A $10,000 cash prize is part of the 2012 Norman Mailer Writing Award for High School Teachers, sponsored by the Norman Mailer Center and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The deadline for eligible full- and part-time high school teachers to submit entries is noon CST on July 23, 2012. 

There is a limit of one entry per person. The maximum length is 20 single-spaced pages in an easily readable font, such as Arial or Times New Roman, in 11 or 12 points. The entry may be part of a larger piece. Previously published writing may be submitted if the writing was published within the last 12 months. Entries are accepted online only. Teachers who live outside the U.S. but work in American-accredited schools are eligible to enter.

Submissions are read by national panels of teachers and judged by how well they achieve the following qualities: handling of image, plot, character, or other elements; originality; insight, voice, and style; and overall aesthetic, emotional, or intellectual effect. Stories that receive high ratings from the teacher panels are submitted to a distinguished panel of authors selected by the Norman Mailer Center, who will choose the winning entry. Authors retain copyright of their work. 

One winner and four finalists will be notified in September, 2012.  Results will be posted on the NCTE website. The winner receives a $10,000 cash prize along with travel and lodging to attend the Norman Mailer Center’s Annual Gala on October 4, 2012, in New York City, where the Mailer Prize and the Norman Mailer High School and College Writing Awards are also presented. Funding for travel to the Annual Gala for the award winner is limited to coach airfare within the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii. If the winner lives outside of the U.S., a $500.00 USD payment toward travel will be allowed. Hotel/lodging at the awards event will be covered. The winner will also receive a fellowship to the prestigious Norman Mailer Writers Colony during the summer of 2013. 

Norman Mailer was one of the most important American writers of the post-WWII era and a leading public intellectual since the 1960s. The author of more than forty books, he is one of the most prolific American authors of the 20th century. The Castle in the Forest was the eleventh of his books to appear on the New York Times bestseller list. His first novel, The Naked and the Dead (1948) was on the Times list for 63 weeks. His 1968 nonfiction narrative, The Armies of the Night, won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He won a second Pulitzer for The Executioner's Song and is the only person to win Pulitzers in fiction and nonfiction. Five of his books have been nominated for National Book Awards, and he won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NBA Foundation in 2006. The Norman Mailer Center honors the creative legacy of Norman Mailer by supporting writers who challenge readers’ perspective on the world around them. The Center promotes a vision of writers as “people of action.”

For more information or to enter, visit the Norman Mailer Writing Award website or e-mail nmw@ncte.org.