2025 Essay Contest - Adult Category (Ages 18+)

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Essay Contest - Adult (Ages 18+) Category 

 

DEADLINE: January 14, 2025

 

Topic: Open 

 

Awards 

First place: $500, published in the July/August issue of Bethesda Magazine, and complimentary class and membership to The Writer's Center. 

Second place: $250 

Third place: $150 

Honorable Mention: $100 

 

All winning essays will be published on the Bethesda Urban Partnership and Bethesda Magazine websites and will be honored at a special event in downtown Bethesda during Bethesda's Local Writer's Showcase March 14, 2025. 

 

Requirements Essays must be limited to 500 words or less about a topic of the writer's choosing. Only one entry per person. Your essay must be your original work. Any essays containing material that is obscene or objectionable will be disqualified. Previously published essays are not eligible. 

 

Eligibility Residents of Washington, D.C. and the select counties of Maryland (Montgomery, Prince George's, Howard and Frederick) and Virginia (Arlington/Alexandria and Fairfax) are eligible. Current and former employees, contractors, directors, and officers of the Bethesda Urban Partnership (BUP) and their immediate family members are ineligible. Current students, relatives, or close personal friends of the judge(s) are also ineligible. Only one entry per person. 

 

Judges Jillian Danback McGhan, Vonetta Young, and Anna Lapera

 

Notification Winners will be contacted in February 2025. 

 

Copyright All entrants retain the copyright rights that they have in the essays they submit, but by participating in this contest and submitting essays, all entrants grant Bethesda Urban Partnership (BUP) the right, license, and ability to use and publish all submitted essays (in complete form or in excerpted form) on the BUP website, on other websites, and in other media.

 

 Questions? Please email essay@bethesda.org or call 301-215-6660, Ext. 117. 

 

For more information, please visit www.bethesda.org

 

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