Wyoming Arts Council

Here’s all you need to know for the 2010 Blanchan/Doubleday writing competition

Uncategorized | September 9, 2009

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By Friday, Sept. 11, applications for the 2010 Blanchan/Doubleday writing awards will be in the mail to the 250-some resident writers on the Wyoming Arts Council mailing list. You will also find a printable version at the WAC web site at http://www.wyoarts.org/. Meanwhile, take a look at this abbreviated version of the application. If you can’t wait for the mailman, feel free to cut and paste this material to an MS Word doc and take it away.

Here’s the info from the 2010 Blanchan/Doubleday application:

Through the generosity of private donor Neltje, the Individual Artists Program of the Wyoming Arts Council gives the Neltje Blanchan and Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Awards for excellence in creative writing.

These awards are designed to bring attention to writers who have not yet received wide recognition for their work, and to support emerging writers at crucial times in their careers. Poets, fiction writers, essayists, and script writers who have published no more than one book in each genre and who are not students or faculty members are invited to apply by submitting manuscripts and an entry form by the October 30, 2009 postmark deadline.

Since 1989, 37 talented writers have received Blanchan/Doubleday awards: Geoffrey O’Gara, Betsy Orient Bernfeld, Hannah Hinchman, David Mouat, Sheila Roberts, Scott Hagel, Holly Skinner, C.L. Rawlins, Marcia Saum, Dainis Hazners, Barbara Gilbert, William Hoagland, Diane LeBlanc, Tina Willis, Maija Rhee Devine, Mary Beth Baptiste, Julene Bair, Chavawn Kelley, Geneen Marie Haugen, Janell Hanson, Mark Spragg, Karol Griffin, Stefani Farris, Laura Bell, Darcy Acord, Jack Clinton, Tina Welling, Susan Marsh, Myra L. Peak, Marcia Hensley, Jeffe Kennedy, Melodie Edwards, Bo Moore, Barbara Smith, Alisan Peters, Lou O. Madison and Christine B. Nelson.

The Neltje Blanchan Award, $1,000, is given for the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or script which is informed by a relationship with the natural world.

The Frank Nelson Doubleday Award, $1,000, is given for the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or script written by a woman author.

Blanchan/Doubleday Judge is Aaron A. Abeyta

Aaron A. Abeyta is a Colorado native and professor of English at Adams State College. His first poetry collection, Colcha, received both an American Book Award and the Colorado Book Award. His second poetry collection was As Orion Falls, published by Ghost Road Press. It received a number of favorable reviews, including one from Juan Felipe Herrera, author of Cinnamon Girl: Letters Found Inside a Cereal Box:

“There is no other voice that conjures the sky and keeps count of stars as human migrations, moving, fading, and bursting anew as Aaron Abeyta’s. Here he is standing naked and alone on the abandoned snow drifts and tierras, holding them as fallen angels and stellar evidence of our birthright — the luminous lands we claimed we would honor thirty-five years ago. Abeyta speaks with the voices of Nazim Hikmet, Jim Sagel, Allison Hedge-Coke and Albert Hunter, all lovers of the small earth and its colossal heart.”

In 2007, Aaron published his first novel, Rise, Do Not Be Afraid, also published by Ghost Road Press in Denver. Annie Dawid wrote a review in High Country News:

“Entering Colorado poet Aaron Abeyta’s first novel, Rise, Do Not Be Afraid, is like visiting a world that no longer exists — if it ever did. Santa Rita, the mythical Western town that forms the subject of this short, dense novel, is a place reminiscent of Eden, both before and after the Fall. One is reminded of Gabriel García Márquez’s fictional Colombian town, Macondo, as Abeyta creates a culture in a specific place and witnesses its dissolution — from greed, abandonment, the withering of love. Like García Márquez in One Hundred Years of Solitude, Abeyta begins with an annotated cast of characters, for it’s easy to confuse the people in this novel. Abeyta moves through time and generations as if through memory: ‘That was 1926,’ when the fences were built, we are told in the same paragraph in which we have traveled even further back to the arrival of the treacherous Matthews family in 1878. “ ‘Santa Rita sat in a long and deep canyon cut by an ancient river of ice, now melted to a river that flowed east toward the Rio Grande. There was no TV reception in Santa Rita. Most news traveled like it always had, by word of mouth.’ ”

Aaron is the recipient of a Colorado Council on the Arts fellowship for poetry. He earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from Colorado State University. He lives in southern Colorado where, as he says in his bio, he can remain close to his family and culture, both of which greatly influence his work. Abeyta was born in 1971.

Guidelines: 2010 Blanchan/Doubleday writing awards

Eligibility:
You may enter if you meet the following requirements:
*You must not be a full-time college student or full-time college faculty.
* You must be at least 18 years old and a legal resident of Wyoming, living in the state for at least ten months of the year, since July 1, 2008.
* To receive an award, you must remain a Wyoming resident until June 30, 2010, living in the state for at least ten months of the year.
*You must not have received a Blanchan or Doubleday award in the last four years. You may apply for these awards if you received a 2009 creative writing fellowship.
* You may not receive a 2010 Arts Council creative writing fellowship.
* You may enter if you have never published a book, if you’ve published only one full-length book of fiction, poetry or nonfiction, or if you have published no more than one book of poetry, one of fiction, and one of nonfiction (self-publication excluded).
* To enter the Frank Nelson Doubleday competition, you must be a woman.

