Press Release: Winners Announced — 2024 Annual Wapsie Writing Contest, May 22, 2024
Contest Rules:
The annual Wapsie Writing Contest, founded in 2023, aims to encourage children, youth, and adults to write more and improve their creative writing skills. The ability to convey ideas through narrative and writing is a fundamental skill in many fields – even in this new era of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence. Submissions for the 2025 contest will be accepted January 1st through midnight March 15, 2025. A small cash prize will be awarded to contest winners to incentivize submissions. Adults (19 and older), youth (12-18 years), and children (11 years and younger) are invited to submit a never-before-published short story or poetry—fiction or non-fiction—about a subject matter of their choosing. The length must be 100 to 1,500 words. Only one entry per person is allowed. Entries must be submitted in MS Word. Send your typed entry with your name, phone number, and age category to bbpassick@comcast.net. A panel of judges will evaluate entries based on the most creative and original and demonstrated quality of beauty and intensity of emotion for their age category. Winners will receive a certificate and cash prize, plus their stories and/or poems will be submitted for publication in regional newspapers.
2nd Annual Wapsie Writing Contest Winners: City Newspaper (fairbank-ia.org), June 2024
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Keynote Speaker
I welcome opportunities to speak about my historical crime fiction novels, memoirs, short stories, and poetry.
(P.S. I liken my writing experience to: Watch Sunday Morning: NPR’s Ari Shapiro on journalism and cabaret – Full show on CBS.)
Writing Workshops
“Writing a Novel” (90 mins.): How did I come to write the historical crime novels in the Gangster Series? (There’s an interesting story behind each book.) Topic(s) Covered: Telling the stories YOU long to tell. Audience: Customized for group interest. Outcome: Learn from an experienced author about the craft of writing historical fiction, marketing historical fiction, the business of being an author, and historical inspiration.
“Writing a Memoir” (90 mins.): Whether you wish to write a memoir of under 10 pages — or 400 pages, like mine, We Are Eight, a Memoriam (2015) — your family will treasure it just as much. Instruction: Research, Interviews, Personal Stories, Genealogy, Photos, Permissions — and more. Outcome: Attendees are provided with the tools (instruction/handouts) to create a memoir to be proud of.
Journaling (90 mins.): Beginning in childhood, I kept a journal for over 20 years. Keeping a journal proved to be great training for a career as an author of books, short stories, and poetry. Outcome: Students are provided with journals and instruction on recording their life stories through writing, drawing, photos, and mapping.
© 2019 Betty Brandt Passick. All rights reserved.