Posts Tagged‘Awards and Prizes’

Home » Awards and Prizes » Page 46

New Jewish Children’s Book Writing Contest

by Erika Dreifus on
1

In response to numerous comments from gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender parents and allies about the lack Jewish children’s books that include GLBT families or characters, we are launching the Keshet Jewish Children’s Book Writing Contest.

Keshet is seeking manuscripts of 800 – 1000 words for a fictional Jewish children’s picture book with a GLBT family or characters. We’d like the story to be of interest not just to GLBT families but to the larger Jewish community, so the storyline needs to be engaging, funny, or surprising in some way, not didactic. The story should have a clear, clever and interesting narrative plot with universal themes and Jewish content. We’re not looking for a story about what it’s like to live in a gay Jewish family, but rather a book with one or more members of a GLBT Jewish family as the central character(s) in a great story. We welcome stories that show ethnic diversity as well as diversity of family structure.

The manuscripts will be evaluated by a committee of parents, educators, children’s librarians, and a children’s book publisher. The author of the winning manuscript will receive a prize of $250 and the possibility of having their book published.

There is no entry fee, and the deadline is April 15, 2011. For more information, please visit Keshetonline.org. (via @femministas)

Jewish Literary Links: Shavua Tov Edition

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Normally, I post my link compilations on Friday morning, before Shabbat. But this week, I made so many worthy discoveries after I prepared the Friday post that I am compelled to present a second batch. Let’s consider it the “Shavua Tov” edition!

  • First, as mentioned here yesterday, The Forward has announced a poetry contest commemorating the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.
  • Also from The Forward (via the Arty Semite blog): three poems by Alicia Ostriker.
  • And The Forward‘s Arty Semite blog has also given us this gem: an update on author Imre Kertész. NB: Benjamin Ivry’s post is in English, but if you understand Hungarian or French, you’ll also be able to appreciate the video.
  • One reason I found the Kertész post so striking is that I’ve recently finished reading Ruth Franklin’s sharp new book, A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction, which features a chapter devoted to the Hungarian Nobel literature laureate. Franklin will be interviewed by James Young at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City on Wednesday, January 12. Details about the event can be found online.
  • Big thanks to the Jewish Women’s Archive for compiling the #JWA100, a list of more than 100 Jewish women who tweet.
  • Finally, on Twitter and elsewhere, many of us are sending healing thoughts to Debbie Friedman, the acclaimed Jewish songwriter who has been hospitalized in serious condition. See the URJ homepage for more information. And, returning to The Forward, you can read about efforts and prayers in her honor.

    • From The Forward: The Triangle Fire Poetry Contest

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2

    A century ago, 146 workers – mostly immigrant women – died as flames engulfed the floors where they worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City. The ensuing public outcry against unsafe work conditions was covered in detail in the pages of the Jewish Daily Forward by poet Morris Rosenfeld.

    Rosenfeld’s portrayal of the brutal effects of employee exploitation led to a trial of the factory’s owners, a greater push to unionize the garment trade and the establishment of new labor laws designed to protect workers.

    But did these events eradicate sweatshops?
    Lead to equality of opportunity for women?
    Change attitudes toward immigrants?
    End exploitation of the poor?

    The Forward is accepting original, unpublished English and Yiddish poems that address these questions or reflect upon the tragic fire’s meaning and legacy. A distinguished panel of judges will select a winning poem in each language to receive a $500 cash prize and to be published in the Forward.

    There is a $15 entry fee for this contest (with the puzzling exception in the cases of entrants “who are legal residents of Colorado, Maryland, North Dakoa, and Vermont”). Submission deadline is 5 p.m. EST on February 14, 2011. More information and the complete rules can be found at The Forward’s contest website.

    Bloggers Sought to Host Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Received via email (from two sources!) this morning:

    The Sydney Taylor Book Award committee is gearing up for its deliberations to choose the best Jewish kidlit published in the past year. Winners will be announced in January, 2011, and there will be a blog tour for medal-winning authors/illustrators in February! If you’re interested in interviewing a winner and hosting a stop on the blog tour, please let us know! We are trying to be efficient and plan ahead, even though we don’t yet know who the winners will be.

    If you’d like to participate, please email Barbara Krasner at barbarakrasner(at)att(dot)net and CC Heidi Estrin at Heidi(at)cbiboca(dot)org.

    As a reminder, here’s some background on the Sydney Taylor Book Award.

    Nonfiction Contest: New Writing on the Old World

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    As you may know, on my other blog, I limit contest announcements to competitions that do not charge entry fees. For contests interested in specifically Jewish content, however, there’s a more limited pool of information to share, so I (reluctantly) expand listings to fee-charging programs.

    Here’s a new one to share with you:

    The Summer Literary Seminars SLS Jewish Lithuania/Litvak Experiences Program is pleased to announce a new non-fiction contest: East-European Roots: New Writing on the Old World, held this year in affiliation with Tablet Magazine, an online magazine providing a “new take on Jewish life”, and judged by Philip Lopate.

    The theme for the contest is Eastern European Histories: people’s roots and ancestral heritage.

    The contest winner will have their work prominently featured online in Tablet Magazine. Additionally, they will receive free airfare, tuition, and housing to our 2011 SLS Jewish Lithuania/Litvak Experiences Program.

    Second-place winners will receive a full tuition waiver for the 2011 SLS Jewish Lithuania/Litvak Experiences Program, and third-place winners will receive a 50% tuition discount.

    A number of select contest participants, based on the overall strength of their work, will be offered tuition scholarships, as well, applicable to the 2011 SLS Jewish Lithuania/Litvak Experiences Program. Read the full guidelines.

    Note that there is a $15 application fee, and the application deadline is March 15, 2011.

    Good luck to anyone who enters this competition!