For the 26th year, the July House Organ will be the Summer Reading Issue, filled
with the winners of the House Organ Writing Contest—poems, short stories and nonfiction pieces contributed by Vanderbilt staff,
faculty and students.
Every year demonstrates that Vanderbilt has a lot of people with literary talent
walking around disguised as regular people, and the House Organ Writing Contest
is a chance to show everybody what you can do.
The rules are pretty simple.
There are three categories: poetry, fiction and nonfiction.
There are no length restrictions in the poetry category.
The fiction category is limited to 4,000 words.
The nonfiction category, which encompasses journalistic writing, memoirs,
feature stories, historical pieces, profiles of interesting people, or anything
else that’s true, also has a 4,000-word limit.
Please indicate the category of your entry; sometimes it’s a little hard for the judges to figure out what is fiction and what is
nonfiction.
All Vanderbilt staff and faculty, except those who work in News and
Communications, are eligible. Medical, nursing and graduate students are also
eligible.
Submissions are limited to three per category. Each entry must be submitted
online as an attachment in Microsoft Word (or other compatible format), and
have the author’s name, place of employment or school, and a phone number at the top of the
first page. Entries may be sent to wayne.wood@vanderbilt.edu. Please put “writing contest entry” in the subject line.
Entries may be edited for space, clarity or style before publication.
Deadline for entry is Monday, May 10. Please push the send button before
midnight on that day.
The winners will be published in House Organ. In past years, it has also been
possible to publish some honorable mentions.
Address any questions to the editor, Wayne Wood, at 322-4747, or at the e-mail
address above.
Checklist for entries:
• Author information: Name, department or school, address and phone number on
first page.
• Entry information: Category—fiction, nonfiction or poetry. Check to be sure your work is within the length
requirement.
• Entries must be sent as an attachment in Microsoft Word (or other compatible
format).
• Deadline is May 10.
