The Suzanne Cutler Creative Writing Contest is an annual creative writing contest offered to teenagers who live in Bernards Township, NJ.
The SCCWC was made possible by the generous donations from the Friends of the Bernards Township Library in addition to donations made by friends and family in memory of Suzanne “Suzy” Cutler, who loved literature and teaching.
2026 Rules:
The 2026 Suzanne Cutler Writing Contest will be held from June 8th to August 3rd. All participants and their families are invited to attend a celebration, where prizes will be awarded, at the end of August.
- All participants must be between the ages of 12-18 by August 31st of that competition year to qualify within their age bracket.
- Age brackets are 12-14; 15-18.
- There are two distinct entry categories: short story and poetry. Participants may submit one entry per category (for a total of two entries).
- Short stories should be no less than 500 words and no greater than 1500 words.
- Poetry should be no more than 300 words.
- All work must be the original work of the participant.
- Please name your submission: “FirstName_LastName_Category”. It can be submitted as a doc or docx file.
For a full list of the rules and submission guidelines, please click here. All rules must be followed for your submission to qualify.
Prizes:
First place in each category for each age range will receive a $100 Amazon gift card and a copy of the finished anthology.
Second place in each category for each age range will receive a $50 Amazon gift card and a copy of the finished anthology.
SUBMISSIONS WILL CLOSE AUGUST 3RD AT 11:59PM. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR WORK VIA GOOGLE FORMS
Participants who cannot access the Google form can submit their work directly to the Teen Librarian. Please email mcrouch@bernardslibrary.org with the subject line “SCWC 2026 Submission” and include your name, age, and the title of the work.
