University undergraduate students are being given the opportunity to use their creativity and writing to win $100 by entering a contest sponsored by the English department.
Emilie Staat, editor of Delta Undergraduate Journal and English senior, said only undergraduate students can be published in the journal.
“It is a great opportunity for students who want to be writers to get published,” Staat said.
Bea Gyimah, a Delta staff member and English junior, said the journal is an excellent opportunity for artistic expression and creation.
“Because it’s one thing to have a poem or essay inside your head, but it is a totally different thing to be able to get the exposure or your work in print,” she said. “That way, it can be incorporated into other peoples mind and lives.”
Gyimah also said the journal is a good avenue for students who want to get published.
“You are able on a smaller scale to get people to critique your work,” she said. “You are allowing people to read, evaluate and dissect your work.”
Staat said Delta Undergraduate journal was originally started in 1947, but it was not devoted to undergraduate students.
Prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La., used to submit poetry and others forms of written work, she said. Few of the submissions were printed.
Staat said interest in the journal dwindled around 1983 causing the publications to stop printing for 10 years.
Delta, which was formally known as Manchac, publishes the prose, poetry, art, fiction and nonfiction of undergraduate students.
Delta Undergraduate Journal now hosts two contests, one for poetry and one for prose, each offering $100 awards.
The contest started last year as a way to renew interest in the journal, Staat said.
According to an e-mail sent by Staat, there are no restrictions on content or length of the entries.
However, the limited amount of publication space may limit the number of lengthy submissions, the e-mail said.
The deadline for the poetry and prose contest is Nov. 26. The final deadline for all other entries is Dec. 5.
Undergraduate students can submit an unlimited number of entries, and are not required to pay an entry fee.
Winning entries should have originality, Staat said. The author should know all the rules, but be willing to break them.
She also said the Delta staff are searching for works of art and writing that will hold their interest.
“The second time we read it, we want to be blown away,” Staat said.
She said even though the staff receives numerous poetry entries, they also would like to receive short screenplays.
“We get a lot of poetry, which is why we let people know we want creative nonfiction,” she said.
Even though the contest was started to renew interest in the journal, some University students say the contest and money do not spark their interest.
Sherrie Carroll, a business management junior, said she would not enter the contest, because she did not have time to write.
Stephan Eckerle, an English senior, agreed with Carroll. “I don’t feel like writing more than I have to now,” he said.
Both students said the money does not appeal to them.
Unlike Carroll and Eckerle, Derek Roy, an electrical engineering junior, said the contest appeals to him because he is a creative person, and the money would help him a lot.
Yolanda Collins, a liberal arts graduate student, said she would enter the contest for the money.
The e-mail also said the Delta staff is working to publish a retrospective issue.
Staat said the purpose of the retrospective issue is to unite the Delta writings of the past with the Delta writings of the present.
“We have a long history of really great stuff by really great people who have done really great things,” She said.