Creative Writing Undergraduate Prizes

"Best Writing Inspired by Artwork" at the Anderson Collection at Stanford University, 10th Anniversary Celebration

The Anderson Collection and the Stanford Creative Writing Program invite undergraduates to submit fiction, creative non-fiction, or poetry inspired by art from the Anderson Collection, Stanford’s museum of modern and contemporary American art. Writing should focus on a single artwork on view in the exhibition, An Expanded Lens. 

Anderson Collection Hours: Wednesday-Sunday, 11am-5pm. Closed December 25 and January 1.

Awards given for first, second, and third place. First prize winner will be invited to read their submission along with other Bay Area authors at the Museum as Muse gallery walk on April 9, 2025. Final Judge, Cintia Santana.

For questions, contact Keith Ekiss: kekiss [at] stanford.edu (kekiss[at]stanford[dot]edu)

Submission guidelines: 

• One entry per student: story, essay, or poem
• Limit entry to a single page only
• Include name of the artist and artwork on submission
• Remove your name from your manuscript to preserve anonymity for contest judge

Deadline: Tuesday, March 4, 2025 at 4:00pm PST

Submit entry here

The Creative Writing Program announces the annual competition for the Maclin Bocock/Albert Guerard Fiction Prize for fiction of high literary merit. The prizes will be awarded to the best works of fiction, experimental or traditional. There will be 3 prizes awarded: first place, second place, and third place.

Guidelines: Entries may be a single short story or section of a longer work, not to exceed 8,000 words. The author’s name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript itself to remain anonymous to the judges. Include the title of your submission on each page of your manuscript. Use Times New Roman in Size 12, save in PDF file format, and include page numbers on entries over 1-page. Entries not following these guidelines will be disqualified.

The Creative Writing Program announces the annual competition for the Creative Nonfiction Prize. The prizes will be awarded to the best works of creative nonfiction. There will be 3 prizes awarded: first place, second place, and third place.

Guidelines: Entries should not exceed 8,000 words. The author’s name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript itself to remain anonymous to the judges. Include the title of your submission on each page of your manuscript. Use Times New Roman in Size 12, save in PDF file format, and include page numbers on entries over 1-page. Entries not following these guidelines will be disqualified.

The Creative Writing Program announces the annual competition for the Mary Steinbeck Dekker Award in Fiction for a short story submitted by a Stanford undergraduate in their senior year. The prize will be awarded to the best work of fiction, experimental or traditional. There will be 1 prize awarded.

Guidelines: Entries may be a single short story or section of a longer work, not to exceed 8,000 words. The author’s name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript itself to remain anonymous to the judges. Include the title of your submission on each page of your manuscript. Use Times New Roman in Size 12, save in PDF file format, and include page numbers on entries over 1-page. Entries not following these guidelines will be disqualified.

The Creative Writing Program announces the annual competition for the
 Planet Earth Arts Creative Writing Prize for works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that explore environmental themes. The mission of Planet Earth Arts is to harness the universal language and transformational power of the arts and human creativity--inspiring individuals to claim planetary sustainability as the most urgent issue of our time. Planet Earth Arts believes that the unique voice of the novelist, the poet, the writer is essential to the conversation and that Stanford students can utilize the art and craft of writing in service of the continuity of life on earth. There will be 3 prizes awarded: first place, second place, and third place.

Guidelines: Entries may be a single poem, a single short story or nonfiction piece, or a section of a longer work, not to exceed 5,000 words. The author’s name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript itself to remain anonymous to the judges. Include the title of your submission on each page of your manuscript. Use Times New Roman in Size 12, save in PDF file format, and include page numbers on entries over 1-page. Entries not following these guidelines will be disqualified.

The Creative Writing Program announces the annual competition for 
the Urmy/Hardy Poetry Prize for poetry of high literary merit, traditional or experimental. There will be 3 prizes awarded: first place, second place, and third place.

Guidelines: Submit a maximum of one single poem, no more than 3 pages typed. The author’s name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript itself to remain anonymous to the judges. Include the title of your submission on each page of your manuscript. Use Times New Roman in Size 12, save in PDF file format, and include page numbers on entries over 1-page. Entries not following these guidelines will be disqualified.

The Creative Writing Program announces the annual competition for the Wiley Birkhofer Award in Poetry. Wiley Birkhofer was a student in our program with a Creative Writing emphasis in poetry, graduating from Stanford in 2009. A gifted and eloquent poet, Wiley earned his MFA from NYU in 2014. His early death in 2014 prevented him from exploring these gifts further. This prize honors his memory and his creative example. There will be 1 prize awarded.

Guidelines: Entries must be one single poem. The author’s name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript itself to remain anonymous to the judges. Include the title of your submission on each page of your manuscript. Use Times New Roman in Size 12, save in PDF file format, and include page numbers on entries over 1-page. Entries not following these guidelines will be disqualified.

The Creative Writing Program announces the annual competition for the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize, awarded for the best unpublished poem or group of poems by an undergraduate student at Stanford University, the University of California campuses, University of the Pacific, Mills College, Santa Clara University, or St. Mary's College. When this prize is offered, approximately $1,000 is divided each year between first, second, and third place winners.

Guidelines: Submit up to 3 poems on any subject. Poems on California are encouraged, but not required. Do not write your name on the poems, as judges will be reading your work anonymously. Stanford winners will be selected mid-January, while state-wide winners will be announced in March. 

For questions about the Ina Coolbrith Prize, please contact Keith Ekiss.