GUIDELINES FOR THE 2021 AWARD ARE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FROM OTHER YEARS. PLEASE SEE BELOW.
Instituted in 2001, the Creative Writing Award celebrates the creative writers among our members.
Because we are not hosting a conference in 2021, creative writing submissions (poetry, short story, memoir, or other creative nonfiction) are open to ALL WLA MEMBERS.
The award comes with a small stipend.
To be eligible for the award, a piece cannot have been accepted for publication in any form by the submission deadline.
Limit: 2 submissions per person.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
— You must be a WLA member.
— You must include a statement that your submission has not been accepted for publication at this time.
— Please submit your entry in full length (no longer than 10 double-spaced pages) to info@westernlit.org with the subject heading “CREATIVE WRITING AWARD SUBMISSION” by June 15, 2021.
Judging Committee:
Steven Wingate, chair
Laura Pritchett
Kara Dorris
| Year | Recipient | Piece |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Raul B. Moreno | "Sleepier Than Me" |
| 2019 | Joshua Dolezal | "Darkness and Light" |
| 2018 | Sydney Thompson | "Thataway" |
| 2017 | Cheyenne Marco | "Water Signs" |
| 2016 | Erin Flanagan | "The Rule of Threes" |
| 2015 | Michael Branch | "Dark Cliffy Spot: Naming a Place, Placing a Name" |
| 2014 | Lisa Knopp | "Groundwork" |
| 2013 | No prize was awarded. | |
| 2012 | David Thacker | "The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness and Other Poems" |
| 2011 | Doreen Pfost | "Trailing Consequences" |
| 2010 | Liz Stephens | "Ten Years I'll Never Get Back" |
| 2009 | Denice Turner | "Shadow Legacy" |
| 2008 | J. J. Clark | “As Is” |
| 2007 | Joshua Dolezal | “Selway by Headlamp” |
| 2006 | Russ Beck | “When I Believe in Faith” |
| 2004 | Terre Ryan | “In the Name of the Bomb: Confessions of a Cold War Catholic Kid” |
| 2003 | Laurie Clements Lambeth | “Fluid on the Brain” |
| 2002 | Michael L. Johnson | “Southwestern Afllatus” |
| 2001 | Lee Ann Roripaugh | “‘Mitten Springs’ and Other Poems Searching for Home: Japanese Americans in the American West” |
