Hunger Mountain Prize for Young Writers
What is the Hunger Mountain Prize for Young Writers?
An annual contest for high school students. A chance for your fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction to be read by Hunger Mountain editors and guest judges!
What will the winners receive?
Three first place winners receives $250 and publication!
Three runners-up receive $100 each.
There will be a first place winner and runner up in each category: fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.
Who can enter the contest?
Any high school student with a piece of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction.
Who is this year’s judge?
The 2010 judge is M.T. Anderson, National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; Burger Wuss; and Feed.
When is the deadline?
The postmark deadline is April 30.
Is there an entry fee?
Yes. The entry fee is $10.
What kind of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction is acceptable?
We accept all forms of poetry, and poets may enter up to three poems in one entry packet.
Fiction can be experimental of traditional.
Creative nonfiction can be a personal essay or a mini-memoir.
What are the guidelines?
- $10 entry fee. Make checks payable to “Hunger Mountain”
- Entries must be postmarked by April 30th
- Writing must be original, written in English, and previously unpublished
- Submissions should be under 8000 words.
- Poets may submit up to three poems per entry.
- Your name and address should not appear anywhere on the manuscript itself.
- Instead, enclose a standard index card with essay title and your name, address, phone number, and email address
- Enclose an SASE for notification of winners or plan on checking www.hungermtn.org for winners on a regular basis.
- Entries must be typed, double-spaced, and on one side of the paper only. Use Times New Roman font, and please don’t staple!
- Once submitted, entries cannot be altered
- Multiple entries allowed—but each entry must include a separate entry fee
- No entries will be returned
- Email hungermtn@vermontcollege.edu if questions arise
Send all entries to:
Prize for Young Writers
Hunger Mountain
Vermont College of Fine Arts
36 College Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
Include a check for $10.00 payable to “Hunger Mountain.”
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
Will you accept entries from 7th and 8th grade students?
Hi Lisa. Thanks for your question. We will accept entries from younger students, as long as the students realize they’ll be competing against high school age students! So in other words, there won’t be a seperate category for middle school students.
—Miciah Bay Gault, Hunger Mountain managing editor
What address should we send Creative Non-Fiction and Poetry to?
Hi Olivia, thanks for your question. You can send fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry entries to the same address! That’s a typo that I’m going to fix right now. (So thanks for pointing it out! )
—Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
What is an SASE? Also, do you allow simeltaneous submissions?
Hi Delali, good questions. An SASE is a self addressed stamped envelope. And simultaneous submissions are okay with us, but if your piece is accepted elsewhere you’ll have to withdraw it from the contest. You can do this just by writing to us or emailing. We can’t return the work itself or the entry fee, but we can pull it from consideration. Thanks for asking–I’m sure others will have these questions as well.
–Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
I had a question about multiple submissions. Should they all be mailed in a single envelope with a single index card and a single check? Or should they be submitted seperately with seperate index cards and checks for each entry?
Hi Maddie, thanks for writing. Good question. Multiple submissions can definitely be mailed in the same envelope. A single check is okay as well. It would be better for us, however, if you sent a different index card for each submission. So, if you’re entering three pieces, send them all in one envelope, with one check for $30 and three index cards, one for each submission, each with your name, address, phone number, email address, and the name and genre of the piece. Hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have more questions. (Oh, and don’t forget that one poetry submission can include up to three poems.)
–Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
Are fiction excerpts – i.e., from a novel – allowed?
Fiction excerpts are allowed, but they should stand on their own. In other words, they shouldn’t be confusing or unsatisfying for a reader. They’ll be competing against complete fiction entries with beginnings, middles, and ends, so they should be able to hold their own!
—Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
Is fantasy included when you say fiction?
Hi Sarah, thanks for your question. Sure, fantasy counts as fiction–but all the same rules of craft apply: good characterization; compelling, believable plot; strong setting; etc.
–Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
Is this just for Vermont teens or everyone? I live in Vermont but I’m curious what the competition is like.
About how many people do you expect to apply this year?
I am on an online writing forum called CleanPlace.net, I was wondering that if I did compete in this contest (I am worried, cause I haven’t ever done anything like this before) if it would be okay if I used things I have previously posted on CleanPlace? Is that something that has been “published” already?
Note: CleanPlace is a private forum that requires a password and isn’t open to the public.
Hi, I just wanted to know if double-spacing was required for poetry submissions. Thanks!
To Sirena, Frost, Kasey, and Lily: Great questions, everyone.
Sirena, you don’t need to double-space your poems. A VERY good question. Poems can be spaced however you see fit.
