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A wonderful surprise
came in the mail the other day: a new book by my friend Dr. Hua-Ling Hu, who is soon moving back to Southern Illinois
from Colorado. Hu is also the author of American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking: The Courage of Minnie
Vautrin. This new book The Undaunted Women of Nanking: The Wartime Diaries of Minnie Vautrin and Tsen Shui-fang is
edited and translated by Hu and Zhang Lian-hong. It is published by Southern Illinois University Press as was the
first book. An Illinois missionary to China,
Minnie Vautring stood up to the Japanese soldiers and their bayonets during the military occupation of Nanking, China.
I only learned about her from Hu's first book, and I am eager to learn about her Chinese assistant and trained nurse
Tsen Shui-fang in this new book. This new book is the first translation and publication in English of her diary. It is estimated that anywhere from 200,000 to
300,000 Chinese were killed by the Japanese soldiers during the occupation. Between 20,000 to 80,000 women were raped.
Despite Vautrin's and Shui-fang's exhaustion from turning their college into a refugee camp and protecting more than l0,000
women and children, both women kept diaries during this time. Shui-fang's diary is the only know daily account by a
Chinese national during this terrible time. Co-editor Zhang Lian-hong is professor of history and chairman of the Center for Studies
on the Nanjing Massacre of Nanjng Normal University as well as associate chairman of the Modern Chinese Historical Society
of Kiangsu Province and Nanjing Historical Society. He has co-authored or co-edited seven books published in Chinese. This new book The Undaunted Women of Nanking: The Wartime Diaries of Minnie Vautrin and Tsen Shui-fang is
edited and translated by Hu and Zhang Lian-hong. It is published by Southern Illinois University Press as was the
first book. An Illinois missionary to China,
Minnie Vautring stood up to the Japanese soldiers and their bayonets during the military occupation of Nanking, China.
I only learned about her from Hu's first book, and I am eager to learn about her Chinese assistant and trained nurse
Tsen Shui-fang in this new book. This new book is the first translation and publication in English of her diary. It is estimated that anywhere from 200,000 to
300,000 Chinese were killed by the Japanese soldiers during the occupation. Between 20,000 to 80,000 women were raped.
Despite Vautrin's and Shui-fang's exhaustion from turning their college into a refugee camp and protecting more than l0,000
women and children, both women kept diaries during this time. Shui-fang's diary is the only know daily account by a
Chinese national during this terrible time. Co-editor Zhang Lian-hong is professor of history and chairman of the Center for Studies
on the Nanjing Massacre of Nanjng Normal University as well as associate chairman of the Modern Chinese Historical Society
of Kiangsu Province and Nanjing Historical Society. He has co-authored or co-edited seven books published in Chinese. This new book The Undaunted Women of Nanking: The Wartime Diaries of Minnie Vautrin and Tsen Shui-fang is
edited and translated by Hu and Zhang Lian-hong. It is published by Southern Illinois University Press as was the
first book. An Illinois missionary to China,
Minnie Vautring stood up to the Japanese soldiers and their bayonets during the military occupation of Nanking, China.
I only learned about her from Hu's first book, and I am eager to learn about her Chinese assistant and trained nurse
Tsen Shui-fang in this new book. This new book is the first translation and publication in English of her diary. It is estimated that anywhere from 200,000 to
300,000 Chinese were killed by the Japanese soldiers during the occupation. Between 20,000 to 80,000 women were raped.
Despite Vautrin's and Shui-fang's exhaustion from turning their college into a refugee camp and protecting more than l0,000
women and children, both women kept diaries during this time. Shui-fang's diary is the only know daily account by a
Chinese national during this terrible time. Co-editor Zhang Lian-hong is professor of history and chairman of the Center for Studies
on the Nanjing Massacre of Nanjng Normal University as well as associate chairman of the Modern Chinese Historical Society
of Kiangsu Province and Nanjing Historical Society. He has co-authored or co-edited seven books published in Chinese. Books abound at Woodsong, and I am always behind in reading all I want to read. But
I am especially eager to read the stories of these two women written under great pressure as they faced evil and
saved so many lives. 
Hua-Ling Hu is featured on the front page of the Southern Illinoisan
on Sunday, Dec. 12, with a story and photograph of her with her newest book The Undaunted Women of Nanking, which
contains the diaries of Illinois missionary Minnie Vautrin and her assistant Tsen Shui-Fang during the Nanking Massacre
of 1937 and 1938. The diaries, which are the only accounts of that horrible event, are translated by Hu and Ahang
Lian-hong.
English teachers at Carbondale Community High School, Danny
Wilson and Emily Hayes, has written a song "Huck Finn Blues" and performed it at the Hannibal, MO, museum. The song
will be recorded by Brad Paisley on a CD to honor the legacy of Mark Twain as a benefit for the museum.
John J. Dunphy, a frequent contributor to Springhouse, has a new
book From Christmas to Twelfth Night in Southern Illinois published by The History Press.
Kathryn Kerr, who grew up in Johnson County, and taught at John A. Logan
and SIUC, has yet another poetry book coming out called Turtles All the Way Down. Order for $12 plus $1 shipping
from Finishing Line Press, P.O. Box 1626, Georgetown, KY 40324 or order online from the publisher.
Elizabeth Hyden Ziglinski of Marion won second place in the poetry category
of the 2010 Emerging Writers Competion co-sponsored by the Illinois
State Library , the Illinois Poet Laureate, and Illinois Center for the Book, which identifies outstanding Illinois merging
poets and short story writers.
Pinckney Benedict read at Rend Lake College on October 13, 2010, and the
Creative Writing Club read on November 24.
Union County author and historian Darrel Dexter was hired by another
author to find information about the ancestors of Michelle Obama in Southern Illinois. Her great-great grandparents
were former slaves who lived in Pulaski County. Dexter, who has published 25 historical books, believes the
graves of Mary and Nelson Moten are probably in the Henderson Cemetery just north of Pulaski, where Mary Moten's
second husband Sgt. Jerry Sutton is buried although markers for the Motens are no longer there.
Sinulak Binder, who grew up on the Giant City Blacktop, has written a book
Images of America: Giant City State Park for arcadiapublishing. Full of photographs and her
research, the book by this award-winning reporter is available at Barnes & Noble and online.
Rey Evangelista wrote "Big Game Hunter" in the July Review Newpaper featuring
his drawing and story of Don Gasaway, a local hunting and outdoor writer.
