Open to all undergraduates at MU, regardless of major, this award recognizes the most promising creative nonfiction writing. A first and second place prize will be awarded.

Please see Scholarship Universe for detailed award information, including the deadline. 

Open to all undergraduates at MU, regardless of major, this award recognizes the most promising poetry writing. A first and second place prize will be awarded.

Please see Scholarship Universe for detailed award information, including the deadline. 

This award was established in 1961 by Sybil Pommer of Columbia, Missouri. Open to first-year students at MU of any major.

Please see Scholarship Universe for detailed award information, including the deadline. 

Open to all undergraduates at MU, regardless of major, this award recognizes the most promising fiction writing. A first and second place prize will be awarded.

Please see Scholarship Universe for detailed award information, including the deadline. 

Open to current graduate students in English at MU, this award recognizes excellence in poetry writing. A first and second place prize will be awarded.

Please see Scholarship Universe for detailed award information, including the deadline. 

Open to current graduate students in English at MU, this award recognizes excellence in fiction writing. A first and second place prize will be awarded.

Please see Scholarship Universe for detailed award information, including the deadline. 

Open to current graduate students in English at MU, this award recognizes excellence in creative nonfiction writing. A first and second place prize will be awarded.

Please see Scholarship Universe for detailed award information, including the deadline. 

ABOUT THE COMPETITION

LITERATURE EMITTING DIODES presents poetry and prose by talented writers in public venues on a scrolling LED display. LITERATURE EMITTING DIODES began as a monthly publication in Chicago in 2015, and in recent years, has partnered with the Undergraduate Juried Showcase and the George Caleb Bingham Gallery in the School of Visual Studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia to found an Undergraduate Juried Writing Competition. 

Now an annual writing competition sponsored by the MU Creative Writing Program, the competition solicits unpublished writing of up to 500 words from MU undergraduate students of any major. One work will be chosen for display on a scrolling LED sign outside the George Caleb Bingham Gallery on the MU Campus. The winning writer will also receive a publishing award from THERETHERENOW, a Columbia-based curatorial and publishing project founded and run by Travis Shaffer, an Assistant Professor in MU's School of Visual Studies, to produce a limited-edition print publication.

LITERATURE EMITTING DIODES is a project of PARTIAL PRESS, a small press based in Columbia, Missouri, established and run by Carley Gomez and Levi Sherman. The MU Creative Writing Program is grateful to Carley and Levi of PARTIAL PRESS for founding the LED Undergraduate Writing Competition, and is excited to begin hosting the annual competition in 2020.

For more information about PARTIAL PRESS, THERETHERENOW, and the George Caleb Bingham Gallery, please visit the following websites:

https://partialpress.net/

http://www.theretherenow.com/theretherenow

https://visualstudies.missouri.edu/gallery/bingham

COMPETITION RULES

No more than three unpublished poetry and/or prose submissions per student; each submission cannot exceed 500 words. Authors must be undergraduate students at the University of Missouri. Formatting will not be retained by the LED display. All standard English letters, numerals, and punctuation will display. Submissions will be reviewed by jurors from the MU English Graduate Student Association.

In addition to display at the George Caleb Bingham Gallery, the winner will receive a broadside publication award from THERETHERENOW, a Columbia-based curatorial and publishing project. THERETHERENOW will create a limited-edition print publication and launch it with a reading event at the beginning of the semester following the competition, usually in the early spring. 150 copies will be split evenly among the MU Creative Writing Program, THERETHERENOW, and the winning writer. Three runners-up will also be invited to read their selected submission at the reading.

• 1 winner, 3 runners-up
• Deadline: November 6th

The Academy of American Poets sponsors a prize for the best poem by a student currently enrolled at MU. Please email Gabriel Fried (friedg@missouri.edu), Director of Creative Writing, for more information. 

Any currently enrolled student may apply, though preference is given to graduate students. In order to be eligible for the award, you must demonstrate that you have applied to a summer workshop or residency. You are not required to attend that summer workshop or residency; you must only demonstrate that you have applied and give your reasons for applying.

Please see Scholarship Universe for detailed award information, including the deadline. 

Recognition for excellence in teaching, awarded to a graduate student instructor of creative writing at the University of Missouri each year.

Please see Scholarship Universe for detailed award information, including the deadline.