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You are here: Home / Archives for Writing Contest- WNBA

July 24 – First Ever Effie Lee Morris Writing Awards & Mixer

By Web Editor

Friday, July 24, 2020
5pm
Online, via Zoom
Free! Please come celebrate with us!
Join the WNBA-SF for our First Ever Effie Lee Morris Writing Awards & Mixer!

The Women’s National Book Association San Francisco Chapter is pleased and proud to debut the first-ever Effie Lee Morris WNBA Literary Awards in honor of our founder. 

Ms. Morris was a pioneering Black librarian and the founder of this chapter of the Women’s National Book Association in 1968. She first started her library career in Cleveland, Ohio. She became the first female chairperson of the Library of Congress and was the president of the National Braille Association for two terms. She was dedicated to literacy for children as well as children in underserved and those who learn differently.  Ms. Morris was the first Coordinator of Children’s Services at the San Francisco Public Library and established the Children’s Historical and Research Collection at the Children’s Center of the San Francisco Library.  She went on to become the first African American president of the Public Library Association. In 1968, Ms. Morris founded the San Francisco Chapter of the Woman’s National Book Association, which began in 1917.  The WNBA SF Chapter is continuing our advocacy for the voices of women and diverse authors.

In tribute to Ms. Morris’s important work and legacy, we are announcing the first winners of the Effie Lee Morris WNBA Literary award.

The WNBA SF chapter received many wonderful entries in the genres of fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. With the help of judges specializing in each genre, we found first, second, and third place winners for each genre. 

Note: we are limited to 90 attendees at this event, so register early!

 
The list of winners [drum roll, please!]:
 
In the Fiction category:
First Place: Butterfly Girl by Anne Marie O’Brien
Annemarie O’Brien grew up in Northampton, Massachusetts, and now lives in the San Francisco Bay area where she teaches writing courses at UC Berkeley Extension, Stanford Continuing Studies, and Pixar. She is known for writing dog books for children, especially her book Lara’s Gift.

 

Second Place: The Mounted Position by Vera Chan
Vera Chan is a senior manager at Microsoft News Labs and storyteller based in Oakland and Seattle. She has worked as a senior editor/trends reporter for Yahoo! and did her newspaper stint covering features, entertainment and outdoor living at the Contra Costa Times (now The East Bay Times). She has contributed chapters to Asia in the San Francisco Bay Area and Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia of History and Innovation and won the Sisters in Crime award for a mystery-in-progress for an unpublished writer of color (now a finished manuscript, FOLLOWING.)

Third Place: Someone Else by Harriet Garfinkle
Harriet Garfinkle is an award-winning painter, dancer, and choreographer who danced professionally in San Francisco. She has choreographed the original play “Purple Breasts” and has her own experimental theatre group called The Bureau of Western Mythology and dance group TALLGIRLS. She teaches Pilates and is currently working her way through a novel.

In the Non-Fiction Category: 

First Place: Refugees in the Promised Land by Ellie Bozmarova   
Ellie Bozmarova is a Bulgarian-American writer and writing coach who received her B.A of English from UC Berkeley and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College. Her work has been featured in The Common, phoebe, TIMBER Journal among others.

 

Second Place: And Now for the Beloved Trees by H.L. Onstad
H.L Onstad is the founder of H2O content strategy which aims to provide engaging digital experiences. She has over 15 years of experience working with developing teams in education technology and trade book publishing. She uses her acute storytelling ability to help her clients in communicating their ideas through visual components.

 
 
 

Third Place: I Was Just Three by Maureen Lechwar
Maureen Lechwar is an alumna of the University of San Francisco. She is a big fan of the Don’s basketball team and was featured in a YouTube video highlighting USF athletic fans.

