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Presbyterian Writers Guild honors award-winning authors at online celebration Reply

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By Mike Ferguson, Presbyterian News Service

Read the entire story here.

On August 8, 2022, the Presbyterian Writers Guild celebrated the work of three authors during an awards presentation all too familiar over the past two years: via Zoom, rather than the in-person General Assembly venue that members much prefer.

“We wish we were seeing each other in person in the hallowed halls of the General Assembly,” said PWG president Emily Enders Odom, “where much laughter and a lot of chocolate is shared.”

Guild members and friends were treated to talks by three honorees: Jane Kurtz, winner of the David Steele Distinguished Writer Award for 2020; her sister, Caroline Kurtz, the 2020 Presbyterian Publishing Corporation Best First  Book Award winner for her book A Road Called Down on Both Sides: Growing Up in Ethiopia and America;  and Bill Chadwick, who won the PPC’s Best First Book Award for 2022 for Still Laughing, Still Learning (Still Looking for a Good Title).

Caroline and Jane Kurtz

“It’s such a pleasure to see what words and pictures can do, and such a pleasure to collaborate with so many people,” Jane said.

“I’ve been a Presbyterian all my life. To have been fed and encouraged and challenged and sent by the Presbyterian Church and now recognized and awarded and supported in this work, that means so much to me,” Caroline said. “We have longed to share our lives with people who haven’t had the chance to experience it as we have.”

See Jane Kurtz’s Powerpoint presentation here.

See Caroline Kurtz’s Powerpoint presentation here.

Bill Chadwick, a retired pastor living in Minnetonka, Minnesota, called his book a culmination of years of ministry, including both stories and sermons.

2022 Best First Book winner

“I was hoping to share my great wisdom with a wider audience, have something permanent for my children and maybe grandchildren and be a New York Times best-selling author,” he said with a smile. “I got the second one, anyhow.”

“My dad was a farmer and a wonderful storyteller. I’m proud to follow in his tradition,” Chadwick said. “It’s a wonderful honor and I’m so grateful.”

Kevin Kouba, the music director at Briargate Presbyterian Church in Louisville, provided piano music during the celebration. The Rev. Dr. Bridgett Green, Vice President for Publishing at the PPC, discussed recently published and upcoming titles for both grownups and children.

Yet another highlight was an acapella version of those gathered online singing the PWG hymn, written years ago by legendary Presbyterian journalist Vic Jameson and set to the tune of “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.”

Presbyterian Writers Guild Hymn

By Vic Jameson

Glorious words we all have written,
members of the Writers Guild;
With our skills we all are smitten
and with virtue we are filled.
We are bound to be immortal;
great renown is our intent.
We will rest in Heaven’s portal
if we just can get in print.

We will be an inspiration,
as we write our lovely words.
Every tribe and every nation
will be glad they’ve read or heard
all our works of smiles and sadness
and the joy we bring to them;
While our hearts are filled with gladness
as the royalties roll in.

We will make the world much brighter
with our poems and with our prose.
And the byline of each writer
will be one creation knows.
We will find that we are listed
in the heavenly Hall of Fame.
And each one will have requested:

Please, God, don’t misspell my name!

Writing contest concludes Reply

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Winning entries to be published in a book

The winners of the final phase of the Presbyterian Writers Guild three-phase writing contest have been selected.

In the first phase of the contest–inspired by Jesus’ practice of teaching with parables–authors were invited to submit an opening hook for a story. In the second phase, they were asked to compose a flash fiction piece of about 1,000 words. The third phase called for a short story of under 4,000 words.

For the short story phase, the winners are:

  • First Place–Melissa Bane Sevier (Versailles, Kentucky), “Awareness”
  • Second Place–Lori Herter (Santa Ana, California), “The Outsider”
  • Third Place–Henry Brinton (Fairfax, Virginia), “Resolution”
  • Fourth Place–Lara MacGregor (Old Mill Creek, Illinois), “The River”

“These modern-day parables addressed a variety of concerns and, like the parables of Jesus, force the reader to think more deeply about the issues,” says PWG board member, Stephen McCutchan, who coordinated the contest on behalf of the Guild. “Issues like spouse abuse, hunger, hospitality to strangers, vampires, and the wisdom of children are fleshed out in these stories.”

Book CoverThe top eight opening hooks, four flash fiction stories, and eight short stories, plus a children’s story and a poem, are being published by the Guild in the book An Experiment in Modern Parables, which will be available for sale at the 222nd General Assembly in Portland, Oregon, and on Amazon. The Guild will celebrate the winners at its GA luncheon on June 23.

“We celebrate the creativity within the Presbyterian community,” McCutchan says.

 

Lifetime Achievement Awards announced Reply

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By Cathy Chisholm

Two veteran church communicators have been named recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Presbyterian Writers Guild (PWG). Houston Hodges and Jerry Van Marter will be recognized for “distinguished service to the church through writing/communication” at the Guild’s General Assembly luncheon June 23 in Portland, Oregon.

Jerry

Jerry Van Marter

Van Marter, who currently serves as stated clerk of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery and alumni relations advisor for San Francisco Theological Seminary, retired in 2014 from the Presbyterian News Service (PNS) after more than 26 years of reporting and editing. His byline has appeared on stories covering the work of the various councils, committees, and task forces of the church and its ecumenical partners, including 39 General Assemblies. Van Marter says that during his career, he traveled to almost every state and all over the world to “see first-hand the life-changing mission and ministry being done in the name of our beloved denomination.”