David Conrad of Murphysboro uses the Great Depression in Southern Illinois
as the setting for his mystery Perfect Murder. Conrad is a retired SIUC history professor.
Brain Eston, Murphysboro native, has completed his werewolf triology. He
self-published his first two books. Now Permuted Press bought all three books and is re-releasing the first
two and publishing the third.
Richard A. Wittmeyer of Marion has written a book for job seekers to help them
win a job in a job-scarce marketplace. What You Should Knoiw When Looking for a Job in Today's Marketplace. Wittmeyer
is president of Strategic Performing Solutions and was awarded a Ph.D in organizational behavior.
Press 53 website has announced that SIUC professor Pinckney Benedict has
made the long list for the 2010 Cork City--Frank O'Connor Short Story Award. Miracle Boy and Other Stories
is his first short story collection since he published The Wrecking Yard. The website say: "Miracle Boy and Other Stories is a collection
of fourteen stories that were first published in Esquire, Tin House, Zoetrope: All-Story, Ontario
Review, Antietam Review, Appalachian Heritage, Sonora Review, Image, StoryQuarterly,
and The Journal. Many of these stories earned encore appearances in The O.Henry Awards, New Stories
from the South: The Year’s Best, The Pushcart Prize: The Best of Small Presses, The Best of Tin House,
and Mammoth Book of Best New Horror." Signed copies can be ordered from www.Press53.com for $19.95 plus $3 postage and handling.
Steve Eberhard has written a mystery set in Southern Illinois called Makanda
Dreams. Find this book at The Bookworm.
Chicago poet and writer who helped found the nation's oldest and largest black-owned book publisher Carolyn
M. Rodgers died recently at age 60. She wrote nine books and is acclaimed as part of the black arts movement of the
1960s and 1970s. She helped found Third World Press and also started her own publishing company called Eden Press. A public
memorial for her was May 3.
Taylor Pensoneau has published a second book Dapper & Deadly: The
True Story of Black Charlie Harris about another infamous gangster That and his previous book about the Shelton
brothers is available at The Bookworm.
Richard A. Wittmeyer
of Marion has a new book out called What You Should Know When Looking for a Job in Today's Marketplace. The president
of Strategic Performing Solutions, Wittmeyer says the job seeking process has changed in the last 20 years. His book
is an effort to help those trying to find work in an area with over 11% unemployment .
Retired SIUC history
professor David Conrad has written a murder mystery entitled Perfect Murder. Conrad
has published three novels previously. In this latest novel, he uses local history and Southern Illinois locales. He
will be signing at Carbondale's Book Work at 2 p.m. on April 27.
Drs. Maxine Pyle and Marleis Trover have had
a number of signings of their new book Pass the Plate, which tells the story of Kenneth Gray's work in the United
States Congress, where he was responsible to securing funds to build infrastructure in our area, such as Interstates 57, 64,
and 24. His success brought him the nickname "Prince of Pork" and brought our region post offices, hospitals, and nursing
homes, and Rend Lake.
Joanna Gray did it again with a great feature in the Southern
Health Magazine writing about Laura Warfel's success in beating cancer. Warfel is a well known writer/speaker/teacher
formerly from our area who now lives Park Forest, IL.
It was so exciting to see
in Heartland Women that Ruby Jung has completed her project of seeing that the late Jim Jung's book Weird Egypt
is now available in a second edition by Wooly Worm Press. Jim had hand published this in 2006 and shortly afterward
became ill and died in March 2007. He will always be remembered by his annual publication of The Nature Almanac.
Fascinated by natural phenomenon and oddities of nature, Jim's book tells of haunts, monsters, earth lights and
more in Southern Illinois and makes the case that these occurrences are caused by deep-seated ecological disturbances over
the area's fault lines and other geological anomalies. The book is available locally at Book Worm and Eastgate Shopping
Center. Price is $29.95.
Hear Adam E. Stone read
from his newest novel this Friday, October 30, 09, at Carbondale's Book Worm at 4:30. Stone will be
signing and reading from The New Harmonies. You can check out his books on his website: www.adamestone.com.
(Be sure and put in the middle initial to get the correct website.) The new book is about three working-class Southern Illinois
musicians struggling to break into the music business. Adam is also a song writer, by the way. His first novel
Xamon Song is a human rights novel and is presented on his website with materials to use in the high school
classroom.
His second novel Kingston Fugue tells of loss and examines a rare disassociative fugue similar to amnesia. (Isn't
there a story about a teen with this in the news right now?)
What a great story Joanna
Gray wrote about her mother Pauline Gray in the September 16 The Southern Health Magazine. At 89, Mrs. Gray takes
no prescription meds, eats well, and stays active. Thanks for sharing her story, Joanna!
Anna native Marianna
(Brown) Riley and Robert Ellis have collaborated to produce a book about his experiences as a nurse caring for Saddam
Hussein-- Caring for Victor: U.S. Army Nurse and Saddam Hussein. Retired from the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch, Riley is a board member of the Union County Historical Society. Ellis
now works in the operating room at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Josh Mandrell, 28-year-old
Christian doctor, who was formerly youth minister at Trinity United Methodist Church in West Frankfort from 1998-2003, has
written Dating, Finding and Keeping "The One": Stuff Other Relationshnip Guides Won't Tell You. The book is
available from Handfuls on Purpose book store in Marion and at Gospeland Bookstores in Carbondale and Marion. Mandrell
is now a dermaatology resident atLoyola University Medical Center in Chicago.
Dick Gregory is coming to town! He will
be the first inductee into the Varsity Center for the Arts' Hall of Fame. Activist, author, comedian, Gregory helped
break segregation in Carbondale persuading the theater to stop limiting blacks to only balcony seats. A popular
track star, bongo player, and roommate of Harvey Welch, Gregory will have his portrait painted for the Varsity by Najjar
Abdul-Musawwir, SIUC art professor.
Congratulations to novelist
Bill O'Shea of West Frankfort for winning the Golden Pen Award in July for his letter to the editor in the Southern Illinoisan.
Herrin native has released
a novel about the 1922 Herrin Massacre. John Griswold, creative writing teacher at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, fictionalizes
this terrible event in A Democracy of Ghosts. Griswold is also working on a creative nonfiction account of
Herrin set to be published in Spring 2010.
