Words With Winners - David M. Armstrong

David Armstrong’s story collection, Going Anywhere, recently won Leapfrog Press’s Fiction Contest and will be published in fall of 2014. His individual stories have won the Mississippi Review Prize, the New South Writing Contest, Jabberwock Review’s Prize for Fiction, and Bear Deluxe Magazine’s Doug Fir Fiction Award, among others. His latest stories appear in The Baltimore Review, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Potomac Review, Mississippi Review, and elsewhere. A PhD candidate in Fiction at UNLV, he’s fiction editor of Witness Magazine and recipient of the Black Mountain Institute Fellowship. He lives in Las Vegas with his wife, Melinda, and their dog, Prynne.


The Competitive Writer is proud to present the following interview with Mr. Armstrong in which he discusses his win with Leapfrog, how his experience at the Black Mountain Institute is shaping his writing, and why he'll likely become one of the "most fortunate human beings on the planet."

Words With Winners - Michael Grabell

Michael Grabell is an award winning poet, a journalist for ProPublica, and winner of The Finish Line Press's 2012 Open Chapbook Competition.  His chapbook, Macho Man, is currently available for preorder at FLP. 

Grabell's first book Money Well Spent?: The Truth Behind the Trillion-Dollar Stimulus, the Biggest Economic Recovery Plan in History was published in 2012 by PublicAffairs.  He has been a guest on CNN, Fox News, CNBC, C-SPAN, PBS NewsHour, ABC News, CBS News, NPR's Fresh Air and the Diane Rehm Show.

Here's an excerpt from his poem Definition of Terms.  (See others excerpts at his website)

Maybe it's because my mother met my father through the kosher butcher,

kosher meaning conforming to stubbornness,

butcher meaning to walk through life with bloody hands,

& me, the bread of this affliction,

leavened with the yeast of insistent immigrant ancestors.

In The Competitive Writer's first interview with a poetry chapbook author, Michael talks about winning this contest as well as the experience of living at the confluence of poetry and journalism.

Why Writing Contests Matter - Kat Bastion

" I was in love with every page"

Wouldn't you like someone to say this?

See how romance writer Kat Bastion uses her contest winnings as a way to promote her credentials on her website

Read an excerpt from her contest winner

Then stop by her blog to check out her article.

Words With Aesthetica Creative Writing Contest Winner Kate Nowakowski

I did not do this interview, the folks at Aesthetica Magazine did. Kate Nowakowski talks about her win, how it helped her career, her thoughts on writing contests and more.

For example:

Writing competitions like the Aesthetica Creative Writing Competition, which provide an opportunity for recognition and publication to unpublished writers, are hugely valuable as they give the new writer something to realistically aim for.

Kate won the Short Fiction Contest for 2012 with her story A Cuckoo's Broken Wing.

There is still time to submit for the 2013 Short Fiction and Poetry contests.  Deadline is 31 August.

Find the interview here.
Aesthetica Competition Page

Barbara Brinson Curiel - Teacher, Poet, Winner of Phillip Levine Prize

What writers do you admire?  What if they could read your writing?

This was one of the motivations that lead Barbara Brinson Curiel to enter the Phillip Levine Prize contest, and I think it's a great way to help any competitive writer decide which contest to enter.

Ms. Curiel shares her experience with the contest, some helpful nuggets from her academic life, and gives us some insight into the powerful inspiration behind her upcoming book of poetry, Mexican Jenny and Other Poems.

Words with Eric LeMay, an Emergency Press Winner

What the best strategy for contest, taking risks or playing it safe?  What if you have a voice that will drive some people to bash their heads into walls and others to quake in their boots with feelings of divine ecstasy? In the words of this Words with Winners feature, Eric LeMay says that winning a contest might validate that he's met his goal of "creating work that's worthwhile", but it may also mean something else...

"Winning a contest can be a nice sign that I might have accomplished that aim. Of course, it might also mean I've created something unobjectionable enough to get past readers with very different tastes, the aesthetic equivalent of hotel furniture"

Eric LeMay has taught writing at Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Chicago. He is currently on the faculty of the writing program at Ohio University, his alma mater. He serves as an associate editor for the New Ohio Review and the web editor for Alimentum: The Literature of Food. He is also a host on the New Books Network. He has published two books, and his work has appeared in The Paris Review, Gastronomica, Poetry Daily, the Best Food Writing series, and other venues. He lives in Athens, Ohio, with his wife and fellow writer, Kristin LeMay.

Find out what else he has to say about writing contests below:

Writer Sophie Green and Poet Kim Lasky - Words From Bridport Prize Finalists

In this edition of  Words from Winners, I had the honor of interviewing a pair of talented and succesful women who had their works Highly Commended in the Bridport Prize contest for 2012. Sophie Green represents the Short Story category and Kim Lasky represents Poetry.  They both have some great stories about how their work came to be and useful advice when it comes to writing for contests.

Sophie Green writes short stories, children’s fiction, comedy and plays. She has a degree in Zoology and an interest in folklore. Her novel The Last Giant was shortlisted for the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition 2011. Her short stories have been published in Lip; an anthology for IP1 magazine, and on Ether Books. She was born and still lives in Suffolk and works in a public library. www.thelastgiant.com

Kim Lasky is a poet and teacher, facilitating creative writing in a variety of settings. Her pamphlet what it means to fall was published by tall-lighthouse and she is currently working on a science-inspired collection. Other work has appeared in journals in the UK and the US, and in 2011 won the Agenda poetry competition.www.kimlasky.com

The New York Yankees of Writing Competitions - Jacob Appel

Jacob Appel's resume speaks for itself.  However, he was kind enough to share some thoughts about writing competitions with The Competitive Writer. You can get some hints from his responses why he is so successful, not just in what he says, but how he says it.  He talks about his successes, his failures and everything in between.

His debut novel, The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up, won the 2012 Dundee International Book Prize and was published by Cargo in October 2012.

Words From Winners - Michael Logan Q&A

I previously highlighted Michael Logan in my first words from winners post.  Here's a little more insight about how contests have worked in his career.

Words From Winners - Michael Logan Winner of Terry Pratchett First Novel Award

Michael Logan's (blog, website) book Apocalypse Cow has earned the Terry Pratchett First Novel Award.

The website multi-story has posted his extensive diary (in 6 parts) and I recommend that you check it out.

However, if you want some quick hits, here are some interesting pieces that I was able to pull.

New Feature - Words from Winners

For a new feature on this blog - I'm going to try to find some contest winners and see what their experience was like. Hopefully, they will all respond to my emails. I'll ask the following list of questions. Feel free to comment if there are things you want to know.
1. What did winning the contest mean to your personally and professionally?
2. How has winning the contest boosted your career as an author?
3. Why did you choose to enter this specific contest?
4. What has been your past experience with writing contests?
5. What role should contests play in a writer's development?