From “fresh linen” to “babbling brook” to “faded fall memories,” autumnal fragrances offer a plethora of writing potential. With fall in full swing, BYU’s Inscape Journal invites you to ask: if you could make a scented candle of any memory, what would it be? The focus of your story can exist anywhere along the spectrum: as concrete as rain on wet pavement, or as intangible as what you imagine regret to smell like. Explore what scent preserves, what it awakens, and why it lingers. Paint a memory so vividly that we can’t help but inhabit it with you.

Prizes

1st Place – $50
2nd Place – $25

Guidelines and Rules

The Dos

• Submission fee: $5 for each submission, and only one piece per submission.
• Genre: Creative Nonfiction
• Submission length: 500 to 2,500 words.
• Format: Please submit written works as a DOC, DOCX, or PDF file (more formatting guidelines, click here).
• Language: Literary submissions must be written in English and may not exceed specified word limits.
• Who can submit: Anyone

The Don’ts

• Don’t include your name in any of the attachments.
• Don’t submit previously published work. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please let us know if your piece has been accepted somewhere else.
• Current Inscape staff members may not enter or be considered for publication.
• We do not accept pieces that invoke the name of deity as an expletive. We also ask that you refrain from submitting anything depicting gratuitous sexual, violent, or otherwise morally objectionable content.
• Inscape celebrates original human creativity; in that spirit, submissions must be created by the author and/or artist and may not include any material generated by artificial intelligence.

Any submission that does not follow these guidelines will not be considered. Visit our contests page and get a feel for what we publish.