Richaard "Pete" Petersen, Makanda, tells of
growing up in the south side of Pittsburgh, PA, when kids thought the only decent future would be playing for the Pirates.
An alternative might be Juvenile Court, he said in a May 18, 09, interview in the Southern Illinoisan. Growing
Up with Clemente is the memoir published by Kent State Univedrsity Press by the former head of the Southern Illinois
University Carbondale Department of English.
Jonothan Bean, Southern
Illinois University Carbondale professor, has edited Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader published
by the University of Kentucky Press in ciollaboration with the Independent Insitute.
Murphysboro native Jerry
Mileur has published High- Flying Birds, a story of the 1942 St. Louis Cardinals, through the University of Missouri Press.
News anchor Angie Wyatt
has seen her children's book Timmy the Tractor published through a deal with Horizon Media Group of Paducah, which
teamed with Paducah Printing Corp. Future plans are plush toys of the book's characters and a performance with life-sized
puppets in partnership with MCED, a Murphysboro theater company.
Harry Spiller released his twelveth book in April 2009. American
POWs in World War II is a compilation of twelve personal accounts of service people captured by Germany and Japan.
McFarland & Sons Company, Inc. is publisher.
Joanna Beth Tweedy, formerly of Murphysboro, has released her debut novel The
Yonder Side of Sass and Texas. Tweedy is associate dean at Benedictine University at Springfield. She
is both the host of Quiddity public-radio program and founding editor of of Quiddity's companion international literary
journal.
Once again Joy Rainey King has had her poetry published internationally--this time
G. Mend Ooyo president of the Mongolian Academy of Cuture and Poetry, is including one of her poems in the book Ameridan Poetry.
Other poets in the book include Allen Ginsberg, Emily Dickinson, Henry David Thoreau, and Edgar Allen Poe.
Sue Glasco spoke on "Blogging for Writers" at the Heartland
Writers Guild on Sunday, July 12, 2009, at Sikeston, MO. Other appearances this year have been February 14 at the Fourth Annual Winter Book Fair at Illinois Centre
Mall; speaking on Priscilla at the DuQuoin DAR on March 2, speaking on "Priscilla on the Trail of Tears" at Jefferson County Genealogical Society at Brehm Memorial
Library on March 7; speaking on "Priscilla on the Trail of Tears." at Centralia
Historical Museum on March 17, speaking on "Priscilla on the Trail of Tears" for
Marilyn Schild's Lifelong Learning Class on Trail of Tears at John A. Logan College on March 24; serving as tour guide
for Rend Lake College's Trail of Tears across Southern Illinois on March 24; speaking
at Priscilla at the John A. Logan Museum in Murphysboro on April 18, speaking on Trail of Tears at West Frankfort St.
John's School on April 17, and serving as Union County tour guide on the Illinois Chapter's first bus tour across the Trail
of Tears in Southern Illinois on June 13.
Jon Musgrave spoke to the Southern Illinois Writers Guild on March 19 and told about his new project working
on script about Bloody Williamson with a colleague from St.Louis. Some of the numerous books include: The Bloody
Vendetta of Southern Illinois (Milo Erwin & Jon Musgrave, writers); Slaves, Salt, Sex & Mr. Crenshaw: The
Real Story of the Old Slave House and America's Reverse Underground R.R.; Handbook of Old Gallatin County and Southeastern
Illinois. The April 21 meeting of SIWG was a Critique Night and many excellent works were read.
Sue Glasco had a feature story in February's Marion Living telling the story of Jari Jackson's 50 plus career in journalism
at major metropolitan papers, her retirement in Marion, her book recently published, and plans for her second book.
Harry Spiller was awarded life membership in Southern
Illinois Writers Guild on January 15 when he spoke to the group. Harry was SIWG sponsor from 2001 until his retirement
in Spring 2008. Kathleen Carl is the current sponsor of the Guild, which is open to not only John A. Logan College students
but to anyone interested in writing.
Laura Benedict signed her second horror novel Calling
Mr.Lonely Hearts at Carbondale's Barnes & Noble recently. Her debut novel was Isabella Moon. Both
were published by Ballentine Books, a division of Random House.
Harry Spiller to Speak to SIWG January 15, 2009
Best-selling author Harry Spiller, whose 12th book American POW’s in World War II is coming out in February, will open
the club year for Southern Illinois Writers Guild at John A. Logan College on Thursday, January 15. SIWG meets in the Terrace Dining Room Annex at 7 p.m. The public is always welcome.
Spiller, who was selected as “Outstanding Author in the State
of Illinois” in 2006 by the Illinois Center for the Book, went into the Marine Corps in 1963 after high school graduation.
He served two tours of duty in Vietnam and returned home to Marion to serve as a Marine Recruiter for Southern Illinois and
Southeast Missouri.
After being discharged in 1973, Spiller worked as a deputy sheriff.
He was elected sheriff of Williamson County in 1982 and served until he resigned in 1989 to teach at John A. Logan College.
Spiller completed a Bachelors of Science in Criminal Justice, a Bachelor
of Arts in Political Science, and a Masters of Public Administration at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Spiller retired
from JALC in 2008 as Associate Professor in Criminal Justice He had served as sponsor of SIWG from 2001 until his retirement.
Always interested in writing, Spiller sold his first true crime story in 1989 to
Official Detective Magazine and has sold 32 other short stories to various periodicals since then. Several stories from his Murder in the Heartland series have been featured on Court TV's Forensic
Files, A&E, and Cold Case Files. Published by Turner Publishers,
the Murder in the Heartland series have been regional best sellers.
Spiller’s first book Death Angel, a memoir of his time in the Marine Corps was published in 1992 by McFarland
Publishers. In 1994, he participated in the book Spouse Killers, a collection
of true crime stories, published by Pinnacle
Books and then in the follow-up book Greed Killers.
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John Meacham's “Pros and Cons of Hunting Partners" Wins Best Of Open Award
For the third time in the past five years, the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor
Writers has named a humor piece by John Meacham of Chester, Ill., "Best of Open" in the magazine division of its Awards-in-Craft
contest.
"The Pros and Cons of Hunting Partners" was published in the September 2007 issue
of Adventure Sports Outdoors, a regional magazine based in Tremont, Ill. The open category, sponsored by Ducks Unlimited,
includes humor and articles and essays on outdoor topics, non-game wildlife and general conservation issues.
