Pioneer Con

Deadline: 11:59 p.m. on Friday, October 3, 2025

General Guidelines (All Categories):

• You must be a current JSCC student.
• Limit 3 submissions per category per person.
• Each submission must meet the required length as listed below.
• Prizes are awarded to the top 3 entries in each category.
• Winners' names might be published on the Pioneer Con Website.
• All submissions will be considered for Wingspan, Jefferson State Community College's literary magazine. The magazine is published in January each year and is available in print and online.
• All rights revert to the author upon publication.
• All work must be original. Any work that detects plagiarism or AI-generated content will be disqualified.

Categories:

• Text or Media Analysis Essay: Students will choose from a curated list of texts and visual media (paintings, drawings, graphic design, sculpture, etc.) and formulate an essay that is an analysis of their chosen work. They can explore the theme of transformation in their essay by evaluating traditional literary and visual components like characterization, imagery, and style. They can also choose to compare and contrast to another piece of written or visual work. Essays will need to be in MLA format and range from 1,000-1,800 words. The curated list is available here.
• Creative Writing: Students will use their interpretation of the theme of “transformation” by writing a fictional short story (between 800-2,000 words), a poem (between 14-50 lines), or an engaging personal essay (between 800-2,000 words).
• Art: Students will use their interpretation of the theme of “transformation" by creating a work of art. Students can submit paintings, drawings, sculptures, graphic designs, collages, recordings of original songs, or original films to the contest.

For any questions, please email the Pioneer Con Writing Contest sponsor Heather Wyatt at hwyatt1@jeffersonstate.edu.