Iron Pen 2025 – Awards Reading Sat. 3/22, 12:30 at the Downtown Rock Island Public Library

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Iron Pen 2025: Rules, Info, Prompt Announcement 

Hello Iron Pen 2025 Contestants,

Thank you all very much for participating in the fastest writing contest in the Midwest! We appreciate your writing courage & quick imagination, and we look forward to seeing all of your terrific submissions.

Before we get to the prompt (which will also be available via phone on the MWC’s outgoing voice message at 309-732-7330, via the home page and the Iron Pen page on the MWC website, and on our Facebook page), a few guidelines and other important bits of information:

  1. Submissions must be received by Saturday, March 1 at 5:00 p.m. CST (tomorrow!). Any submissions received after 5:00 p.m. CST will not be sent to the judges.
  2. Submissions must be emailed to midwestwritingcenter@gmail.com — you can just send them as a reply to this email, if you like. Please do not mail or drop off your submissions. If you have any questions about submitting your work, please contact us. 
  3. If you have not yet indicated which category you will be competing in, or if you would like to change categories, that’s no problem — please indicate which category you are submitting for when you email/return your submission. If you decide you want to compete in more than one category, that is fine, but you will need to pay an additional $10 for each category you will be competing in (this can be done via the Iron Pen page on our website).
  4. Email submissions should be sent as MS Word attachments (.doc, .docx, .rtf—no .pdf please), as a Google Doc, or pasted into the body of the email (attachments are strongly preferred, in order to preserve the formatting of your work). MS Word docs should have standard formatting: 12 pt font, Times New Roman, 1” margins. Submissions that do not follow the file type and/or formatting guidelines will not be sent to the judges.
  5. Please include “IRON PEN SUBMISSION” in the subject line of your email (or, again, just send as a reply to this email to keep it simple).
  6. Limit of one poem, one story, or one nonfiction piece per entry (but you are welcome to submit multiple times in a single category with a paid registration for each entry, and, of course you are welcome write as many as you can / want / need—just submit your best one!).
  7. Fiction and nonfiction pieces must be 2,000 words or less; there is no word limit for poems.
  8. Submissions will be read anonymously by the readers/judges.
  9. Winners will be announced the evening of Friday, March 14 via email, on the MWC home page, and on MWC’s Facebook page.
  10. The awards ceremony and reading is Saturday, March 22, 12:30 p.m. CST at the Rock Island Public Library in the 2nd Floor Community Room. The event will also be livestreamed via Facebook Live and the MWC YouTube page. The winners in each category receive $50 and a medal, and 2nd and 3rd place in each category receive certificates; all place-winners and honorable mentions will receive a MWC Press book as well. Winners will be featured readers at the awards ceremony, but we welcome anyone who participated in this year’s contest to attend and share their work—we will include as many readers as time allows. Please let us know if you plan on attending and reading — we will do our best to have as many readers as possible during the event.
  11. Please remember that everyone that participates in this year’s Iron Pen Contest will have a chance at winning a full registration with value of approx. $400 for the David R. Collins Writers’ Conference, June 26-28, 2025. There will be a drawing at the awards ceremony on Saturday 3/22 to determine the winner. You do not have to present to win, but it would terrific if you are! Winner will be contacted after the awards ceremony. Each $10 entry fee puts your name in once, so, for example, if you paid $20, you name will be entered twice. You will be entering into the drawing whether or not you submit any writing; each paid registration of $10 enters you in the drawing one time.
  12. A Note on the Prompt: For Iron Pen 2025, the prompt can be used as the title of your piece, as an epigraph, as the first line, somewhere in the text of the piece, as a premise for your piece, an inspiration, etc. The prompt does not have to appear explicitly in the text of your submission, but its influence / inspiration / point-of-view / other use or reference must be clear in your submission. Your submission will be judged on artistic merit (60%), the adherence to/use of the prompt (30%), and technical execution, such as grammar, syntax, clarity (10%).

Now that we have all of that established, I get to play Chairman (like in Iron Chef’s Kitchen Stadium) and reveal the secret ingredient (THE PROMPT!):

(Drum roll please…)  The prompt for the 2025 Iron Pen contest is:

The world is held together, really it is held together, by the love and passion of very few people.

Go words!

Please let me know if you have any questions—we will be in the office today 2/28 until 5:30 p.m. CST, and tomorrow I will be working from home until the contest closes at 5:00 p.m. CST. We will be online starting at 11:00 a.m. CST tomorrow, Sat. 3/1. We are also hosting a fiction workshop series that starts tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. CST – if you live in the QC area and are interested in attending, please contact me ASAP—we have a limited number of spots remaining.

Thanks again for being a part of Iron Pen 2025. Have fun & best of luck!

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Registration for Iron Pen 2025 is Open!

The fastest writing contest in the Midwest is back and taking registrations now!

The Midwest Writing Center is taking registrations for its 17th annual Iron Pen Contest. MWC will supply a prompt to all contestants at 5 p.m. on Friday, February 28 and contestants have 24 hours (entries are due Saturday, March 1 by 5 p.m.) to write and submit their best fiction, non-fiction, and/or poetry pieces. Writers are welcome to enter into as many categories as they like with a paid registration for each entry.

The cost to enter Iron Pen is $10 per entry, per category. Anyone can enter! Contestants do not need to be from or reside in the Quad City area. Contestant entries will be judged blind in genre categories—Poetry, Fiction and Non-Fiction (please note there is a 2,000 word limit for fiction and nonfiction entries). The Iron Pen contest is open to all ages.

Registration forms can be found via the link below or at the Midwest Writing Center, c/o RIPL, 401 19th St., Rock Island, IL 61201.

Iron Pen 2025 Registration Form (jpeg)
Iron Pen 2025 Registration Form (pdf)

**Each paid registration for the 2025 Iron Pen Contest will have a chance to win a full registration to the David R. Collins Writing Conference on June 26-28, 2025, valued at $400**

The winners in each Iron Pen category will receive $50 and a medal, and the 2nd and 3rd place winners will also receive prizes. Winners and honorable mentions in each category will also have the opportunity to publisher their work with MWC Press.

Contest Timeline:

On Friday, February 28 at 5 p.m. contestants will receive an email from the MWC that includes: a topic, an opening line, or a specific character. The prompt will also be announced on our Facebook page, our website www.mwcqc.org and on the MWC voicemail message.

On Saturday, March 1, contestants must email their work to the Midwest Writing Center no later than 5 p.m. – please do not send entries via mail.

The winners of this 24-hours contest will be announced by email on Friday, March 14. Awards will be given out on Saturday, March 22 at 12:30 p.m. at the Midwest Writing Center, where the winners in each category will receive medals, and the winners and finalists will be invited to read their work.

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