WRITING CONTEST OPENS

Cascade Writing Contest Opens February 14

Brush off those books and articles you published in 2014 and finish tweaking those yet-to-be-published pieces so you can enter them in the 2015 Cascade Writing Contest beginning Valentine’s Day.

The contest, which is in its third year, is your chance to obtain recognition for your writing and gain valuable feedback while competing for awards in nearly a dozen writing categories. Our preliminary and finals judges spend countless hours reviewing entries to help writers improve their skills.

This year our categories include:

·         Contemporary fiction books

·         Historical fiction books

·         Speculative fiction books

·         Nonfiction books

·         Memoir books

·         Young adult/middle grade books

·         Children’s chapter books and picture books

·         Articles, columns, blog posts

·         Devotionals

·         Poetry

·         Short story/flash fiction

Each category will have a winner in both the published and unpublished divisions. Finalists will have their entries reviewed by five people—three preliminary judges and two finals judges.

Among the finals judges who have graciously agreed to help with the 2015 contest are editors Daisy Hutton (HarperCollins), Kim Bangs (Bethany and Chosen), Joanna Echols (Focus on the Family), Nick Harrison (Harvest House), Susan King (The Upper Room), Sherri Langton (Bible Advocate), Chad McComas (The Christian Journal), Ben Wolf (Splickety Magazine), and agents Sally Apokedak (Les Stobbe Literary), Alice Crider (WordServe Agency), Bill Jensen (William K Jensen Agency), and Tamela Hancock Murray (Steve Laube Literary).

For information about the categories, judging criteria, entry fees, and rules, check the website at http://oregonchristianwriters.org in the next couple of weeks. The awards will be presented at the OCW summer conference the evening of Wednesday, August 12. Susan May Warren and Jeff Gerke will return as hosts.