Contest applicants must be enrolled as full-time students (at least 12 credits for undergrad and 6 credits for graduate students) at Brigham Young University in either semester of the 2024-2025 school year.
1. This contest provides a total of $2,000 for the winners and the judge’s honorarium. Award money will typically be divided among three winners and one or more honorable mentions depending on the number and quality of submissions.
2. The specialty division is for speculative genres, including science fiction and fantasy. Like the general division, submissions will be judged on their literary merit, but consideration will be given to depth and breadth of imagination and to the author’s awareness of genre conventions. Stories should conform to standards appropriate to an LDS audience.
3. Entries should be no longer than 6,000 words, typed in a standard font, double-spaced, and with standard margins.
4. All entries are to be uploaded between January 6th and February, 2025 by 11:59 pm to the Mayhew website. No hard copies will be accepted in the College of Humanities office.
5. The judge for this division will be a published writer and/or creative writing teacher. Judges for this division are typically members of the larger (non-BYU) writing community.
6. Each student submitting an entry will upload a PDF file of their entry with a cover sheet containing ONLY their Student ID number and the title of their work. Please fill out the online form (see below) giving name, address, Student ID number and telephone number and certifying (a) that he or she is eligible by proper enrollment at BYU to enter the contest, and (b) that the entry submitted is the student’s original creative work – again, this can be done by filling out the online form (see below). The student’s real name will appear only to the Mayhew contest organizers.
Important note: In addition to the specific rules above for the Short Story (General) Contest, see the “General Regulations” giving information on all Mayhew Student Creative Contests. Both the general regulations and the specific rules for each contest should be followed by every student who enters one or more of the contests.
All submissions require a cover sheet (Student ID and Work Title ONLY) and must be submitted online (see below and Log-In to access). Online submissions will open on January 6th, 2024.
Contest Contact Information
Spencer Hyde
Specialty Division Chairman
4135 JFSB
spencer_hyde@byu.edu
WHEN LOGGING IN: Please note that you will be redirected to a WordPress dashboard. Once you are redirected, simply return to the respective Mayhew Contest page you were on and you should be logged in. If you have any issues logging in you can call 801-422-2775 or email humanities@byu.edu.