2014 Cat Writers’ Association Communication Contest
A Note from The Contest Chair: New Rules, New Category, New Special Award, and a Call for Judges!
By CWA Contest Chair Marci Kladnik
The CWA 2014 Writers’ Contest is rapidly approaching. This is the time CWA recognizes the best of the best when it comes to heralding cats. The contest year runs from June 16, 2013 to June 15, 2014, so you still have time to produce and gather your best published writings, artwork, photographs, and/or radio/TV work and enter it! The deadline for entries is July 1, 2014. No ifs, ands, or buts. Your entry MUST be postmarked on or before this date to be considered.
A lot of work went into rewriting the contest rules, updating the Regular Category list and all the forms in time for this year’s contest. Huge thanks go to my fellow Contest Committee members – Deb Barnes, Janiss Garza, JaneA Kelley, Nancy Marano, Dusty Rainbolt, Jodell Raymond, and Barbara Stretton – for all their help and advice. Be sure to read everything carefully.
New Contest Entry Forms: All of the forms have been revised to make them interactive pdfs. This will eliminate the need to handwrite the entries and make it much easier on the Contest Chair to read them. They are being uploaded to the CWA website and to use them, DOWNLOAD them to your computer prior to attempting to fill them out.
Judging: All of our Professional members need to step up and offer to judge. Without judges there is no contest. We have 200+ Professional members, more than enough to fill all the judging slots and still have a few people left to serve as backups. Please email your Regular Category preferences to Marci Kladnik at mkauthor@verizon.net. She will do her best to accommodate your wishes, but it is on a first-come, first-served basis. When picking your categories, please remember that you cannot judge a category you plan to enter. Please refer to the full list of our Regular Categories.
Regular Category Entries: Everyone who judges or volunteers to assist the contest committee gets a discount on his/her own Regular Category entries as indicated on the entry form. If you are submitting a Regular Category entry and one or more Special Award entries, you must send all fees along with the entries to Marci Kladnik at PO Box 592, Los Alamos, CA 93440. A single check is fine. The appropriate fees must accompany their respective entries.
Entry Fees: Checks should be made out to the Cat Writers’ Association. You may also pay your entry fee(s) using PayPal; please include a copy of your receipt with your entry.
Category/Rule Changes: A new category, Photographic Art, has been added and “Advocacy” has been added to the Rescue categories. The Rules as a whole have been GREATLY UPDATED, but especially regarding the blog categories, so be sure to read ALL of them. If you have any questions, contact Marci Kladnik at mkauthor@verizon.net prior to entering the contest.
E-books: It is important to remember, if the entrant wishes to enter an e-book version of his or her book, the entrant must make sure the category judges can download the book without cost and can read the e-book without difficulty on their computer or other device.
Special Awards: A new award has been added this year, the Litter-LifterTM Litter Box Awareness Award. More good news is that all of our former award sponsors have renewed their sponsorships. Ours sponsors make the CWA fun and affordable, and we owe them a great deal of thanks.
Special Award Judges Needed: Please submit the names of people who might serve as Special Award judges along with a brief statement of their expertise. A Special Award judge cannot be a CWA member. When submitting a name, include a valid email address and phone number. If at all possible, please ask the person whether he/she would be interested in judging. You don’t have to explain the contest; we’ll take care of the explanations, but we would like to contact candidates who are interested. And remember, our Regular Category judging slots are open and waiting for your name. Sign up today!