AGLOW presented its awards September 16, during its annual conference at the Lake
of the Woods in Minnesota.
"My column points out that the decision about whether to hunt alone or with a partner
is one of the most important a hunter must make," Meacham said. "I discuss many of the factors involved, including these:
"'Pro Partner: Someday you may hit 15 doves in 16 shots and need somebody to back
up your story when you tell the boys. Hunt with a partner and you'll have a witness. Con Partner: Someday you may miss a bull
moose broadside at 50 yards and wrap your brand new 7mm Magnum around a tree trunk. Hunt with a partner and you'll have a
witness.'"
Meacham's "Henry Johnson and the High-Tech Hunter," published in the July/August 2004
issue of Turkey Call, won the Best of Open award in 2005. His "Fergie Foreman and the Big Boss Gobbler," published in Petersen's
Bowhunting, won in 2004.
Meacham currently serves on the board of directors of AGLOW, which
has about 350 members from 30 states. For information about his books and books on compact disc, visit
www.storiesbyjohn.commeacham@midwest.net.
Roger
Swan returned home to Marion to write two books: Steps for Sale: A Guide to Successful Selling and Radio
Travels for Sale. With a highly successful radio/journalism career, one of "his greatest accomplishments ocurred
at WROY/WRUL in Carmi from 1987 until 1998," according to Editor Bill Swinford in the Marion Daily Republican.
"There he took the stations from $300,000 a year to $792,00," Swinford continues. You can purchase the books
at www.lulu.com by searching for the name Roger Swan.
Carbondale Post Office Retiree and well-known gardener, Bobby Jo Lewis has published My
Wildlife in the Woods: A Sportsman's Journal. Based on his journals of outdoor adventures, the book "contains memories
of a life spent hunting, fishing, trapping, and collecting Indian artifacts in the woods," according to Linda Rush's article
in the Southern
Illinoisan.
Dr. David E. Christensen , who spent a career at Southern
Illinois University Carbondale teaching about the need for a sustainable balance between the needs of the planet and the needs
of humans, spoke to Southern Illinois Writers Guild on September 18. Adding to his academic writing, Christensen published
Healing the World: A Primer About the World and How We Must Fix in for Our Children in 2005 and Earth is Overpopulated
Now in 2007. In 2008, he published a book by a sister-in-law titled Shuttle Song: And Other Poems. An
avid letter-to-the-editor writer, Christensen recently won a Golden Pen Award from Southern Illinoisan readers. Christensen
is now working on a third nonfiction book and has plans to eventually publish his poetry.
--Latest SIWG news release --Jacinda Townsend to Speak to Southern Illinois
Writers Guild on August 21
Creative writing teacher Jacinda Townsend will present to Southern Illinois Writers Guild on Thursday, August 21,
in the Terrace Dining Room Annex at John A. Logan College at 7 p.m.
A graduate of both Harvard and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a former Fulbright fellow to Cote d‘Ivoire,
Townsend is a well-published and award-winning writer as well as an assistant professor in the Southern Illinois University
Carbondale English Department.
Among the awards her writing has achieved are the 2003-04 Carol Houck Smith fiction fellow at the Wisconsin Institute
of Creative Writing and a 2002 Hurtson Wright Award finalist. Her work has been anthologized in O Henry Festival Stories 2000 and Telling Stories Fiction by Kentucky
Feminists.
In addition to publishing two stories in the popular Chicken Soup series,
Townsend has published in numerous literary magazines, such as African Voices, Carve Magazine, The Maryland Review, Moon
City Review, Obsidian II, Passages North, Phoebe, Struggle, and Xavier Review
The public is inivited to all SIWG meetings as well as to their twice monthly prose and poetry readings at Latta
Java Coffee Shop at 412 North Market in Marion. . SIWG sponsors the open mike readings, and Terance
Henry hosts every second and fourth Thursday of the month at 6:30 p.m.or whenever
people want to drop by those evenings
What a great photo of Ken "Fog"
Gilbert and Emily Dickenson in the July 7th Southern Illinoisan. The story by Codell Rodriguez about Fog's poetry
was great too. Chuck Novara took this pix of the John A. Logan College English teacher with one of his favorite poets.
Fog has published several books of poetry as well as being published in numerous magazines. Dean Ford, a colleague in
the English Department, likes Fog's poetry so much that he uses it for students to study and critique. Fog
is married to a fellow prose and poetry writer Laura DeMali Gilbert.
Additional news about Fog: He will be at
Latta Java, 412 Market Street in Marion, on Thursday, July 24, at 6:30 with his friend Eric Mandat, the clarinetist, who has
presented poetry programs with him for 10 years including several times on Studio A Cafe, an arts presentation of PBS television.
Cheryl Jett of Collinsville
has just signed a contract with Arcadia Publishing for the Images of America Series. Her book on Alton will probably
be out next spring sometime. Keep tuned. Cheryl is a full-time writer of grants and PR for various causes.
As a consultant, she offers historical research and editing services. She serves on the Illinois Chapter of Trail of
Tears Association as secretary and has done much writing for this organization. An authority on the Southwestern Indian
women, Cheryl also was affiliated with Cahokia Mounds for many years. Check out her website:www.cheryljettconsulting.com
Most Inspiring Story:
A recent column "Path to Success" featured David England. I was overwhelmed reading about the obstacles this
smiling popular professor at John A. Logan College has overcome. He is now being acknowledged nationally for his investment
methods. Soon to come: A line of trading-investment DVDs and a book co-authored with Dean Adams of Colorado.
Congratulations to William Recktenwald
and the SIUC Journalism
Department. Recktenwald has just been inducted
into the Chicago Journalism's Hall of Fame. He will be joining such bright lights as Mike Royko, Paul Harvey, and Bill
Kurtis. SIUC was fortunate to snag such an inspiring and demandiing journalist to join their faculty after Recktenwald
"retired" to Herod.
Here's the release
about June 19 meeting of SIWG:
Laura Benedict to Speak at Southern Illinois Writers Guild June 19
Returning from serving on the faculty at the Tinker Mountain Writers’
Workshop and from presenting readings at both the Hollins Branch Library in Roanoke, VA, and at a book club in Cincinnati,
OH, Laura Benedict will speak to Southern Illinois Writers Guild on June 19. Then after some writing time at home, the Carbondale
novelist is off to the Thrillerfest on July 10 at the Grand Hyatt in New York City and while there will also be reading with
seven other writers at Borders Manhattan Park Avenue.