Manuscript guidelines:
* Submit two copies of work, for each competition, typed on 16 or 20 pound 8 1/2″ x 11″ white paper. Photocopies are acceptable. You may enter the same work to both competitions, but must submit two separate copies of it for each award.
* Do not staple manuscripts or use any manuscript cover or binder; paper clip each copy after collating.
* Submit work in one genre only (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction or script).
* Writing may have been previously published, but don’t submit reprints; published work must be retyped to conform to the rest of the manuscript.
* Manuscript must be consecutively page-numbered. Include title of work and page numbers on each page.
* Your name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript.
* If you submit more than the allowed page limits (see below), extra pages will be removed; you will not be notified.
* Do not send supplementary materials (letters, resumes, etc.).
* If novel or play/film synopses are part of the manuscript (this is often helpful to juror), include them in the total page number count.

Length requirements:
* Poetry, maximum length: 10 printed pages. Type single-spaced, with no more than one poem per printed page.
* Fiction and creative nonfiction, maximum length: 25 printed pages. Type double-spaced, using either one side or both sides of page.
* Drama and screenplays, maximum length: 25 printed pages. Must be typed and presented in the standard, industry-accepted format for the type of script submitted.

Submission procedures:
* You may enter each competition once only, by October 30, 2009.
* Send two copies of the manuscript for each competition.
* Fill out and enclose a signed entry form (you may use a photocopy) with manuscripts. The same form may be used to enter both competitions.
* If you want the Council to acknowledge receipt of your manuscripts, enclose a self-addressed stamped postcard.

After you submit your application:
* If you enclosed a self-addressed stamped postcard, the Council will acknowledge receipt of your manuscript.
* Your name and credentials are not available to juror; all manuscripts are identified by number. Juror will not critique individual manuscripts.
* Winners will be notified after January 1, 2010.
* Manuscripts will not be returned, and will be discarded after the competition. Please be sure to retain copies of your work.
* You’ll receive $1,000 (after January 1, 2010). At the discretion of the juror, no award may be given, or both awards may be given to the same writer.
* You’ll sign a contract which verifies that you’re eligible to receive this award.
* You must remain a resident of the state through June 30, 2010, living within its borders for at least ten months of the year.
* You’ll need to supply a resume and black and white photograph for publicity, and the Council will ask permission to print some of your work in its publications.
* You’ll retain the right of publication to the work you produce during the award period.
* You must fill out a form, due June 30, 2010, which asks questions about how this award helped you and what you accomplished during the year. There are no requirements regarding work you complete during the award period or how you use the funds.

2010 Blanchan and Doubleday Writing Awards Application
(Please print, complete and mail with entry)

Name ____________________________________

Address__________________________________

City ________________State_______ Zip _______

Phone (Day) ___________ (Night) ______________

E-mail: ___________________________________

___Check here if you’re applying for both the Frank Nelson Doubleday and the Neltje Blanchan
Awards.
___Check here if you’ve enclosed a self-addressed stamped postcard (optional) so we can acknowledge manuscript receipt.

FRANK NELSON DOUBLEDAY ENTRY
I have submitted two copies of a manuscript which contains (check only one of the following genres and how many pages in the submission):
Genre: # of pages
____ Poetry __________
____ Fiction __________
____ Creative Nonfiction __________
____ Script __________
List manuscript title and (if applicable) titles of individual poems, essays, short stories, etc.:
________________________________________________

NELTJE BLANCHAN AWARD ENTRY
I have submitted two copies of a manuscript which contains (check only one of the following genres and how many pages in the submission):
Genre: # of pages
____ Poetry __________
____ Fiction __________
____ Creative Nonfiction __________
____ Script __________
Please list manuscript title and (if applicable) titles of individual poems, essays, short stories, etc.:___________________________________

ARTISTIC STATEMENT
In 100 words or less, please provide us with a brief artistic/biographical statement. This information will not be available to the judge, nor will it affect your application in any way. The WAC will use it in an announcement if you’ve won an award, and in its files of Wyoming writers (please attach as a separate sheet.)

Send two copies of your manuscript — for each competition entered — one application form (you may use the same form to enter both competitions; a photocopy of this form is acceptable) plus a stamped, self addressed postcard (if acknowledgement of manuscript receipt is desired) by October 30, 2009 to:

Wyoming Arts Council
2320 Capitol Avenue
Cheyenne, WY 82002
Attn: Blanchan & Doubleday Awards

Enclosure Checklist
Deadline: October 30, 2009
_____ Two copies of the manuscript for each competition entered.
_____ Signed entry form.
_____ Optional acknowledgement postcard.
_____ Biographical statement.

I verify that I am at least 18 years old, have been a legal resident of Wyoming since July 1, 2008, that I am not a full-time college student or a full-time college faculty member, I have not received a Blanchan or Doubleday Award in the last four years, and that I have published no more than one book in each genre listed on the reverse side of this page. To receive this award, I understand I must remain a Wyoming resident until June 30, 2010, and live within the state’s borders for at least ten months of the year.

Signature: _______________________Date: __________

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