The 2nd Annual Sebastopol Times Personal Essay Contest
To celebrate the holidays and ring in the New Year, we're inviting you to share your memories, wisdom and eloquence with our readers
With these gray and foggy days, now is a great time to curl up by the fire and write your personal essay for the 2nd Annual Sebastopol Times Personal Essay Contest.
There are so many interesting and thoughtful people in Sebastopol and West County. We just know you’ll have something interesting to say.
We were so impressed and moved by the essays people submitted last year—you can read them here—that we’ve decided to make this an annual event.
Your essay can have a holiday or New Year’s theme or be about something completely different. Essays from last year mostly fell into that third category. They ranged from reflections of an Ives Pool lifeguard to a story about growing up in a small, segregated, Southern college town, to musings about life lessons learned from Lego. There were stories about losing a father and finding a sister, and about a daughter’s first lie to her aging father. So many great stories.
Let’s do it again!
There are only three rules:
The essay must be more personal than political. (You may be horrified or thrilled about the reign of Donald Trump, but this isn’t the place for that.)
The essay must be between 500-1,500 words.
You can’t have AI write it.
This essay contest is open to people of all ages.
Send your essay to the sebastopoltimes@gmail.com by 5 pm on Monday, Dec. 15. We will choose our favorite essays to publish over Christmas week.
Feel free to call us with questions: 707-322-8696.
Looking forward to seeing your personal essays!