Rockford Writers’ Guild Notes Short Story Contest

Rockford Writers’ Guild Notes Short Story Contest

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Max Dodson, president of the Rockford Writers’ Guild, announces that the Guild will sponsor a Short Story Contest in two divisions–Adult and Youth.

Adult 1st Prize will be $100, 2nd Prize $75, and 3rd Prize $50. Youth 1st Prize will be $75, 2nd Prize $50, and 3rd Prize $25. The Youth Division will be for writers age 18 and under. Author’s age must be listed on the entry cover sheet to qualify for the Youth Division.

Entry fee is $5 per story. Please make checks payable to the Rockford Writers’ Guild. Entries must be postmarked by December 31, 2002, typed and double-spaced and may not exceed 2000 words. Include a cover sheet with the author’s name, address, phone number, the name of the story and word count. Please do not put your name on the story itself, so that stories may be judged blind. All work must be original, unpublished in print or electronically, and submitted by the author. Manuscripts wi]l not be returned; please keep a copy. Enclose a SASE for the winners’ list.

First prize stories may be published in The Rockford Review. Winners will be announced by February 14, 2002.

Send entries to Short Story Contest, Rockford Writers’ Guild, 7721 Venus Street, Loves Park, IL 61111.

Information regarding membership in the Guild, which has over 120 members nationwide, is also available. The Guild exists solely to promote the art of writing. If you have questions, write the Guild or call 815/968-6287.

Special Notice—Writer’s Conference

Elgin Community College will have its sixth annual Writer’s Conference on Saturday, March 15 from 8:30 AM to 3:15 PM. Keynote speaker, Dr. Louis Liebovich, a three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, will discuss Writing & Publishing Your Book and present a workshop, “Turning Articles into Income.” Other workshops include: Kevin Kelleghan: “Three Quick Ways to Get Published”; Mystery author D. Brod: “Fascinate Readers with Suspense”; sci-fi, fantasy and romance author Elysa Hendricks: “Using Characters to Plot Your Novel.”

Participants go to the keynote address, attend two of the above workshops, eat a delicious continental breakfast and buffet lunch for $99. For information, call Donna Newberg, (847) 214-7569.

The College of Lake County writers’ conference is in the planning stages. Adults and children (6th, 7th and 8th graders) will have separate workshops and separate writing contests. Both writing contest deadlines are June 1, 2003. Contest entry fee is $10. Only those who enroll in the writers’ conference can participate in the contest. The conference is Saturday, June 28, 2003, 9 AM to 3:30 PM for adults and 10 AM to 3:30 PM for kids. Kids will not attend the keynote address that starts at 9 AM. At 10 AM, the contest winners will be announced. At this time, the kids will join the adults. Kids register for a workshop in the morning and one in the afternoon. Three simultaneous workshops will be going on in the morning and in the afternoon. Cost for kids is $69, which includes lunch. Adults also have a choice of three workshops in the AM and three in the PM. Cost for adults is $79, which includes lunch. For more information, call Pat DiPrima at (847) 543-2726.

Candidates for 2002 Pushcart Prizes

Editor Cindy Guentherman has nominated the following contributors to The Rockford Review as candidates for 2002 Pushcart Prizes: William Miller for “Daniel in the Lion’s Den”; Eric Johnson for “Slow Dancing with a Sweater”; Sean Michael Rice for “Shakespeare & Nixon + horrors screwed w/Craziness”; Elizabeth Kelly Fenlon for “Barley Moon”; Maureen Tolman Flannery for

“Putting Away”; and Nancy Payne for “Sorting.”

Karen’s Recommendation

I would like to recommend a book to the members that I read called I Thought My Father Was God and Other True Tales from NPR’s National Story Project. It was edited by Paul Auster. This is a book of 179 stories selected from 4,000 submissions to the program after an invitation from National Public Radio. The stories had to be true and short. The book is divided into subjects such as “Animals”, “Fate” and others. The stories are varied and compelling. They are fascinating because they are true and because other people’s experiences are always interesting. Many reviews of it can be found by going to www.google.com on the Internet and typing in “I Thought My Father Was God.” —Karen Guler

Newsletter information

Write Away is published monthly (except August) by the Rockford Writers’ Guild, 7721 Venus Street, Loves Park, Illinois 61111. The Guild’s website address on the Internet is .

Our Officers are: Max Dodson, President ; Don Bowen, Vice President ; Nancy Payne, Treasurer ; Karen Guler, Recording Secretary; Cindy Guentherman, Managing and Poetry Editor of The Rockford Review ; Ed Grosek, Editor of Write Away .

Northern Illinois University subscribes to and possesses a full run of The Rockford Review back to 1971.

Unless otherwise noted and without surrendering copyright entitlements, Write Away’s general policy is that the content in it that is public information may be freely copied and disseminated without written permission but that any of its content that is creataive may be copied or paraphrased only with an accompanying citation. Opinions expressed here by individual members do not necessarily represent the philosophy and policy of the Rockford Writers’ Guild itself.

The above excerpts were reprinted with permission. The Rock River Times thanks the Rockford Writers’ Guild for sharing their newsletter with us.

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