Memoir Contest

The winners of the 2011 Memoir contest are

First Place to Pat Tyler for Mamma at the Swimming Hole

Second Place to Jasmine Belenger for Looking for Jesus and

Third Place to Jean Wong for Saving Catfish

FIRST PLACE – Pat Tyler

Mamma at the Swimming Hole

Pat’s non-fiction has appeared online and in print nationwide. She’s marketing one novel, THE IMPOSSIBLE PROMISE while writing another, FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES and creating two anthologies. Writing Coach, Editing Partner, and Workshop Facilitator, Pat currently facilitates Quick Start Writing Workshops for the City of Rohnert Park. She worked for several years as Volunteer Workshop Facilitator for the men and women incarcerated in the MADF (Sonoma County Jail.) For questions regarding her classes visit www.writetoday.net. For her story click Mamma.

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SECOND PLACE – Jasmine Belenger

Looking for Jesus

Originally from New England, Jasmine has lived in Sonoma County for 36 years. After the tragic loss of her children in the 80’/90’s, her creativity seemed frozen. To melt her sorrow and heal her heart Jasmine began to create again, delving first into the healing waters of art before the magic of language. In the past five years, with the encouragement of other writers, including Suzanne Sherman’s writing group, she has published several pieces in local periodicals and is in the process of completing the final draft of her memoir. Jasmine says, “The hiding is over and I am grateful to be heard.” For her story click Looking.

Jean Wong

THIRD PLACE – Jean Wong

Saving Catfish

Jean was born in Honolulu and likes to think that having the same favorite fourth grade teachers as President Barack Obama has something to do with her taste and karma. Her passions include choral singing, jewel art collage, rabbits and kittens, gardening, and meditation. She has been a contributor to Vintage Voices; Fast, Short, and Deadly; Synchronized Chaos; and Get Born. One of her poems has been set to music by composer Georg Hajdu and is played internationally. For her story click Catfish.

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Honorable Mention – Elizabeth Valentine

First prize is $100, second prize is $70 and the third is $30.

SUSAN BONO, AMBER LEA STARFIRE, LINDA JOY MYERS are our eminent judges.

SUSAN BONO is a Petaluma writing teacher and freelance editor who founded Tiny Lights: A Journal of Personal Narrative in 1995, and its online counterpart, www.tiny-lights.com, shortly thereafter. Her own writing has appeared in publications such as Sheila Benders Writing & Publishing Personal Essays, the St. Petersburg Times, the Petaluma Argus Courier, and Passager Magazine. She co-hosts the Speakeasy Literary Saloon at Aqus Cafe in Petaluma and is on the board of the Mendocino Writers Conference and Petaluma Readers Theatre.

LINDA JOY MYERS, Ph.D., MFT, is the President and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, Instructor at Writers Digest, and past president of the California Writers Club, Marin branch. She’s the author of The Power of Memoir—How to Write Your Healing Story, and the award winning memoir Don’t Call Me Mother. Her first book Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story has been used as a text by therapists, ministers, and writing coaches, and was a finalist in the ForeWord magazine’s 2008 Book of the Year Award. Linda has won prizes for her work in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and her next book is Truth or Lie: On the Cusp of Memoir and Fiction. Linda gives workshops nationally, and helps people capture their stories through coaching, editing, and online workshops. www.namw.org.

AMBER LEA STARFIRE is a Publisher & Editor of Writing Through Life and The Writer’s Eye Magazine, a freelance editor, writer, & teacher. Her personal passion is to help others tell their stories and make meaning of their lives by accessing their inner wisdom and creative power through the act of writing. Amber earned her Masters degree at Stanford University and has taught online, as well as at community colleges and businesses for twenty years. She currently offers online courses and workshops in journaling, finding your voice, and the art of revising your writing. http://www.writingthroughlife.com

See our flyer for their biographies and photos.