2023 Writing Award Finalists

Hi. I'm currently based in Liverpool with my partner and two children. I've worked for many years as a teacher in Further Education, teaching English, Psychology, Sociology, History, Creative Writing, Access to Higher Ed: you name it. I worked in F.E. as Head of the English, History and Sociology

After graduating from Texas A&I University with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology, I worked in law enforcement, including an undercover assignment on the east coast. My experience included a stint as a Special Deputy US Marshal traveling to Europe and the Middle East. I received an Outstanding Law

A Gemini through and through, Angelica has two different writing styles that work together to enlighten and motivate her readers when they read her works of art. The first style writing in the poetry, fantasy, self-help and parenting genre to include helpful messages that are either subtle, in

Diane Corso is a San Francisco Bay Area blogger at The Corso Papers, where she enjoys writing about bad (and good!) horror films. Her latest novel, Broken Things, placed second in the Horror/Paranormal category of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Contest for 2023. She recently guested on

Drew Louis was born and raised in Albany, NY - the setting for his debut novel DRAINPIPE DREAMS. He later received his BA from SUNY Plattsburgh (NY) and his MFA from American University in Washington DC. Drew now lives in Albuquerque, NM with his wife and two children and works as a Best Boy Rigging

Ben Alvord has been writing across many different mediums since he was a kid. He's worked in screenwriting, slam poetry, live storytelling, sketch comedy and his original love, fiction. Ben lives in the Hudson Valley of New York with his wife and pitbull mix. When he's not writing, he's working his

At last, I am retired and can concentrate full-time on writing. Inspired by my work as a psychotherapist, my novel, Raven's Wing, is now complete and is submitted here. It's very loosely based on a true story and set in 1980s Scotland, during the final years of the large psychiatric hospitals and

I am a native Nigerian with many different passions. I believe that one of the keys to happiness is finding a way to blend one’s passions and make them work together, rather than sacrificing one passion for another. I contribute to Paradoxical Chameleon, a blog about embracing one’s whole self. I am

John has delivered medical aid to orphanages and hospitals across the globe, including Romania during the revolution, South America and Bosnia during the war. His autobiography, The Benevolence of Rogues, tells of the characters he encountered during his many dangerous missions, when he enlisted

I won the Moth Story Slam this past July with the subject of Denial. Seems like denial is pervasive these days. Contestants had 5 minutes to tell their tale, without notes, in front of a packed audience at the Parkway theater in Minneapolis. I highly recommend writers find the Moth Story Slam in

I’ve dabbled in writing of all sorts: news articles for the national edition of the Deseret News, poetry published in small literary journals, contest-winning short stories, and a peer-reviewed science article. I have yet to publish a novel, however. With my B.S. in Physics, my fantasy has a sci-fi

My work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, Writer’s Digest and Family Circle. A Pushcart Prize nominee, I won the Grand Prize in the annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition and received a Finalist Award in Prose from the Illinois Arts Council. I graduated with a

I recently completed a 20-year career in public health. Prior to that, my life varied from a period spent in the military as a United Nations Peacekeeper in the Middle East to employment as a refugee relief worker in a camp for Bosnian Muslims in Croatia. To date, excerpts from my novel, A Cypress

From a young age, Timothy Jay Smith developed a ceaseless wanderlust that has taken him around the world many times. En route, he’s found the characters that people his work. Polish cops and Greek fishermen, mercenaries and arms dealers, child prostitutes and wannabe terrorists, Indian Chiefs and

Eugene Aucoin is a published author whose first book won Asia’s Best Book of the Year in Theology in 2020: The Cardinal Sin Award. His book, "Has Science Killed God? – Three Powerful Ideas that Will Reignite your Faith" (Manila: St Pauls’ Books, 2019), was also published in French in Canada in July

I am a business owner, mother, military wife and live a short drive from the coast of Maine. My storytelling has historically been done through business branding and marketing until I poured my heart onto pages in the form of my first manuscript, BEFORE I GO. I am currently querying BEFORE I GO and

Although Nick always has scribbled and jotted, he waited until half-time before taking his writing seriously. In the meantime he played the drums, rode motorbikes, worked really hard, moved to the beach. Now he is writing like his life depends on it. His first ever short story won the Northern

Meg Gaertner is the managing editor of middle grade and young adult fiction for Jolly Fish Press and Flux, the author of several children’s nonfiction and fiction books, a 2019 Pitch Wars mentee, and a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at Antioch University L.A.

