Young Appalachian Writers Program

Young Appalachian Writers Program (YAWP) 2025 Prompt

 

Purpose: 

As part of Frostburg State University’s mission of serving the region, this program is designed to increase interest in English, and writing specifically, who may not be aware of the long-term career opportunities in writing, while also promoting the regional identity (Appalachia) that is essential to the region.

  • Students at one of the local two-year programs interested in potentially transferring to Frostburg State University (FSU) are eligible, including Allegany College of Maryland, Garrett Community College, Potomac State College, and beyond.
  • Students may submit in one of three subject categories (professional writing, creative writing, or literary analysis) using this year’s prompt for guidance: prompt. Each award winner is eligible for $100.
  • Electronic submissions only (either .doc or .pdf files are acceptable) sent to YAWP@frostburg.edu. Please no AI generated submissions.
  • The deadline for all submissions: May 30th, 2025 (late submissions will not be accepted).

Context:

“Storytelling in Appalachian culture - it runs deep. You have these communities and families that, for a long time, were isolated, and if you did have time off after working to keep everything going, you'd sit around and just yak, just talk and tell tall tales and flat-out lies and try to one-up the guy who just told a story.” - Tyler Childers (2017)

Country artist and Appalachian native Tyler Childers underscores the importance of storytelling and community in his 2017 interview with the magazine Fader. Describing his music as love songs for a place, Childers identifies in the above quotation what distinguishes Appalachia, especially the central Appalachia region, from other parts of the country: sharing stories. These shared stories are the connective tissue of the region, what gives the area its unique identity.

Writing Directions:

Choose one of the following subject categories to write briefly about how shared stories, or storytelling itself, has affected your life.

  1. Professional Writing: Report on a storyteller from your Appalachian community whose commitment to the sharing of stories has influenced your life directly or indirectly or a place that has inspired other storytellers.
  2. Creative Writing: In a short story or poem, reflect on or demonstrate how storytelling impacts the identity of Appalachia and its people. 
  3. Literary Analysis: Write an analysis of a work by an Appalachian storyteller, which may include an analysis of a short story, novel, film or even the lyrics to a song about Appalachian community and life.

Submissions should be no more than 2000 words. Submissions can also be in either .doc or .pdf files, and they should be sent to the following email address: YAWP@frostburg.edu.

Programs Offered:

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