“Pick up your pens!”
Those four words can haunt nightmares of students everywhere, but organizers of Moraine Valley’s literary competition hope they will become a call to action.
The MV Literary Competition is a gateway to compete at the Skyway conference level and even the international level. Students may enter in one or more of these categories: poetry, fiction, personal essay or drama/screenplay. Entries are due by Oct. 10.
Then, on Nov. 7, McHenry County College will host the Skyway Writers Festival, which will include a host of keynote speakers, writing workshops, and even an open mic. Lunch will be provided. Afterwards, an awards ceremony will be held for the winners at the conference level.
The top five entries in each category of Moraine Valley’s competition will advance to compete at Skyway against entries from the seven other colleges in the conference.
Communications instructor Lisa Couch, who coordinates Moraine Valley’s competition, acknowledges that fear often paralyzes students: they’re afraid to make mistakes, afraid to be open, afraid of feeling judged for the pieces they’ve created. They’re afraid of not being good enough.
All of that culminates into students being so afraid to use their voice, they lose their voice.
But the Skyway Writers Competition and Festival offers students a rare chance to face that fear head-on. The event focuses on lifting up the voices of community college students.
Of course, there are a few rules. Submissions must have been written during one of the following semesters: fall 2023, or spring, summer or fall 2024.
Entries cannot have been previously published, and cannot have been submitted to Skyway in the past. Students who won an award in a category last year cannot win in the same category this year; however, they are free to submit to other categories. And pieces involving the use of AI are not eligible for submission. The competition wants to highlight student voices, not spotlight artificial intelligence.
These rules boil down to one simple goal: bolstering new student voices, and paving the way for young writers to reclaim what fear stole from them.
Couch recounts a time earlier in her career where she encouraged a student to enter a writing competition.
“He got up there, and he read, and he was so excited. It just changed the way he saw himself,” she said. “And I think that sometimes getting that validation, externally, can really change someone’s confidence and change how they see themselves forever.”
Watching students find their stride, break free from the fear, and jump into writing with a newfound passion is the reason Couch continues to work on competitions like this, which open a door to vulnerability and change. Oftentimes, even in losing, students are able to feel more confident in their writing and ability to move forward.
“I love to see that change in people,” Couch said.
More and more, we see people’s voices forcibly taken from them, Couch pointed out. They’re not silent, but silenced. Here, we let our own fears steal our voices away. Although we have the opportunity to make waves, we hold back because we’re afraid.
“Your voice is important,” Couch stresses, “and people’s voices are silenced in other places around the world.”
Entries in Moraine Valley’s competition could end up being published in a future issue of Velocity. The first place winner in each category also will be submitted to a separate, international contest sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College. Winners of that competition receive cash prizes and are published in an anthology distributed to all of the colleges in the League.
Last year, Moraine Valley student Katis Varela took third place in the One-Act Play category of the League competition.
Students with any further questions can reach out to their communications instructor, or contact Lisa Couch at CouchL3@morainevalley.edu.
Velocity 
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