SIWG invites the public to their monthly 7 p.m. meetings in the JALC
Terrace Dining Room Annex.
Debut thriller novelist Benedict not only produced Isabella Moon
for Ballantine Books, a Random House imprint, but her two-book deal will be complete with the publication of Calling
Mr. Lonely Hearts at the end of December. This second novel is already available for pre-order on Amazon. Both books were
contracted for an audio version. A paperback edition of Isabella will be available at the end of the year and is already
available for Amazon Kindle.
Benedict’s essays and short stories have appeared in numerous
magazines and anthologies including Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Best Mysteries of 2001. For ten years
she wrote book reviews for the The Grand Rapids Press and other newspapers.. She co-edited Surreal South, a collection
of short stories and poems, with her husband Pinckney Benedict of the Southern Illinois University Carbondale Creative Writing
Program. She also adapted one of his short stories for West Virginia Public Television.
Living in country, Benedict’s favorite writing spot is her
front porch watching the deer and her dog as she creates on her laptop. Other times she and her husband, whom she met at a
writers’ conference and later married in 1990, write in their separate home offices and then go out to lunch together.
Although they don’t read one another’s work in progress,
Benedict explained the advantage of being married to a fellow writer in an online interview with The Southeast Review:
” It's nice because writing can be so solitary, and it helps to have a partner who doesn't take it personally when I
wander out of my office dazed and distracted, only to go running back inside without saying a word.”
The mother of two children, Benedict loves to bake and has the distractions
that come with the responsibility of running their household. Nevertheless, she was able to complete Isabella Moon including
two revisions in 14 months after her young son started all-day kindergarten. She had written two earlier unpublished novels
that took her eight years and three-and-a-half years. Continuing in the family tradition, this spring their teenage daughter
Nora was a finalist with her short story in the Young Writers category of the Press 51 Open Awards.
Not only will Benedict be reading with Alexandra Sokoloff, Shane
Gericke, Michelle Gagnon, JT Ellison, Tim Maleeny, Mario Acevedo and Laura Caldwill with an introduction by Lee Child at the
July Thrillerfest, she is also scheduled to share the podium reading with Joyce Carol Oates in September when Benedict leads
a workshop at the 29th Annual Kentucky Women’s Writer Conference at Lexington.
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Tim
Ellsworth writes book God in a Whirlwind telling the story of the tornado that hit Union University. Now director of news and media relations, Ellsworth was
graduated from Benton High School and also worked as a reporter for the Southern Illinoisan.
Congratulations Jeremy Melvin! Email on 6/8/08 from
SIWG President Jim Lambert:
SIWG member Jeremy Melvin won the Heartland Writers Conference short
story contest. The winners were announced yesterday.
He also took third
place! His winning piece will be published in the Big Muddy literary
magazine. Congratulations
to Jeremy.
Our next reading at Latta Java in Marion is this Thursday the 12th at 6.
Bring poetry and/or short prose
to read, or just come to enjoy the
readings.
Our next SIWG meeting is the following Thursday (June 19th). Our speaker
will be mystery novel writer Laura Benedict.
Write on. Write on.
Jim Lambert
15th edition of Scope, the SIU School of Medicine's annual
literary journal was recently released and those who were published in it read from their work in April. Scott Fitzgerald,
reporter for Southern Illinoisan, explained that the new edition "contains 33 short stories, poems, drawings, and
photographs submitted by students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the school."
Formerly with the SIUC Newman Center, Jack Frerker has
returned to our area to sign and read from his latest mystery novel Monksbain.
Carbondale's Bookworm hosted a signing for local authors on May 10
to celebrate their seventh anniversary. Book authors represented were David Conrad, Ken "Fog" Gilbert, David
Kenney, Anne-Marie Legan, Jon Musgrave, Ronald Ray Schmeck, Jim Lambert, and Roger Dale Trexler. I wanted to be there,
but I was in Freeport watching my granddaughter Leslie Eiler play Snoopy in her school's musical.
Prolific regional writer Jon Musgrave has been leading the Williamson County Tourism Bureau since November
2006. He will soon be leaving to take on the same position with the Southern Illinois Tourism Development Office (SITDO),
according to May 15 lead story in the Marion Daily Republican by Matt Hawkins.
Congratulations Erika!
Poet and fiction writer Erika Hookam of Murphysboro was awarded the President's
Distinquished Service
Award at John A. Logan College recently. Erika also received the Student Leadership Award.
News Anchor Angie Wyatt to Speak to Southern Illinois Writers
Guild
Angie Wyatt will present to Southern Illinois Writers Guild at John A. Logan College
at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 15, in the Terrace Dining Room Annex.
Wyatt, an Emmy Nominated Anchor/Reporter for WSIL TV3, started her career at WJHG-TV
in Panama City, Florida. After moving on to WABU-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, she next worked at WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York.
In 1997 before coming to Channel 3 in Southern Illinois at the end of that year,
she was s a freelance reporter and producer with Expedition Outlook working on educational documentaries. She traveled and
reported from both Alaska and deep in the Amazon jungle in South America.
Wyatt has also done freelance reporting for Court-TV, C-SPAN, CNN and ABC/Reuters-owned
States News Service.
A native or Opp, Alabama, Wyatt was graduated from Troy State University in 1991
and studied government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1996.
Wyatt and her husband Jon have one
son named Wyatt, her maiden name. The son was early fascinated with farm equipment and one of his first words was "tractor."
This resulted in Angie Wyatt writing a children’s book Timmy the Tractor.
Second Poetry Reading at Latta Java in Marion
And a good time was had by all at our second Poetry Reading at Latta Java in Marion. Southern
Illinois Writers Guild has just started sponsoring this evening twice a month. Next readings will be May 8
and 22--second and fourth Thursdays of the month at 6 p.m. Original prose can be read also.
Well known and award winning poet David Bond of Carbondale was there again and read from both
his books of poetry Colors and American Chicken. One or two I had heard before, and I was glad to
hear them again.
Aurora Strick read from her beautiful manuscript about her family in Mexico. This is twice I
have heard her read, and she writes so movingly. Just the facts, but they are fascinating. She knows how
to tell them well. Tonight she told us of her great grandmother who was won as a bride in a card game.
Mary Ann Sexton was there and read for the first time in her new avocation as a writer.
