Creative Writing Contest

  • CW

    We welcome all students in southwest Minnesota who enjoy writing to enter this contest. The more you write, the better writer you become. Through writing, you can learn about yourself and your abilities as a writer. Students all round our regions submit amazing stories that deserve to be read and showcased. Entering this contest is a great way to expose your talents, skills and creativity and get people reading your work. You will find that writing can open a lifetime of opportunities and a needed lifelong skill. Whatever you do, KEEP WRITING!

Categories & Fees

  • We are celebrating 22 years of this contest for students in grades 3-12 in southwest Minnesota regions 6 & 8.

    Students enter one category or all three categories; up to three per category. Entries are judged in grade groups of 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10 & 11-12 for each category. The top three entries in each category and each grade group will receive recognition at the ceremony.
    This year there is a fee reduction per category and a change to the poetry fee. There are many chances to win, so get your stories started. There are many fun trips and summer happenings to write about. 
    • Poetry (grades 3-12); $3 each
    • Fiction (grades 3-12); $3 each
    • Non-Fiction (grades 5-12); $3 each

    How to Enter
    • Create a poem, fiction or non-fiction story.
    • Follow the Contest Rules and Guidelines.
    • Category descriptions are listed below.
    • Submit your entry piece on the entry form online and pay payment at the time of submission through your paypal account.

Awards

  • 2025 Scholarship winners. CONGRATULATIONS to all students who entered the Creative Writing Contest and to those who ara recipients of an award, especially the three scholarship recipients. Nate Noble of Marshall, Melanie Engles of Ivanhoe and Genesis Lopez of Mountain Lake.

    scholars

Guest Speaker

  • Guest Speaker - TBD

Category Descriptions

  •  
     POETRY (grades 3-12)
    What is poetry? The language of the imagination and feelings. Prose explains, and poetry sings, but it doesn’t have to rhyme. Poetry is precise, concrete, fresh, memorable, and magical. A poem, like food, can feed us. It can be a peach, a pizza, a taco, or a four-course meal. But it can also be popcorn or a candy bar. Always, poetry uses words as ingredients to let us taste, touch, see, smell or hear something in the world as if for the first time.
    FICTION (grades 3-12)
    What is Fiction? The art of storytelling. To build a good story, a writer needs: plot, characters, place or setting, point of view, dialogue, action and conflict. When we read a good story we’re pulled into another world and leave this one far behind. We travel to different places in our imagination, and when we return, we often see our world with new eyes.
    NON-FICTION (grades 5-12)
    What is Creative Non-fiction? An essay with real events and people that mattered or changed you—the day your pet chicken died, that summer your best friend moved away. The characters, settings, and events are true. The writer decides the best way to grab our attention, how to start, what elements of poetry to add as spice—images, metaphor, simile—and what elements of fiction to add zing—characters, place, dialogue. This genre is popular because we read it and think, “Wow, this really happened to someone else, but I feel like I was there!”
     
    *Copyright reverts to authors upon publication. (Meaning: If a student wishes to publish an entry, they just need to mention that it was printed in a small anthology of contest-winning pieces. We do not hold first publication rights.)
     
     *Photos & media: By participating in this event you are giving SWWC permission to use any audio/video recordings and photographs that are taken during the event.

Improve your chances to win by reading “Taboos—Common Writing Errors to Avoid”.

Dates

  • Submission Deadline:
    January 16, 2026
    No entries accepted after deadline
     
    Recognition Ceremony:
    April 12, 2026

Printable Items

Recognition Ceremony:

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