Results announced for 2012 Blanchan & Doubleday creative writing competition

The Wyoming Arts Council is pleased to announce the winners and honorable mentions in the 2012 Blanchan & Doubleday writing competition.

The winner of the Neltje Blanchan award for nature writing goes to George J. Vlastos of Casper. His submission was entitled "Out There -- 9 Poems." George teaches language arts at Star Lane Academy in Casper. He stresses performance poetry in the classroom and every year brings his students to the Poetry Out Loud competition in Cheyenne. He serves as emcee for poetry slams held at the Equality State Book Festival and the Casper College Literary Conference.

Winner of the Frank Nelson Doubleday award for women writers is Mary Beth Baptiste of Laramie. Her creative nonfiction manuscript was entitled “Singing Horses.” She worked for a number of years as a wildlife biologist in Grand Teton National Park. Her work has been published in Newsweek, Vermont Literary Review, Copper Nickel and Wyoming Wildlife magazine. She also works part-time as a technical writer.

Each of the winners will receive a $1,000 prize.

Judge for the competition was Susan Tweit, a nature writer from Salida, Colo.

Honorable mentions in the Blanchan category go to poet Matt Daly of Jackson and fiction writer Rosemarie London of Laramie. Doubleday honorable mentions go to creative nonfiction writer Patricia Stuart of Powell and creative nonfiction writer Lynn Carlson of Cheyenne.

The Blanchan/Doubleday awards were established in 1989 with an endowment from Neltje, an artist and arts patron in Banner, Wyo.

They are designed to bring attention to writers who have not yet received wide recognition for their work, and to support emerging writers at crucial times in their careers. Poets, fiction writers, essayists, and script writers who have published no more than one book in each genre and who are not students or faculty members are invited to apply.

Applications are available each fall from the Wyoming Arts Council.

FMI: Contact Michael Shay, WAC individual artist program specialist, 307-777-5234 or mike.shay@wyo.gov