Have any of you done this before? I have some good pieces that I have written/have in mind that may be good for submission.
how did you guys like it, and when do results come out?
Bump bump. I considered entering last year but didn’t end up doing it- It looks like a great contest! Best of luck.
I submitted two poetry collections last year, and I won two regional gold key awards but did not place nationally. It’s really really competitive, and it sucks to have to pay to submit pieces, but it was nice to receive the certificate (and I got a cute pin too).
They organize submissions by regions, and while some people seem to have more specific areas, I’m a member of the southeast region at large, so I didn’t get to participate in any sort of regional awards ceremony or the like. My school had a few other people apply for awards, and Scholastic notified my school about the other girl that won gold keys, but my information was not shared with my school (I’m a little salty about this, if you can’t tell) so I was not included in school-wide recognition.
I would NOT just wing it with a few old pieces- make sure you read through all the requirements and guidelines, edit edit edit, and vary the type of things you submit in a collection. They’ve got pretty strict guidelines on length for poetry, but I’m not sure about the other categories. If you’re a senior this year, you can take advantage of the senior portfolios for a chance to win scholarship money.
I want to say I got my regional results in February, but that might vary by location. The national results came out in early or mid March.
If you decide to participate, good luck!