Golden Nib Chapter Contest

The Golden Nib Chapter Contest is the first round in the Virginia Writers Club annual Golden Nib Writing Contest.  Entries are in three categories: fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and can be on any subject the author or poet chooses. Authors may only submit one entry per category.

An independent judge selects a winner in each category.  The three winning entries are advanced to the State-level competition. There are cash prizes for first- ($150), second- ($100), and third ($50) place finishers in each category at the State level.  All first-place chapter winning manuscripts submitted to the State finals will be published in the VWC Golden Nib and Teen Nib Journal. Second- and third-place chapter winners may request their manuscripts be included in the journal through their cover sheet.

Contest Rules

  1. Contestants must be members in good standing of the Northern Virginia Writers Club, as well as the Virginia Writers Club.
  2. Manuscripts must be the original, unpublished work of the entrant and must not have won a prize at any level in any other competition. Writing published in your personal blogs is permitted. Writing published in blogs other than your own or on social network sites or in an online publication is ineligible and should not be submitted.
  3. If the author’s name appears on any page of the manuscript other than the cover sheet, the entry will be disqualified.
  4. Entries written by AI are NOT PERMITTED. By submitting a manuscript, entrants are verifying they did not use AI to COMPOSE the entry – for example, you did not use ChatGPT to write the submission from a prompt.
  5. Fiction and non-fiction entries must not be longer than 3,500 words, including any notes, bibliographies, or other supporting text.
  6. Poetry entries must not be longer than 50 lines. Poetry with long lines may be reformatted to fit the journal 6 x 9 page size. Submitting poetry implies acceptance of possible reformatting to fit within the 6 x 9 page.
  7. Submissions not in accord with the formatting requirements and contest rules will be disqualified.
  8. Contest coordinator and judges are ineligible to enter the contest.
  9. The decisions of the contest coordinator and judges are final.

 

Deadline

Entries must be received by the chapter no later than July 15, 2025.  Chapter winners will be announced at the September meeting.  State winners are announced at the VWC annual meeting in November.

Submission Formatting

  • Entries will only be accepted via email to nvwc2016@northernvirginiawriters.org.
  • Manuscripts must be in Microsoft Word .doc or .docx, or .rtf format; no PDF or .txt files.
  • Manuscripts and cover sheets must be sent as individual attachments to the email.
  • If you submit to multiple categories (fiction, non-fiction, or poetry), submit a separate email for each category, with manuscript and cover sheet attached.

Cover Sheet Formatting

  • Use this fillable Golden Nib Cover Sheet. Fill it out completely—no blank lines
  • The cover sheet must be a separate file from the manuscript.
  • Save the cover sheet with the following file name format:
    • Fiction entry – F.Lastname.Firstname
    • Nonfiction entry – N.Lastname.Firstname
    • Poetry entry – P.Lastname.Firstname
  • Please note that a short (no more than 200 words) bio must be included on the cover sheet.

Manuscript Formatting

You MUST use this manuscript format. If it is not in this format, your entry will be returned; you may resubmit a corrected manuscript if there’s time. DO NOT USE YOUR NAME OR ANY IDENTIFYING INFORMATION ANYWHERE IN YOUR MANUSCRIPT. IT WILL BE RETURNED FOR CORRECTION

  • File name – DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME
    • Fiction entry – F.Title
    • Non-fiction entry – N.Title
    • Poetry entry – P.Title
  • File type – .doc, .docx or .rtf only. No PDF or .txt documents are allowed.
  • Header
    • Must be in the header space in the top margin, not as part of the text area
    • Header must include contest category, word or line count, and page number
    • DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME ANYWHERE IN THE MANUSCRIPT
    • There is no strict formula for placement within the header
  • Title
    • The title is the first line of the text
    • Centered across the page
    • Extra space between the title and the first line of the story/poem
  • Paragraph style, not block style
    • The first line of each paragraph is indented one tab space
    • There are no blank lines between paragraphs
  • Text formatting
    • Time New Roman font
    • 12-point size
    • 8 ½ x 11-inch page size
    • 1-inch margins all around
    • Fiction and non-fiction must be double-spaced with a justified right margin (the right margin is straight, not ragged
    • Poetry must be single-spaced

Manuscript Formatting Sample

Good luck!