Rising Star Creative Writing Competition

Rising Star Creative Writing Competition Entries Are Closed for 2009

New Nature Essay Category Sponsored by Deschutes Land Trust Added to Nonfiction Genre!

The Nature of Words fourth annual Rising Star Creative Writing Competition for young writers closed to entries for 2009 on June 30. Thank you to everyone who submitted their work in genres including fiction, literary nonfiction, nature essay (sponsored by Deschutes Land Trust) and poetry . Winners will be announced in August. Prizes will be awarded at a ceremony and reading on November 4th, as the first event of The Nature of Words 2009 literary festival. Prizes will be awarded in fiction, literary nonfiction and poetry in two age categories, 15-18 and 19-25. Winning writers will receive a cash prize, inclusion of their winning entry in an anthology, and a scholarship to one of The Nature of Words workshops in their winning genre.



Judges for the 2009 Competition



Suzanne Burns - Fiction Judge

Suzanne Burns’ debut short story collection, Misfits and Other Heroes, was released by Dzanc books in June. One story in the collection won first place in the 2007 Writer's Digest Genre Fiction Award, while another placed second in 2003. She is currently working on a new novel and a new poetry collection.

Brad Chalfant - Nature Essay (The nature essay is sponsored by Deschutes Land Trust)

Brad Chalfant is Executive Director of the Deschutes Land Trust and formerly an attorney and public land manager. Brad has been Executive Director for the Land Trust since 1997. Prior to that, Brad was a co-founder and first Board President for the Land Trust and served as the County Lands Manager for Deschutes County. While working for Deschutes County, Brad acquired, sold, exchanged and managed extensive land holdings, including public facilities, commercial/industrial sites & natural resource lands on behalf of Deschutes County. A resident of Central Oregon for over 20 years, Brad briefly practiced law in Portland, specializing in real property, bankruptcy and debtor/creditor work. Brad is originally from Colorado, having attended college at the University of Kansas (BGS in Geography & Economics) and law school at Northwest School of Law, Lewis & Clark College in Portland.

Charles Goodrich - Poetry Judge

Charles Goodrich is the author of a volume of poems, Insects of South Corvallis (Cloudbank Books, 2003), and a collection of essays about nature, parenting, and building his own house, The Practice of Home (Lyons Press, 2004) and he was lead editor for In the Blast Zone: Catastrophe and Renewal on Mount St. Helens (OSU Press, 2008). His essays and poetry have appeared in many magazines including Orion, The Sun, Open Spaces, Willow Springs, Zyzzyva, and Best Essays Northwest, and a number of his poems have been read by Garrison Keillor on the National Public Radio program, "The Writer's Almanac."



Ellen Santasiero - Literary Nonfiction Judge
Ellen Santasiero is a freelance writer and an adjunct faculty member in English at Oregon State University-Cascades. Her essays and interviews have appeared in The Sun, Northwest Review, Marlboro Review and High Desert Journal and Oregon Humanities. Her essay, “Second Thoughts,” is included in Going Green, an anthology released from the University of Oklahoma Press in spring 2009.