One winner and one honorable mention will be named in each of six categories:
Grades 6-9: Short Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction
Grades 10-12: Short Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction
Adults: Short Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction
Short Fiction includes any style, genre, or content, including short stories and novel excerpts. No fan fiction please.
Creative Non-Fiction includes personal essay and memoir of any style, as long as it is true. No academic papers please.
Winners from each category will receive a small honorarium in the form of a Gift of Bath Gift Card and have their work published in our online literary journal (new this year!). Winners will be honored at a reception in early 2025.
The Writing Contest is made possible with support from the Friends of the Patten Free Library.
Entries accepted November 1 through December 6, 2024.
Matthew Glassman. Executive Director, Chocolate Church is an artist, performer, father, and community organizer. In the past 25 years, you could have met him while he performed in the air on bungees, led a parade of children through the woods at his Wilder Imagination Camp, organized donors for a multi-million dollar arts campaign, or listened to his favorite Bob Dylan track over a shared coffee.
Terri Shurz, Owner, Mockingbird Bookshop has lived in Maine for 10 years and couldn’t love Bath more. She has two kids, aged 12 and 26, and a lovely husband who is a teacher of Math (gasp!). She has worked in publishing, at libraries, and now owns Mockingbird Bookshop, so as you can see, she loves books! If she’s not reading…just kidding, Terri is always reading!
Maggie Webbert earned an MFA in Creative Writing and a graduate certificate in Writing for Children & Young Adults and is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). She lives in Bath with her husband and spends her days writing historical fiction for middle-grade readers.
Submission Guidelines:
One submission per author per category. Simultaneous submissions are allowed but please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere.
Entries may be up to 1500 words. Entries longer than 1500 words will not be considered.
Submissions are judged blind. Do not include the writer’s name anywhere on the submission itself.
Patten Free Library retains first publication rights to the work of the winners (all other rights automatically return to the author after publication).
Teen entrants must be in grades 6-12, live in the Library service area; or attend an R.S.U. 1 school or school located within the Library service area (Arrowsic, Georgetown, Bath, West Bath, or Woolwich).
Adult entrants must be 18 years or older and live in the Library service area (Arrowsic, Georgetown, Bath, West Bath, or Woolwich) or hold a valid Patten Free Library card. Library staff are not eligible for consideration.
Previously published work will not be accepted.
Submissions accepted via online submission form or in print. Do not include the author’s name anywhere on the submission piece. Do include a header on each page with title, category, and page number.
Electronic submission:
Submit Here
Print submission:
Writing Contest c/o Patten Free Library
33 Summer Street
Bath, ME 04530
Questions? Call or email Hannah (207-443-5141 x1021, hlackoff@patten.lib.me.us)