In addition to her inspirational poem, which had been published in the Guild anthology, she read two poems written for her
two children's birthdays. (These poems have been printed on parchment paper and surrounded with photos for birthday
gifts.) Mary Ann's children are especially prescious because they came after years of waiting. In fact, her poem explained,
instead of silver for her 25th anniversary, she had the great longed-for gift of a little sister for her son.
Once again Jim Lambert pleased us with his poetry from Winds of Life. His poems about
the paper prayer hanky he got through the mail and his visit to the local funeral home to arrange for his mother's burial
made us laugh. These true experiences should have been serious but were made ridiculous by the commercialization
of what should have been sacred. With a touch of Texas still in his voice despite his years in Chicago area, Jim captures
his audience. Oh yeah, there was that poem describing him and his cousins imitating the chicken whose neck his mother had
just wrung. Jim's honest poetry tells it like it is.
I read the most of rest of the few poems I have written in adulthood. I just wanted to be in
on the fun. If I read again, it will have to be prose.
It was fun having folks coming and going and providing us a growing audience. Some of the theater
folk had to leave early. It was great seeing SIWG member Jeremy Melvin from Logan. I hope he reads next time. His
prose reads like poetry to me. Unfortunately, he didn't bring a manuscript with him tonight. He just came to listen.
Report from Linda Allen, our former Southern Illinois Writers Guild president:
It was great to hear from Linda Allen, playwright, director, actress, poet, short story writer, and
novelist now living in Florida. She has just had a poem published in the Jan-Feb issue of Alive
Now magazine, a publication of Upper Room and got an email they've accepted another. Upper Room
is a hard market to crash--I have tried once or twice. Congratulations, Linda. She has also started a little
critique group of a few people from her church and community theater group that like to write. They meet once
a month to share and discuss. She is also working with her pastor writing plays for worship service and some of
those are being considered by Contemporary Drama. Perhaps most exciting she and Bob have a new baby boy in
the family (Robin and Greg adopted him--born Dec. 5)and he's only about two minutes from Linda's house! Linley
and family live in Palatka (about an hour southwest of them) where her Bob is the Presbyterian minister.
Poet and Associate Professor Allison Joseph has carried a love of language from the Bronx to Southern Illinois University
Carbondale while earning degrees, fellowships, and numerous poetry awards. She will share experiences and expertise she has
gained at Southern Illinois Writers Guild on Thursday, April 17, at 7 p.m. in the Terrace Dining
Room Annex at John A. Logan College. The public is invited.
What Keeps Us Here published by Ampersand in 1992 brought her the John C. Zacharis First Book Prize. Four more books
have continued her success: Soul Train published by Carnegie Mellon in 1997, In Every Seam by University of
Pittsburgh Press in 1997, Imitation of Life by Carnegie Mellon in 2003, and Worldly Pleasures by Word Press
in 2004.
Born in London of Caribbean heritage, she grew up in a Bronx neighborhood she often has written about. Influenced by the
late Illinois poet laureate Gwendolyn Brooks and a story teller like her father, she often writes free verse as she tells
brutally honest narratives with remarkable human insight that are sometimes autobiographical and sometimes imaginative. She
also writes fiction.
Perhaps New York’s poets-in-the schools program along with the writing she did at Bronx High School of Science inspired
her to start the Young Writers Workshop at SIUC in 1999. The creative writing faculty and graduate students are used in this
effort and offers a four-day residential summer program that draws high school students from both in and out of the area.
Holding the Judge William Holmes Cook Endowed Professorship, her many honors have included fellowships from the Illinois
Arts Council and Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers Conferences. In 2003 alone, she received six prizes. More recently she was
awarded $5,000 for her poems “Cartography” and “Emergency Librarian” in the 2006 Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg
Poetry Competition and then received a second Artists Fellowship in Poetry in 2007 from the Illinois Arts Council for $7,000.
She is the editor and the poetry editor of Crab Orchard Review, an international literary journal of SIUC.
She was graduated from Kenyon College in 1988 and was awarded a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Indiana in 1992.
She taught two years at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock before coming to SIUC.
********************************************************************
David E. Christensen, retired SIUC professor, has edited and published his late sister-in-law
Evelyn Ackley Christensen's poetry in a volume called Shuttle Song and Other Poems.
He will be signing the book at Bookworm in Carbondale this Saturday, March 29, from 2 to 4.
The board of the Illinois Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association presented a symposium on
the Trail through Southern Illinois at the March 13-15 Illinois State Historical Society.
On the panel were Dr. Rowena McClinton, Gary Hacker, Joe Crabb, Cheryl Jett, Harvey Henson, and Sue Glasco.
Sue Glasco's article "Watching Martins is a Family Tradition" is in the March
8-14 issue of Happiness. The accompanying photo is by her husband Gerald D. Glasco, Sr. The article
orginally appeared in Harvest of Words, the 2006 Union County Writers Group anthology.
Asali Solomon will reading at the SIUC Student Center Auditorium Monday at 4 with a signing at 5
in the Old Main Lounge on the second floor. Solomon's collection of short stories was a Debut Fiction nominee for the
2007 Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. Considered a young author of promise by the National Book Foundation, Solomon is coming
to SIUC in conjunction with the visiting writers series, according to Flipside.
Here's a note from Lonnie Cruse:
Hello all,
I'm officially launching my new book, FIFTY-SEVEN
HEAVEN on Saturday, March 15, 2-4 PM at the Metropolis Public Library, 313 Metropolis St. in Metropolis, IL.
This
is the first book in a new series for me,
featuring baby-boomers Kitty and Jack Bloodworth and
their '57 Chevy.
Come have a free Coke Float and chat about the 50's.
Anyone brave enough to wear a 50's outfit will be
entered
in a contest, the prize, an autographed
hardback copy of FIFTY-SEVEN HEAVEN. Hope to see you
there!
Lonnie
Apron Through the Ages Features Marie Samuel's Work
Artist/author Marie Samuel has a mixed media exhibit at Aprons Through The Ages March
4-28 at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, 26th and Highland View, Mount Vernon. Her exhibit is in the spirit
of early quilters and their assorted materials.
Springhouse magazine outdoes itself with newest issue--Vol 24, No. 6. Find it at your newstand!
Although I always enjoy Gary and Judy DeNeal's Springhouse, I was delighted with all the
goodies in the latest issue. Wonderful reading for a cold February day. Brocton Lockwood's account
about his family's story about his Cherokee ancestor held me captive! Fascinating!
