Competitions · Humanities and writing · Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition
The Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition.
An adult literary competition that lets students in from grade eleven. The novel category wants up to 125,000 words and pays $7,500 - and the entry form has to be posted to New Orleans.
Read this first
This is a competition for writers, not for students.
It admits students from grade eleven, which is genuinely open - but everything about the scale, the fees and the categories is built for adults.
The categories are book-length
A novel of up to 125,000 words. Narrative non-fiction of up to 75,000. A novella of up to 25,000. These are manuscripts, not school assignments.
Entry fees run from $40 to $200
Forty dollars for a novella, forty-five for a novel or a non-fiction book within the base word count, and up to two hundred for the longest manuscripts.
And payment must be posted
A printed entry form and the fee go by post to the society in New Orleans. Card payment is accepted with a handling fee, but the form still travels by mail.
Which is the point of the competition
The society’s stated aim is finding new talented writers and helping them find literary agents and, eventually, publishers. It is a route into publishing, not a school prize.
The categories
What each one pays, and what it costs to enter.
The fee rises with the length of the manuscript. These are the published rates.
| Category | Prize | Length and fee |
|---|---|---|
| Novel | $7,500 | Up to 125,000 words for $45. From 125,000 to 200,000 words, $100. Over 200,000 words, $200 |
| Narrative non-fiction | $2,000 | Up to 75,000 words for $45. From 75,000 to 100,000, $75. Over 100,000, $100. Over 150,000, $125. Over 225,000, $200. Includes non-fiction novels, history, memoir and biography |
| Novella | $1,500 | Up to 25,000 words, for $40 |
Note how the fee scales. A long novel costs $200 to enter and pays $7,500 if it wins - which is the economics of an adult literary prize rather than a student competition.
At a glance
The essentials.
The competition is sponsored by the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, a non-profit literary and educational organisation based in New Orleans.
- Who can enter
- Students in grade 11 and above
- Manuscript format
- Word, doc, docx or pdf, submitted by email. Entries in other formats are refused
- Two files per entry
- A contact page and the manuscript
- The contact page
- Author name, address, email, telephone, category, manuscript title and word count
- Naming the contact file
- The author’s name and the word Contact - for example Jane_Doe_Contact_Info. Generic names are not accepted
- The entry form and fee
- Printed and posted to the society in New Orleans
- Payment from abroad
- Cash, a cashier’s cheque or American Express travellers cheques. Foreign money orders and cheques drawn on foreign banks are not accepted
- Card payment
- Visa, Mastercard or American Express, with a $5 handling fee per entry
- Queries
- All questions go to the society’s competition email address
The eligibility rules
Two rules that end entries.
Both are about the state of the manuscript rather than its quality, and both are absolute.
Previously unpublished only
Self-published and print-on-demand books count as published, unless the author can provide current accurate documentation showing fewer than 500 copies sold. If a self-published manuscript wins, that category’s prize is reduced by a third.
Including anything posted online in full
Books, stories, essays and poems published in their entirety on the internet are treated as published and are not eligible. A story on a personal blog is out.
And no visible revision marks
Any manuscript submitted carrying red or blue draft revision marks is automatically rejected. Accept or clear all tracked changes before sending.
Which is worth checking twice
The revision-mark rule in particular catches writers who export a working draft rather than a clean copy.
For a school-age writer
When this is worth considering.
It is open from grade eleven, and for a small number of students it is genuinely the right competition.
If there is an actual manuscript
A student who has written a novella or a novel - not planned one - has somewhere to send it here, judged alongside adult work.
The novella is the accessible category
Twenty-five thousand words for a $40 entry and a $1,500 prize. That is a realistic length for a serious school-age writer.
Protect the manuscript in the meantime
Posting the work online in full makes it ineligible here and at many other competitions. That is a decision worth making early.
And know what the aim is
The society exists to connect writers with agents and publishers. For a student who wants to publish, that is more useful than a certificate.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares a submission.
For an eligible student with a manuscript, the preparation is as much about process as about writing.
Producing a clean manuscript
No tracked changes, no coloured revision marks, correctly named files. The competition rejects on these grounds before reading a word.
Allowing time for the post
The entry form and fee travel physically to New Orleans. An international letter takes weeks, not days.
Choosing the right category and length band
The fee depends on word count, and the bands are published. Knowing which band the manuscript falls into before submitting avoids a surprise.
And finishing properly
This is judged against adult work by people looking for writers to represent. A manuscript that is nearly done should wait a year.
Why Hanlin
Preparation for Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition at Hanlin is taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
Programme formats
Five ways this is taught.
Group size is the whole difference between these. It decides how much of the tutor's attention a student gets and how far the course can bend to them, so it is worth choosing rather than accepting.
| Format | Group size | What it suits |
|---|---|---|
| One-to-one | One student | Content, pace and emphasis set by what this student actually needs rather than by a syllabus. The only format that can be rebuilt mid-course. |
| Small group | Three to eight | Opens at three. Frequent discussion, and the tutor can slow down or move on according to what the group has absorbed. Most students chasing a higher award are taught in this one. |
| Class | Eight to twelve | Taught by the subject lead or a medal coach. Less back-and-forth, so it suits a student who will say when something is unclear. |
| Large class | Ten to twenty | For students in the middle of the placement range, and a way to try a competition before committing. Students often move to a small group or to one-to-one afterwards. |
| Past-paper class | No cap | Past papers worked through in sequence in the weeks before the sitting. Free to students already enrolled. |
Course length for Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition is set after a placement paper. The gap between where a student is and what the paper asks for is what the course has to close, and that gap is not the same for two students in the same year group.
