The BIG DAY has arrived: Wednesday, August 13th is the deadline to submit your story or essay, page poem, or spoken word piece to JaxNEXT100. Polish it up and send it in! Winners will be announced at the celebration at the Jessie on Friday, August 12th. Cash prizes and a reading of your work. See you there!
Monday, July 11 at 9 AM, Melissa Ross will talk on First Coast Connect with Mark Walker, Director & Senior Program Officer of The Jessie and Darlyn Finch Kuhn, Director of the JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival, about the upcoming JaxNEXT100 Celebration and its exciting We Have the WRITE to Our Future Writing Contest. The show will rebroadcast at 8 PM.
The writing contest deadline is Wednesday, July 13 at 11:59 PM, so please tune in to learn all the details about that AND about the other exciting events to be held August 9-13 to celebrate Jacksonvilles past, present, and future.
Folks are excited about the contest, and we want EVERYONE to have a chance to submit. Therefore, the deadline has been extended one week to July 20, 2022.
In collaboration with 904WARD and The Jessie, the JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival is thrilled to announce the “We Have a Write to Our Futures” Writing Contest and Celebration. Here are the exciting details:
Writers, poets and spoken word artists will create new work that shares their ideas, vision and expression of Jacksonville through reflection on its last 200 years, imagining its next 100 years or a combination of the two. Using one of the following prompts and your own creative vision, with a lens of diversity and inclusion:
Past: Write about a historical person, place, or thing in Jacksonville and how they or it impacted you, people of the past, or the city itself.
Present: In what ways has our city embraced the diversity of people living here? In what ways can the City address the remaining challenges to embracing diversity?
Future: Choose a line or lines from the Johnson Brothers’ song Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing and explore how those words inspire your vision of Jacksonville’s future.
An independent panel of judges will view submitted work and cash prizes will be awarded in the following categories:
1. Story or Essay: $1,000 for first place, $750 for runner-up, $500 for student winner, 5 honorable mentions at $200 each
2. Page Poetry: $1,000 for first place, $750 for runner-up, $500 for student winner, 5 honorable mentions at $200 each
3. Spoken Word: $1,000 for first place, $750 for runner-up, $500 for student winner, 5 honorable mentions at $200 each
Submission Details:
1. Submissions are open June 13, 2022 to July 20, 2022.
2. Written submissions are limited to 1,000 words for story or essay category and two pages for page poetry. Please submit your work in a .PDF, .DOCX or .DOC file format.
3. Spoken word recordings, in either audio or video format, are limited to 5 minutes and must be in a .mp4, .mp3, .mov, .wav, or .aac file format.
4. More than one submission can be made per entrant.
5. Winners will be announced live at the celebration event at The Jessie on Friday, August 12, 2022. All winners will be invited to read their work aloud at the event.
Entrant Eligibility
Open to any writer that lives or has a connection to or an affiliation with the city of Jacksonville. Student writers include all entrants 18 years old and younger. For this competition, you are considered a student if you are 18 or younger on August 12, 2022.
Questions? Email scribbler.finch@gmail.com