Clackamas County Arts Alliance plans second annual Writing Contest

Following the success of last year’s event, the Clackamas County Arts Alliance has announced the opening of its second annual Writing Contest.

As before there are four genres for writers to enter: Short Story, Essay, Poetry and Playlet. To encourage a broad range of entries in 2024, there is no specific theme.

CCAA’s Literary Arts Committee, led by Bob Sterry, thanked a list of sponsors who have allowed the Alliance to award $250 prizes to winners and $100 to runners up in each genre. The entries will be assessed by two judges for each genre.

Winners and runners up will be announced May 18 at the Clackamas Community College “Compose” conference organized by the college English Department, which will again donate free conference registration for the winners and finalists.

“I and my colleagues are very excited to see this idea come to pass once again,” Sterry said. “It comes at a time when we are all still emerging out of the nightmare of COVID and need to find ways of connecting with each other again. Tapping into the creative talents of writers in the county is one way we can do that.”

Last year Brittany West took the top prize in the essay competition, Barbara Froman took first place in the short story category, Paul Lyons won the poetry competition and first prize for a playlet went to Leslie Hayertz.