WRITING CONTEST

12th Annual GPS Writing Contest

Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural or Alternate History Fiction

Geek Partnership Society is happy to announce our annual writing contest. We are a society celebrating imagination, inspiring creativity, and building our community through service and education.

---

2009 WINNERS

Kudos:

Thanks to all the participants who sent in entries - keep them coming! And mucho thanks to our judges Jody Wurl, Charlotte Nickerson and Joel Arnold.

~ Jodie Gustafson, Writing Contest Coordinator

2009 Writing Contest Winners

Out of 47 accepted entries - congratulations to our esteemed winners!

Open Division Awards (28 entries)

Scott Imes Award: Spied Her by Steve Ruthenbeck (Okabena, MN)
1st Place:	Ruth, A.I. by Deborah Walker (Palmers Green, London, England)
2nd Place:	A Suitable Offering by Rebecca Roland (Albuquerque, NM)
3rd Place:	Ziza's Song by A.M. Rose (Metairie, LA)

Poetry Division Awards (6 entries)

1st Place:	Tindra's Song by Kristen McHenry (Seattle, WA)
2nd Place:	Night’s Cloak by Ginger M. Nielsen (Racine, WI)
3rd Place:	Amazing by Angela Stumpf (St. Paul, MN)

Youth Division Awards

Division 1 ~ Ages 11 and Under (3 entries)
1st Place:	Flight by Jenna Bryn Melanson Cottonwood Valley Charter School, Socorro, NM
2nd Place:	Living Forever by Corina Lottman Diller-Odell Elementary School, Diller, NE
3rd Place:	Bringing Down Bear by Rebecca Papanicolaou Palmers Green, London, England

Division 2 ~ Ages 12-13 (3 entries)
1st Place:	The Book of Azcabbath by Olivia Caldwell-Nepveux Evergreen Country Day School, Evergreen, CO
2nd Place:	Souls by Connie Lee Westbrook Intermediate School, Friendswood, TX
3rd Place:	The Book by Melissa Hofmann Evergreen Junior High School, East Salt Lake City, UT

Division 3 ~ Ages 14-16 (7 entries)
1st Place:	For the Empire by Theora Tiffney Olive Grove Charter School, Santa Barbara, CA
2nd Place:	Dreamcatcher by Chris Shaw Bethlehem Central High School, Delmar, NY
3rd Place:	Everafter by Joan Bedinger Campbell High School, Smyrna, GA

---

2010 RULES AND
SUBMISSION FORMAT

Attention:

Please make sure that you read and understand all the rules before submitting your entry. All works will be pre-screened to ensure they adhere to the rules and submission format before being passed on to the judges. The judges will NOT read any entries that do not meet the requirements.

Contest Rules

1. All entries must be original unpublished works by nonprofessional (amateur) authors.

2. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON in either the Open Division or one of the Youth Divisions. An entry can be made to the Poetry Division in addition to ONE of the other Divisions.

3. There is NO entry fee for any submission.

4. Division winners from 2009 are not eligible to win in the same division in 2010 – but are allowed to enter a different division.

5. Entries must meet the stated Rules and Submission Format or they will be refused. If this happens the author will be notified via email and allowed to resubmit the corrected entry by the contest deadline (11:59 pm CDT on May 1, 2010)

6. By entering the contest, the author of a winning entry gives permission to GPS to publish their submission in a yearly volume of contest-winning entries and any future anthologies of winning entries. The winning entries may also be posted on the GPS web site.

Divisions

Entries will be grouped and judged in these categories:

• Open Division: Open to writers of any age. There will be TWO (2) winners chosen from this category. One winner will be chosen from all entries. An additional winner will be chosen from contestants residing in the local area to receive the Scott Imes Award.

  The Scott Imes Award

  The GPS premier award proudly honors Scott Imes, a major force in the Twin Cities' science fiction reading and writing community, who passed away in December 2001. For over two decades, Scott worked at Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore; his recommendations served those far beyond its doors.

• Poetry Division: Open to entries from writers of any age

• Youth Division 1: Open to writers 11 years of age or younger (as of May 1, 2010)

• Youth Division 2: Open to writers 12-13 years of age (as of May 1, 2010)

• Youth Division 3: Open to writers 14-16 years of age (as of May 1, 2010)

Submission Format

1. Entries must be an MS Word (or equivalent word processing software) document.

2. Entries must be 5,000 words OR FEWER.

3. Entries must be typed as follows:

   • 8.5" x 11" size

   • 1 inch margins

   • Double-spaced

   • 11 pt font

   • Black text in Arial, Verdana or Times New Roman

   • Pages numbered

4. Story/poem title should appear on each page of the manuscript, but author's name should only appear on the title page.

5. Entries must be submitted electronically by emailing the entry as an attachment to writingcontest@geekpartnership.org. ONE ENTRY PER EMAIL MESSAGE. If you have more than one entry they must be sent in separate email messages.

Title Page

The title page should include the following contact information:

All Divisions:

• story/poem title

• division

• word count

• author name

• complete mailing address of author

• email address of author

Youth Divisions: (in addition to the information above)

• age of youth

• birth date of youth

• name of parent or guardian

• email address of parent or guardian

• name of school

• city where school is located

Submission Deadline

• Entries will be accepted from April 1, 2010 through May 1, 2010.

• Entries should be emailed as attachments to writingcontest@geekpartnership.org.

• All entries are due by 11:59 pm CDT on May 1, 2010.

Prizes

• The winner of each Youth Division will receive a $75 Amazon.com gift certificate, with a second $75 gift certificate being awarded to the winner's school.

• The Poetry Division winner will receive a $75 Amazon.com gift certificate.

• The general winner of the Open Division will receive a $125 Amazon.com gift certificate. The Scott Imes Award Winner will receive a $225 gift certificate from Uncle Hugo’s.

Judging

Two or more qualified writers or editors will evaluate each submission. All works will be pre-screened to ensure they meet the rules and submission format stated above. The judges will NOT read any entries that do not meet the requirements.

Questions

If you have questions, please contact Jodie Gustafson, Writing Contest Coordinator, at writingcontest@geekpartnership.org.