In early December, the Edith Wharton Writing Competition officially opened for submissions from high school students across Berkshire County and the surrounding region. The competition, now in its sixteenth year, accepts original pieces in two categories: fiction and poetry. The top submissions will be chosen in early April from two high school divisions, underclassmen and upperclassmen, and the students will be invited to The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts for an award ceremony. The Mount is the restored home of the late Edith Wharton, whom the competition is named after and whose writing career during the dark nineteenth and twentieth centuries has inspired many to follow in her path of vivid and descriptive fiction.  The deadline for the competition is March 6, and contestants can send their submissions by paper in the mail or electronically. The Edith Wharton website is http://www.edithwharton.org/education/edith-wharton-writing-competition/, where interested students can learn more about the competition and the entry process.