Update: Literary Awards and Masters Workshop off to a rousing start

Festival Staff / December 27, 2012

Authors (from left) Cobb, Hood, Roorbach, Watson and Divakaruni will judge awards and serve on workshop faculty

Like the Tucson Festival of Books itself, the Festival's first annual Literary Awards have proven to be a best-seller.

Some 309 entries were received by the Dec. 1 deadline — twice the number anticipated. Entries came from across the United States, including submissions from Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Oregon.

Preliminary judging in the writing competition is under way. That will be followed closely by final judging from a panel of distinguished Festival authors, who will also comprise the faculty for a March 11-12 Masters Workshop. Awards winners will be named on Feb. 2.

First-place winners in the fiction, nonfiction and poetry categories will receive $1,000, second-place winners $500 and third-place winners $250. All winners also will receive scholarships to the 2-day Masters Workshop, which will follow the March 9-10, 2013, Festival of Books. The top 50 entrants will be invited to the workshop, which, like the festival, will be held on the University of Arizona campus.

Meg Files, Chair of the Pima Community College English and Journalism Department and director of the Festival Awards and Workshop program, recently added a fifth and final member to the judging/faculty team, fiction writer and poet Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni ("The Mistress of Spices").

Previously announced members:

Larry Watson ("Montana 1948")
Ann Hood ("The Red Thread")
Bill Roorbach ("Life Among Giants")
Thomas Cobb ("Crazy Heart")

Files is already assembling the topics and rigorous schedule for the Masters Workshop, which will feature a craft lecture from each of the five authors for all 50 participants. The lectures include Watson on the topic of "What Writers Leave Out, What They Put In, and How They Decide" and Cobb on the art of writing dialogue.

The Workshop will also include readings by the five authors on Monday evening, March 11, and conclude with a panel discussion on Tuesday.