Baily's Beads Sponsoring Writing Contest Focused on McKean County history

Bradford Landmark Society photo

Calling all armchair historians! The 2020 edition of Baily’s Beads, the award-winning literary magazine created by University of Pittsburgh Bradford students, is seeking submissions for a writing contest.

Editor Taylor Tarahteeff, an interdisciplinary arts major from Bradford, selected the theme of “Past, Present, and Future” for the 2020 issue and hopes to represent the rich local history of McKean County.

“Bradford is a city built on a complex and fantastic heritage! Everyone you meet has a story to tell about the glitz and glamor of this bustling oil town,” Tarahteeff said. “We wanted to recognize the writers in our community and represent the pride and legacy of the area.”

The guidelines for the contest are as follows: Create a piece of prose, poetry or artwork in any genre, focusing on McKean county history. Suggestions for topics include oil history, natural disasters, family occupations, Bradford during prohibition, architecture, railroads, folklore, and ghost stories.

Written submissions should have a separate cover sheet with name, contact information (address, email and phone), title of the submission and genre or medium. Please send each submission in its own word document with a cover sheet attached. To help the staff judge work on its merits, do not place a name on the work itself. Prose should be double-spaced, and poetry should be single-spaced. Authors may submit up to 20 pages of writing.

            The staff is also seeking art – photography, paintings, drawings, mixed media, sculpture, and digital art.

            Submitted images should be high-resolution jpeg files to ensure a high-quality print.

            Writers and artists do not need to be Pitt-Bradford students to make a submission. All submissions should be sent to bailys@pitt.edu.

            The deadline to submit is April 25. First, second, and third place winners will be published and awarded cash prizes.

            General submissions following the same guidelines are also being accepted.

            Founded in 1995, Baily’s Beads succeeded Pitt-Bradford’s first student literary magazine, Frameworks. Baily’s Beads has won more than 30 awards since 2001 – most recently First Place from the American Scholastic Press Association for the 2018 issue edited by Isaac Payne, Jayden Pire and Shahada Thomas with Brianna Henry as art and layout editor.

For more information, contact Dr. Nancy McCabe, professor of writing, at ngm4@pitt.edu.