 In the Poetry Category: 

First Place: The Blues by Joan Gelfand
Joan Gelfand is an award-winning author and writing coach. Her reviews, stories, and poetry have appeared in both national and international literary journals and magazines. She is a lecturer on her “4 C’s” system which boasts how to become a successful writer and is also a past president for the WNBA SF Chapter. Her poetry has had both a film based on it and has won a Certificate of Merit in a juried art show at the International Association for the Study of Dreams.
 
Second Place: Seoraksan by Lucille Lang Day
Lucille Lang Day received an M.F.A in creative writing from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in mathematics/science from UC Berkeley. She married at age 14 and had her first child at 15, which led to both a pause in her education from ages 14-17 and her memoir Married at Fourteen: A True Story. Her memoir received a 2013 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award and was a finalist for the 2013 Northern California Book Award in Creative Nonfiction. She had a successful career as a science writer and director of the Hall of Health in Oakland which has since closed and has numerous full-length poetry collections.

Third Place: Pivot by Joan Gelfand
Joan Gelfand is an award-winning author and writing coach. Her reviews, stories, and poetry have appeared in both national and international literary journals and magazines. She is a lecturer on her “4 C’s” system which boasts how to become a successful writer and is also a past president for the WNBA SF Chapter. Her poetry has had both a film based on it and has won a Certificate of Merit in a juried art show at the International Association for the Study of Dreams.

Congratulations to all of the winners and those who entered the competition. Our next writing contest will begin on July 24th at 5 PM. A concrete link to enter will be sent at a further date. 

 

WNBA Writing Contest 2018

By Web Editor

WNBA logo for contest postWNBA 2018 Annual Writing Contest

Now accepting submissions through March 1, 2018

Fiction | Creative Non-fiction/ Memoir | Poetry | YA Fiction

$250 cash prizes for the winner in each category and publication in The Bookwoman.

Categories and Judges

 

Poetry

Carol Smallwood will judge the poetry submissions. One of Carol Smallwood’s over five dozen anthologies, Women on Poetry: Tips on writing, revising, publishing and teaching, is on Poets & Writers Magazine’s List of Best Books for writers. Her latest is Library Outreach to Writers and Poets: Interviews and case studies of cooperation (McFarland, 2017). A multiple Pushcart nominee, she has served as reader, reviewer, interviewer, and judge and has received various recognitions such as a National Federation of State Poetry Societies Award.

Fiction

Regina Marler will judge the fiction submissions. After editing Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell, Ms. Marler wrote Bloomsbury Pie: The Making of the Bloomsbury Boom, and edited Queer Beats: How the Beats Turned America on to Sex. Her fiction has appeared in North American Review, Carolina Quarterly, and elsewhere. She has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, the New York Observer, Amazon.com, and the Advocate and currently contributes to the New York Times Book Review, the TLS, and the Signet Classics series. Recent essays include the Cambridge Companion to Bloomsbury, Queer Bloomsbury, and forthcoming: Oxford Guide to Virginia Woolf.

Nonfiction

Katie Hafner will judge the nonfiction submissions. She has been writing for The New York Times since 1991. She has also written for The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Wired, The New Republic, and O, the Oprah Magazine. Her books include Cyberpunk: Outlaws and hackers on the computer frontier (with John Markoff), Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The origins of the internet (with Matthew Lyon), and others. Her most recent book Mother Daughter Me, a memoir about multigenerational living, was published in 2013 by Random House.

YA Fiction

Tanya Egan Gibson will judge the Young Adult fiction submissions. Her debut novel, How to Buy A Love of Reading, was published by Dutton in May 2009. An alumna of Squaw Valley Community of Writers, she is mother to a four-year-old who produces countless construction paper “books” that she insists Mommy “get published” and an infant whose favorite teether is HTBALOR, and wife to the most patient man in the universe.

For contest requirements, fees, and submission information, please go to: https://wnba.submittable.com/submit

Flyer with all the information: WNBA contest flyer

WNBA Writing Contest 2016

By Web Editor

2016_writing_contestWNBA Fifth Annual Writing Contest

Now accepting submissions through February 15, 2017 [Please note the new deadline]
A dynamic organization of women and men in all fields of the literary world, The Women’s National Book Association is accepting submissions for its Annual Writing Contest.

