Cisco Writers Club is indebted to an excellent panel of judges for our 47th Annual Writing Contest.
Adventures in Writing was read by Kelly Smithwick West of Cisco. A retired elementary teacher, UIL writing coach and essay judge, Smithwick spoke highly of this year’s imaginative and technically advanced “under sixteen” entries.
The Articles category was judged by Melissa Rawlins of Waxahachie. Rawlins, past editor of multiple city magazines in the Central Texas region, is now teaching.
Eastland’s Markay Rister, a retired college professor of English, ranked this year’s Publication Briefs category. This category includes short anecdotes and columns of general interest.
Cisco College English professor Bethney Jacobs evaluated a great stack of Poetry entries. This magna cum laude Tarleton Masters grad lives and works in Cisco.
Published novelist Dr. Lance Hawvermale judged the Books category. Hawvermale is Ranger College Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts. He also teaches the college’s Honors courses. His prose and poetry have won numerous awards, including the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation “Poetry Book of the Year.” His poems have appeared in Mid-America Review, ByLine, and The Same, among others. St. Martin’s Press published Hawvermale’s fifth novel, Face Blind, a thriller set in Chile’s Atacama desert. He holds a doctoral degree in educational leadership from Kansas State University.
Short Stories were judged by Kenneth Fenter of Springfield, Oregon. A former teacher of journalism, photography, creative writing, literature, essay writing, mass media and multimedia, Fenter takes great pleasure in sharing the writing craft with others. A novelist with several books to his credit, he established a small publishing company, Arborwood Press, in 2004.
We are indebted to these generous judges, without whom there would be no 47th Annual CWC Contest. They have our sincere thanks.
Cisco Writers Club 