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2025 Writing for Peace Contest
The Gandhi Alliance in collaboration with the SLCC Community Writing Center (CWC) and Student Writing and Reading Center (SWRC) are facilitating the 2025 Writing for Peace Contest.
Contest rules:
- Open to adults in Utah age 19+ and students age 15-18 at any Utah school.
- Prizes will be awarded in two categories: Adult (age 19+) and Student (age 15-18).
- Deadline: March 19, 2025.
- Submit 2500 words or less.
Write on this topic:
Reflect on a crucial moment in the past in which violence or an escalation of violence was avoided due to the actions of peace actors. How might we use the peacemaking actions from this past event to work toward a peaceful resolution or change for a contemporary social, political, environmental, and/or economic issue in the present? Now, imagine a future in which peace has been sustained.
Prizes - For each category
- $250 - First place
- $100 - Second place
- $50 - Third place
Awards celebration
May 8, 6 - 7:30 PM (Location TBA)
For more information and to submit please visit https://www.gandhialliance.org/writing-for-peace.html or contact the Community Writing Center at slcccommunitywritingcenter@gmail.com
Everybody Writes Open Mic
The SLCC Community Writing Center invites you to come to our Everybody Writes! Open Mic nights.
Open Mic nights are every second Wednesday of each month, from 6-7 p.m. Whether you’re interested in sharing poetry, stories, and/or essays you’ve written, perform songs you’ve composed, regaling folks with your stand-up comedy, or just feel like dropping by and listening to the work of your fellow community members, open mic night is the place for anyone and everyone.
Open Mic Nights are held at Tea Zaanti: 1944 S 1100 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84106. To put your name down for reading, singing, performing, etc. at an Open Mic Night, please message us on Facebook or email nalu.francis@slcc.edu.
30 Poems in 30 Days Competition
Announcing the Community Writing Center's Annual 30 Poems in 30 Days Writing Competition! Write 30 poems based on daily prompts throughout the month of April 2025. Winners will have a chapbook of their original poems designed and produced by the CWC.
Registration is required by April 30, 2025.
A writing prompt will be posted each day by 10 a.m. throughout the month of April. They will be posted on the CWC's Facebook (@CommunityWritingCenter) and Instagram (@slcc_cwc) accounts. Each morning, a new prompt will be posted.
Contestants must submit their poems via Submittable by 11:59 p.m. on May 5, 2025.
NOTE: the CWC uses Submittable as our portal for submissions. Submittable will open on April 30 at 10 a.m. for participants to submit their 30 Poems in 30 Days collection. If you click on the "Submittable" link above before that time, you will receive an error message.
Please see our full rules and regulations.
To get you thinking about poetry writing, here are some prompts from the 2024 30 Poems in 30 Days Competition. NOTE: These will not be prompts for this year's competition. We're sharing a few here to get you in a poetry-writing mood.
- Write a poem that is built on contrasting you with another person. Your father, mother, sibling, cousin, friend.
- Write a poem based on a photograph, whether it be one of yours or someone else’s. You can focus on the photograph itself, or consider the periphery, the world surrounding the photograph.
Register for 30 Poems in 30 Days
17th Wasatch IronPen Writing Competition
Welcome to the 17th Wasatch IronPen Writing Marathon, in which artists of the written word face off in a 24-hour writing competition! Adult and Youth writers of all experience levels can participate in one of three genres (Fiction, Non-fiction or Poetry) or can take on the IronPen Ultra and write in all three!
Writers of all experience levels can register for the marathon at the SLCC Community Writing Center (located at Library Square, Suite 8) or register online. Participants must register by Friday, June 28th, at 6:00 p.m. Registration for the IronPen is $10 for one genre (Fiction, Non-fiction, or Poetry) or $15 for the IronPen Ultra (all three genres).
After receiving the prompt on Friday, June 28th at 6:00 p.m., writers will have exactly 24 hours to write. Submissions are due Saturday, June 29th at 6:00 p.m. Visit the CWC's social media accounts (see below) or call 801-957-2192 for more details.
Winners will receive a gift card to the King’s English bookstore and a CWC gift bag. Honorable Mentions will receive a gift bag of CWC swag.
On Friday, June 28, 2024 at 6:00 p.m., a prompt will be posted on the CWC’s Facebook ( @CommunityWritingCenter) and Instagram ( @slcc_cwc) feeds. Participants must meaningfully incorporate the prompt into their submission. After receiving the prompt, writers will have exactly 24 hours to write.
Submissions are due via Submittable by 6:00 p.m. on June 29, 2024 @6:00 p.m. NOTE: the Submittable link will go live at 6:00 p.m. on June 28, 2024.