2013-2014 Project Grant Report

AuthorShip! Writing Contest

Shippensburg University
Phi Psi Chapter

The AuthorShip! Writing Contest is nearing completion as we prepare to host an Awards Banquet on the morning of May 3 to honor the twelve winners of this year’s contest. In the middle of March we sent notification of the contest to nearly 50 middle-school and high-school teachers from about 20 different school districts within a 60-mile radius of Shippensburg University. Whereas in past years we accepted submissions via snail mail, this year the university set up a separate email account for us so that students could submit their work electronically. We ended up receiving just over 100 submissions in the various categories.  Eleven members from the Sigma Tau Delta Shippensburg University Chapter helped to judge the contest: the four executive officers (President Samantha New, Vice President Danielle Lovett, Treasurer Katie Benedict, and Secretary Anissa Freeman) were joined by Elizabeth Hewett, Mollie Fenby, Laura Kownacki, Abbie Brumback, Alyssa Hicks, Amanda Sanger, and Samantha Kelsey. Members were split into three groups and each group was assigned an award category (poetry, fiction, nonfiction) to judge.  At this point, the winners have been determined and invited to the banquet this Saturday; we are also currently in the process of putting the winning submissions together in an anthology that we will print and distribute at the banquet. The Project Grant money will go toward the prize money ($450) with the balance ($50) being put toward the cost of the banquet.