Spring 2023 LAF Writing Competition
Attention all City Tech Students!
The Literary Arts Festival organizers want to hear your voice, your story, your words! Read more to learn about the 2023 City Tech Literary Arts Festival Writing Competition and to get the link to the Submission Form.
All City Tech students are welcome to submit creative work for the following awards:
- Adolphus Lee Poetry Award
- Charles Matusik Fiction Award
- Kay-Hirsch Literary Criticism Award
- Michele Forsten Advocacy Award
- Walter-Scanlon Creative Non-Fiction Award
- Aaron Barlow Journalism Award
- Mary Nilles Award for City Tech/CUNY Spirit (any genre).
Questions? Reach out to CitytechLaf@gmail.com.
Winners will receive monetary awards and may be invited to read from their winning work at the Literary Arts Festival on April 27th at 4:00 p.m!
A Big Congratulations #LAF22

What a fantastic event the 41st Annual Literary Arts Festival was! Last Thursday afternoon, we were transported into different worlds through each others’ words, both from student award-winners and from the featured writer, Layli Long Soldier.
Thanks to all involved: the presenters, the participants, everyone who submitted writing, everyone who served as judges, the student volunteers, the hosts for the event, and the event organizers.
It would be great if anyone who participated or attended would leave a comment here to share what stood out to you, what you loved, what moved you, what the event motivated you to write, or anything else that you took away with you from the event.
LAF 2022 Program


Register now for the 41st Annual Literary Arts Festival featuring Layli Long Soldier!
Join City Tech student writers and the poet Layli Long Soldier to share ideas and creative work.
Thursday, March 24, 4:30 pm on ZOOM.
Free & Open to the Public
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

City Tech’s 41st Annual Literary Arts Festival
Featuring award-winning poet Layli Long Soldier, author of Whereas
and readings & performances by City Tech students
For more info: Megan Behrent mbehrent@citytech.cuny.edu
Sponsored by: Coordinated Undergraduate Education (CUE), City Tech
Student Government Association, New York City College of Technology
Ends today: LAF 2022 Creative Writing Contest
City Tech’s 41st Annual Literary Arts Festival Writing Competition

Submission Deadline: TODAY, March 4th, 2022
Submit any genre of creative writing for a chance to read your work and other prizes. Submission information is detailed below. The submission link is here: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/literaryartsfestival/submission-guidelines/
City Tech Students:
We want to hear your voice, your story, your words!
Please submit writing in any genre: poetry, fiction, non-fiction, speeches, journalism, multimodal work, photo essays, videos, animation, spoken-word performances, and more. All creative work is welcome!
Submission Guidelines
- Written Work: 1,000 words maximum; Videos/Performance Art should be between 10 seconds and 5 minutes.
- To submit your work, please visit the City Tech Literary Arts Festival OpenLab Website Submissions Guidelines page
- You will be asked to fill out a form and upload your written work. Do not include your name in the submission attachment.
- For large files or videos, please include a URL link or send your work to CityTechLAF@gmail.com.
- Award categories include: the Adolphus Lee Poetry Award, the Charles Matusik Fiction Award, the Kay-Hirsch Literary Criticism Award, the Michele Forsten Advocacy Award, the Walter-Scanlon Creative Non-Fiction Award, the Aaron Barlow Journalism Award, and the Mary Nilles Multimodal Writing Award.
- Competition winners receive monetary awards and a possible reading at the Literary Arts Festival, a virtual event to be held on on March 24th at 4:30 p.m.
For more information: Megan Behrent: mbehrent@citytech.cuny.edu
41st Annual Literary Arts Festival with Layli Long Soldier: March 24, 2022
Join City Tech student writers and the poet Layli Long Soldier to share ideas and creative work.Thursday, March 24, 4:30 pm on ZOOM.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Read about the featured guest below and consider submitting work to the creative writing contest before the March 4 deadline. Information about the contest is here: LAF 2022 Literary Arts Festival Creative Writing Contest: Deadline March 4
LAYLI LONG SOLDIER
Biography
Layli Long Soldier is an Oglala Lakota poet, writer, feminist and activist. She is the author of the chapbook Chromosomory (2010) and the full-length collection Whereas (2017), winner of the National Books Critics Circle award and a finalist for the National Book Award. She has also won the National Artist Fellowship from the Arts and Cultures Foundation, the Whiting Writer’s Award, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. In 2012, her participatory installation, Whereas We Respond, was featured on the Pine Ridge Reservation. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Poems
National Poetry Foundation:Â
Academy of American Poets:
Video Readings/Discussons
Whiting Foundation:
Reading of Whereas and Discussion on the Whiting Foundation:
Interview: The Freedom of Real Apologies
An interview on Krista Tippet’s On Being. In this show, available as an interview transcript or a podcast, Layli Long Soldier discusses pieces from her book WHEREAS written in response to the 2009 congressional resolution of apology to Native Americans. Long Soldier states:
“First of all what motivated me to even respond to the apology was the delivery. So that’s the heart of it — or, I should say, the non-delivery of the apology.”
The interview also discusses how the poet integrated personal stories of apology, her search for justice, and the importance of being heard.
LAF 2022 Literary Arts Festival Creative Writing Contest: Deadline March 4
Submit any genre of creative writing for a chance to read your work and other prizes. Submission information is detailed below. The submission link is here: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/literaryartsfestival/submission-guidelines/