Enter the Thompson Awards for Western American Writing contest for a chance to win $500

The Center of the American West is now accepting entries for the 18th annual Thompson Awards for Western American Writing. Regardless of whether you call the West your home or are just passing through, as a CU Boulder student you live, breathe, eat, drink and sleep the West. As a result, you have a unique perspective on the West.

Here is a rare opportunity to transform that perspective into cash. All you need to do is put it to paper. And you can do so in whatever genre that suits your creative impulse: poetry, fiction, memoir or non-fiction. You don’t even have to create something new! Search your hard drive for stories, poems, papers, anything you’ve written for classes that deals with the West. There’s no entry fee, and hence, nothing to lose.

So go ahead, enter different pieces in different categories. You may submit up to five entries (one entry per category) and so could conceivably win first prize in each! Seven $500 prizes will be awarded to CU Boulder students in spring 2017 for writings on Western American topics.

For official contest rules visit www.centerwest.org.