) — Limited to 3,500 words. Read our general submission guidelines below.
CATEGORY 2
Fiction (short story) — Limited to 3,500 words. Read our general submission guidelines below.
CATEGORY 3
Poetry — No limit to the number of lines. Read our general submission guidelines below.
Cash prizes will be awarded in each category as follows:
First prize — $500
Second prize — $250
Third prize — $125
Outstanding entries that don’t win a money prize will be judged honorable mention or recognized and certificates will be awarded.
Entry fee $20 per story or poem.
Here are some subject areas entrants can explore:
- How this pandemic could turn out. What does the future hold?
- What does this mean to the world’s population?
- A rant about government action (but be clever, humorous or in some way more creative than TV pundits.)
- Tell us about another crisis, how it compares to this one, how you or others survived it.
- What does the virus do to a person? Possible first-hand accounts?
- If the effect of this crisis on your family has been extreme or you have a twist, tell us. Is something good coming out of it?
- What does it look like inside a hospital, nursing home, your home?
- Tell us about a personal crisis in your life or someone else’s life. Can be a completely different kind of crisis.
- What do we need to solve the coronavirus problem?
- Outlandish solutions from your imagination.
The group also needs judges of all ages to read and evaluate the entries on a volunteer basis. To enter the contest or qualify as a judge, click on the Submit button. But first read the rules and guidelines below.
RULES AND GUIDELINES
Do’s and Don’ts of Participating in Ageless Authors Writing Contests
Do… pay attention to details, which are easily misplaced. In one story submitted to our first contest, five people were in a room. One by one, three of them left the room. What happened to the other two? We’ll never know. This was otherwise a very fine story that failed the test of detail.
Do… check your spelling before you submit your entry. All word processing programs, including every version of Word, contains a spell check.
Do… check your grammar. Most programs have this built in.
Do… reread your dialogue to make sure it’s how people actually talk.
Do… understand that by submitting an entry, you permit us to reprint and publish entry to promote you and/or the work of Ageless Authors in anthologies, news stories or critical reviews. We will coordinate those kinds of uses with you.
Don’t… submit directly to Ageless Authors by email or regular mail.
Don’t… provide page numbers. No footers or headers, no endnotes and especially no footnotes. We just want your creative writing, not sources or explanations of your writing. This makes editing easier if we select the work for publishing.
Don’t… enter with the idea that you can continue to work on your entry. Judging will be done throughout the contest, so writing cannot.
All contact information supplied with submissions can be used to inform entrants about future contests, anthologies or any other activity of Ageless Authors. We will never sell your contact info to a third party.
If you have any trouble submitting, ask your kids or grandkids. After all, you taught them how to use a spoon.