The Joy of the Pen reception has been postponed to January 16th (with a snow date of January 25th) to give our judges more time due to recent events. Thank you for your understanding.

If you’re a kid/teen who usually enters our Joy of the Pen competition, here is another opportunity that replaces it!

Joy of the Pen will be opening for submissions this Saturday! This year, we’re open in the following categories for Maine residents who are 17+: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Fiction and Short Plays. Please click on the submissions tab above for more details instructions. Thanks, as ever, to our sponsors: The Cryer, the Friends of the Topsham Public Library, and The Crowbait Club.

We’re please to announce this year’s winners! We hope you’ll join us to celebrate them at a reception on November 29 at 6pm. Their winning works will be uploaded onto this website soon, and we will also reveal who our judges were this year.

The Verdi L. Tripp Fiction Award: Jim Mentink for “The Seminar”
Fiction Honorable Mention: Lorelei Greenwood-Jones for “Candy House”
Margaret F. Tripp Poetry Award: David Sloan for “Solo”
Poetry Honorable Mention: Cynthia Larson for “Perhaps to Dream”
Richard F. Snow Nonfiction Award: Nancy Browne for “Ricky Rivers”
Nonfiction Honorable Mention: John Reinhart for “Traveling by Platypus”
The Crowbait Short Play Award: Greg Simpson for “3 Hail Mary’s”
Short Play Honorable Mention: Fred Cheney for “Danced to the Fiddle”
TPL Teen Fiction Award: Charlotte Schatz for “To Lend a Hand”
TPL Kids Poetry Award: Luisa Feliciano for “Crow”

We have confirmed all of our submissions so far. If you haven’t got an email from us, please resend your submission. The deadline is tomorrow, but if you get it in before Monday morning, you’ll still be included in the competition!

Joy of the Pen is opening for submissions very soon—next week in fact! Check out the Application tab at the top of the page to remind yourself about the guidelines!

Here’s our new logo to match the Joy of Art and Joy of the Lens logos. Thank you to Monique for the design!

Hi everyone,

Hope you’re busy writing and getting ready for when we open submissions in September! We thought we’d keep you updated on some Joy of the Pen news.

This year, the Maine-related Nonfiction category will be retired. We’re extremely thankful to Nancy Randolph and Just Write Books for supporting us over the years and we wish them the best of luck in all future projects. Nonfiction writers need not panic, the general nonfiction award, the Richard F. Snow Award, will still open for submissions.

We are also announcing this year a new award! The Crowbait Award will be looking for 10-minute plays, and is sponsored by The Crowbait Club! We’re excited to see what this new chapter brings, and we’re so happy to welcome The Crowbait Club aboard!

A quick reminder that this year’s Joy of the Pen deadline is coming up! Get your submissions in before 4pm on Saturday, October 2!

Joy of the Pen is open for submissions! Click the application link to get started! Help us spread the word by sharing our poster/image!