Essay Competition Rules and Information
Deadline: March 31, 2020 (11.59pm CDT)
Divisions
- Adult division (age 30 and younger)
- Senior division (grade 12 and younger)
- Junior division (grade 8 and younger)
Guidelines
Eligibility
- One entry per category per contestant is permitted. (Contestants are permitted one essay entry and one sijo entry.)
- For students participating in both essay and sijo divisions: Unlike the sijo adult division, essay divisions do not have a lower age limit. If a pre-college student would like to compete in the adult essay division and pre-college sijo division, s/he must create two separate application accounts.
Entries
- Essays must not exceed 1,000 words in length.
- Junior division students should refer to the provided list of folktales when selecting a topic for their essays. Please choose only one topic and folktale to write about. Please be sure to choose from the current year's eligible folktales and not from the general folk tale list in our resources section.
- All entries must be written in English. If Korean or another language is included, the entry will be judged on its English content alone.
- Contestants' names cannot be written in their entries.
- Entries must be submitted through our website. Entries submitted via email will not be accepted.
Results
- We reserve the right to use all submitted pieces in future publications of the Sejong Cultural Society.
- The judges may choose to decline to award a prize.
- Winners are usually announced by mid-May. This estimate is subject to change depending on the number of total entries received; a more accurate estimate will be posted on our website soon after the competition deadline.
Prizes
- Adult division: First ($1,000), Second ($750), Third ($500)
- Senior division: First ($500), Second ($400), Third ($300)
- Junior division: First ($300), Second ($200), Third ($100)
- Honorable mention (for all divisions listed above): Friends of Pacific Rim Awards ($50 each)
- Competition winners will be announced in AZALEA: Journal of Korean Literature and Culture, published by the Korea Institute at Harvard University.
- Winners' works may be published in the Korea Times Chicago or the Korean Quarterly.