Tell Us Your Story!

Enter the Mayborn Writing Competition for a chance to win prizes and money and be published.

Conference attendees will once again have the opportunity to submit their best writing samples to the 8th annual Mayborn Writing Competition. Winners can win cash and prizes in three categories: personal essay, reported narrative and book manuscript. Don’t miss out! The deadline is Monday, June 11, 2012.

As part of the 2012 Mayborn Writing Competition, separate workshops will be held Friday, July 20, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., for the top 50 article and essay submissions and the top 20 manuscript submissions. Entrants pay an additional fee above the registration fee. You may select to enter more than once in any category, and enter in more than one category. However, you can only be in one workshop and win one prize. Winners are recognized at the Literary Lights Dinner at the Mayborn Conference. Cash prizes are mailed to winners after the conference. Below are the three categories to enter. Click on the title to download the application:

Reported Narrative

• 1st Place $3000
• 2nd Place $2000
• 3rd Place $1000

Personal Essay

• 1st Place $3000
• 2nd Place $2000
• 3rd Place $1000

Book Manuscript

• 1st Place $3000 and book published by UNT Press
• 2nd and 3rd Place winners are recognized

Publication

The ten best narratives will be published in Ten Spurs, a literary nonfiction journal published by the Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism. The 2011 winners’ pieces will be in the 2012 Ten Spurs and will be published just prior to the 2012 Mayborn Conference. See author bios for the 2011 Ten Spurs Literary Journal.

The ten narratives are comprised of the three winners of the reported narrative, the three winners of the personal essay and four runners-up selected from these two categories.

The winner of the book manuscript competition earns a cash prize, and an option to sign a provisional book contract with UNT Press.

The 2011 book manuscript winner and the 2011 writers selected for publication in Ten Spurs will participate in book signings at the 2012 Mayborn Conference.

Past Manuscript Winners’ Books:

Past conference winners:

• 2010 Winners’ pictures and descriptions
• 2009 Winners’ pictures and descriptions
• 2008 Winners’ pictures and descriptions
• 2007 Winners’ pictures and descriptions

If you have questions, contact Sarah Whyman, writing competition coordinator, at sarah.whyman@unt.edu

Student Biography Contest

If you are a high school student or community college student, or know someone who is, please also check out our new competition: the Student Biography Contest.