After nearly 100 years celebrating published authors, extraordinary book women and honoring independent bookstores, the WNBA is celebrating emerging writers. Be a part of history!

Fiction: 3,000 word maximum length, no theme required

Creative Nonfiction/ Memoir: 2,500 word maximum

Poetry: 3-5 pages of poetry 

OPEN TO ALL WRITERS–MEMBERSHIP NOT REQUIRED!

Submission Fee: $20/ Non-Members,  $15/ WNBA Members

Submit your work here 
Click here to learn more about the WNBA.

First place winners receive $250.00. There will be four awards in each category, 1, 2, 3, and Honorable Mention.

All four winners will be published in a special Contest Edition of the WNBA’s National Newsletter, “The Bookwoman.”
Winners announced May 1, 2017. All winners to be posted on the Women’s National Book Association website.

JUDGES

brenda-knight-150-newsletter-image

Brenda Knight

Brenda Knight began her career at HarperCollins, working with luminaries Marianne Williamson, Huston Smith and Paolo Coelho. Knight served as publisher of Cleis Press and was awarded IndieFab’s Publisher of the Year in 2014. Knight is the author of Wild Women and Books, Be a Good in the World, and Women of the Beat Generation, which won an American Book Award. Publishing Consultant to Mango Media, she also serves as President of the Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter.

ellen-urbani

Ellen Urbani

Ellen Urbani is the author of the novel Landfall, a Women’s National Book Association Great Group Reads selection set in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Her work has been profiled in the Oscar-qualified short documentary film Paint Me a Future. A Southern expat now residing in Oregon, her pets will always be dawgs and her truest allegiance will always reside with the Crimson Tide.

Linda Joy Myers

Linda Joy Myers

Linda Joy Myers is president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers. Her memoir Don’t Call Me Mother—A Daughter’s Journey from Abandonment to Forgiveness was a finalist in the ForeWord Book of the Year Award, a finalist in the IndieExcellence Awards, and won the BAIPA Gold Medal award.Linda offers workshops internationally, and helps people capture their stories through coaching, editing, and online workshops.

Flyer with all the information: 2016 WNBA Writing Contest flyer (revised with new deadline)

WNBA Writing Contest Announcement

By Web Editor

Writing Contest FB imageWNBA Fourth Annual Writing Contest

Now accepting submissions through January 15, 2016.
A dynamic organization of women and men in all fields of the literary world, The Women’s National Book Association is accepting submissions for its Annual Writing Contest.
After nearly 100 years celebrating published authors, extraordinary book women and honoring independent bookstores, the WNBA is celebrating emerging writers. Be a part of history!

Fiction: 3,000 word maximum length, no theme required
Creative Nonfiction/ Memoir: 2,500 word maximum
Poetry: 3-5 pages of poetry (double-spaced)

OPEN TO ALL WRITERS–MEMBERSHIP NOT REQUIRED!

Submission Fee: $20/ Non-Members,  $15/ WNBA Members

  • Your entry must be uploaded with no identifying information. No author bio required. Your contact information will be collected on a separate form when you submit your entry.
  • Applicants must be 18 years or older.
  • International applicants welcome.
  • Submission fee: Paid electronically
  • You may submit more than one entry, however, each one must be separately submitted.
  • Clearly label all submissions with Category
  • Published work accepted if work has not won an award or been published in a publication with over 3,000 circulation.
  • Previous 2, 3, and Honorable Mention winners welcome to enter.
  • Submission guidelines (to be posted on Submittable.com)
  • Men and women are welcome to enter.

Submit your work here 
Click here to learn more about the WNBA.

