Belmont Student Storyteller Series

Calling all Belmont University undergraduate storytellers of book, song, and screen! The Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business and WriterFest Nashville invite you to submit to present at the student symposium portion of the annual WriterFest conference.

What creative product have you made (or will you) that has a story to share about the process? What dreams, memories, or loved ones inspired one song, screenplay, or long format piece of writing (fiction or nonfiction)? Share all of this with our panel of alumni judges and win the chance to present it to industry pros, aspiring professional writers and accomplished pros in all three fields this coming November.

Our four winners will receive prizes from Parnassus Books and other industry partners—specific announcements to come closer to the announcement of the winners.

Presentations will be scheduled for Friday, November 22, 2024 as part of the WriterFest Nashville conference for writers of book, song and screen to take place on campus. Only current Belmont Unviersity undergraduate students of any major (even if they graduate prior to 11/22/24) are eligible to apply.


Interested Students May: 

  • Submit an excerpt from a creative work (book, song, or script) and share their process through a professional engaging presentation.  Presentation must include audio and/or visual component and follow submission guidelines on time and content. No use of AI.

  • Prepare a 10-15 minute presentation to submit in a video format as a draft of what you would present in person in November. You would also have an additional 5 minutes for Q&A at the symposium.

Song:

  • Your presentation, songwriter, must include a full rendition of your 3 minute song being played whether in captured live format or recorded format. It must also include lyric sheet, process discussion, and citations to influential artists and writings who you drew inspiration from, or, from which you learned applicable skills.

Screen

  • Your presentation, screenwriter, must include a completed 5 page script. You must video actors doing a table read of your screenplay, but also include a discussion of your inspiration, process, and citations to influential writers, films and other places you drew inspiration from, or, from which you learned applicable skills.

Book

  • Your presentation, aspiring author, must include a completed 5-page passage from a long format work. You may have up to additional 3 more pages that consist of summary of the non-submitted portions of your book draft, so that a full picture for your story or reporting/research can be read by the judges, even if only 5 pages are present of the polished writing. Your presentation must include a reading (by yourself or another) of at least a portion of the 5 pages, a verbal presentation of summary elements, and a discussion of your inspiration, process, and citations to influential writers and other places you drew inspiration from, or, from which you learned applicable skills. Please submit clearly as fiction or nonfiction, and nonfiction can include journalistic writing.


Your works will be judged by a panel jury of Belmont alumni working in the creative arts with academic and professional experience in music, writing, and film.

To submit, upload your 10-15 minute video link here by June 1, 2024:

Winners will be contacted by September 1, 2024, and asked to present in person on November 22, 2024.

Thank you for submitting—may the artistic odds ever be in your favor!