On your marks, get set, write! Diablo Valley College is getting ready for the second annual DVC Creative Writing Contest, where student writers will get their chance to show off their work.

The contest will be available for DVC students who will have a choice of three categories to submit their work.

Writers can submit fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Their work will be judged by a panel of six judges, each of whom will judge the individual papers blindly (without knowing the writer).

Writers are not limited to one category, and are encouraged to write more than one piece, but students are not allowed to submit more than one paper for fiction and nonfiction categories. For poetry, students are allowed to submit up to three poems, but no more than three pages total.

Fiction stories can be no more than 2000 words and nonfiction can be no more that 1500 words. 

Cash prizes will be awarded to first, second and third place. Honorable mentions may be also be granted to contestants. Writers who are lucky enough to end up with these awards will be invited to a student reading on April 29, on campus. The specific location and time has not yet been decided.

Entries will be accepted from Feb. 9, through March 27, 2015 and must be submitted online through the DVC website.

For more information, students should contact English professor Jessica Barksdale at [email protected].