Deadline for the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards writing competition entries is 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31.
There will be cash. The competition offers more than $5,000 in prize money across three categories: fiction, nonfiction and poetry.
In addition to taking home the money, first- through third-place winners in each category receive scholarships to the March 14-15 masters workshop at the University of Arizona Poetry Center. The workshop follows the Tucson Festival of Books, March 12-13 on the UA campus.
The top 50 entrants also are invited to attend the workshop, during which authors give βcraft lecturesβ addressing creative writing technique, and the participantsβ work is read and critiqued by a master author and a group of nine peers.
About a third of the contest winners have been from Tucson and Southern Arizona, said saidΒ Meg Files, who heads the contest andΒ is chair of the Pima Community College English and journalism department.
The contest and workshop were added to the festival to expand its focus, adding an emphasis on writing as well as reading, and bringing prestige to the festival, said Files when the competition and workshop launched in 2013.
Past workshop faculty members have included Kevin Canty, Chitra Divakaruni, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Ann Hood, Marilyn Nelson, Bill Roorbach and Larry Watson.
The entry fee is $20 per submission. For more information and to submit an entry go toΒ TucsonFestivalofBooks.org