Rob McIvor grew up mainly in south Lancashire but now lives in Blackheath, south-east London, with his family and two unruly cats. His debut novel, a 2021 Page Turner Awards finalist, argues that honesty isn't always the best policy, weaving together a mysterious death during the Tour de France, a

A born and bred Southern belle, Kay Elam has been a manager for a global company, a travel agent, an office manager, a consultant working with collegiate women across North America, and a high-end technical equipment salesperson—and those were just the jobs that paid. Each position required

I am Kristen Crusoe, a Registered Nurse, working primarily in psychiatric/forensic and palliative care specialties. I have also taught nursing students at the master and doctoral levels. Before I became an RN, I was a dancer, ballet and modern. I know these worlds well, and love bringing them to

I was born in Wisconsin, raised in Southern California, then moved back to Wisconsin, where I’ve lived for the last 35 years. Having four seasons instead of two has been one of the many benefits of living in Northwestern Wisconsin. So is living in the country, because I get to enjoy its beauty and

Stevie Turner is a British author of Romantic Suspense, Humour, Paranormal, and Women’s Fiction (family dramas). She won an inter-schools' essay competition at the age of 11, and this gave her encouragement to write further. She has now written 15 novels, 2 screenplays, 6 novellas, 1 memoir, and 18

Thirty years experience as a behavioral scientist served me well to write of people facing life's challenges. My writing encompasses a novel, flash fiction & short stories. My thanks to my collaborator, Tino Juarez, for giving me the idea for Dodge City Dude my first Irish comedy. Currently I am

Megan Catana (formerly Schikora) lives in the US. Her work won third place in prose in the 2020 New South Writing Contest and was nominated by Flash Fiction Magazine for the 2019 Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses. Her short fiction and creative nonfiction can also be found in The Rumpus, The

Eugene Aucoin is a published author whose first book won Asia’s Best Book of the Year in Theology in 2020: The Cardinal Sin Award. His book, "Has Science Killed God? – Three Powerful Ideas that Will Reignite your Faith" (Manila: St Pauls’ Books, 2019), was also published in French in Canada in July

My debut novel, Running to Graceland, won the Independent Book Publishers gold medal in popular fiction in 2019. I have published fiction in Close to the Bone, Flash Fiction Magazine, Vermont Magazine and a young adult short story anthology published by Simon and Schuster, Soul Searching (2002). I

Alida Winternheimer is an award-winning writer, editor, and teacher. The creator of the Story Works Round Table podcast, the Story Works Fiction online school of creative writing, and developmental editor and writing coach at Word Essential, she has published two craft books, and multiple stories

OWEN LEVY is the author of two well-received novels, the seminal A Brother’s Touch, set in the early days of the Stonewall liberation movement, and Goodbye Heiko Goodbye Berlin plays out in the early turbulent days after the Fall of the Berlin Wall and move toward German Reunification. A Fellow of

Although Nick always has scribbled and jotted, he waited until half-time before taking his writing seriously. In the meantime he played the drums, rode motorbikes, worked really hard, moved to the beach. Now he is writing like his life depends on it. His first ever short story won the Northern

Meg Gaertner is the managing editor of middle grade and young adult fiction for Jolly Fish Press and Flux, the author of several children’s nonfiction and fiction books, a 2019 Pitch Wars mentee, and a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at Antioch University L.A.

I’m a lawyer who started writing about seven years ago. I'm currently working on Seven Sins, a locked room murder mystery set in a City law firm, inspired by my time as a corporate finance partner in two such firms. My elevator pitch is: Seven suspects. Seven sins. Which one is deadly? My previous

Gustav Temple has been editor of The Chap, a British men's style magazine, for 20 years. This career has allowed him to develop strong writing and editing skills within journalism, while he has also been busy writing fiction in his spare time. As well as Hotel Quarantine, his submission to The Page

Fergal O’Donnell spent twenty years as a senior executive in the technology industry. With a diverse scientific background and a love of travel and adventure, he has written many fiction and non-fiction pieces. Proconnesus is his first novel.