First place winners receive $250.00. There will be four awards in each category, 1, 2, 3, and Honorable Mention.
All four winners will be published in a special Contest Edition of the WNBA’s National Newsletter, “The Bookwoman.”
Winners announced May 1, 2016. All winners to be posted on the Women’s National Book Association website.
First place winners to be published in a special anthology honoring WNBA’s Centennial in 2017.

JUDGES:

Fiction: Ann Harleman is the author of two short story collections – Happiness, which won the Iowa Short Fiction Award, and Thoreau’s Laundry.

Non-Fiction (Creative Non-Fiction or Memoir): Rosemary Daniell is known as one of the best writing coaches in the country, and she is author of Secrets of the Zona Rosa: How Writing (And Sisterhood) Change Women’s Lives.  She is found and leader of Zona Rosa®, a series of creative writing workshops.

Poetry:  Mary Mackey, Ph.D., is the author of 13 novels and 7 collections of poetry including Sugar Zone, winner of the 2012 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award.  As Professor Emeritus of English at California State University Sacramento, she taught Creative Writing. She welcomes questions and comments at www.marymackey.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @MMackeyAuthor.

Flyer with all the information: 2015 WNBA Annual Writing Competition Flyer

WNNERS OF WNBA’S THIRD ANNUAL WRITING COMPETITION

By Admin

WINNERS OF WNBA’S THIRD ANNUAL WRITING COMPETITION

WNNERS OF WNBA’S THIRD ANNUAL WRITING COMPETITION
The Women’s National Book Association is pleased to announce the winners of WNBA’s Third Annual Writing Competition.

San Francisco Chapter Members Who Placed

vickiDeArmon Vicki DeArmon works as the Events & Marketing Director for Copperfield’s Books in San Francisco’s North Bay, booking authors for events. In the wee hours, she writes. Her passion is reading and writing fiction. Right now she’s working on a collection of short stories, She Let Go Their Hands, depicting families riding the roller coaster of addiction. Her story from this collection entitled “Hydroplaning” placed second in the 2015 Women’s National Book Association annual writing contest for Fiction. And there’s a comic novel brewing called Tilting: The Nearly True Story of a Small Book Publishing Empire that draws from the years she spent running Foghorn Press in San Francisco in the 1990s. This year, she’s been honored to read at Litquake, to attend Lit Camp 2015 and to be chosen as one of a cast of 13 selected to read pieces at this year’s Listen to Your Mother event in San Francisco. Her blog (onemothersedge.com) is a humorous attempt to consolidate three aspects of her being: writing, motherhood, and co-dependence.

Renate Stendhal WNBA-SF Chapter Renate Stendhal, Ph.D. is the author of the award-winning photobiography “Gertrude Stein: In Words and Pictures” (Algonquin, 1994). She is a German-born, Paris-educated writer and writing coach in the San Francisco Bay Area. In Paris, she worked as a cultural correspondent and translated works by Gertrude Stein, Adrienne Rich, Susan Griffin, Audre Lorde et al into German. Her multimedia show “In the Beginning…of the End,” toured throughout Europe in the ‘80s and was produced as an award-winning film by the Canadian Film Board. Her essays appeared in many international magazines. Among her publications are “Lesbian Marriage: A Love & Sex Forever Kit” (New Leaf, 2014, www.lesbianloveforever.com), co-authored with her life companion Kim Chernin, and “True Secrets of Lesbian Desire” (North Atlantic, 2003). Her memoir entitled “Kiss me Again. She Did.” placed second in the 2015 Women’s National Book Association annual writing contest for Creative Non-Fiction. Renate also works in private practice as a relationship expert and coach for couples and individuals. Her Gertrude Stein blog “Why Do Something If It Can Be Done” is at http://quotinggertrudestein.com. Her cultural reviews are on http://scene4.com. She blogs for Epochalips Magazine and the Huffington Post.

