Youth New Works Competition

As part of the Hugo Literary Series, Richard Hugo House seeks poems, short stories or personal essays of no more than 1000 words from students currently enrolled in grades 9-12.

The theme is Brief Encounters, and the winner will receive $100 and an invitation to read at the third Hugo Literary Series event on February 18, 2011 at Richard Hugo House alongside musicians Jason Dodson of The Maldives, Laura Love and Macklemore and novelist Matthew Simmons.

THE THEME: All manuscripts must reflect the theme, Brief Encounters, using the prompt below as a jumping-off point:

Every day strangers cross our paths—at a coffee shop, on the street, in a supermarket checkout line or a crowded airport. Most times we barely notice each other at all—a glance, a nod, maybe a smile before we pass on and out of one another’s consciousness forever. But sometimes a chance encounter becomes something more: Romeo spots Juliet at a masked ball and tragedy ensues; Proust encounters a baked good and triggers a literary masterpiece; Rosa Parks climbs on board James Blake’s bus one winter day in Montgomery, Alabama, and race relations in the United States will never be the same. So what are the encounters, however brief, that have left a lasting impression on you?

TO ENTER: Submit your story, essay or poem of less than 1,000 words by January 3, 2011. Submissions must be typed, double-spaced in a standard font with pages numbered, no staples. At the top of the first page please include your name, address, phone number, email address, school and grade. Mail to Richard Hugo House c/o Youth New Works, 1634 11th Ave. Seattle, WA 98122 or email to youth@hugohouse.org

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