After the ink dried and the printers cooled the best entries were selected as the winners in the Tulsa City-County Library’s 2015 Adult Creative Writing Contest.
An award ceremony to celebrate local wordsmiths is scheduled for April 11, 2:30 p.m. at the Rudisill Regional Library, 1520 N. Hartford.
Stacy Nyikos, award-winning children’s author, is the featured speaker. She will share insights on her writing and creative process, as well as offer tips for writers to get their works published. Nyikos, who lives in Bixby, is the author of “Squirt,” “Shelby,” “Dizzy,” “Dragon Wishes,” “Rope ‘Em!” “Toby,” and “Waggers.”
In its 38th year, The Friends of the Tulsa City-County Libraries sponsor the contest to encourage creativity and promote joy of writing among Tulsa area adults. Each year the contest receives more than 300 entries. First place winners from each category will have the opportunity to read a short selection from their winning entry.
A cash prize of $100 and a certificate are awarded to the best work within each category. Second-place winners will receive a cash prize of $50 and a certificate. Certificates are awarded to those receiving honorable mention. Manuscripts are not published but can be found in a notebook at the Friends of the Tulsa City-County Libraries Office at the Community Outreach and Literacy Services, 2901 S. Harvard.
2015 Adult Creative Writing Contest winners are:
CHILDREN’S FICTION
1st Place: Sherrin Watkins, “American Jobs For Real Americans”
2nd Place: Bethanie Verduzco, “Wolf & the Mighty Three”
Honorable Mention: Kimberlie Hughes Meyer, “The King’s Star”; Pam Woodson, “Scruffy: The Not-So-Pretty Kitty Nobody Wanted”; Amy Moore, “Ten Summer Swallows”
POETRY
1st Place: Nick Weaver, “Advice to Girls from the Beasts That Love Them”
2nd Place: Mary Margaret Freeman, “Storm Headache”
Honorable Mention: Nikki Hanna, “Vintage with Game – Or Not”; Brian Keathley, “Nurses”; Philip Lombardi, “Stupid Stuff”; Bradley Morris, “Shepherd”
SHORT STORY
1st Place: Becky Blankenship, “Workbook”
2nd Place: Paul S. Saladin, “Coffee and Donuts at Mount Zion Cemetery”
Honorable Mention: Michael Baker, “Brutan of the Jungle”; Sallie Godwin, “Troop 222 Takes Manhattan”; Nikki Hanna, “Uncle Skillet”; Wayne E. Hardy, “Sunset Acres”;
Cathy J. Hunter, “Three and a Half Dollars”
INFORMAL ESSAY
1st Place: Irma Vazquez, “Through a Wider Lens”
2nd Place: Tama Van Horn, “Solitude’s Ruse”
Honorable Mention: Jenna Buschmann, “On Being Ex-Best Friends With a Girl Made From Metaphor”; Nicola Daubert, “The Third School”; Marnie Fernandez, “Meet the Teacher: and Other Forms of Parent Torture”; Nikki Hanna, “Learning Reshuffles the Deck”
For more information on programming sponsored by the Friends of the Tulsa City-County Libraries, call 918-549-7408 or visit their website, www.tulsalibrary.org/friends.
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