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Amy R. Wainright Awards for Creative Writing

In honor and memory of Amy Wainright, a writing instructor at the University of North Florida from 1993 until 2013, the Department of English will award major prizes for the best undergraduate creative writing to eligible UNF students in four categories. In each category the annual prize is $1,000* and departmental recognition. Along with the winners, the competition judges will name honorable mentions in each category.

Award Categories

  1. Short Fiction
  2. Creative Non-Fiction
  3. Poetry
  4. Scriptwriting

Eligibility

  • You must be a Florida resident for tuition purposes and a fully enrolled undergraduate student (taking 12 credit hours each semester) with a minimum GPA of 2.5, graduating no sooner than Spring, 2025.
  • Manuscripts must consist of original work(s) of which you are the sole author.
  • Manuscripts must comply with format guidelines and entry requirements.
  • You may submit work that you have simultaneously submitted-but not that has been accepted-elsewhere for competition or publication.

Schedule

  • Deadline for submissions: January 27, 2025.
  • Announcement of winners and finalists: March 10, 2025.

Submission Process

  • Submit your work to the appropriate award category page (creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, or scriptwriting). Include your N# in the appropriate place. 
  • Submissions must be in .Doc, .Docx, PDF, or .RTF format. 
  • Notes: So that we can ensure blind-submission process, all name and contact information will appear separately from the poetry or prose submissions. (Any manuscript with the writer's name on it or in the file name will be disqualified.).
  • Be sure to include your UNF N-number.

Creative Non-Fiction

Manuscripts in this category must consist of factual and literary writing that has the narrative, dramatic, meditative, and/or lyrical elements of fiction, plays, poetry, and/or memoir. (No conventional scholarly or critical essays.)

Creative nonfiction is “factual prose that is also literary—infused with the stylistic devices, tropes, and rhetorical flourishes of the best fiction and the most lyrical of narrative poetry. It is fact-based writing that remains compelling, . . . [and] that has at heart an interest in enduring human values: foremost a fidelity to accuracy, to truthfulness. Its very literariness distinguishes this writing from deadline reportage, daily journalism, academic criticism, and critical biography. It is storytelling of a very high order through the revelation of character and the suspense of plot, the subtle braiding of themes, rhythms and resonance, memory and imaginative research, precise and original language” (Carolyn Forché and Philip Gerard, Writing Creative Nonfiction).

Submission Guidelines

  • Your manuscript must include a single work that totals no more than fifteen pages.
  • You may submit only one manuscript in this category.
  • Creative nonfiction must be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins, using Arial 12 pt font, and including page numbers, unless a compelling reason necessitates different formatting. Submit as .Doc, .Docx, PDF, or .RTF document.
  • Your name must not appear on the manuscript. 

Submit your work here 

Poetry

All subjects and styles are acceptable. 

Submission Guidelines

  • Your manuscript may include between one and three poems but must total no more than five pages. If your manuscript includes more than one poem, title each separately and clearly.
  • You may submit only one manuscript in this category. 
  • Poems must be typed, single- or double-spaced, using Arial 12 pt font, and including page numbers, unless a compelling reason necessitates different formatting. Submit as .Doc, .Docx, PDF, or .RTF document.
  • If a poem runs longer than one page, page headings should indicate the fact in the upper right hand corner, for example, “Apples” continued, 2 of 3.
  • Your name must not appear on the manuscript.
Submit your work here

Scriptwriting

The scriptwriting category is open to play scripts, screenplays, and documentary scripts.

Submission Guidelines

  • Your manuscript must include a single work that totals no more than twenty pages.
  • You may submit only one manuscript in this category. 
  • The script must be typed in Courier 12 pt font and include page numbers. Submit as .Doc, .Docx, PDF, or .RTF document.
  • For the purposes of this contest, a screenplay or documentary script should be formatted according to the screenplay guidelines on the http://www.storysense.com/format.htm website, though a play script should be formatted according to the guidelines on http://citytheatrecompany.org/wp-content/uploads/Style-Guide.pdf
  • Your name must not appear on the manuscript.

Submit your work here

Short Fiction

All subjects are acceptable.

Submission Guidelines

  • Your manuscript must be a single work that totals no more than fifteen pages.
  • You may submit only one manuscript in this category.
  • Short fiction must be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins, using Arial 12 pt font, and including page numbers, unless a compelling reason necessitates different formatting. Submit as .Doc, .Docx, PDF, or .RTF document.
  • Your name must not appear on the manuscript.

Submit your work here