The Department of English and Foreign Languages at Southern Arkansas University will host the annual Creative Writing Festival (formally the Youth Writing Festival) on Saturday, April 7. Deadline for entries is March 2, 2012.
The festival, which is held every spring, has grown from 345 entries in 1995 to 1,153 entries last year. Students from schools across south Arkansas submit poems, short stories, and creative non-fiction essays, which are then judged good, excellent, or superior. Out of the entries judged superior, three are chosen in each category and grade level to receive special recognition consisting of a cash prize for first, second, and third place winners, and a trophy for the first place winners.
The annual festival developed from a summer writing class for public school teachers taught by Dr. Kathleen Mallory, associate professor of English at SAU. The event is co-sponsored by the Gerald F. and Betty Fincher Scott Academic Endowment, made available through the generosity of Harold and D.J. Fincher and the Peoples Bank.
On the day of the festival a welcoming address will be given. Students will then separate into grade levels where model writing workshops will be held and followed by peer reading sessions. The day is capped off with the awards ceremony.
Entry forms may be requested by calling David Wingfield in the Department of English and Foreign Languages at (870) 235-4202 or by emailing dlwingfield@saumag.edu. They also can be printed by going to our website, https://web.saumag.edu/lpa/depts/efl/, and clicking on Creative Writing Festival 2012.
