Writers Center
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ECC’s Writers Center is a place where creatives from all corners of ECC gather to ponder, write, revise creative writing in its many forms. From songs to poems to personal narratives to screenplays to short stories to plays to graphic novels, the Writers Center fosters a love for all things writing. It fosters and cultivates ECC’s literary community through various programming.
Readers Series
Each year, critically acclaimed writers are invited to campus to offer a public writing session and a public reading. Students are granted the opportunity to grow and glean from professional writers. All Reading Series events are free and open to the public.
Coffee House
This event is an open mic and generative writing workshop rolled into a single event. Participants learn about writing craft and apply those concepts in various writing activities. Then, they are invited to share their original work for five minutes in a public reading. Reading is not required. Being a supportive audience member is allowed.
Spire Literary Journal
Spire is an annual publication featuring students’ literary and visual art including poetry, prose, drawing, printmaking, and photography. Students play an active role in selecting the works featured in the publication and designing the journal.
Deadline: December 31
Find submission details and submit your art using the Spire Journal Submissions Form.
Scholarships
The ECC Board of Trustees grants up to three full-tuition scholarships that are renewable for up to two years. Students with a love of creative writing and community have the opportunity to work weekly in the Writers Center and help plan and execute all Writers Center programming. Creative writing includes fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. But it is also applicable to personal narratives, songs, and scripts.
Deadline: ongoing; priority deadlines: October 31 and March 31
For more information, visit (link forthcoming) or email Writers Center Director, Professor Chasity Gunn at cgunn@elgin.edu.
Contests
Writing Contests
The Writers Center facilitates multiple, annual writing contests that provide various prizes for students.
Skyway Writer’s Competition
Represent ECC in an annual competition of eight surrounding community colleges. Each college submits a winner in creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and drama. Those students are given a certificate and move forward to compete against students from other institutions for a medal.
The writing competition is a part of the Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference typically held in the fall. The conference includes an open mic, workshops, and an awards ceremony. ECC students can attend at no cost. Contact Writers Center Director, Professor Chasity Gunn at cgunn@elgin.edu for more information.
Deadline: September 31
Find submission details and submit your entry using the 2024 Skyway Competition Form
Palmer Creative Arts Prizes
The Writers Center provides prizes for fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and visual arts. For each category, first place is awarded $900, second place $400, and third place $200. Currently enrolled students are eligible to apply.
Deadline: December 21
Find submission details and submit your entry using the Palmer Arts Contest 2024 Form.
Gandhi/King Peace Scholarship
Sponsored by the Illinois Community College Trustees Association (ICCTA), this scholarship awards $1,000 scholarship to the student who best articulates the peaceful messages of Mahatma Gandhi and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Participants write a 500-word essay on the writing prompt below and submit a nomination form. The Writers Center will select one student to represent ECC in the statewide competition. In addition to a scholarship, winners are invited to attend ICCTA’s award banquet on June 6 in Normal, IL.
2025 Prompt
Both Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., advocated for nonviolence as the way to confront the hate and discrimination that so often accompanies the disrespect of other human beings. The work and words of Gandhi and King are both an example and a road map for the way forward for our country. As a community college student, outline a plan that will educate the members of your college community about the scope of the problem and the elements of and rationale for a nonviolent response. In the description of your plan, please provide specific examples of how the legacies of Gandhi and King has affected you personally as a community college student.
Deadline: March 14
Find submission details and submit your entry using the ICCTA Gandhi/King Peace Student Writing Contest 2025 Form
The Paul Simon Essay Contest
Also sponsored by ICCTA, this is a one-time $500 scholarship. Students are asked to write a 500-word essay that best describes "How My Community College Has Changed My Life.” The Writers Center will select one student to represent ECC in the statewide competition. In addition to a scholarship, winners are invited to attend ICCTA’s award banquet on June 6 in Normal, IL.
Deadline: March 14
Find submission details and submit your entry using the ICCTA Paul Simon Student Essay Contest 2025 Form