Bedford, Indiana (Lawrence County); Bloomington, Indiana (Monroe County); Southern Indiana arts and entertainment news
Date: February 25, 2020
Daisy Pettles, Indiana author and philanthropist, is pleased to announce the grant finalists in the first annual Daisy Pettles Contest for Women Writers. The competition is open to women writers, aged forty or over, published or unpublished, working in all genres, except for poetry.
The competition, with a top cash prize of $1,000 and a free month-long residency in the Daisy Pettles House for Women Writers, was steep.
Applicants included a Fulbright Scholar, a Pushcart prize nominee, and several published novelists. Entrants came from diverse backgrounds and genres, ranging from political columnists to commercial romance authors.
A notable number of applicants had yet to be published, yet submitted works in progress that rivaled top prize-winning peers. Applications flowed in from across the United States, Iran, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
The judges have, in round one, narrowed the possible prize winners down to the top seven applicants.
Writing Contest for Women, Finalists – June 2020
Below is the official list of the June 2020 writing contest finalists, in alpha order.
- Teri Carter – Lawrenceburg, Kentucky|
http://www.tericarter.net/home.html
Working on a Memoir … “The Real Mom,” about the step-parenting experience. - Marie Drake – Golden, Colorado
Working on a Memoir … “Crack through My Heart,” a memoir of growing up in the 60s and 70s with a drug-dealing, hippie mother, and a full-colonel CIA agent father. - Diane Hartman – Plainfield, Indiana
Working on a Memoir … “And All Shall Be Well: Driving the Backroads of Ireland and Finding Myself,” a retired woman gathers her courage and goes in search of her ancestry.
- Robin Israel – Scottsdale, Arizona
https://robinisrael.com/
Working on a Novel … “Leave the Frigging Marshmallows,” a coming-of-age story about an adolescent girl growing up in a dysfunctional Jewish family in the 1980s. - Celena Janton – Vail, Arizona
Working on a Fantasy Romance Novel … “The Dreamers,” based on a reimagined Greek myth. - Mehrnoosh Khorsand – United Kingdom
Working on a Novel … “How I Rescued My Daughter,” about an Iranian girl forced into an unhappy arranged marriage for self-serving reasons by her father. Based on the author’s own experiences. - Robin Lovelace – Plainfield, Indiana
https://www.indianawriters.org/blogs/news/member-spotlight-robin-lee-lovelace
Working on a Novel … “The Hextens of Jackson County,” a historical reimagining of a family of witches living in rural Indiana in the late 1940s
The top three women applicants, chosen from the above finalists, will be announced on March 15, 2020. They will receive the following support grants and recognition for their written works.
#1 – Grand Prize: Free Residency – Writer in Residence at the Daisy Pettles House in Bedford, Indiana, USA, a vintage 1920s bungalow, equipped with all the amenities a women writer might need to kick back and write her heart out, undisturbed, for a month … PLUS a $1,000 CASH grant.
#2 – 1st Runner-Up: $250 Cash Grant; PLUS Award Certificate as Finalist – Writer in Residence at the Daisy Pettles House for the year awarded; PLUS if for any reason the Grand Prize Winner is unable to attend the writing residency the residency immediately passes to the 1st Runner-Up.
#3 – 2nd Runner-Up: $100 Cash Award Grant; PLUS Award Certificate as Finalist – Writer in Residence at the Daisy Pettles House for the year awarded.
The final grants and free residency will be awarded based on writing talent along with a consideration of which women writers might benefit most from the awards given the details they chose to share with the judges in their application essays.
REMINDER to WOMEN WRITERS: the next women’s writing competition, for a July 2020 residency and supporting grant, is still OPEN to applicants.
Submissions for the July prizes and residency close on April 15, 2020.
Older women writers (aged 40 or older) are invited to apply.
The Daisy Pettles Women’s Writing Competition is sponsored by the Hoosier writer and philanthropist Daisy Pettles, in honor of her mother, June, an avid reader. June passed away in the spring of 2019, leaving her home in the care of her daughter, Daisy.
Daisy is working with a team of women writers, artists, and Indiana historical preservationists to convert the home, a vintage 1920s bungalow located in southern Indiana (Lawrence County, south of Monroe County, Bloomington), to a retreat and residency center for older women writers.
The goal of the Women’s Writing House project is to discover, nurture, and reward diversity in women’s voices and literature.
The Women’s Writing House can be supported through donations at Go Fund Me.
