In July, Hastings College became the first Nebraska school in many years to be an Affiliate Partner of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. As part of the program, Hastings College is launching and managing the Nebraska Scholastic Writing Awards, and is announcing a call for submissions for students age 13 and above residing in all 93 counties within the state of Nebraska.
Students are invited to submit original work in any of the Awards’ writing categories, including flash fiction and poetry.
For more information on the program and how to submit writing, go to hastings.edu/writingawards. Submissions are due December 12, 2019.
Hastings College and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers are distributing information to schools to announce the annual call for submissions, and will provide support to educators, students and parents during the submission process. Hastings College faculty and students will then judge the work and notify top recipients in January 2020, and then organize a regional awards ceremony in the spring.
“This program is a fantastic opportunity to recognize and nurture the emerging creative voices of Nebraska,” said Dr. Eleanor Reeds, an assistant professor in the Hastings College Department of Languages and Literatures. “We look forward to reading the work submitted by young writers from across the state and to welcoming the award recipients on campus for a celebration in the spring.”
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program, established in 1923 by Maurice R. Robinson, the founder of Scholastic Inc., identifies teenagers with exceptional artistic literary talent and brings their remarkable work to a national audience.
All works are blindly adjudicated based on originality, technical skill, and the emergence of personal vision or voice, first on a regional level by more than 100 local affiliates of the Alliance, and then nationally by a panel of industry experts.
Students at the regional level will be awarded an Honorable Mention, Silver Key, or Gold Key distinction. Gold Key work will then advance to national adjudication to receive Gold Medals or Silver Medals.
Annually, the Alliance partners with individuals, foundations, and corporations to offer scholarship opportunities for students in certain categories or addressing particular themes. National Medalists’ works are then published in national publications and on the Alliance’s website, artandwriting.org. Select writing is published in The Best Teen Writing annual anthology.
The Alliance strives to teach young students to develop a strong creative capacity along with celebrating the role of art and literature in society.
Nebraska’s premier private college, Hastings College is a four-year institution located in Hastings, Nebraska, that focuses on student academic and extracurricular achievement. For more, go to hastings.edu.
