Sledgehammer Writing Contest Information

Writers to your marks. Get set. Shatter! (Your writer’s block, that is.) The Sledgehammer 36-Hour Writing Contest innovatively incorporates a scavenger hunt with a team competition and a prize package worth thousands of dollars—oh, and did we mention there’s a 36-hour time limit? Here’s how it works: Teams of writers converge in downtown Portland, Oregon, at noon on Saturday to receive their first writing prompt and scavenger hunt clues. From there they head out to several locations around the city to gather all four writing prompts, and they have 36 hours to write the best fiction piece they can. Final submissions are due back in person by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday. All contestants will have the opportunity to read a five-minute excerpt of their story to an audience. Audience members will be invited to vote for their favorite reading that evening, and online readers can vote for their favorite story on the site, all to send one team home with the Readers’ Choice Award. Judges will select winning team and individual entries, to be announced the week of Wordstock. Meanwhile, readers can vote for the Readers’ Choice Award. Winners are invited to read at Wordstock and other venues throughout the year! Thanks to all of our sponsors who make the prize package so phenomenal.