San Miguel Writers' Conference
Thank you to everyone who entered the 2012 San Miguel Writing Conference ‘Writing Contest’. This year we received three times as many submissions as we had expected and our judges have been busy for the past few weeks reading each piece of writing with care. There were political pieces, stories of losing wives and husbands, erotic literature, historical excerpts from novels, and many many more. In each category the judges picked the top five pieces and then as a group they picked the winning submissions. There were so many great entries and it was not an easy task choosing, but here are the results.
Poetry
Valerie Wallace for her three unpublished poems: “When You Google Afghan Girl,” “reaching out across the airwaves,” and “End of Summer Cento.”
Valerie lives in Illinois and teaches poetry at the City Colleges of Chicago. Her poetry chapbook The Dictators’ Guide to Good Housekeeping was recently published by Dancing Girl Press.
Fiction
Joy McCalister for an excerpt from her unpublished novel Clear Blue.
Joy lives in Oaxaca, Mexico. She graduated from Goshen College with a degree in English/Communications. Her submission was the beginning of a novel narrated by Lainey, a twenty-something mother of an adopted son with special needs.
Creative Nonfiction
Kelly Daniels for the first chapter “The Big Speech” from his unpublished memoir Wanted Man in California
Kelly lives in Rock Island, Illinois with his wife and son. His fiction and nonfiction has appeared in Cimarron Review, Puerto del Sol, Sonora Review, South Dakota Review, and many other literary journals. He is a professor of creative writing at Augustana College.
Each of the winners will be attending the writers’ conference in San Miguel de Allende free of charge and have their lodging provided for them. It is our hope that attending the conference will allow them to network, learn more about the craft of writing, and share some writing advice with their peers. In the next few weeks we plan on publish each of the winning selections on our website, (if the winning authors give us permission) so that everyone can see the time and effort these writers have put into crafting such wonderful pieces.
www.sanmiguelwritersconference2012.org
Discussion
31 Responses to ““Writing Contest””
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So, if I win, but have paid ahead (early bird) will I receive a refund of monies paid?
Posted by Joy Avigail McCalister | August 24, 2011, 7:48 pmWe took this into consideration when we set up the writing contest. If a contest winner has already registered for the conference and wins, we will reimburse the cost of the conference. However, we also plan to announce the winners of the writing contest before the early bird special has ended. So, if someone enters and does not win they will still have time to register for the conference at a discounted price.
Posted by San Miguel Writers' Conference | August 25, 2011, 5:18 amI think this is no longer true since you extended the contest entry date to the same day that the discounted registration expires. So I will go ahead and register anyway…….
Posted by Christine Riehl | November 23, 2011, 4:56 pmSounds good; thanks.
Posted by Joy Avigail McCalister | August 26, 2011, 9:43 amWhen it says that poetry submissions may include up to three poems, not to exceed five pages, does that mean three poems could be in one submission, or would each one need to be a separate submission ?
Posted by Rosemary Cabe | September 2, 2011, 12:24 pmWhen it says that up to three poems may be submitted, does this mean as a single submission, or would each poem require a separate submission form and fee ?
Posted by Rosemary Cabe | September 2, 2011, 12:25 pmYou can submit up to three poems in a single submission, and in fact we encourage submissions of more than one so the judges can get more of a feel for the work. So, one form, one fee, and up to three poems.
Posted by San Miguel Writers' Conference | September 4, 2011, 9:19 amIf I enter the contest and don’t win, can the $30 entry fee be applied toward the cost of the conference?
Posted by Pam | September 18, 2011, 9:51 pmSorry, the entry fee cannot be used towards paying for a conference package. That money goes to facilitate the contest and to underwrite parts of the conference such as our free writing workshop in Spanish for teens.
Posted by San Miguel Writers' Conference | September 19, 2011, 1:07 amWhat is the definition of “creative non-fiction” for the purposes of the competition? Thanks
Posted by Ray Cushing | September 22, 2011, 11:20 amCreative Nonfiction or Forth Genre is a term that is not easily defined. It constantly tests boundaries such as point of view usage, structure, and adherence to facts. Fiction can be mostly imagination. Traditional nonfiction (journalism and scholarship), is mostly information. Creative nonfiction presents information using the tools of the fiction writer while maintaining allegiance to fact.
As far as the writing contest is concerned creative nonfiction is factually accurate prose about real people and/ or events written in a compelling, vivid manner. At the same time I would like to add that the writing contest is interested in both traditional creative nonfiction and more experimental creative nonfiction for this contest. A creative piece written in first person about an experience in Paris would be accepted, but we will also accept a historical piece written in the third person about British colonialism. Our hope is to receive creative pieces that draw us in and don’t let go until the last word.
Posted by San Miguel Writers' Conference | September 23, 2011, 1:15 pmYou meant to write “accepted” instead of “excepted”–right?
Posted by KM | November 15, 2011, 9:47 amWho will judge the contest?
Posted by Rolf Yngve | September 27, 2011, 8:18 pmPreliminary judging will be done by poetry and travel writer Mittie Rogers as well as by fiction writer Nathan Feuerberg. Once finalists from each category have been chosen a sub-committee of the San Miguel Writers’ Conference executive board will choose each of the winners.
Posted by San Miguel Writers' Conference | September 29, 2011, 12:00 pmIs there anywhere online where we can read the winners form previous years?
