Total Entries
Total: 1,596 | Poetry: 945 | Prose: 586 | Artwork: 65
Daily Entries
High: 321 | Low: 21 | Average: 76.00
Entry Categories
Poetry: 59.2% (945) | Prose: 36.7% (586) | Artwork: 4.1% (65)
Elimination Round
Entries can be held for the next round of judging, or eliminated. Entries are eliminated when they’ve received too many “No” votes from our judges to continue on to the Semifinal Round. Judges may vote “No” for many reasons unrelated to quality of the work, including:
- The entry does not effectively match our contest theme, even if it is a very well-written piece.
- The entry does not follow contest guidelines to remove identifying information from the manuscript (for poetry and prose) and to avoid erotica, gore, and excessive profanity, even if it is a very well-written piece.
- The entry contains multiple discrete works which should have been entered separately.
- The writer or artist entered more than three works in the contest.
The elimination round is complete. Notifications have been sent out, and you can also find your entry status in your personal Submittable Submission Manager. Eliminated entries have a status of Completed.
Semifinal Round
The semifinal round is in complete. Notifications have been sent out, and you can also find your entry status in your personal Submittable Submission Manager. Eliminated entries have a status of Completed.
Final Round
The final round is in progress. Winners will be announced February 6, 2015.
Spark: A Creative Anthology 
When will the first elimination round be over?
As noted on your comment yesterday: Between January 10 and January 15, depending how quickly volunteers read through the entire list. Every entry is viewed by at least two people, and most are read by several more.
That takes a lot of time!
These statistics are fascinating; thank you for providing them. I’m looking forward to reading (and seeing) what makes it through the rounds.
when semifinalists will be announced,will i be notified if i am in semifinals?
As soon as we finish reading all the entries, the semifinalists will be announced and you will be notified.
an approw date for announcement of semifinalists?
No, but it has to be at least two weeks before the winners are announced.
No question. Just want to say thanks for doing this! Hope some great work was submitted!
Actually I do have a question, in the last pie chart there, are those current statistics? Or are your projected? In other words, is that how many works are actually left “alive”? Or is that how many you project to have left alive after the elimination round?
That’s how many works have already been marked for elimination and will receive a letter of completion at the end of the round.
In other words, they are current statistics.
Understood, thanks!
If we are eliminated, will we be sent an email to notify us?
Yes, but all eliminations will be notified at once.
Okay. Thank you!
how many pieces in poetry section have been eliminated unto now?
will elimination round be over on 15 according to current statics or it will take more time.
We are very close to being able to close the elimination round and we should be able to notify everyone by the 15th if their work has been eliminated.
There are a lot of entries to read.
have my entry “life of struggles” eliminated.
how many pieces have been eliminated in poetry.
how many pieces have been eliminated in poetry unto now.
Around what time do you think the elimination round will be over tomorrow? And what time will we be notified?
Since we’re all unpaid volunteers reading as fast as we can, I’m afraid I can’t commit to a specific time.
Okay. I understand. Thank you for volunteering! 🙂
How many pieces in poetry have been eliminated unto now.
About 912 so far, according to the statistics.
Have the eliminated works been notified yet? I saw you moved on to the semifinal round.
Just about to send the notifications out now.
All entrants will receive a notification of their status—not just eliminated pieces, but semifinalists, too. That way nobody has to wonder!
When can we expect to hear the results of the semifinals?
We’re targeting January 23rd to post artwork finalists, and we should be able to post numbers for poetry and prose then, too.
It is awesome that you provide so much information on the judging process. My work was eliminated, but I really appreciate all the volunteer effort that went into doing so! Looking forward to reading the winners! Thanks to all volunteers!!
My work was eliminated but I experienced many new things. Thank you SPARK.
We love being able to provide the opportunity—and we experience many new things in the process, too!
Will the finalists be announced today?
Yes, they sure will! It might not happen until I get off work, though, and I’m in U.S. Pacific Time.
Even the poetry and prose?
The list of poetry and prose finalists won’t be posted, but everyone will be notified.