Each Year the Daisy Pettles Women’s Writing Competition Awards:
2 Grand Prizes — $1000 Cash Grant Award and 1 month of expense-free living (a $2,500 value), PLUS a Certificate as Honorary Writer in Residence in the Daisy Pettles House vintage 1920s arts and craft bungalow for the year awarded.
2 Finalists (1st Runner-Up) Prizes: $250 Cash Award Grant; PLUS Award Certificate as Finalist – Writer in Residence at the Daisy Pettles House for the year awarded; PLUS if for any reason a Grand Prize Winner is unable to attend a residency the house residency immediately passes to the Runner-Up.
2 Finalists (2nd Runner-Up) Prizes: $100 Cash Award Grant; PLUS Award Certificate as Finalist – Writer in Residence at the Daisy Pettles House for the year awarded.
WRITING RESIDENCY AWARD AND PRIZE CYCLES
2 residencies are available for the following periods in 2020:
SESSION 1—JUNE 2020 – June 1, 2020 through June 30, 2020
1 Applicant Will Be Awarded the Month-Long Residency and a $1000 Cash Prize // 1 First Runner-Up Will Receive $250 Cash Prize // 1 Second Runner-Up Will Receive $100 Cash Prize
Application Deadline: February 15, 2020
Award Announcement Date: March 15, 2020
SESSION 2—SUMMER 2020 – July 1, 2020 through July 31, 2020
1 Applicant Will Be Awarded the Month-Long Residency and a $1000 Cash Prize // 1 First Runner-Up Will Receive $250 Cash Prize // 1 Second Runner-Up Will Receive $100 Cash Prize
- Application Deadline: April 15, 2020
- Award Announcement Date: May 15, 2020
APPLY for the Daisy Pettles Women’s Writing Awards and Prizes NOW.
Women Writer’s Contest Competition Eligibility
Women writers who are age 40 or older at the time the residency will begin; no publication history necessary, but applicants must be able to submit up to 20 pages of a work in progress for judging, along with a 500-word statement summarizing your vision and goals for the work, along with a 500-word statement of financial need or how the award will help you, the writer, complete the project; retired and late bloomers who always wanted to write are welcome; the residency award supports fiction (commercial or literary); AND non-fiction (journalism, memoirs, investigative reporting, historical research — all forms of creative non-fiction — are eligible). All written forms, including dramatic TV and movie scripts or radio podcast scripting or songwriting are welcome.
Only poetry is excluded in the 2020 cycle because the program does not yet have poetry criteria or judges.
Women’s Writing Awards Criteria
1) The first and strongest criteria is writing talent. Each applicant must submit up to 20 pages of a work in progress or a sample work portfolio (Times New Roman double spaced, 12 pt) for review (please note that applicants need not be published; the submitted work itself will be judged on stand-alone merit);
2) The second criteria is the need for financial and retreat support. The applicant must submit a 500 word statement that outlines how the residency will make a critical difference in their ability to work on a master project that might otherwise go uncompleted due to every day worries and obligations;
3) All applicants must also submit a resume or work statement that outlines their education, job and career and award history for the previous decade (applicants need not have any formal education in writing to apply.)
If the applicant lacks a formal 10-year work history outside the home they should submit whatever education / work history might be available or relevant.
APPLICATION FEE
$45-$0. Applicants with FINANCIAL HARDSHIP are encouraged to apply for a full or partial fee waiver (SEE FAQS). Application fees provide the crowdfunding needed to support the house–utilities, yard care, Internet, etc.,–as a financial haven for mature and emerging women writers in need of a safe retreat and financial support while writing and researching their master works.
(NOTE: If you wish to support the Writing House and the FINANCIAL HARDSHIP FUND donate to this project on Daisy’s GO FUND ME PAGE.)
Below are some noteworthy links on WHY women writers need your support:
