New York, NY - July 29, 2014 - Poets & Writers, the nation's largest nonprofit organization serving creative writers, invites Nevadan writers to apply for the 2015 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award.
Each year, Poets & Writers invites poets and fiction writers from a selected state to apply for the award. This year, those who are residents of Nevada are eligible, provided that they have published no more than one full-length book in the genre in which they are applying.
One winner in each category will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City to meet with top literary professionals, including editors, agents, publishers, and prominent writers. While in New York, winners will also give a reading hosted by Poets & Writers. In addition, each winner is invited to spend a month at the Jentel Artist Residency Program in Banner, Wyoming.
The Writers Exchange Award aims to provide promising writers a network for professional advancement. It has helped to launch the careers of Sue Monk Kidd (The Secret Life of Bees), Elaine Beale (Another Life Altogether), Sandra Beasley (Don't Kill the Birthday Girl), David Mura (Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei), Fae Myenne Ng (Bone), Mona Simpson (Casebook), and others. Since Poets & Writers began the Writers Exchange in 1984, 87 writers from 34 states and the District of Columbia have been selected to participate. The award is generously supported by Maureen Egen, a member of the Poets & Writers Board of Directors and retired as Deputy Chairman and Publisher of Hachette Book Group USA.
Susan Boskoff, Executive Director of the Nevada Arts Council, said, "We are honored and thrilled that Poets & Writers has selected Nevada for its prestigious 2015 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Contest." She added, "The literary arts have always been a figure in the western landscape .... I suspect that many, many of our writers will participate in such a remarkable competition."
To download the guidelines and application form, go to at.pw.org/wexaward. Entries must be postmarked by December 1, 2014.