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Patten Free Library > 2026 Annual Writing Contest

2026 Annual Writing Contest

One winner and one honorable mention will be named in each of the following categories:

Grades 6-9: Short Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, Poetry
Grades 10-12: Short Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, Poetry
Adults: Short Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, Poetry

Short Fiction includes any style, genre, or content, including short stories and novel excerpts up to 1500 words.  No fan fiction please.

Creative Non-Fiction includes personal essay and memoir of any style, as long as it is true, up to 1500.  No academic papers please.

Poetry includes any style or genre of poetry up to 30 lines.

Winners from each category will receive a small honorarium in the form of a Gift of Bath Gift Card and have their work published in Pharos, a Patten Free Library Literary Magazine.  Poetry contest winners may be featured in our annual Poetry Walk.  All winners will be honored at a reception in April.

The Writing Contest is made possible with support from the Friends of the Patten Free Library.

Entries accepted February 1-March 1.

Brian Stanton is a Bath native in his thirty-second year of teaching English at Morse High School. Brian created the Poetry elective at Morse and has emceed numerous Poetry Slams and Poetry Out Loud competitions. Over years of writing instruction across fiction and research to college application essays, Brian is proud to have shepherded Bath’s brightest young minds through some of their formative years in literature.

Deb Stetson is an experienced writer and editor whose background includes reporting for an award-winning weekly newspaper on Cape Cod, editing a regional lifestyle magazine, contributing to a business magazine, heading an arts and entertainment section for a chain of weekly newspapers and handling public relations for a nonprofit organization. While working as an assistant to the editor of a young adult book publisher, she was involved with selecting manuscripts and worked with authors on developmental editing. She currently works as a copy editor and writes fiction in her spare time, now working on what she fervently hopes is the final revision of a completed novel. She is the founder and facilitator of the Patten Free Library Writers Group, which meets at the library weekly. Having relocated from Cape Cod to Maine in 2023, she lives in Brunswick.

Stacie Williams spent nearly a decade as a bookseller and author events coordinator at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops and Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee, WI before joining HarperCollins in NYC in a field sales support role and then moving to New England in 2015 to be Ingram Publisher Services’ distribution client sales representative to independent bookstores in the region—a role she held until 2023 and for which she received a bookseller-nominated service award. In a reflection of her reading habits, Stacie dabbles in writing poetry and fiction, though her formally published work is entirely nonfiction. She has also led writing workshops and been a panel moderator several times over the years at AWP’s annual conferences, with a focus on the craft of writing. She is going on 2.5 years as a volunteer at The Library Bookstore and recently joined the staff at Maine Maritime Museum—both in Bath, where she lives with her partner Josh (a bookstore owner himself) and their dog and cat. If she can’t be found in any of those places, she’s probably playing with clay at Handful Studios in Portland.

 

Submission Guidelines:

One submission per author per category.  Simultaneous submissions are allowed but please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere.

 

Fiction and Non Fiction entries may be up to 1500 words.  Entries longer than 1500 words will not be considered.

Poetry entries may be up to 30 lines.  Entries longer than 30 lines will not be considered.

 

Submissions are judged blind. Do not include the writer’s name anywhere on the submission itself.

Patten Free Library retains first publication rights to the work of the winners (all other rights automatically return to the author after publication).

Use of generative AI, such as chatGPT, is not allowed.

 

Teen entrants must be in grades 6-12, live in the Library service area, hold a valid Patten Free Library card, or attend an R.S.U. 1 school or school located within the Library service area (Arrowsic, Georgetown, Bath, West Bath, or Woolwich).

Adult entrants must be 18 years or older and live in the Library service area (Arrowsic, Georgetown, Bath, West Bath, or Woolwich) or hold a valid Patten Free Library card. All members of the PFL Writers Group, even those who live outside the PFL service area, are eligible for consideration. Library staff are not eligible for consideration. 

Previously published work will not be accepted.

 

Submissions accepted via online submission form or in print.  Do not include the author’s name anywhere on the submission piece.  Do include a header on each page with title, category, and page number.

Failure to adhere to contest guidelines will result in your work being withdrawn from consideration.

 

Electronic submission:

Submit Here

 

Print submission:

  • Include the following information on a cover sheet and deliver to the Information Desk, or mail to:

              Writing Contest c/o Patten Free Library

              33 Summer Street

              Bath, ME 04530

  • Writer’s name, address, email, and telephone number
  • Title, word count, and category (short fiction, creative non-fiction, or poetru)
  • Age: either Adult, or grade and school name, or note as homeschooled

 

Questions?  Call or email Hannah (207-443-5141 x1021, hlackoff@pattenfreelibrary.org)

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