AUGUSTA – Three Maine authors, including Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford, will serve as judges for Journey Into Writing, a statewide writing contest for high school juniors.

Ford, who lives in East Boothbay, will join poet Wesley McNair of Mercer and novelist and short story writer Monica Wood of Portland in choosing finalists in the contest co-sponsored by the Portland Press Herald-Maine Sunday Telegram and U.S. Cellular.

Students may submit work in one of three categories: poetry, short story or essay. The deadline for entries is Dec. 1. Last year, 218 students from 65 Maine high schools submitted entries.