CALL FOR WRITERS
Miriam Chaikin Writing Award
Deadline: December 7

This award was established in memory of Miriam Chaikin, a longtime Westbeth resident, former Westbeth Artists Residents Council literary chair, and prolific writer.

For Miriam/Molly/Chickie as she was known, the written word and the book were essential to her life and wellbeing.

It is in her memory that we seek to honor a member of the writing community, especially those who live in Westbeth.

Writers are encouraged to submit copies of plays, short stories, poetry collections, or other examples of creative writing. A selection panel will review submissions and authors will retain full copyrights to their works. Submissions can be either published or unpublished manuscripts. Authors are encouraged to submit works that have not previously been submitted to this competition.

To apply:
Submit sample works as email attachments to Miriam’s niece, also named Miriam (to mchaiken@nmsu.edu).

Authors are invited to submit short stories, excerpts from longer works of fiction or creative non-fiction, plays, screenplays, or poetry. Works for review should not exceed 10,000 words. In the event the author wishes to send an excerpt from a longer work, a brief synopsis to frame the work submitted is recommended. Authors who have previously won this competition are ineligible.

Submissions are due December 7, 2018. All submissions will have the authors’ name and any identifying information redacted, and the submissions will be read by a review panel. The review panel, composed of friends and family of Miriam as well as the WARC Literary Chair, will announce the winner March 1, 2019. A public reading will be arranged subsequently as a spring event at Westbeth.

The winner of the award will receive $500 from the Miriam Chaikin Endowment Fund.