Student Scholarship to Whidbey Island Writers Conference

The Whidbey Island Writers' Association encourages students of all ages to participate in its annual writers' conference. Each year, local individuals, businesses and conference presenters generously fund a number of tuition scholarships to the conference.

Students enrolled in grades 9-12, the Running Start program, a college/university undergraduate program or graduate program, or an online writing program are eligible to apply for a full tuition scholarship to the Whidbey Island Writers Conference. The scholarship covers the $375 tuition and two lunches. Transportation to and from Whidbey Island and its conference activities, housing, meals (other than those included) and incidentals are the student's responsibility. In order to allow the most number of students to benefit from the conference, recipients of a student scholarship for a previous Whidbey Island Writers Conference will not be considered for a second scholarship.

Students must demonstrate a desire to attend the conference by filling out the Scholarship Application , writing a letter of 100 words or less explaining why they wish to attend the conference and what benefits they hope to receive, and submitting a sample of original written work.

The student's work will not be critiqued, but will be evaluated on readability, grammar, mechanics (spelling, punctuation, sentence structure), idea/content, clarity, use of language, description, characterization (if applicable) and overall appeal.

Work may consist of poetry, a short story, a newspaper article, a play, website copy, or other written work. The submission may be an excerpt from a longer project, such as a novel or screenplay.

All prose submissions are limited to 1,500 words. Poetry is limited to 75 lines. Spaces between stanzas aren't considered lines; only lines with words are counted. Poems may be single-spaced, unless the poet expects the poem to be published with double spacing.

All submissions (with the exception of newspaper articles) must be typewritten/computer generated, double-spaced, with one-inch margins, and a font no smaller than 12 point.

Failure to comply with submission guidelines will result in the disqualification of the entry.

Application packets should be mailed to:

Applications must be postmarked by October 31, 2007. Students will be notified of their status by November 28, 2007.

For questions about the Student Scholarship Award program, please contact: Nancy Ruff, Ed.D. Teachers who would like information or class presentations about the conference may call the Whidbey Island Writers' Association at 360-331-6714 or email writers@whidbey.com