So, you finished your CWP, no?

Then it's time to enter a contest: Bru, ha, ha...back to the house of pain; my tortures never end! 

Poetry Santa Cruz (teens only): Poetry, March 15, no fee, prizes (usually $100 and/or gift certificates to local bookstores)

William Saroyan (youth and teens only): Short prose (1-2 pg. fiction), March 5, $100, etc. 

Sylvia Burack (11th-12th grade only): Creative non-fiction, March 15, $1,500

Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest (satirize fake/scam writing contests): April 1, No fee, $3,600 in prizes

Allstate Journalism Award (print and video categories): No fee, thousands in prizes, 

Drum Roll:

Bulwer-Lytton (Worst Story Opening) Writing Contest: April 15, free, some prizes 

Prompt: Write the most wretched opening line or lines (less than 60 words) imaginable.  Avoid puns.  Be grammatically correct.  

Inspiration:

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

 --Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

Winners: Here are examples of splendidly horrific writing.  

Send entries to:

-Lytton Fiction Contest

Department of English
San Jose State University
San Jose, CA 95192-0090 

OR

  - You may email your entry to srice@pacbell.net.  Make sure your grammar is correct...or you just might find yourself the subject of a new contest! Include your name, phone number, and address.  

       

     - Quiz: Can you tell the difference between a supposed best and worst writer (don't worry, not all Lytton wrote was bad...not all Dickens wrote was good, but it's still fun)?