One Book One Town: Writing Contest Open

Writers of all genres are invited to submit writing inspired by themes from Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. This competition is open to teen and adult writers and will be judged by a panel of Westwood librarians. Two winners will be selected: one teen and one adult. Winners will receive a writers’ gift bundle and have their work displayed and promoted at the Westwood Public Library. 

A central theme of Celeste Ng’s 2017 novel, Little Fires Everywhere, is taking artistic action and speaking out about things that matter to you. As a part of One Book One Town 2025, we are inviting writers in our community to share their voices and submit writing that responds to one or more themes from the book, Little Fires Everywhere. Writing can either be a direct response to the novel, or an interpretation of one of the novel’s core themes:

Themes:

Order and disruption
Suburbs and small towns
The power of art
Fire and regeneration
Division and inequity 
Image and identity 
Family and belonging

Writing formats: 

Poetry 
Fiction 
Nonfiction/Essays 
Prose/Hybrid

Please keep submissions under 3,000 words, or six double-spaced pages.

Send submissions as a PDF format to jhorwitz@minlib.net with a brief biographical statement in the body of the email.

Please specify whether you are a teen (13-18) or an adult. Submissions will open February 1, 2025 and close March 14, 2025