Eleanor Ross Taylor wins Lilly Prize

Congratulations to Eleanor Ross Taylor, who makes her home in Charlottesville. The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is one of the largest prizes in literature — the winner receives $100,000. From the announcement: The Poetry Foundation is pleased to announce that poet Eleanor Ross Taylor has won the 2010 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Presented annually to [...]

Congratulations to Kristen-Paige Madonia!

Congratulations, K-P! Have fun in N.O.! “Polaroid,” written by Kristen-Paige Madonia, has taken top honors in the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival’s second annual fiction-writing contest, announced executive director Paul Willis.  The contest, open to short fiction works no longer than 7.000 words, was judged by celebrated novelist and short story author Jill McCorkle. “Essentially [...]

2010 Hook Short Story contest deadline approaching

Are you ready for the Hook Short Story Contest? The deadline is 5PM TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2. Check out this article in the Hook for more rules and details. Is this man the patron saint of new authors? FILE PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO You’ve read stories by John Grisham, but now he wants to read your [...]

Deadline drawing near for First Amendment Writes

Check out the details at the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression: Singer / Songwriter Terri Allard and best-selling author Rita Mae Brown will be among the judges in the fourth annual First Amendment Writes, a poetry and songwriting contest organized by the Music Resource Center, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the [...]

Josh Weil named one of “5 Under 35″

From Publishers Lunch: The National Book Foundation named their new list of “5 Under 35″: Ceridwen Dovey, Blood Kin C. E. Morgan, All the Living Lydia Peelle, Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing Karen Russell, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves Josh Weil, The New Valley

Missy Creasy wins summer reading contest at J-MRL

From Jackie at the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library: MISSY CREASY WINS SUMMER READING CONTEST $50 gift certificate to New Dominion Book Shop The new Adult Summer Reading program at the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library was a big success. Region-wide over 500 adults participated in the program from June 8-Aug 1. Participants who read at least 12 books [...]

Just Like Family

I am so proud of my talented, hard-working writer friends. This week’s Summer Reading issue of The Hook features my friend Christy Strick’s prize-winning story, “Just Like Family.” Whoo, Christy!

New reading program for adults at J-MRL: With prizes!

Some people like the beach, yeah, it’s okay, but me — I like a nice air-conditioned library when summer’s hot and the living is humid. New summer programs are revving up at the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library: New Program: JMRL Grown-Up Summer Reading program will be held at Central, Northside, Gordon Avenue, Crozet, Nelson, and Bookmobile [...]

WriterHouse places third in Wordplay

Wordplay busts out trivia teasers | Charlottesville Daily Progress After six rounds of stumpers at Thursday evening’s Wordplay quiz at the Omni Hotel Charlottesville, some 36 teams were faced with the grand finale: What number do you get when you add the number of a spider’s legs to the highest number on Spinal Tap’s dial [...]

Hook Short Story contest winners!

Here’s how they roll at WriterHouse: We didn’t sweep the contest, but two out of three isn’t bad! In late January, WriterHouse issued a challenge to our members: submit a story to the Hook Short Story Contest and make us proud. On March 18, when the Hook announced the results, two WriterHouse members (and members [...]

March Reading Club selection at BookBalloon

News from BookBalloon: The March Reading Club Selection is Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Olive Kitteridge has been named a National Book Critics Circle finalist in fiction. Discussion begins March 4 in the Forum. Registration is free.

I Am Scout named an ALA Best Book

News from local author Charles Shields: Barboursville author Charles J. Shields’s biography for young adults, I Am Scout: the Biography of Harper Lee, has been chosen as a 2009 Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association. Shields is currently writing an adult biography of Kurt Vonnegut (Henry Holt & Co.). They were [...]

2009 Hook Short Story Contest

It’s that time of year again! The Hook Short Story contest is underway. John Grisham will be judging again this year. Deadline for entries is February 3, 2009 — that’s not far off! The grand-prize winner receives $700, second place $200, and third place, $100. Next comes the fame. The grand prize-winning story will be [...]

The 2009 Tournament of Books

Huzzah! It’s Tournament of Books time again! In the absence of too much alcohol, it never would have occurred to us that we should take 16 of the most celebrated and highly touted novels of the year, seed them in a March Madness-type bracket, conscript them into a “Batttle Royale of Literary Excellence,” and, in [...]

New news from WriterHouse

Some news and upcoming events from the WriterHouse member newsletter. If you join WH, you’ll get this kind of cool info every week: News »Congratulations to our NaNoWriMo Winning Members! Several of our members took the challenge and wrote 50,000 word novels between November 1 and November 30, at great personal sacrifice, and additional waistline [...]