Posted by Sharman Egan | October 17, 2011, 8:03 amIn previous years we have conducted our “writing contest” differently. The contest was only open to individuals who had signed up for the conference and the prize was a “manuscript review” session. This year the writing contest is open to the public because we want to bring three good writers to San Miguel to attend the conference. The conference is not only about hearing lectures and learning more about the craft of writing; it is also a place to network with your peers. We hope that bringing three writers from three different forms will add a helpful voice to the sessions and bring up ideas that more novice writers hadn’t thought of before.
But as an answer to your question, no we do not have contest winners from previous years posted online. If you are trying to get an idea of what to submit, I can say we are looking for quality writing that has an honest voice.
Posted by San Miguel Writers' Conference | October 17, 2011, 9:23 amI’m afraid I only have a 170 page screenplay which sounds like it may be a bit too long to qualify? I am, however, keenly interested in attending the screenwriting session during the conference or perhaps on the weekend.
Posted by Laura Alderson | October 17, 2011, 9:08 amIs this contest only for people who do NOT LIVE IN SAN MIGUEL?
Posted by Cynthia Beryl Huntington | October 17, 2011, 1:29 pmThe contest is open to anyone writing in English who has not yet published a book of 45 pages or more in the genre of application, except faculty, administrators, and volunteers of the San Miguel Writers’ Conference.
Posted by San Miguel Writers' Conference | October 17, 2011, 3:08 pmPlease help me here. The phrase in “the genre of application” is vague to my mind. I have published one nonfiction book – must I submit a fiction or poetry piece OR do you mean since I have published one book of nonfiction on social science I am able to send in a nonfiction entry related to health, or sports, or some other nonfiction writing not related to any published piece.
Posted by Dr. Jacqueline Zaleski Mackenzie | October 17, 2011, 3:26 pmSorry about the confusing phrasing. It means if you have published a full-length book (over 45 pages) in creative non-fiction that you can’t submit work to the contest that is creative non-fiction, although you could submit work in fiction or poetry. The same would be for fiction. If you have published a novel with, let’s say Penguin, then you can’t submit a short story in the fiction category, but could submit a piece in poetry or creative non-fiction.
Posted by Christina Wickfield | October 17, 2011, 6:45 pmDo I understand correctly that you are defining “genre” as one of: Fiction, Non-Fiction (including creative non-fiction) or Poetry?
Not, say, as romance, mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, etc.
Is that correct?
Thank you,
Yes, we are defining genre as fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. Of course you can submit romance, mystery, etc in the fiction category.
Posted by Gina X. Grant | October 27, 2011, 3:18 pmThe San Miguel Writers’ Conference has Extended the Writing Contest deadline by two weeks to December 1, 2011.
Posted by San Miguel Writers' Conference | October 27, 2011, 8:59 amAre all offerings available to contest winners; i.e., workshops, conferences with agents? Or would the contest winners have to pay for the offerings?
Posted by Olga Oliver | November 5, 2011, 7:54 amThe winners will receive lodging here in San Miguel during the conference and a full conference package which includes:
Evening Keynotes (Atwood, Poniatowska, Harjo)
General Session Speakers (Wolf, Boyden, Simonds, Robinson, Ardón, Schuessler)
Q & A Panel with several of our Featured Authors
Choose 6 workshops from 42 Concurrent Workshops
Pitch Session with Agent
3 Breakfasts and 4 Lunches
Networking Receptions on both our opening and closing night
Legendary Fiesta!
Live Performance of the play: “That Dorothy Parker”
And All Open Mics, author readings, and book signings
(Travel Excursions and 8 hour Intensive Writing Workshops on Feb 20 and 21, 2012 are not included in the conference package)
Posted by San Miguel Writers' Conference | November 5, 2011, 11:17 amHow will the winners be announced and will the winning entries be made available to a larger audience?
Posted by Kristin Jenkins | November 25, 2011, 11:34 amWe will be notifying winners and those who did not win by email. It is our hope that the winners will allow us to publish all or part of their entry on our website.
Posted by San Miguel Writers' Conference | November 26, 2011, 8:34 amIf you are having trouble clicking on the image above to go to submishmash, try using this direct link to the site: http://sanmiguelwritersconference.submishmash.com/submit
Posted by San Miguel Writers' Conference | November 5, 2011, 11:54 amcan we read past winners?
Posted by evieeve | November 24, 2011, 1:40 pmIn the past years we have done the writing contest very differently. Last year for example the contest was only open to people who were attending the conference and the winners were given a manuscript consultation with one of the faculty in their genre. So, we didn’t publish those winners on our website.
This will be the first year where we will be asking the winners in each of the categories (poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction) if we can publish their piece in its entirety or partially online. So, I am sorry to say that we cannot show you past winners.
However, since this writing contest has been completely overhauled it wouldn’t help out very much to read previous winners. This year we have new judges, different categories of writing, and a whole new outlook on what the writing contest means. Send in your best, most honest work and you’ll be on the right track.
Posted by San Miguel Writers' Conference | November 24, 2011, 2:06 pmThank you to everyone who entered the 2012 San Miguel Writing Conference ‘Writing Contest’. The Contest submission period is now officially closed. We will announce the winners in the next few weeks.
Posted by San Miguel Writers' Conference | December 2, 2011, 8:39 am