2025-26 ARTISTS OF PROMISE
Creative Writing Competition: Call for Submissions
DEADLINE: DECEMBER 12, 2025, 11:59 pm
Each year, the Maricopa County Community Colleges District sponsors the Artists of Promise Creative Writing Competition - a district-wide competition to encourage and recognize student writers currently enrolled in any of the ten MCCCD colleges. We are proud to announce the opening of the 2025-26 competition to all MCCCD students in the categories of poetry, fiction, essay, and one-act plays/scripts. All interested MCCCD student writers are encouraged to submit their best creative works.
Entries from each of the four categories will be blind reviewed by a panel of experts in the corresponding discipline. Final placement will be determined by practicing writers from outside MCCCD. Students who place in each of the categories will win renumeration as follows:
• First Place - $500
• Second Place - $200
• Third Place - $100
Additionally, first-place finishers in each category will have their submissions entered into the national Artists of Promise Competition, sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College, to receive consideration alongside the best student writing from across the country.
Eligibility
• This competition is exclusively for MCCCD students; all MCCCD faculty are ineligible.
• A contestant must be a for-credit student at one of the MCCCD colleges during the Fall '25 semester.
• Students who have previously won first place in a category are not eligible to participate again in that category.
• Entries must be submitted no later than 11:59 pm, Friday, December 12, 2025.
• Only one entry per category may be submitted by an individual.
• Entries can be previously published as long as the publication was part of a specific MCCCD school. Submissions that have been previously published with national magazines, journals, etc. are ineligible.
• Entries must be email attachments submitted to creative writing competition coordinator Jeremy Broyles at the following address: [email protected].
A confirmation email response will be sent to verify the submission has been received successfully. Please note that the document must be word-processed in 8-1/2" x 11” formatting and use 12-point type (unless the work in question requires alterations for specific creative effect)
Maximum Submission Lengths
• Poetry - 67 lines
• Fiction - 3,000 words
• Essay - 2,000 words
• One-Act Play/Script - 3,000 words including stage direction and production notes.
The upper right corner of each page of the entry must include the title of the submission and page number. The student writer's name, however, should not be included anywhere within the submission. Your name appearing anywhere on your creative writing entry will result in disqualification. All questions/concerns regarding formatting requirements can be directed to Jeremy Broyles at [email protected]
Details
WINNING ENTRIES Winning entries will be notified by March 6, 2026. All winning entries will be required to complete additional documents including a district purchasing portal, W9 form, and talent release form, which will be provided by the MCLI.
All documents will be required before receipt of award funding.
COMPETITION CONTACT All questions/concerns from students and faculty alike can be directed to Jeremy Broyles, Mesa Community College faculty and Artists of Promise creative writing competition coordinator. He can be reached at [email protected].
All submissions, as email attachments, are to be sent to the same coordinator and email address as listed immediately above.
ABOUT ARTISTS OF PROMISE Each year, the Maricopa County Community Colleges District sponsors the Artists of Promise Creative Writing Competition—a district-wide competition to encourage and recognize student writers currently enrolled in any of the ten MCCCD colleges. We are proud to announce the opening of the 2025-26 competition to all MCCCD students
You have to be immensely daring, very skilled and imaginative, and willing to tell everything on yourself. You’re told time and again when you’re young to write about what you know, and what do you know better than your own secrets? – Raymond Carver