Marion Living magazine features local authors...
Finally I picked up a January issue of Marion Living at Harry
Boyd's table at the Illinois Centre Mall's Third Annual Book Fair. Harry writes regularly for ML as does publisher
Bernard Paul, editor Kevin Clark, Ray Hancock, Aurelia Jackson, Dixie Terry, outdoor writer Don Gasaway, artist Rey
Evangelista, and many others. I was wanting to read Lois Barrett's story on the 1940s tornado in Marion in the January
issue. We are all missing Lois, who has moved to Cuero, Texas--the site of her new novel There Oughta Be a Law.
She is busy down there with book signings, getting settled in their new home, etc.
New SIWG anthology is out!
Many of the authors at the Illinois Centre Mall on February 2 were doubly
excited--not just to be there to meet their readers but because their writing was also in a second book being sold that day.
Our newest volume of the SIWG anthologies arrived at Kathy Cotton's and was picked up and brought to the Winter Book
Fair by Roger Poppen, editor. Volume 6, which is now called The Writer's Voice: Anthology of Prose and Poetry,
contains writing by C. Lil Ahrens, T.K.E. Caraker, Richard Carter, Kathy Lohrum Cotton, jacob erin-cilberto, Patricia A. Evans,
Lois Fowler Barrett, Sue Glasco, Wayne Hamburger, Jodie Hawkins, Erika Hookham, Robert A. Julius, Goldie Kossow, Jim
Lambert, Pale, Roger Poppen, Barbara J. Rinella,
Sharon Robinson, Lisa Russell, Marie Samuel, Mary Ann Sexton, Marian Kaplun Shapiro, James G. Smith,
Keith Snavely, and Violet Toler. T.K.E. Caraker was assistant editor, and Kathy Cotton did the photograph on the cover.
This is a beautiful perfect bound book, and amazingly is being sold for only $5. All writings are either by SIWG members
of the winners or the Guild's national writing contest in 2007. The book is dedicated to the memory of two friends of
the Guild: Stan Hale (1950-2007) and Jim Jung (1953-2007).
Ed and Donna Handkins, who are natives of Williamson County, have retired in North Carolina to be near a daughter and
grandchildren. Their careers were in Illinois, and I think Good News Daily Devotion Guide, which is by Illinois
writers, is the third devotional book Ed has produced. This one came out in November and has
an introduction by Nate Adams and forward by Bill Weedman. Among the 53 writers who contributed to the daily devotions
are area writers Andy Gillespie, Kim Barger, Sue Glasco, and Mark Hutson. Copies can be purchard at www.lulu.com/edhandkins7, but the devotions can be accessed weekly at www.goonewsddg.com.
SIWG President Publishes
Book of Poetry...
Congratulations to our new SIWG president for 2008: Jim Lambert.
Watch for his new book of poetry The Winds of Life.
Beautiful New Anthology for Sale in Union County...
Union County Writers Group came out with Volume Two of Anthology of Poetry & Prose just in time for Christmas. The
editorial staff was Joanne Blakely, Linda Kall,and Mary Lou Kowaleski. Kathy Cotton did the interior and cover
design. The wonderful cover photo of ancient typewriter was by Amanda Urbanski. Area writers in the volume
were R.D.Foxworthy, Sue Glasco, Betty Hickam, Linda Kall, Mary Lou Kowaleski, Nancy Sue Leske, Joe Plemon, Barbara Steffens,
Karl Steffens, Joanne Blakely, Kathy Collon, Arthur Dread, Trevor Groh, Evan Kimball, Vicky Lyerla, Mairi McAllister, Jeanine
M. Schaefer, Lorren Steele, Tabitha Tripp, and Amanda Urbanski. Congratulations to Union County Writers for a beautiful
book!
Here is my blog from Woodsong Notes about Illinois Centre Mall Third Annual Book Fair on February
2, 2008:
Thanks to Carol Jennings, authors from our area had a fun day signing books at the Illinois Centre Mall today. An administrative
assistant in the mall office, Carol came up with the idea of having an early February annual book fair where writers could
sell their books to the public. This was the third year for the event, and it has grown and gotten better every year. Authors
from here who go to Sturgis, Kentucky, are impressed with the floods of people who come to the fair grounds there all day
long for the sole purpose of buying books. There has been nothing like this in Southern Illinois.
However, if the Third
Winter Book Fair is any indication, we may someday grow into something even more exciting. Refining the fair every year, Carol
outdid herself this year. Attractive posters at the entrances announced our presence. Attractive cloths graced a generous-sized
table for each author. Chairs and table name tags awaited us. All we had to do was carry in our books and fountain pens. The
cookie store gave each author a coupon for a huge free soda The foot traffic was heavy--perhaps because people were so pleased
to have a lovely sunny Saturday after yesterday’s bitter cold snow day keeping the kids home from school. There were
twenty-two authors who enrolled to sign and a great variety of books including many poetry books. Judy Askew was up from Brookport,
Rick Keisheim from Robinson, and Sheri Richardson was down from O’Fallon, Missouri. The rest of us had less far to drive.
Besides
seeing friends and making new ones, perhaps the highlight for me was the children’s violin recital in our midst--bringing
a host of parents and grandparents with them. There were tiny children with tiny violins and older kids with large violins.
The program was diverse and delightful. Seeing these beautiful children poised and talented performing on difficult instruments
was an unexpected treat.
I am sentimental about violins because my father played one. When my sister Rosemary was
young living in Jonesboro, Daddy took her to weekly violin lessons from a gentleman in Anna. Thus, she was prepared to play
in the high school orchestra. He listened in on the lessons and also learned to play.
When he and Mother retired in
Goreville, one aspect of their social life was asking other couples in for the evening. If one of the couple could play piano
and it was usually the wife, Daddy would enlist her to play the piano while he played the violin. Mother and the other husband
would usually play Chinese checkers together. Daddy became quite proficient at the hymns they practiced, and Mother became
quite good on the star-shaped board. I always knew who would win when I played her.
Daddy liked to go with his church
group once a month to play hymns and sing at the Vienna nursing home. He was still doing this when he was so old that he was
no longer steady on his feet. Naturally, the elderly residents loved for one of their own age to come and play. Daddy would
leave the house and smile wickedly at Mother and me and say, “Well, I have got to go play the violin for the old folks.”