First Place Winners

Poetry: Diana Whitney  “Curiosity”

Fiction: Allison Har-zvi “If You’re Ready”

Creative Non-Fiction/Memoir: Diane Kraynak “Science Project”

Second and Third Place, Honorable Mention

Poetry

Second Place: Sarah Wohlbach “Words [in transit]“

Third Place: M. Detrick  ”The Light-Lust of Trees”

Hon. Mention: Tanya Ko Hong ”Comfort Woman”

Fiction

Second Place: Vicki DeArmon ”Hydroplaning”

Third Place: Kathleen Spiivak ”Moths”

Hon. Mention: Kristen MacKenzie “Cold Comfort”

Creative Non-Fiction

Second Place:  Renate Stendhal “Kiss me Again. She Did.”

Third Place: Juanita Martin “The Only Child”

Honorable Mention: L. Loomis “Ghost House”

First Place Winners will receive a $250 cash prize and publication in the Bookwoman, the official publication of the Women’s National Book Association, with 11 chapters nationwide. All other winners will be published on the WNBA website.

Thank you for your submissions! Proceeds from the contest help support scholarships for writing conferences and other professional development trainings.

Thank you to the 2015 Writing Competition judges!

Poetry Judge: Ellen Bass, an accomplished author, her most recent book of poetry is Like a Beggar

Fiction Judge: Michelle Hoover teaches writing at Boston University and Grub Street. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications.

Creative Non-Fiction/Memoir Judge: Deirdre Bair, author of several titles, she received a National Book Award for Samuel Beckett: A Biography

The WNBA Annual Writing Competition Chairperson is Joan Gelfand, Poetry Editor for the “J.”, Development Chair of the WNBA and regular blogger for The Huffington Post.

Click Here for Press Release

 

WNBA Third Annual Writing Contest

By Linda Lee

2014_Writing_Contest_01_WebBegins: 8/14/2014, Ends: 1/15/2015

Flyer Click here for download.

We are seeking your best work for our national writing contest. Winning entries will be published in a special issue of The Bookwoman–the national newsletter of the WNBA. First place winners receive $250 cash prize. Second, third and honorable mentions will be published with the first place winners in the contest edition of The Bookwoman. Open to all writers 18 or older writing in English. Read previous winners on our website.

2014 Entry Fee: WNBA Members: $15 per entry Non-Members: $20 per entry

All submissions and payments are through Submittable. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, please inform the contest judge if work is accepted elsewhere. Previously published work accepted. If work is accepted elsewhere please contact the Contest Chair: joan@joangelfand.com.

Creative Nonfiction: Includes memoir, personal essay and commentary. 2,500 words maximum.

Poetry: 3 – 5 pages of poetry.

Fiction: Includes short fiction, novel excerpts and flash fiction. 2,500 – 3,000 maximum.

Submit your work: wnba.submittable.com/submit

WNBA contest page: www.wnba-books.org/contest

Judges:

Fiction Michelle Hoover is the Fannie Hurst writer-in-residence at Brandeis University and also teaches writing at GrubStreet, where she co-founded the Novel Incubator, a year-long intensive in the novel. Her debut, The Quickening, was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize and is a 2010 Massachusetts Book Award “Must Read” pick. For more, go to www.michelle-hoover.com.

Creative Nonfiction Deirdre Bair received a National Book Award for Samuel Beckett: A Biography (1978). Her biographies of Simone de Beauvoir and C. G. Jung were finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her biographies of Anaïs Nin and Simone de Beauvoir were chosen by the New York Times as “Best Books of the Year,” and her biography of Jung won the Gradiva Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.

Poetry Ellen Bass’s most recent book of poetry, Like a Beggar, was published in April 2014 by Copper Canyon Press. Her previous books include The Human Line (Copper Canyon Press), named a Notable Book by the San Francisco Chronicle, and Mules of Love (BOA Editions) which won the Lambda Literary Award. For more, go to www.ellenbass.com.

2014_Writing_Contest_01_Web_JPEG

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