I'm a freelance copywriter living a (mostly) quiet life in South Devon, after spending a decade in the city. I enjoy live music, travel, psychology and spending time outside, and am currently working on my second novel.

I have been a practising psychotherapist for over 15 years, specialising in trauma, emotional disorders, psychosis, suicide and self-harm. That experience has informed my portrayal of authentic depictions of lived experiences with mental illness in fiction. I have had short stories published in

Mandy Munro has a degree in English Literature and Psychology, lives in the northern beaches of Sydney and has travelled extensively, gathering inspiration and research for her writing. In 2022, Mandy longlisted for the Page Turner 2022 Writing Award with The Circle of Choice, the first book in her

Alon Lankri is an author of genre fiction, with a focus on fantasy and satire. He has spent way too many years in academia, amassing degrees in writing, economics, management, and teaching. When he isn’t imagining new worlds, Alon dances salsa with his wife, children, and labrador and occasionally

Greetings from the far south-east corner of the world map! When I'm not writing or reading I'm usually making things with my hands. Shortlisted for an Aurealis award in 2016. I believe in the power of stories.

I grew up on a petite island in eastern Canada then drifted into a corporate career that fit my nomadic nature and took me around the hemispheres. I've left my footprints on every continent. In 2020, I left the business world to focus on my creative writing projects. Themes of nomadism, self

I live in the Philadelphia suburbs with my wife, two young children, and mischievous yellow lab. I am a high school social studies teacher with a background in United States government and a great affection for Revolutionary-era history. I wrote this book because in this age of international

Andrew Phillips for "SHOES," "WHISPERS," RIMBOMBO," AND "HOPE OF GLIMMER" I am currently retired from the public education system in North Carolina. My career spans nearly thirty years of teaching early childhood classes, working as a Home/School Coordinator, Arts Coordinator and elementary

Alex is the the author of THE ELSEWHERE, a genre-twisting paranormal thriller about the voices in our heads and the lengths we go to to avoid them. His aim is not to invent new worlds or fill his books with huge, sprawling maps but instead to tilt our own world, just a little, until we see it from a

Meg Gaertner is the managing editor of middle grade and young adult fiction for Jolly Fish Press and Flux, the author of several children’s nonfiction and fiction books, a 2019 Pitch Wars mentee, and a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at Antioch University L.A.

I am an LGBT son of Cuban immigrants. My experience of being a double minority (queer & latinX) and son of a national psychologist radio host/author for Latin Americans (Dr. Isabel Gomez-Bassols) taught me to have a high level of compassion for others. My mother has consistently used her national

Darrell Bowling, after a career in corporate aviation spanning fifty-five years, I now follow my favorite pastime, storytelling. With a thirty-year history as a pilot, part-time dealer, and pit boss for Nevada casinos, my background lends me to a life most only dream of. An old Chinese proverb reads

Becky Adams grew up in a small New England town, the oldest of three daughters. She learned to read in kindergarten and has loved books ever since. Her favorite childhood pastimes were climbing trees and reading books; sometimes reading books in trees. Becky graduated summa cum laude from the

Masha Shukovich (she/they) is a writer, poet, storyteller, folklorist, teacher, independent scholar, and intuitive chef with ancestry and indigenous roots in the Balkans; the Mediterranean; and West, Central, South, and Northeast Asia (Siberia). She is a mother, demigirl, neurodivergent person

I have a veterinary degree and PhD from Cambridge, and spent twenty years in Kenya researching a disease of cattle and wildlife which no one outside Africa has ever heard of. I travelled throughout the region and worked closely with international and local scientists as well as the diplomatic

Peter Trivelas was First Runner-up for the 2022 Darron L. Wright Writing Award. His short stories have appeared in Deadly Writer’s Patrol, Blood & Bourbon, Thema Literary Journal, Line of Advance and other publications. In 2021 his fiction was read in a WordTheatre worldwide presentation honoring