Contest Guidelines
​
2025 Contest Deadline: August 31, 2025
​​
Contest Guidelines:
-
You must register for the conference to enter any contest. However, you may send in your entries and register for the conference before the August 31 deadline. You may not enter any contests if you attend one day only.
-
All submissions for 2025 must be electronic. A PDF of the contest guidelines may be downloaded by clicking here.
-
A sample of how to set up your manuscript may be downloaded by clicking here.
​​
Rules
-
Contest entrants must be registered for the conference by August 31 to enter, and all entries must be received electronically by August 31, 2025, at 11:59 pm.
-
Send electronic manuscripts in either a PDF. Doc, or docx format. Please DO NOT SEND THEM VIA GOOGLE DOCS or any other cloud-based platform. Send them to:
contests@ozarkcreativewriters.com​
-
DO NOT WRITE-PROTECT YOUR DOCUMENTS or make them read-only.
-
In the body of the email (NOT THE MANUSCRIPT), put your name and address, which contest(s) you are attaching an entry for, and the manuscript title. Example: Sue Smith, 123 Dogwood Lane, Columbus, Ohio Contest 1 (title), 2(title), and 17 (title). You may send them in one email or individual emails.
-
First Place winners of 2024 contests may not enter that same contest in 2025 unless the contest description, name, award amount, or sponsor has changed. Many of our 2025 contests have changed, so read carefully.
-
You may enter as many contests as you wish, but only one entry per contest. That means that you can only enter one manuscript in each contest.
-
You may not send the duplicate entry to more than one contest. For example, if you enter the story “The Birds and the Bees” in Contest 1, you can’t enter the same story “The Birds and the Bees” in Contest 16 (But you could enter another story in that contest).
-
All material must be unpublished at the time of entry except contests #6-7.
-
All entries, except poetry, must be double-spaced using one-inch margins.
-
DO NOT ATTACH A COVER PAGE TO YOUR MANUSCRIPT. Put the cover page information in your email. You may send all your contests at once or individually.
-
Judges may not enter contests they are judging, but may enter all others. OCW Board members never enter any contests.
-
Writers may not enter contests sponsored by their group or organization but may enter all others.
-
Contestants found in violation of any of the above will be disqualified. All decisions are final, and judges’ names are confidential. Winners will be posted on the Ozarks Creative Writers’ website within two weeks after the end of the conference.
-
At the discretion of the OCW Board, contestants who violate any of these rules will be disqualified. In case of a serious violation, such as sending in previously published works written by you or anyone else, you will be barred from this and any future OCW contests. OCW will ban anyone who uses AI to write their entries. This is cheating and defies the purpose of a creative writing contest.
-
You may email your contests all at one time or separately as long as they are sent by August 31, 2025, at 11:59 pm.
-
Email your entries to Contests@ozarkcreativewriters.com. You will receive an automatic reply telling you that your entry was received. We did NOT receive your entry if you did not receive an autoreply. PLEASE DO NOT SEND YOUR ENTRY MULTIPLE TIMES. If you have any questions, contact: Ozarkcreativewriters@ozarkcreativewriters.com
Or call contest chair Chrissy Willis at (336) 407-9098
-
Do not put your name or any other identification on the contest entry. At the top of the page, preferably as a header, put the name of the contest and the number of the contest you are entering. Put your month and date of birth on each entry. You will be disqualified if you put your name or any other personal identifiers other than your month and date of birth on the manuscript. (PLEASE SEE THE EXAMPLE PROVIDED) (Exception: Contests 6-7).
-
Please use proper manuscript format when entering the contests, except poetry.