2022 Writing Award Finalists

Claudia Bretag is an editor, teacher, retail assistant and aspiring author from Sydney, Australia. She is an active member of both Writing NSW and IPEd. Claudia is at her best in a cafe with a cup of coffee while her fingers tinker away at a keyboard to uncover a new chapter each day.

Tim Pareti was born and raised on the north side of Chicago. His Italian-American family started Ernie's Bleachers, which eventually became the iconic Murphy's Bleachers. An award-winning journalist, he worked as a reporter and editor for Scripps newspapers and was a freelance writer for the Chicago

Michael is in his seventies and had retired from a business career to embark on what he loves; to read and write. He is a prolific reader of all genres, but has a significant interest in history and historical fiction. He was born and raised on the East Rand of South Africa, and now lives on the

Graciela Kenig is an accomplished writer with extensive experience as a features journalist, online forum contributor and career columnist. Her book, BEST CAREERS FOR BILINGUAL LATINOS, 1998 McGraw-Hill, is still relevant today. Her trajectory in Communications includes Media and Public Relations

Eira Morgan-Jones is the author of three children’s books, published through the Cornish Book Company. She grew up building dens and skinning her knees in the woods and forests of Hampshire, and is to this day never truly happy unless in sight of trees. This connection to nature, and particularly

Philip Reari (pen name) is an editor at an environmental organization in Washington, D.C., and a former journalist published in Wired, The Huffington Post, Mother Jones, Grist, Gizmodo, n+1, The Rumpus, Dissent Magazine, and many others.

I have been an advertising copy writer for more than 30 years now, and have won over 150 national and several international awards for excellence in creativity, for some of the biggest brands in India. I finally took time off and wrote a novel. This is my first one, and it’s about 30 years late in

My name is Steve Blayney, I am 56 years young and a fiancé (soon to be husband), a father and a grandfather, as well as an aircraft safety engineer. After leaving school at the tender age of 16, I joined the Royal Air Force and proudly served Queen and country for fifteen years. Upon leaving the RAF

Krista Vellis holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education. Taking a holistic approach to researching her current manuscript, she studied with a psychic, worked as a catechist aide, and learned to read tarot cards. Her short story, Meant to Be, appeared in

My short fiction has appeared in The Conglomerate, Open: The Journal of Arts and Letters, RiverSedge, a publication of University of Texas, and Gris-gris Online Journal of Literature, Culture and the Arts. I have received several Effie Lee Morris awards from the WNBA-SF Chapter. I am an alumna of

A​lly Burnham is an AWGIE nominated writer, with her screenplay Unsound (2020) considered for Best Original Feature at the 2020 awards. ​A romantic-drama, the film won Best Australia Feature at the 2020 Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Best Fiction Feature Film at the 2020 ATOM Awards, and was

Born and raised in upstate New York, school in New England, lived in California, residing part of the year in England, but I go back and forth. I dated a rower in college who took me to Henley-on-Thames for the Regatta once and I decided to come back after a marketing career. I traded a sunny beach

Greetings. My name is Elise Lowing. I am an aspiring writer who loves a great story. I am particularly interested in writing middle-grade and teen novels, as I feel that is a time in life when they need the most inspiration. I want to write stories that inspire young readers to be the best they can

Diane Wald’s novel Gillyflower was published in April 2019 by She Writes Press and won first place in the novella category from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, first place in the novella category from American Book Fest, first place in Fiction: Novella from International Book Awards, and a

I am an attorney with a practice in New York. I've published three books through John Hunt Publishing ("JHP,") as well as 13 articles in local and national publications on topics including watchmaking, wheelchair sports, baseball, food & drug law and politics. My first novel, Visions Through a Glass

Nurse by day. Dark fantasy writer by night.

