Student writers and poets once more have a chance to earn recognition for their work this year. On April 23rd, Calliope, Palo Alto High School’s extracurricular literary magazine and creative writing club, will end its annual short story and poetry contest.

Writers can submit as many poems and short stories as they wish, and they are free to write on any subject they choose. According to Kevin Sharp, Calliope’s teacher advisor, there are no ‘rules’ to the contest, including no length or entry limit.

A panel of anonymous local writers will be judging the contest, which is broken into two categories and two divisions each. There are two categories: one for short stories, and one for poetry. One of the divisions is for freshmen and sophomores, and the other is for juniors and seniors.

After the contest ends, there will be an awards ceremony in early June for the contest winners, and prize money will be awarded; $50, $35, and $20 for first, second, and third places winners respectively in both categories.

If a student’s story or poem is chosen, the award will appear on his or her Paly transcript. In addition, Sharp said, “A lot of teachers offer extra credit.”

Extra credit is not the only motivation for some students, such as sophomore Jujhaar Singh, who said, “I like writing short stories, and I want to see how my stories compare with other people’s.”

This contest has always been a success, “There was never a situation where someone told me we had to pull the contest because there were too few entries,” Sharp said.

“About 85% of the freshman English classes also have short story units, and we encourage submissions from those,” Trinity Klein, head of the English department, said about student participation in the contest. Klein also said, “Creative writing is one of those things, it isn’t sexy, and sometimes it doesn’t get the press it deserves [particularly within the English department].”

The contest, which is open to any and all students, is awaiting submissions, to be sent to [email protected].

Reporter Parth Relan contributed to this article.