The 2024 contest is now closed. Winners will be notified in early April. We hope all entrants will join us for our annual reading series and award ceremony event on April 19th, featuring Tracy. K Smith.
- Students must be currently enrolled at the time of submission.
- Students can submit up to two separate entries in any single category: Poetry, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction/Drama, Academic Essay, Language & Empowerment, and Electronic Mixed Media Using Language. Students, however, are limited to one award in each category.
- Do not submit the same work in more than one genre category. For example, a prose poem may be submitted in either the Short Fiction or the Poetry categories, but not both. Submitting the same work in two genre categories will disqualify both entries.
- Each separate entry in any single category must consist of one work, except in poetry. A single poetry entry may consist of one to eight poems.
- All entries must be original work and not have been previously published (personal website okay). Material that has previously received a McKinney Award may not be resubmitted.
- We are not accepting hard copy (paper) submissions.
- Electronic Mixed Media and other video submissions require a URL for submission.
- Fill out only ONE Google form per submission category and attach up to two individual entries or include two URLS with that single form. If attaching two textual works, include a number in each filename (1 & 2) in addition to your name and the genre.
- All copyrights are retained by the student and no publication is associated with this prize.
- Rarely, the McKinney Committee and Judges may make a merit-based choice not to award all or any prizes in a given category. Therefore, please submit your best, polished work.
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All submissions must be made digitally and submitted as .docx or .pdf files
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All manuscripts must be typed, include page numbers, and be formatted in 12-point Helvetica, Arial, or Times New Roman fonts.
- Each separate text entry should be limited to 15 double-spaced pages with the exception of academic essays.
- Academic essays for undergraduates are limited to 20 pages and for graduate students, 25 pages, not including source citations.
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All prose submissions should be double-spaced. Academic essays should include a Works Cited, Bibliography, or References page.
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Poems do not need to be double-spaced. Groups of poems should be combined into one .docx or .pdf document with each titled poem beginning on a new page.
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For a poetry entry consisting of more than one poem, either use one of the poem titles as an entry title, or compose a manuscript title for the collected poems submitted.
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The first page of your entry should contain the title of your work and the contest category to which you're submitting but not your name.
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Your name should not appear on the submission document. Instead, format your filename as follows: Genre_Last Name or GRAD_Genre_ Last Name.
Electronic Mixed Media Using Language
- Formats: pdf, jpeg, gif, mov, avi, mp4, or html
- Video length: 10 minutes maximum.
- Submissions should be made via web link to the entry in one of the file formats listed above.
- For videos or other web entries, the link should be an Internet URL, such as Vimeo or YouTube.
- Judges must be able to access entries simply by clicking on the link (e.g. no passwords or account sign-ups).
- On either the first screen of your entry submission, filename, or media description include your title, category, and last name.
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The level of challenge undertaken in creating and integrating language into a mixed media work (Words must be concretely present in the work. They cannot serve only as the inspiration.)
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The work's overall clarity in oral/visual communication (Optional: An intent statement is a helpful accompaniment to your submission, as it clarifies your goals and offers additional work with language: 500 words maximum, double-spaced.)
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The technical execution of the work (Can it be opened? Does it "work?")
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Craft (Is it aesthetically pleasing?)
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Originality (Is it creative?)
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Coherence/Unity/Harmony (Does it hang together as a whole? Does the visual work effectively with the oral or written language?)
Scroll Down to Learn More About Our Themed Mixed Genre Category: Language and Empowerment
Questions? Contact McKinney@rpi.edu
Multi-Genre Category: Language and Empowerment
Word-work is sublime … because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference – the way in which we are like no other life. We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” ~ Toni Morrison
The first thing about empowerment is to understand that you have the right to be involved. The second one is that you have something important to contribute. And the third piece is that you have to take the risk to contribute it.” ~ Mae Jemison
“Language and Empowerment” reflects the Department of Communication and Media’s emphasis on language as a primary vehicle for the work of democracy, social justice, and equity. The contest judges are looking for creative work that enacts the personal as political, that is rebellious at heart, and that seeks to interrogate injustice and inequity while celebrating diversity and resilience. While the McKinney writing contest has always recognized diverse writing, this special multi-genre contest seeks explicitly to highlight emerging writers who are working creatively, perhaps in more than one language, with words they deem urgent and essential to the discourse of diversity, equity, and inclusion, including but not limited to:
- stories told from historically underrepresented perspectives
- creative writing about learning, living, and engaging with diversity, defined as differences among people with respect to age, class, ethnicity, gender, physical and mental ability, race, sexual orientation, nationality, spiritual/religious practice, and other human differences.
- creative writing reflecting on our global and multicultural society and/or about free, open, and respectful exchange of ideas, including challenges within these spaces and communications.
- creative writing that explores an awareness of broader societal issues related to equity and inclusion, including language and applied linguistics.
Undergraduate students currently enrolled at Rensselaer. At this time, there is no graduate division for this category.
Autofiction/Autobiographical Drama: fiction, including graphic fiction, or drama that is heavily influenced by life experiences of the author. For the purposes of this contest, autofiction/drama means that those aspects of the work related to issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and identity should be derived from the author’s own experience, though the author need not appear explicitly as a character in the work. Other aspects of the text, including the world, may be fictionalized.
Novel excerpts, short stories, flash fiction, and graphic fiction are all welcome in this category (novel excerpts must be legible as stand-alone pieces).
Poetry: poetry, including prose poetry, concrete poetry, free verse, and all formal poetic modes are acceptable. The definition of confessional poetry, however, provides a good sense for the spirit of this contest: transgressive works focused on the self and dealing with topics that society has historically “swept under the rug.”
Creative Nonfiction: prose material that is verifiably based in truth of personal experience. Short memoir, flash nonfiction, personal essay, and excerpts from longer memoirs are acceptable (memoir excerpts must be legible as stand-alone pieces). While personal essays may contain academic material, academic essays are not being accepted for the Language and Empowerment contest at this time.
Spoken Word: Spoken word performances may be submitted via video in the following genres: poetry, prose-poetry, short story, dramatic monologue. Submit open access video URLs as opposed to video file. Also supply a Word or PDF file containing a transcript of the spoken word piece. Videos should be shot with a simple background, clear sound quality, and no special effects.
The Language and Empowerment contest will be judged by professional writers with the life experience to understand the power of language and creativity in social justice work, including those who identify within historically marginalized positions based on gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, and/or sexual orientation, and/or those who are active in social justice research or movements.
The spirit of the Language and Empowerment contest is to inspire you to write new work related to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. New work composed for this contest is encouraged. See general contest guidelines for written work. Entries must adhere to the theme of language and empowerment, broadly conceived, to be considered. All submissions must be based on the writers' own experience with issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.