Writers Association to Hold Annual Writing Competition

Portsmouth, NH – The Seacoast Writers’ Association (SWA), a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the craft of writing, announces its 2007 Writing Competition. The competition, now in its 17th year, is open to the public with no restrictions on geographic area. The deadline for entries is February 1, 2007.

The organization will be awarding cash prizes of $100, $75, and $50 to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners respectively in each of three different categories. The categories are: Short Story, maximum 3500 words; Poetry (one entry may include up to three poems, no word limit); and the Personal Essay, maximum 1500 words. Contestants may enter in all three categories, but may submit only one entry in each category.

All entries will be judged by experienced published writers, chosen for their critical expertise. Entries are judged without the author's name. All work must be original and cannot have been previously published.

Entry forms and guidelines can be downloaded at www.seacoastwritersassociation.org, or send a self-addressed, stamped business-size envelope to contest director, Pam Gjettum, 6 South Street, Exeter, NH 03833. No entries will be accepted without an entry form. Entry fees are $5 per entry for SWA members and $10 per entry for non-members. In addition to providing a discounted contest entry fee, membership dues of $20 a year also entitle members to the organization’s quarterly newsletter and a discount on the two Writer’s Conferences SWA sponsors each year. Contestants may join SWA when they submit their entries.

Prizes will be awarded at the Seacoast Writers’ Association Spring Conference, Saturday, May 19, 2007, at Chester College of New England, located in Chester, New Hampshire. Winners will be notified in advance. First place winners are invited to read their winning entry. All winning entries will be published in the next Seacoast Writers’ Anthology, “Currents,” and will also be posted on the organization’s website.

Copies of previous volumes of "Currents," numbers II through V, are available for $5 per copy plus $2 S&H from the editor, Cornelia Prevost, P.O. Box 104, Chester, NH 03036.

For more information, please contact Pat Parnell at 603-778-1470 or email her at patparnell@comcast.net.

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Membership in the Seacoast Writers Association is open to all published and unpublished writers, in all genres. The majority of SWA members reside in New England. Originating in 1967 with the York, Maine, Writers, the Association was officially founded in 1974 when the York group was joined by four New Hampshire based writers' groups, the Piscataqua Pens, Tri-River Writers of Dover, the Seaquills of Hampton, and the Durham Writers Group. All wanted to attract high quality speakers for local writers’ conferences and to broaden the opportunities for their members to improve their writing. These are still SWA’s goals today.