The deadline for submissions for the 21st Annual Moore County Writers' Competition, sponsored by the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities, is Feb. 6.

The Writers Program wants to remind anyone who is interested in submitting an original piece of writing for the competition that entries should be postmarked or delivered to the Weymouth Center, 555 E. Connecticut Avenue, P.O. Box 939, Southern Pines, NC 28388, by Friday, Feb. 6. The contest committee, whose members include Malaika Albrecht, Cos Barnes, Karen Gilchrist, and Cynthia Miecznikowski, will notify winners by the middle of March.

The competition, underwritten by a grant from The Donald and Elizabeth Cooke Foundation, is open to students and residents of Moore County, and grouped according to age: grades 1-4, grades 5-8, grades 9-12, and adult. Submission categories are poetry (60 lines maximum), fiction (2,500 words maximum), and nonfiction (2,500 words maximum); writers may submit one manuscript in each category.

Provided by the North Carolina Writers Network, this year's judges are Amy Smith Grigg, fiction; Elizabeth Swan, poetry; and Barbara Youngman, nonfiction.

First-, second-, and third-place winners in each age group receive prizes of $100, $50, and $25, respectively; honorable mentions receive a certificate. The 2009 Writers' Competition booklet will include the winning manuscripts, and first-place winners will read selections from their winning entries at an awards presentation at Weymouth Center Sunday, May 3.

Submission guidelines are available at area libraries, schools, The Country Bookshop, Weymouth Center, and the Arts Council of Moore County, or online at weymouthcenter.org.

For more information, call 690-1098 and leave a message.