Several years before his death in 1973, Wayne E. Mayhew of Berkeley, California, established a trust fund to provide annual awards in creative writing and fine arts at Brigham Young University in honor of his wife, Vera Hinckley Mayhew, a former BYU student. The first contest, in short story writing, began in 1963 – 64 and has continued annually since then. A second contest, in poetry writing, began in 1974 – 75. Then in 1978 – 79 four additional contests were started. Since that time, two additional contests were added, making eight annual contests.



Specific rules have been set for each contest. The following general regulations apply to all eight contests:

1. Contests are open to BYU undergraduates enrolled full time (a minimum of 12 hours) and to BYU graduate students enrolled for a minimum of 6 hours. Students must be enrolled either fall or winter semester of the 2007-08 academic year.
2. The total prize money for all contests is $11,150.
3. Every entry must, of course, be the original work of the student submitting it, and must not previously have been published, produced, sold, or publicly performed. The only exception is for the Music Composition contest. The students entering this contest may submit work performed at BYU. The composition may not have been performed anywhere else under any circumstances.
4. Entries for creative writing should be submitted to the Mayhew Committee between February 5 and February 8, 2008. Visual Arts, Playwriting, Short Screenwriting, and Music Composition contest entries may be received between February 20 and February 22, 2008 between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., as indicated in the specific rules for each contest.
5. A student may submit only one entry in each contest for any one year. However, a student may enter more than one of the contests (all eight if he or she desires). A student who won the first place award in a contest in a previous year is not eligible to enter that contest again but may enter any of the other seven contests. Students retain the copyright for all entries.
6. Students may not submit entries that are concurrently submitted to other BYU contests. They may also not submit entries that have previously won first place in other BYU contests or in contests held elsewhere.
7. Winners for each contest will be notified by letter and in addition the winners in Music Compostition, Playwriting, Short Screenwriting, and Visual Arts will be posted online at the Mayhew Winners page by March 21, 2008. Those who did not win will be notified by checking the online posting of winners or if they would like to be notified by mail they must fill out a self addressed envelope (provided by the Dean’s office, 4002 JFSB) and have it attached it to their cover sheet when their entry is turned in.

All submissions require a cover sheet. A cover sheet can be picked up in the Dean's Office 4002 JFSB, Art Gallery 303 HFAC, C-581 HFAC, and C-550 HFAC or downloaded here.