Fitzgerald Museum Literary Contest 2019-2020

Congratulations to this year's winners in the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum’s annual Literary Contest! Please click on their names to read their winning entries.

Grades 9 – 10: Samantha Haviland, “How To Tell Your Friends You Love Them”

Grades 9 – 10 Honorable Mentions: Amiri Sykes, “Post-Mortem Photograph” Jenny Hu, “Requiem” Anna Fox, “A Courting Dance”

Grades 11 – 12: Maya Blumenthal, "Sonata in A Major"

Grades 11 – 12 Honorable Mentions: Ryan Taylor, "Roland (TR-808) Park"
Onassa Sun, "Telescope"

Undergraduate: Xaviera McCray, "Attachment"

Undergraduate Honorable Mention: Chidinma Opaigbeogu, "A Love Letter as it Comes to my Head"
Sofia Rosales, "Third Time"

The theme for 2019 – 2020 was “Love + Marriage” to honor the centennial of this daring and revolutionary couple's 1919 courtship and 1920 wedding. The Fitzgeralds’ literary and artistic works from the 1920s and 1930s are still regarded as groundbreaking, and The Fitzgerald Museum is pleased to honor these young writers as daring and revolutionary writers of their generation.

Thank you to Joe Taylor for judging the high school entries and to Kwoya Fagin Maples for judging the undergraduate category. Taylor is the editor at Livingston Press and a professor at the University of West Alabama, and Maples is a poet who teaches at the Alabama School of Fine Arts.

In its two years, the contest, which is open to high school students and college undergraduates, has received submissions from around the United States and overseas. This year's honorees attend schools and colleges in Alabama, California, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia. The three grade-level winners will receive a monetary prize, and all honorees will have their works published on the Fitzgerald Museum’s website.

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The Fitzgerald Museum Literary Contest: Love + Marriage

 F. Scott and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald were daring and revolutionary in their lives and in their art and writing. One hundred years after their 1920 wedding in New York, the Fitzgeralds’ literary and artistic works from the 1920s and 1930s are still regarded as groundbreaking, and The Fitzgerald Museum is seeking to identify and honor the daring and revolutionary young writers and artists of this generation.

Genres: Fiction, Poetry, Multi-Genre

Categories: Grades 9–10, Grades 11–12, Undergraduate

General Guidelines for 2019 – 2020:

The Fitzgerald Museum’s annual Literary Contest is seeking submissions of short fiction, poetry, and multi-genre works that exhibit themes of love and marriage. Works with traditional forms and styles will be accepted, yet writers are encouraged to send works that utilize innovative forms and techniques. Literary works may include artwork, illustrations, font variations, and other graphic elements, with the caveat that these elements should enhance the work, not simply decorate the page.

The submissions period is open from September 1 until December 31, 2019. Works will be judged in three separate age categories, so please be clear about that category.

Submissions should not exceed ten pages (with font sizes no smaller than 11 point).

Each student may only enter once. Awards will be announced by March 16, 2020. Each category will have a single winner and possibly an honorable mention.

Submissions should be sent to fitzgeraldliterarycontest@gmail.com with “Literary Contest Submission” in the subject line and relevant information in the email. Due to issues of compatibility, works should be attached as PDFs to ensure that they appear as the author intends. Files should be named with the author’s first initial [dot] last name [underscore] title. For example, J.Smith_InnovativeStory.pdf.

This year’s judges are Kwoya Fagin Maples for the undergraduate category and Joe Taylor for the high school categories. Maples is the author of the poetry collection Mend, teaches at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, and is currently an Alabama State Council on the Arts Literary Fellow. Taylor is a professor at the University of West Alabama, an editor at Livingston Press, and the author of six novels and story collections.

For more information, contact the Fitzgerald Museum (fitzgeraldliterarycontest@gmail.com) or contest coordinator Foster Dickson.