May We Have Your Words?

Welcome to 2025 Word Festival Writing Contest

 

  1. The Word Writing Contest: In keeping with the mission of Word, the Blue Hill literary arts festival and in collaboration with The Stonecoast Review, we are thrilled to offer an opportunity for writers to share their best work of fiction, fifteen hundred (1500) words or less. We especially encourage aspiring, unpublished creatives.

  1. Who can enter? There are two categories for entry, based on your age.

  1. Adult: 18 and older

  2. Youth: 14 to 17

  1. What are the Contest Submissions Criteria?

  1. Your submission is limited to fifteen hundred (1500) words or less.

  2. It can be a short story, complete within itself, or an excerpt from a longer work, but it must be prose.  

  1.  Are there prizes? 

  1. A winner will be chosen for each category.

  2. Each winner shall receive:

a.  A one hundred dollar ($100) cash prize

b.  Publication of their work in The Stonecoast Review in the winter 2026

     edition, published both in print, and online, and

c.  An offer to read their work publicly during the annual Word Festival in 

     Blue Hill, Maine, to be held October 23-26.

  1. Is there a submission fee?  

  1. There is a submission fee of fifteen dollars ($15). 

  2. The fee covers the costs of the contest.

  1. What are the  deadlines?

  1. Submissions open on May 1.

  2. All entries must be received by midnight, July 15.

  3. Winners will be notified by September 1.

  1. The Stonecoast Review is a literary journal published biannually by the University of Southern Maine, under the auspices of the highly regarded Stonecoast MFA program. Established in 2000, the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing promotes a progressive, multi-genre literary education. Many award-winning novelists, essayists, playwrights and poets, faculty and alumni alike, claim Stonecoast as their artistic home. As a low-residency program, Stonecoast balances academic rigor with a flexible approach to graduate learning.

  1. Who does the program serve?

  1. The Stonecoast Review celebrates inclusive and ethical storytelling. 

  2. The diversity of voices amplified here intends to represent all races, ethnicities, cultures, gender and sexual identities, and abilities. 

It seeks to promote the work of emerging writers from underrepresented groups, and by doing so, it celebrates the principles of the Stonecoast MFA Program’s “Writing for Inclusivity and Social Equity” (WISE) initiative.

  1. Who will be the judge?

  1. Your submission will be judged by Leah Scott-Kirby, Editor Emeritus of The Stonecoast  Review. Leah earned her BA in Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her MFA from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine. 

  2. She asks you to consider the following criteria:


I’m drawn to writing that plays - that takes risks with language, form and

perspective. I appreciate work that isn’t afraid to be strange, to dig into the unknown, to say the thing we all feel but haven’t found the words for yet. A good story doesn’t just tell the truth; it reveals it in a way that makes us relish it together, that startles us awake. I love work that feels alive on the page, that lingers, that unsettles in the best way.


  1. Submitting Your Work: We welcome submissions in hard copy and electronically. 

  1. What are the format requirements for both types of submissions?  

1.  Fifteen hundred (1500) words or less 

2.  Twelve (12) point font

3.  Double-spaced

4.  Times New Roman (or equivalent in type) 

5.  Word docs or PDFs only  

6.  Pages numbered, lower right 

7.  No name typed on your work pages or identifying information in your fiction

            8.  Cover page with your name, age group in which you are submitting, and

     address, including email address, and your identification number if you have

     paid electronically (see below) 

9.  Payment of the fifteen dollar ($15) submission fee

                   B.  How do I submit a hard copy? 

1.  Entries submitted by hard copy must be typewritten or a computer printout in

     black ink on white paper, printed only on the front of the paper.

2.  Enclose your check for fifteen dollars ($15) payable to

     BHCD with “Word” in the memo line. 

  1. To pay by mail, enclose the check, cover letter and submission. Send to


Word Writing Contest

℅ Blue Hill Books

PO Box 926

Blue Hill, ME 04614

  1. How do I submit electronically? 

1.  Click here to pay by credit card or PayPal. 

     a.  Press the donate button on Word’s website. 

     b.  You will receive an electronic payment confirmation. The last four digits 

are your identification (ID) number.

     c.  Include your identification number in your cover letter to keep your

          submission anonymous for judging purposes.

                        2.  After you have completed payment online, please proceed to submit your

                            cover letter and entry to WordWritingContest@gmail.com. 

  1. Additional Rules and Terms

  1. What other contest rules apply? 

                       1.  All entries must be the original work of the entrant, in English. 

                            a.  The following work will be disqualified: any work containing plagiarism;

                                 material generated in whole, or in part, by computer software; any work

                                 containing excessive violence, vulgarity, racist or offensive words. 

                            b.  By submitting your work, you are verifying that you are not plagiarizing

                                 another’s work.

2. Each entrant may submit only one story.  

3. By entering the contest, the entrant agrees to follow all contest rules.

4. We reserve the right to reject all entries.

5. This contest is void where prohibited by law. 

6. We accept only entries that do not require a signature for us to receive them. 

            7. All rights to your story remain the property of the author.

                        8. We reserve the right to change contest rules without notice.

  1. Who is ineligible to to submit to the contest? 

1.  Members of the Word Festival committee. 

2.  Editors and staff of The Stonecoast Review; staff and faculty of the

           Stonecoast MFA; contest judge. 

3.  Immediate family members of any of the foregoing. 

4,  For purposes of this contest, an “immediate family member” includes a

      spouse, child, sibling, grandparent and grandchild.

If you have any questions concerning these contest rules and terms, please contact the contest organizers at WordWritingContest@gmail.com.


 Meet the 2024 Contest Winners

In person and online, festival-goers this year will meet the winners of the first-ever Word Festival Writing Contest.

The adult winner, Elizabeth Kirschner of Boston and Blue Hill, will read her short story, “A Doll’s Fingerprints,” at 6pm during the Word.Art opening Thursday, October 24, at Cynthia Winings Gallery.

Oona McPhearson, 16, of Brooklin, the youth winner, is at school in New Mexico and won’t attend the festival. They read the winning short story, “Frosted Glass,” in the video below.

Kirschner will join Claire Millikin and Karin Spitfire in reading at the opening.

With a July 15 deadline, the contest invited writers to submit works of fiction no longer than 1,500 words. Word collaborated on the contest with the University of Maine’s  renowned Stonecoast MFA program and its literary journal, The Stonecoast Review. Leah Scott-Kirby, the review’s editor-in-chief, served as contest judge.

The two winners each received $100, and their stories will be published in the 2024-25 winter edition of The Stonecoast Review.

Oona McPhearson reads "Frosted Glass."

“Both stories exemplify the best of contemporary fiction,” Scott-Kirby said, “fearless in their exploration of dark, emotional landscapes while offering readers a deeply personal and resonant experience.”

Kirschner is a writer, teacher, and master gardener. She lives in Boston, but spends much of her summer in Blue Hill  with her little dog, Albert. She has published six volumes of poetry, a memoir, and a collection of short stories. She's working on a series of hybrid essays.

McPhearson, a student at United World Colleges in Montezuma, NM, has been writing on her own since the age of eight, later taking creative writing classes online through Writopia Lab. “Mostly I write short stories and flash fiction,” she said, “although more recently I’ve begun writing quite a bit of poetry.”