Due to a lack of qualifying entries, the competition has been canceled. Refunds were issued to all participants.
The 2017 Spring Travel Writing Contest is the first-ever contest of its kind organized by Argophilia Travel News. Its purpose is to encourage creativity and discovery and to promote this part of the world to broad audiences, beyond consumers of travel news.
The Argophilia Travel News 2017 Spring Travel Writing Contest is an international contest, open to travel writers from all over the world, aged 18 and above.
Please read our submission guidelines below in full before you submit.
Deadline: March 15th, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. EST
Grand prize: $300, plus social media exposure, publication on our site, as well as publication on HospitalityNet. The entry will also be considered as a featured article in our upcoming printed magazine.
Runners-up: Two selected special prizes: $100 each, plus social media exposure and publication on our site.
In addition to the prizes mentioned above, we may offer special prizes to entries that are of particular interest for our judges.
Theme: You can choose any travel-related theme you like, provided that the destination you cover is located in Eastern Europe. You can either imagine a trip there or share a personal experience. The contest is open to fantasy stories as long as their main focus is travel to Eastern Europe. Please don’t send lists or travel tips. We will only consider stories that make us dream, that surprise us, and stories that challenge our expectations. No matter how strong an entry may be, if it does not somehow tie into some aspect of traveling to Eastern Europe, we will reject it without returning your entry fee.
Word count: between 800 and 1,600 words. Do not submit any work under 800 words or over 1,600 words or it will be disqualified.
All submissions must be previously unpublished. We reserve the right to publish short-listed entries we consider of particular quality and interest even when they don’t rank among the winners. Authors retain full copyright of their work.
A blind reading of all entries will be conducted by the editorial staff of Argophilia Travel News and a panel of hospitality pros. The winner of the competition – along with two runners-up – will be announced on our site and via email, at the end of March 2017.
Members and writers of Argophilia Travel News (past or present) are not eligible to compete.
After you pay the entry fee, email your story in Word format to contact@argophilia.com with the subject line of your email “Argophilia 2017 Spring Travel Writing Contest” followed by the PayPal transaction number. Please include the PayPal transaction number one more time in the body of the email. Do not forget to include your full name and contact details into the body of the email. Good luck!
View Comments (4)
Hello!
Can you confirm this, please? I think you may want to be a little more specific in the submission guidelines in terms of what happens after an entry is submitted.
If I truly will "retain full copyright of [my] work," copyright implies ownership... that means I should be given credit, and say in your publishing of it. How will you notify me if I submit and for whatever reason do not place in the contest, but you like my story enough to publish it (there's nothing in the guidelines about this)?
If you really "reserve the right to publish short-listed entries we consider of particular quality and interest even when they don’t rank among the winners", that essentially means I'm paying you to write a story for you, and may or may not get compensation (financial or otherwise) for my work.
I've paid the fee to submit, but re-reading your guidelines make the contest seem a bit like a money grab. Would appreciate if you could alleviate my concerns.
Thank you!
Also- what is the length of time you will hold stories you "may publish"- in case anyone that submits wants to submit to another source? Or are you commanding exclusivity?
Thanks again.
All announcements are issued on March 31, 2017. We do not demand exclusivity.
Hi Justin,
Thank you for your interest and for the very pertinent questions you asked. We are sorry if the guidelines are not clear. You retain the copyright, and you get full credit: your name, bio, and link to your site will be included when we publish the winning stories. We will announce shortlisted entries and winners on the site and our Facebook page. Shortlisted participants will receive an email too.
We use the entry fees to fund the prize and promotion of winning entries - we plan a PR campaign.
You can always republish the story somewhere else, but only after it appears here first. If we like a story that didn't win a prize, we announce the author via email immediately after we announce the contest winners on March 31, 2017.
Please let us know if you have any other questions and concerns.