All students enrolled at a West Virginia college or high school (or home schooled and high school aged) are invited to apply for the Pearl S. Buck Writing Competition. Awards of $1,000 each will be given to an undergraduate and graduate student winner, and a high school winner will receive $250 and a scholarship to the WVU English Department’s annual West Virginia Writers' Workshop for summer 2019 ($600 value).
Winning pieces will be those that best reflect the life and values of Pearl Buck; the Selection Committee will base its decision on the extent to which the writing reflects one or all of the following topics that were of vital importance to Buck:
Expression of appreciation for difference and different cultures, including but not limited to Appalachia and China; Rights of women and/or underrepresented groups.
Applicants must submit an original writing in any literary genre (e.g., fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, essay, children's literature, play writing, blog, etc.) no later than March 7. Word maximum is 5,000 with poetry entries being one-to-three poems. All applicants will be notified by May 15 of status. Submit a Contest Entry on the Research Office website.