That
was a long time ago, for Daddy’s violin was silenced first by the ravages of Parkinson and then by his joining a heavenly
choir. Yet for my sister and me, a violin is a symbol of our father, and we are quick to choose a Christmas or birthday card
that has a violin on it. We each know the other one will remember the same man when it is opened. Daddy loved children, and
he would have been even more pleased than I was if he had heard the well-trained youngsters at the mall today
Addendum:
Those authors at the mall today were Jim Lambert, Pat Evans, Violet Toler, Mary L. Hackett, Carol Jennings, Dixie Terry, Anne-Marie
Legan, Joy King, Harry Boyd, Rick Kelsheim, Ron Schmeck,Patty Morrison, Ernestine Brasher, Sherri Richardson, Judy Askew,
David Bond, Roger Poppen, Sue Glasco, Fog Gilbert, Jon Musgrave, Marie Samuel, Jeri Beth McRoy. Did I miss anyone?
Miners Baseball Team manager and national motivational speaker Mike Pinto was guest
speaker at Southern Illinois Writers Guild on Thursday, January 17, 2008, at
John A. Logan College.
Mike Pinto's book In a League of your Ownis scheduled for publication in 2008. Mike Pinto has given over
500 speeches to more than 250,000 people.
Dorthy Dykema, 84, former SIWG member, died December 17, 2007, in Lisle.
Dorothy was born blind and worked for the Illinois Division of Rehabilitation Services and then the Department of Mental Health
in Anna until she retired in 1980. An accomplished musician, she wrote They Shall Have Music, a book to
help teaching keyboard to handicapped students. Her second book was The Animals on N. Allyn Street
published in 2000.
Stan Hale, actor, director, professor, writer, editor, died doing what he loved while at a last-week
rehearsal of Weekend Comedy on the John A. Logan College stage on November 13., 2007. A former
speaker and member of SIWG, Stan edited the 504-page Williamson County, Illinois, Sesquicentennial History.
Stan once said, "I fancy myself a writer. I have more works in progess than I can count." He wrote poetry, short
stories, plays, and personal reflections. While advisor to The Volunteer at JALC, he helped
produce our SIWG newsletter--a kindness typical of one who was always willing to help others.
Betty Wisek, former SIWG member and wife of1994 president Paul Wisek, died November
5. 2007. A writer of family history, Betty helped Paul during his presidency with refreshments, cards for
the sick, and other activities even as she also served as president herself of a regional group for the legally blind.
In recent years, Betty had been ill, and the Wiseks were unable to continue participation in SIWG.
Two SIWG members Deana Smith and Fog Gilbert were pictured recently in the Southern Illinoisan.
Members of the winning JALC team at the Nov. l0 Lighthouse Shelter's Trivia Night, they donated the $500 prize back
to the Lighthouse Shelter. Fog has some l0 poetry chapbooks to his credit in addition to his teaching career at John
A. Logan College and Shawnee College. Deana has had may feature stories published and writes a monthly feature column
for the Southern lllinoisan.
Minnie Vautrin, the Goddess of Mercy in China, remembered in Illinois
The Illinois State Museum, 502 South Spring Street, Springfield, is commemorating the
courage of Illinois missionary Minnie Vautrin with a display of objects she owned and her Order of the Jade medal, the highest
honor given to a civilian by the Chinese government. The display will be open through January.
Minnie Vautrin risked her life to during the violent occupation known as the Rape of Nanking, which
claimed the lives of an estimated 300,000 Chinese. Growing up in Secor, Illinois, Minnie
Vautrin went to China and was acting head of Ginling College for Women, where she was credited with saving over 10,000 Chinese
women's lives during this terrible time.
Check out Hua-ling Hu's biography of Minnie Vautrin on Amazon.
2oo8 Southern Illinois Writers Guild Writing Contest
Prizes: 1st Place $100; 2nd Place $50; 3rd Place $25, in each category
(Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry). Honorable Mentions as determined by judges. Winners will be published in the Writer's Voice,
Volume VII, the SIWG anthology, unless authors request otherwise.
Entry Fee: $5 per entry, maximum of three entries per author. Check or
money order payable to: John A. Logan College. Do not send cash. Entries not enclosing the fee or following the rules will
be discarded.
Contest Rules:
1. Fiction - Any subject or genre.
Nonfiction -
Biography, memoir, article, or essay on any topic.
Poetry - Any style or topic.
(Please, no explicit sex or excessive
violence.)
2.
Original work of the entrant; unpublished at
time of submission.
3.
Page limit - Up to 8 pages for Fiction and
Nonfiction, 1 or 2 pages for Poetry.
4.
Format - Standard manuscript format (8-1/2"
x 11" paper, typed and double-spaced, 1" margins, 12-point Times New Roman, page number and title of entry on every page).
Poetry may vary margins and spacing as needed.
5.
Two copies of each entry.
6.
Cover sheet for each entry, with name, address,
category (Fiction, Nonfiction, or Poetry) and title. Author's name only on the cover sheet, not the manuscript.
7.
Optional - Provide an SAS postcard for verification
that your entry was received; email address for winner notification; brief bio to include with publication.
8.
Winners will be notified in September '08.
Winners must provide social security numbers in order to collect a cash prize. Please do not supply your SSN until you are
notified that you have won a cash prize. No exceptions to this rule.
9. Entrants must be over 18 years old or enrolled in post-secondary education.
Mailing Instructions:
1.
Mail flat, not folded, with sufficient postage,
postmarked no later than May 1, 2008. Do not send by certified mail.
2.
Mail to:
·
John A. Logan
College
·
Attn: Student
Activities C109
·
SIWG Contest Entry
·
700 Logan College
Rd.
·
Carterville, IL
62918
Additional information
at: www.jalc.edu/activities/siwg/contests
PARADISE ALLEY PLAYERS SPONSOR OPEN SUBMISSIONS PLAYWRIGHT COMPETITION
Once again the Paradise Alley Players are offering prizes for original plays with family oriented material with simple
set design and limited scene changes and props. Plays should run 15 to 30 minutes. First place prize is $100, second
place $50, and $25 for third. There is separate category with $10 prize for writers 8 to 18 years of age. Selected plays
will be performed in the PAP summer lab theater. News releases instruct playwrights to mail three copies
of play to PAP in care of Joyce Hope, 1105 N. Court, Marion, IL 62959.
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