Creative Writing Scholarship Competition
Are you the next Stephen King or J.K. Rowling? Make your literary mark at Thea Foundation first, and you could win thousands of dollars in scholarships for college, then your future is yours to write!
Each year, dozens of students from across the state of Arkansas submit their prose to Thea Foundation’s Creative Writing Scholarship Competition, and our panel of judges, which in the past has included acclaimed authors Jay Jennings, Phillip McMath, Paula Morell, Janis Kearney and others, selects five phenomenal pieces.
SENIOR SCHOLARSHIPS
1st Place – $4,000
2nd Place – $3,500
3rd Place - $3,000
4th Place - $2,500
5th Place - $2,000
ONLINE REGISTRATION DEADLINE
Monday, March 9, 2020
SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS ANNOUNCED
March 16, 2020
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Word Count: Maximum 1,000 words
Style: Fictional short story, prose, or poetry
Theme: This year's theme is "Brilliant, radiant, overcoming the senses." Judges will consider interpretation of the theme in judging written works.
Format: All submissions must be typed and double-spaced, with 1-inch margins and 12-point Times New Roman font. Each page must be numbered at the bottom, and include the title of the short story or poem at the top. Your name and school must be included at the top left corner of the first page only. Please no title pages.
Entries formatted incorrectly will be disqualified from the competition.
Originality: All entries must be original works; no plagiarism or copyright infringement.
You may submit only one entry to the competition.
Submission Deadline:
Each applicant must register online, then email his/her entry as a .doc to:
To see our 2019 winners, click here!
Rules and Regulations
By visiting this page you understand that this information has been available to you starting August 6, 2019, and that failure to read this information or register for a scholarship before the registration deadline is to no fault of the Thea Foundation. The Thea Foundation makes every attempt possible within its means to notify students, parents, teachers, counselors, and the general public of the availability of its scholarship competitions and will not allow late registration predicated on the notion that an individual party was not aware of the information regarding deadlines.
Registering for a Thea Foundation Scholarship Competition requires students to register online via a gravity form. Students may only register through the specific portal that the Foundation has created for each scholarship competition. Thea staff will not register students for scholarship competitions.
The Foundation recognizes that issues may arise during the registration process either from faulty equipment, user error, or issues beyond the control of either the registrant or the Foundation. The Thea Foundation encourages all students who register for a scholarship competition to contact Paul Leopoulos at to verify whether or not their registration was indeed processed. The Foundation makes available the registration for their scholarship competitions many months in advance to provide time to those having technical difficulties during the registering process. The Thea Foundation will not allow students to participate in a scholarship competition who arrive at the competition stating that they registered during the time allotted and who's name is not present on the Thea Foundation's list of participating students.
Only high school seniors enrolled in either public, private or home schools in Arkansas are eligible to register for a Thea Foundation Scholarship Competition. A high school senior means any student who is currently completing the 12th grade in public or private school or any home school student who lists the 11th grade as their last grade level completed on their Notice of Intent to Home School on file with the Arkansas Department of Education for the current school year.