<p>Are there any contests run by real organizations (as in, not just some guy on the internet) for writing fiction/non-fiction that you’d recommend. </p>
<p>Things that I’d like to have in the contest: </p>
<li> Local and national level awards, so that its more realistic for me to compete</li>
<li> Relatively prestigious, ideally run by a publisher or a college, but run by someone who is known</li>
<li> Enter the contest late summer on early fall and get results my Christmas time. I’ll be too swamped to work on it during the school year, and if I win I’d like to be able to put it on a college application</li>
</ol>
<p>To me the topic really isn’t all that important, since I enjoy writing for the sake of it.</p>