For the 25th 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 staff, faculty and
students of Vanderbilt Medical Center.
Every year demonstrates that the Medical Center 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 staff and faculty of VMC, except those who work in News and Public Affairs,
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 compatable 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 11. Please push the send button before
midnight on that day.
The winners will be published in House Organ. If we have room, we’ll also publish some honorable mentions. Last year there were so many good
nonfiction entries that they were published in several other issues.
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 compatable
format).
Deadline is May 11.