Victoria is a writer of sapphic thrillers and women's fiction, based in Cambridge, UK. Her novel, 'Darling Girl', won the 2022 'I Am In Print' thriller competition and a place on the Curtis Brown Creative Advanced Crime and Thriller course. She has had a number of flash fiction pieces published

J. C. Michaels is an award winning, critically acclaim novelist published in more than twelve languages. His educational background includes physics and mathematics as well as degrees in music performance and neuroscience. His professional work includes more than a decade as an adventure travel

I am a Croatian-Australian emerging writer who writes fiction in both English and Japanese, having studied the latter as a foreign language since the age of twelve. I studied a Bachelor of Political Economic and Social Sciences with an additional major in Japanese Studies at the University of Sydney

My writing career started in 1981 when I became the editorial assistant for Good Living magazine and worked as a freelance contributor to Honey. By 1985 I was launch editor of LOOKS and in 1987 I became a freelance editor – focussing on creating new titles and resuscitating sick ones. I also worked

So last year, I was driving up the A3 to the office and it occurred to me that the world may be missing a story about cats and politics (two of my loves in life). I got excited about it, got writing every day (around my day job and the arrival of our new baby boy), found an amazing editor to work

Ami Musser was raised in Argentina, Japan, Israel, France, and the United States where she earned a degree in architecture. Ami lives with her family and Belgian Bouvier in Connecticut.

Writer of psychological thrillers with a feminist focus. Currently studying at Cambridge University, UK. I like to write dark stories but the good will often prevail. I live in West Sussex in the UK with my husband; I have three kids too and some cats. I'm an English teacher during the day when I'm

Sandeep Adnani is the Amazon #1 Bestselling Author of ‘The Codes of the Exiled Rogue’ , ‘The Origin of the Exiled Rogue’ and ‘The Prophecy of the Exiled Rogue’ eBooks. He nurtured this metaphysical and transformational fiction idea for over six years before publishing the first part in July 2019

I was brought up in Herefordshire but I've lived in London for half of my life, working as a history teacher. During my free time I write crime fiction stories which are influenced by current social issues and my working class background. At present I have written two completed, unpublished novels

​Danielle graduated from Montana State university in 2012 with a degree in Biology. She experimented with several healthcare related jobs after that, including work in tissue recovery and as a lab technician. Currently she is a middle school science teacher and a volunteer Court Appointed Special

​Danielle graduated from Montana State university in 2012 with a degree in Biology. She experimented with several healthcare related jobs after that, including work in tissue recovery and as a lab technician. Currently she is a middle school science teacher and a volunteer Court Appointed Special

Hi Everyone, I'm an Edinburgh based writer. My first novel Love Byte was published by Joffe Books and was shortlisted for the Romantic Comedy of the Year by the Romantic Novelist Association (RNA) Subsequently I have written two further novels to date, Squeezed and The Second Life of Nathan Jones

A reference to a dark corner of neuroscience by President Obama sparked the idea for the story, and after a year of subject research a Medical Thriller called GRAY MATTER emerged. My writing Longlisted in the 2021 Bridport Novel Prize and was Shortlisted in the 2022 TLC Pen Factor Award. Originally

Before I tell you about myself, let me tell you about my story – because they’re connected. I need to tell you a magical story, an adventurous story, a story that I doubt you have heard before, but which resonates across the ages. Indeed its various versions have been so successful for so long, that

I have interviewed many authors including Bill Bryson, Ian Rankin, Lionel Shriver and Rosamunde Pilcher for the international writing magazine, Writers’ Forum, and have also written for the Daily Mail, Woman’s Weekly, Vision Now, Classic Boat, Sailing Today and many other magazines. I have been a

When Heidi was an English major in college, she had aspirations of writing a novel. Instead, she was pulled in another direction and pursued a successful career in marketing, specializing in fresh produce. She hung her own shingle and became a marketing consultant in 2000, and in 2012 she formed her

Educational background: Screenwriting workshops with: Robert McKee, Gordy Hoffman, Michael Hauge, Viki King, etc. Creative writing classes: University of Colorado at Boulder. Lighthouse Writers, Denver. Queens University of Charlotte, NC. Graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre

