Gaithersburg Book Festival Announces New Format for Fifth Annual Short Story Contest for High School Students
The Gaithersburg Book Festival today launches its fifth annual short story contest for Washington, D.C., area high school students, and it’s shaking things up! Instead of being guided by opening lines, high school students entering the 2015 short story contest will be taking inspiration from their peers. More specifically, submissions for the writing contest will draw their storylines from photographs taken by three Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) high school students: Bob Herbert from Rockville High School, Lauren Levy from Northwest High School and Bill Wu from Winston Churchill High School.
Members of the Gaithersburg Book Festival Committee reviewed more than 100 photographs, drawings and paintings that MCPS high school students submitted for the 2014 Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus annual art show, and selected three works of art to serve as inspiration for the 2015 festival short story contest.
To participate in the short story contest, individuals must be enrolled in grades 9-12 at a public or private school, or in a homeschool program, for the 2014-15 school year, and reside in Maryland, Virginia or the District of Columbia. Stories must be no longer than 1,000 words and must be inspired by one of the three photographs posted on the Gaithersburg Book Festival website.
Stories must be submitted as a Word document towritingcontest@gaithersburgbookfestival.org by midnight ET on February 20, 2015.
Up to 12 stories will be selected as finalists and posted on the Gaithersburg Book Festival website prior to the Book Festival. The first-, second- and third-place winners will be announced at the Festival on Saturday, May 16, 2015, and will be awarded $100, $50 and $25 gift certificates, respectively, courtesy of the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus.
The three photographs, plus complete rules and regulations for the contest, can be found online athttps://gaithersburgbookfestival.org/gbf-programs/short-story-contest/.