How it runs
Six steps, four people on your side.
The same process for every student, so that nothing depends on one tutor remembering to do it.
Step 1Pre-course assessment
A placement paper before anything is booked, so the course tier is chosen on evidence rather than on a year group.
Step 2Tutor matching
A subject tutor is matched to the result, and their full background is provided before you agree to it.
Step 3Plan and group
A study group opens with four people on one student: the tutor, a planner, a supervisor and an academic manager.
Step 4Scheduled teaching
The teaching office sets the timetable around the competition date and school term, and teaching begins.
Step 5After-class reports
What was covered, and how the student handled it, reported after every lesson.
Step 6Homework follow-up
The teaching assistant and the form teacher both check that homework is done, which is where most preparation quietly fails.
Free resource pack
Past questions and writing pack
The same material our own Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition students work from. Scan the code, say what you need, and an advisor sends it.
Tell an advisor which competition and year group, and the material comes back the same day. Free, and you do not have to enrol in anything. If we do not already hold what you need, we will go and find it.
- PDFEvery past question the competition has set
- PDFShortlisted and published essays, to calibrate the standard
- PDFStructure, referencing and word-count guide
- PDFEntry checklist and the dates for the current cycle
Teaching team
Who would teach it.
Three of the twenty-two tutors on the published Hanlin roster - the ones whose subject this is.
Lu
Master's in education from the University of Pennsylvania and a double major in psychology and philosophy at Mount Holyoke. Cross-cultural teaching experience across China and the US, with research work in child and adolescent development, cognition, and international students' identity.
Yang
Educated at American Heritage School, then English literature and philosophy at the University of British Columbia and a master's in language education at Toronto. Eleven years in North America, with a close working knowledge of the international curricula and overseas admissions.
Zhang
Master's in cognitive science at UC San Diego on full scholarship, after double honours in neurobiology and behaviour and in cognitive science at UC Davis. Ten years overseas, a perfect TOEFL speaking score, and named an outstanding education scholar at UCSD.
Where it is taught
Hanlin learning centres.
Teaching runs from Hanlin's own centres in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou, and online for students elsewhere.
Talk to an advisor
Everything Hanlin does for Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, in one conversation.
Entry, planning, coaching and the past papers. An advisor will tell you which of these a student actually needs, including when the answer is none of them.
Competition entry and planning
Which competitions suit this student, in what order, and by when - then we handle the registration, including the ones that can only be entered through a school or a centre.
Competition coaching
Taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
International curriculum tutoring
IB, AP, A-Level, IGCSE and the US high school curriculum, taught alongside school and timed around the exam calendar.
Competition past papers, free
A large library of past papers, mark schemes and syllabus breakdowns across every competition on this site. No charge and no enrolment.
Scan to add an advisor
Say which competition or course you are asking about. Replies in Chinese or English.
Or call +86 21 6352 6630FAQ
The Faulkner-Wisdom competition, briefly answered.
What students and families ask before entering.
Can a school student enter?
Yes, from grade eleven upward. But the categories are book-length manuscripts and the competition is judged alongside adult work.
What are the categories and prizes?
Novel, $7,500. Narrative non-fiction - including non-fiction novels, history, memoir and biography - $2,000. Novella, $1,500.
What does it cost to enter?
$40 for a novella. $45 for a novel up to 125,000 words or non-fiction up to 75,000, rising with length to $200 for the longest manuscripts. Card payment carries a $5 handling fee per entry.
How do I submit?
The manuscript goes by email in Word, doc, docx or pdf, as two files - a contact page and the manuscript itself. The printed entry form and the fee are posted to the society in New Orleans.
How should the contact file be named?
With the author’s name and the word Contact - for example Jane_Doe_Contact_Info. Generic titles are not accepted.
Can I enter something I self-published?
Self-published and print-on-demand books count as published unless you can document fewer than 500 copies sold. If a self-published manuscript wins, that category’s prize is reduced by a third.
Does posting my work online affect eligibility?
Yes. Books, stories, essays and poems published in full on the internet are treated as published and are not eligible.
What about tracked changes?
Any manuscript carrying red or blue draft revision marks is automatically rejected. Clear them before submitting.
How do I pay from outside the United States?
Cash, a cashier’s cheque or American Express travellers cheques. Foreign money orders and cheques drawn on foreign banks are not accepted. Card payment is available with a handling fee.
Who runs it?
The Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, a non-profit literary and educational organisation in New Orleans, whose stated aim is finding new writers and helping them reach agents and publishers.
Related
Writing competitions built for school students.
What most school-age writers should look at first.
Faulkner-Wisdom enquiries
For the student who has actually written a book.
This is an adult literary competition with a door open from grade eleven, and it is the right destination for a small number of students. Tell us what the student has written and an advisor will say honestly whether this or a school competition fits it.