Contests

The Northwest Undergraduate Conference on Literature (NUCL)

The Northwest Undergraduate Conference on Literature seeks to provide an opportunity for undergraduate and advanced high school students in the Northwest to present their own scholarly or creative work to their peers. Participants are also invited to attend NUCL’s keynote speaker. On behalf of the NUCL, The University of Portland awards prizes and a scholarship for the best papers and works submitted, including the “Brass NUCL Award” for the hardest-hitting paper.

About the Conference
 The conference is open to college and university students as well as honors or advanced-placement high school students, and seeks to provide a forum for students to present their ideas about literature through analytical and research papers, followed by small group discussions of the papers.

Submissions
 Original Scholarly, Analytical or interpretive papers no longer than 15-18 minutes when read aloud. Poems and creative essays that reflect reading experience in contemporary and creative non-fiction. Student poems need to submit 5-7 poems, and creative essays must be limited to 15 minutes when read aloud. For contest dates and other details, visit the NUCL website

 

The Norton Writer’s Prize

The Norton Writer’s Prize will be awarded annually for an outstanding essay written by an undergraduate. Literacy narratives, literary and other textual analyses, reports, profiles, evaluations, arguments, memoirs, proposals, mixed-genre pieces, and more: any excellent writing done for an undergraduate writing class will be considered. The winner will receive a cash award of $1,500. Two runners-up will each receive a cash award of $1,000.

Competition for the Norton Writer’s Prize is open to undergraduates enrolled during the current academic year in an accredited 2- or 4-year college or university. Employees of Norton and their children are not eligible, nor are children of Norton authors. Each entry must be accompanied by a cover letter on departmental stationery from a nominating instructor.  Electronic submissions must include an attached scanned cover letter of departmental stationary. Each instructor may nominate only one student essay. The nominating instructor must provide a one-paragraph summary of the essay’s merits and should type out his or her name, address, phone number, email address, and title. For more information, visit the website of W.W. Norton & Co.