2025 Theme: Technological Conflict
Deadline for submissions: November 11, 2025
The University Libraries and Writing Center have collaborated to offer a biannual student writing contest. Designed to celebrate creativity, storytelling, and student voice, the contest invites submissions of original work from University of the Pacific students across all disciplines.
The top three submissions will be selected by a panel of student judges for their “originality,” “literary merit,” and “impact.” These winning stories will be proudly featured in the university’s institutional repository, Scholarly Commons, ensuring their preservation and accessibility to a global audience. In addition, the stories will be displayed on the Library’s Short Story Dispenser, located on the first floor of the William Knox Holt Memorial Library and Learning Center at the Stockton campus.
- The grand winner will be awarded $500 to their student account,
- The 2nd runner-up will receive $250 to their student account, and
- The 3rd runner-up will receive a gift basket valued at $50.
Fall 2025 Short Story Guidelines:
- Be original and written by the student
- Adhere to the theme
- Do not exceed 1,000 words
- Stories with explicit sexual content will not be considered
Judging criteria include adherence to the theme, reader engagement, originality, and writing clarity.