Frost, it’s fine to enter something that has appeared on a private forum like Clean Place. Thanks for asking, though.
Lily, it’s open to everyone, not just Vermont teens.
Kasey, I just can’t tell how many entrants we’ll get this year. It’s the first year of the prize. For our other prizes we receive anywhere from 100 to 300 entrants each year. But this one could be different since it’s aimed at high school students. My guess is that we’ll receive fewer entrants this year, but I just can’t know for sure.
And just a reminder–postmark deadline is April 30th! Coming up in a few weeks.
—Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
Hi,
I submitted a story to Hunger Mountain a couple weeks ago, and I did not know about this contest. I am a high school student and I am wondering if I can submit the story again for this competition?
Thanks,
Natalie Parrish
Hi Natalie,
Sure thing. You can submit it instead for the prize–but there is a $10 reading fee for the prize. Also, we’re asking for prize entries to come through the mail. Can you send it snail mail along with entry fee, etc…?
—Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
When will the winners be announced?
M,
We’re going to do our best to announce the winners by early June. We want to be able to notify the winners before school lets out for the summer.
—Miciah Bay Gault, Managing Editor
Is it alright to italicize, bold, or both bold and italicize as long as the font is Times New Roman and is double spaced?
Do the titles have to be on each poem? Or do we just put them on the index card?
Laura, it’s fine to use italics and bold in your piece. My advice is to not italicize or bold the entire thing. This can detract from your words! But it definitely isn’t against the rules.
Amanda, it’s a good idea to title each poem. That will just keep things organized. And the titles should also appear on the index card.
Get those entries in the mail! Tomorrow (Friday, April 30th) is the postmark deadline!
–Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
Do you accept the 10 dollars in other than check form?
Kelsey, a few people have sent cash, which we don’t recommend–because it could get lost. A safer bet, if possible, is to get a money order from a bank.
—Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
Is there a specific topic our entry needs to be about? Any prompts we’re supposed to use, or can it be about anything at all? Also, I have written poems at school and the whole class’ poems were put together in a booklet and passed out to the students and parents so is that considered being published? Thanks!
Hi Sarah, thanks for your questions. Nope, there’s no prompt. Just send your best work! And the poems put together in a booklet for students and parents is such a specific publication for such a small, specific audience, I don’t think we need to worry about that at all. Those poems are fine to enter in this contest.
—Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
By “Three runners-up receive $100 each.
There will be a first place winner and runner up in each category: fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.” Does that mean that there will be three $100 prizes in poetry, 3 in fiction etc. or three total? Thanks1
Do you know when the winners will be announced?
Hi Sarah. We’re planning to announce the winners in the very beginning of June. There will be one first place winner and one runner-up in each genre (poetry, fiction, and CNF). So, only three runners-up altogether, not in each genre.
–Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
I’m really, really worried that even though I sent my letter in the mail on May 30th before the final pick up date, that the postmark will read April 1st. If it does read that would you still open it or would you just throw it out?
Hi Karoline. Don’t worry. We’ll still accept your entry!
—Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
hi. can i send something out monday? i feel terrible that i just missed it.
M.K. Why don’t you send something priority mail on Monday. That way it will get here as the last of the regular mail entries are rolling in.
—Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
Concerning Sirena’s question about double spacing poetry, I thought we had to double space, so is it okay that I did? My poem normally would not be double spaced, so I’m not sure what to do…
Thank you so much!!!
Gracie, it’s okay if you double spaced your poem. No matter what, we’ll look at the content; we just don’t like to require double spacing for poets.
I was wondering when the results of the contest would be sent out.
Hi,
I was wondering how many entries you got..?
And how far along you are in looking them over.
Jason and Kyle, thanks for your questions. We received 160 entries, a mix of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. We’re totally excited to read them, and get the finalists to M.T. Anderson, our wonderful judge. We’re hoping to announce the winners in early June.
—Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor, Hunger Mountain
Hi, Sorry to be asking so many questions!
Will you email the winners to let them know they won or just post it on your website?
Hi Sarah. We’ll do both, notify the winner and announce the results on the website. Any entrants who sent an SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) will also hear the results through the mail.
–Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor
Hi,
I was wondering if the winners of the contests would be posted on the HungerMountain home page?
Hi Tessa,
Yes, we’ll announce the winners on the homepage. The finalists are with M.T. Anderson, our judge, right now! I can’t wait to announce the winners, when I hear his final decision!
–Miciah Bay Gault, Managing Editor
Have the winners been announced yet? I can’t find them, so does that mean they have not been announced? If they have been chosen, where are they? Thank you.