The 2011 MWA Short Works Contest:

Maryland Writers Association

Judges

Poetry

Shirley J. Brewer won First, Second and Third Prizes in the Maryland Writers' Association 2010 Short Works Contest for Poetry. Publication credits include: Pearl, Comstock Review, Loch Raven Review, Free Lunch, Manorborn, Passager, Little Patuxent Review, and other journals. Her first poetry collection, A Little Breast Music, was published in 2008 by Passager Books (Baltimore). M.A. Creative Writing/Publishing Arts, University of Baltimore, 2005.
www.apoeticlicense.com

Cliff Lynn is an award-winning poet, a Gong Show reject, and a Literary Death Match veteran. When he's in town, he co-hosts two poetry series a month in Annapolis (Ahh, Coffee and Zu Coffee) with Rocky Jones, and one in Westminster (Birdie's Cafe) with R.J. Ridgely. He's currently seeing a waitress.

Barbara Morrison’s poetry and other writings have won prizes from the Society of Southwestern Authors, the National League of American Pen Women, and the Maryland Writers’ Association. Her book of poems Here at Least came out of a period of transformation when she stood on the threshold of a new life. Coming out in 2011 is Innocent: Confessions of a Welfare Mother.

Doug Mowbray
Emergent press publisher (twentythreebooks); co-founder, Baltimore Center for the Emerging Text; co-curator, Cruellest Month Poetry Festival; Towson University (B.S., English; M.S., Professional Writing); primarily interested in book arts, DIY publishing, engaging texts (‘engaging,’ verb and adjective); generally working and celebrating with those who live/breathe poetics and literary discourse, and equally so with those who may have lost touch with their inherent fidelity for inspiring-devastating-uplifting-upheaving sets of language morsels.

Fiction

Jen Michalski’s (jenmichalski.com) first collection of fiction, Close Encounters, is available from So New (2007), her second is forthcoming from Dzanc (2013), and her novella May-September was published by Press 53 (2010). She edited the anthology City Sages: Baltimore (CityLit Press 2010), is editor of jmww, and cohost of the The 510 Readings.

Born in India, Lalita Noronha has a Ph.D. in Microbiology and is a science teacher, writer, poet, and fiction editor for The Baltimore Review. Published in over seventy journals and anthologies, her awards include the Maryland Literary Arts Award twice, Maryland Individual Artist Award, and the National League of American Pen Women. Her short story collection is entitled “Where Monsoons Cry.”
Website: http://www.lalitanoronha.com.

Eric Goodman is a well-published writer & editor. TRACKS, his novel in stories, was published this year by Atticus Books. He is also author of the children’s storybook Flightless Goose. Eric organizes literary readings at Watermark Gallery in Baltimore.

Nonfiction

Marita Golden is the award-winning author of over a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction. Her most recent book is THE WORD: Black Writers Talk About the Transformative Power of Reading and Writing. She has taught in the Graduate Creative Writing Programs at George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University. She works with writers in her popular 2-day workshop writing retreats. She has lectured about writing nationally and internationally.
Website: www.maritagolden.com

Tom Horton is environmental columnist for the Baltimore Sun and author of seven books about the Chesapeake Bay, including An Island Out of Time: A Memoir of Smith Island in the Chesapeake. He’s also a freelance writer for National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Chesapeake Bay Magazine, and the New York Times.

Lauren Eisenberg Davis, memoirist, was a featured speaker at the 2007 MWA Conference. She has written a family history book, Autumn Leaves, and has published many genealogy articles and commentaries. "Shame on Maryland for Neglecting the Neglected" appeared in The Baltimore Sun on January 27, 2011.