Clennell has published short stories in a few literary magazines. She self-published a novella entitled The Circle and Dark Brilliance, a book of short story on Amazon.com. She writes romance in many of its subgenres: thrillers, suspense and mystery, paranormal and fantasy, and contemporary romance

Dr. Doug Levine is a physician scientist. He is the primary author or co-author of 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and meeting abstracts, and is lead author on a new narrative review focused on health care reform in the United States. Complementing his technical

I worked in law enforcement for over 40 years on the local, state and federal level before retiring at the end of 2021. I started writing somewhere in the middle of my career basing some of my stories on actual experiences. My latest forays in the last couple years are more fantasy and imagination

Sam Clarke is addicted to rock music, coffee, and Japanese manga. Her first novel, The Twelfth Ring (a Page Turner Awards finalist and a BBNYA semi-finalist) reached #1 in the Amazon Young Adult Thrillers charts. Her second book, The Templar Sword (a Page Turner Awards finalist and Ink and Insights

When I hold a book in my hands, it’s a key. It’s a key to another person, another world, another adventure. My favourite books are those that are imaginative and fantastical, by authors who have thought beyond the realms of our own understanding and existence, and created something else. This is

Before devoting his free time to writing, Matt Guthridge was a psychologist dealing with the complexities of human behaviour. He later worked as an international business consultant, and served as the Chief Strategy Officer for a publicly-listed company in Australia. Whilst he’s authored dozens of

I have some writing experience, having won a couple of national women's magazine short story competitions and been highly-commended in the Writers' Weekend Winchester competition for Fives to Teens fiction. Parenting, a degree in Psychology (which included child development), and working in a

I have a deep love of New Orleans, Louisiana- of the area and culture- the same area in which I still live and where my book series takes place. Art was always my first passion but I have found writing to be another priceless creative outlet. My background is in Illustration from Savannah College of

I'm an unpublished, aspiring author, with a love for locked room mysteries and boundless imagination. My first full length novel was my first murder mystery story, written for the toughest critics of all - the women of my immediate family - as a Christmas present, thus answering the question; 'what

Ann Evans is a multi-published, award-winning writer with almost 40 books to her name. She writes for all ages, from children’s picture books to adventure books for KS1 and KS2, Young Adult books, books for reluctant readers, plus crime thrillers and romance (Romance pen name: Ann Carroll). She also

I am Rebecca Whitehall, I worked as an early childhood teacher in Las Vegas, USA, for 25 years. During those years it was my delight to work primarily with second language children. Noptanot, a Thai student, especially brought back special childhood memories of my family living in Thailand. The

I am a 28 year old supervisor of a book/hobby shop, who uses her biology degree to write articles for the kids' science magazine, Aquila. I ran as the general secretary for my university's Creative Writing Society in my third year, and now co-host a local writing group which provides a friendly

'As the Tree Falls' is my first novel, so I am thrilled to be a finalist for the Pageturner Award, and for the novel to be longlisted for the Yeovil Literary Prize 2022. This novel has been a long time in the making. It was 10 years ago, when while exploring our family tree I discovered my ancestors

I am a freelance copy-editor and proof-reader and it feels as though I have been writing stories to entertain friends and family all my life. When a short story I was writing grew in unexpected ways and ended up at almost 90,000 words, I figured it was time to take things seriously. I signed up for

Hello, my name is Shagufta Sharmeen Tania, I’m a native of Bangladesh who has been settled in London since 2005. I initially trained as an architect, before writing became my all consuming passion. I’ve authored two novels, a collection of novellas and four collections of short stories to date; I

C.J. Khemi is the debut author of House of Badawi. She’s Indo-Trinidadian-American, a native New Yorker, and is currently living out her cottage-core dreams in a home outside of NYC. Khemi holds a M.A. in International Affairs and a B.A. in Psychology. She is a content writer by day, covering

I am Anglo-Irish and have variously been a musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist and in a band supporting acts such as Elton John, Rod Stewart, Gerry Rafferty and many others. I co-wrote a Celtic rock opera for the Edinburgh Festival. As well as this, I have been a journalist, editor and PR