The Fitzgerald Museum’s sixth annual Literary Contest for high school and college students opens its submissions period on September 1, 2023. This year’s theme for the general contest, which accepts submissions from anywhere in the world, is “The Best Postman in the World.” This theme celebrates the centennial of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1923 stage play The Vegetable. Also, this is the fourth year for the Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald Young Writers Award, which is open to Alabama high school students. Submissions for this award are not governed by a theme, but should be comprised of a portfolio of writings.

The Fitzgerald Museum’s sixth annual Literary Contest:
The Best Postman in the World

F. Scott and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald were daring and revolutionary in their lives and in their art and writing. More than one hundred years after they met in Montgomery, Alabama, the Fitzgeralds’ literary and artistic works from the 1920s and 1930s are still regarded as groundbreaking, and The Fitzgerald Museum is seeking to identify and honor the daring and revolutionary young writers and artists of this generation.

Categories: Grades 9–10, Grades 11–12, Undergraduate

General Guidelines for 2023 – 2024:

Works should be submitted through the web form available on the Fitzgerald Museum’s website. Due to issues of compatibility, works should be submitted as PDF to ensure that they appear as the author intends. Files should be named with the author’s first initial [dot] last name [underscore] title. For example, J.Smith_InnovativeStory.pdf. Questions about the contest or the entry process may be sent to contest coordinator Foster Dickson at fitzgeraldliterarycontest@gmail.com, with “Literary Contest Question” in the subject line.

This year’s judges are Zestlan Simmons for the undergraduate category and Jim Hilgartner for the high school categories. Zestlan Simmons is an alumni of the Carver Creative and Performing Arts Center’s creative writing component and has been a high school English teacher for more than twenty years. She was the 2018 Alabama Teacher of the Year. Jim Hilgartner is a fiction writer and teacher who has published work in ACM: Another Chicago Magazine, Greensboro Review, Mid-American Review, New Orleans Review, Vermont Literary Review, Xavier Review, and elsewhere. He has also served as fiction editor at Black Warrior Review, THAT Literary Review, and (currently) Thirteen Bridges Review. Hilgartner retired as Professor of English at Huntingdon College in 2023.  

The Literary Contest’s annual themes honor and reflect upon the Fitzgeralds’ literary legacy. The inaugural contest had as its theme “What’s Old is New,” which encouraged students to look to tradition for inspiration. For the second year, the theme “Love + Marriage” celebrated the centennial of the couple’s courtship and marriage. In year three, “The Education of a Personage” centered on themes of growth and maturing aligned with the centennial of Scott’s debut novel This Side of Paradise. Year four harkened back to 1921’s The Beautiful and the Damned with the theme “The Radiant Hour.” Last year’s theme, “Unclassified Masterpieces,” honored the anniversary of the 1922 story collection Tales from the Jazz Age. While these themes do parallel the Fitzgerald’s literary and personal history, they are intended to guide students to consider and examine the present and the future as Scott and Zelda did in their day.

The fourth annual Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald Young Writers Award
(for high school students in Alabama only)

 Montgomery, Alabama native Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was daring and revolutionary in her life, art, and writing, and The Fitzgerald Museum’s Young Writers Award that bears her name seeks to identify and honor Alabama’s high school students who share her talent and spirit. Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame in spring 2020. This award, which was first given the following year, celebrates her life and legacy by recognizing the talents and abilities of young Alabama writers.

General Guidelines:

The Fitzgerald Museum’s fourth annual Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald Young Writers Award is accepting submissions of portfolios from young writers who are currently attending high school (grades 9 – 12) in Alabama. Portfolios should contain literary works (stories, poems, plays or film scripts, multi-genre works) totaling 5 to 15 pages with font sizes no smaller than 11 point. Writers are encouraged to include works that are innovative in style, content, form, and/or technique. Literary works may include artwork, illustrations, font variations, and other graphic elements, but these elements should enhance the work, not simply decorate the page.

The submissions period is open from September 1 until December 31, 2023. Each student may only enter once. 

Portfolios will be judged holistically, and only one award will be given each year. The recipient will be announced by March 15, 2024.

Portfolios should be submitted through the web form on the Fitzgerald Museum’s website. Due to issues of compatibility, works should be collected into one PDF named with the author’s first initial [dot] last name [underscore] ZeldaPortfolio (for example, J.Smith_ZeldaPortfolio.pdf). Questions about the award or the entry process may be sent to contest coordinator Foster Dickson at fitzgeraldliterarycontest@gmail.com, with “Zelda Fitzgerald Award Question” in the subject line.

This year’s judge for the award is Lenore Vickrey. Since 2012, Vickrey has been the editor of Alabama Living magazine, which is the largest circulation magazine in the state. She has been a journalist since high school and has more than forty-five years of experience as a newspaper reporter, editor, and corporate communicator.

The three previous winners of the Zelda Award are Colby Meeks from Lee High School in Huntsville, Kathleen Doyle from LAMP High School in Montgomery, and Skye Anderson from Lee High School in Huntsville.