On November 13, the Libraries held an event in Hodges Library to celebrate National Novel Writing Month. Students who stopped by were aided in their writing endeavors by the Herbert Writing Center and were given writing “care packages.”

The highlight of the event was a short story contest. Students who participated could choose from 4 writing prompts and were given around 6 hours to complete a short story, which was then entered for a prize. Read the entries, below. (As you will see, the favored prompt was: “It’s your first night at the haunted house and your door shuts and locks itself. There’s a ghost in the room with you, and it’s trying to keep something else out.”)

The stories we received were all amazing, but the judges could pick only one 1^st-place, 2^nd-place, or 3^rd-place winner. Congratulations to:

1^st place: Catherine Martella for “Living Legends”
2^nd place: Daniel Dassow for “Him”
3^rd place: Gabriella Atkinson for Untitled

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is an international event which occurs each November. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days with the goal of finishing the rough draft of a novel. The initiative promotes writing fluency and education throughout the month.