Wednesday, March 13, 2013

ARKANSAS WRITERS CONFERENCE - and contest

I'm getting back on track with this week's Wednesday post about Conferences and Contests. The Arkansas Writers Conference offers both.

Held May 31 - June 1, 2013 in Little Rock Arkansas, this conference is celebrating it's 69th year. Arkansas Writers was founded and is hosted by The Arkansas Pioneer Branch of the National League of American Pen Women. Thanks to the generosity of benefactors, patrons and sponsors,  AW is able to provide top quality speakers and a wide variety of contest categories.

Although I've not been able to attend the conference yet, I have entered the competitions over the past several years. I know when I enter these contests I am up against some of the best writers in the country. I also know sometimes I win (last year I placed in two money categories), sometimes I take a couple of Honorable Mentions (as I did in 2008 and 2009) and other years I don't place at all. That's just how it works.

Contest Categories (scroll down to Literary Contests) are divided into three categories:
#1-#5 categories are limited to those who will be attending AT LEAST one day of the conference.
#6- #28 categories are open to anyone
#29-#40 are limited to Arkansas Residents only.

So if you take out the first 5 categories and the final 11 categories, that leaves you with 23 contests you can enter.... ALL FOR ONE $15 Entry Fee! And ALL offer Cash Prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place entries.

PLEASE read the guidelines carefully. One thing I see as a contest judge with other contests is entrants being so focused on the Perfect Entry they fail to follow the guidelines... resulting in their hard work being disqualified.

I have looked over the Speakers for this year and the roster is one of the best I've seen that matches MY particular interests. For now it's all about time and cash flow for me. But I'm still thinking on it. If anyone is going and would like a roomie, it might move my marker to the GOING side of the line a little closer.

In the mean time, I have some entries to start working on!
Happy Writing!
Angela




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