Ordained by Olympia Presbytery in 1971, Van Marter served as pastor of several congregations in California prior to his ministry with PNS.

Van Marter credits Hodges with giving him his start as a church journalist in San Francisco Presbytery. “Without his encouragement, I never would have even considered a career in church journalism.”

HHCollar

Houston Hodges

Hodges also cited his friendship with Van Marter in his response to news of the award. “The communicator is short on words,” said Hodges. “Oh, my. The thing that just keeps flooding over me is that I get to share it with Van Marter, and we’ve done so much of it together.”

Hodges’ first experience in journalism was helping his parents publish a semi-weekly newspaper in West Texas. Ordained in 1954, he has served in campus ministry and as a pastor in Texas and California, as well as in Winnipeg with the United Church of Canada. Prior to retirement in 1995, he served as executive presbyter of North Alabama Presbytery.

His writing career has included serving as a volunteer in the General Assembly newsroom, editor of Monday Morning magazine, and author of Circle of Years: a Caretaker’s Journal, the story of his mother’s battle against dementia. With Matt Cooney, he co-authored Faith Alive, describing the development of a congregation’s interactive and intergenerational worship.

A pioneer in the use of computers and the internet for church communications, Hodges recognized early the potential to “be in touch anytime, anywhere.” For the last decade, he has been heard on WLRH Huntsville Public Radio as a contributor to The Sundial Writers’ Corner.

Previous Lifetime Achievement Award winners include the renowned poets Ann Weems and J. Barrie Shepherd.

MaryAnn McKibben Dana named recipient of Distinguished Writer Award Reply

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By Emily Enders Odom

MaryAnn McKibben Dana, a writer, pastor, conference leader, and highly sought-after speaker, has been named the recipient of the 2016 David Steele Distinguished Writer Award byMaryAnn McKibben Dana the Presbyterian Writers Guild.

Dana—author of Sabbath in the Suburbs, a Chalice Press bestseller for two years running—has a robust presence on social media, and has been commenting on life, ministry, theology, and culture on her blog, The Blue Room, for more than 12 years. She will receive the prestigious award at the Presbyterian Writers Guild’s General Assembly luncheon June 23 in Portland, Oregon.

Named for the late David Steele—Presbyterian poet and essayist best known for his “Tuesday Morning” column in The Presbyterian Outlook—the distinguished writer award is given biennially to a Presbyterian writer who has blessed the church with his or her writing over the course of a career.

“[MaryAnn] is a voice that speaks to our modern situation and does so with grace and dignity, a love for the church and its people, and a prophetic word for those with ears to hear,” wrote Rebecca Page Lesley, pastor of Green Acres Presbyterian Church in Portsmouth, Virginia, in nominating her for the honor.

Dana, who most recently served as pastor of Idylwood Presbyterian Church in Falls Church, Virginia, was featured on PBS’s Religion and Ethics Newsweekly for her work on Sabbath. Her writing has appeared in TIME.com, The Washington Post, Religion Dispatches, Journal for Preachers, and The Christian Century, and for three years in a monthly column for Presbyterians Today. Her next book, tentatively titled Improvising with God, is under contract with Eerdmans and will be published in 2017.

“We are especially thrilled to honor MaryAnn with this award named for the late David Steele, who also delighted in experimenting with new forms of writing and modes of communication,” said William Lancaster, who, with Emily Enders Odom, co-chaired the selection committee.

Dana, who lives with her family in Reston, Virginia, also served as co-chair of NEXT Church for two years, a movement within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that “seeks to call forth vital ministry for our changing cultural context.” She is a mother of three, a “haphazard knitter,” and an occasional marathoner.

“For once, the writer is at a loss for words,” said Dana upon being informed of the honor. “I couldn’t be more honored and humbled to be in the company of other Distinguished Writer Award recipients—people whose work I’ve read and admired for much of my adult life. I am especially touched that my colleague and fellow Columbia Seminary alum, Becca Page Lesley, took time out of her busy life and ministry to nominate me for this honor. I’m surprised, touched and grateful.”

Previous winners include Kathy Bostrom, Katherine Paterson, Fredrick Buechner, Ann Weems, Eugene H. Peterson, Gustav Niebuhr, Marj Carpenter, Gayraud Wilmore, Eva Stimson, Kathleen Norris, Bill Tammeus, John Buchanan, Doris Betts, and the late Vic Jameson.

 

Opening Hook winners announced Reply

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The winners of phase 1 of the Presbyterian Writers Guild writing contest have been announced! Here are the top 10 Opening Hooks, in order of votes received:

#1       Melissa Bane Sevier

The bedroom felt oppressive at 3:30 a.m. His arm around her, though relaxed in sleep, bound her to time and place, to anxiety and despair. She longed for the dim stripes of sunrise to seep through the partially open blinds, bringing the dawn of yet another pretense of normalcy. Then she would slip from his grasp, wearing the night’s fear into the day as if it were an invisible shroud.

#2       Elsie Gilmore

Whoever had that light on in the attic window has it on no more. It was like a beacon, like a dim city set on a hill of household happenings. It guided me from work to home each night. So dependent was I on its steadfastness that I drove past my own gate the first night it was missing. Its absence haunted me like a missing key to my own existence.

#3       Cary Speaker

In the spring of 1963 my best friend, Barry, and I were standing on the toilet in one bathroom stall looking down on our friend Roger who was sitting on the toilet in the other stall, with his pants on. We were all three in the eighth grade. Barry and I had searched all over the school for Roger. We were angry and looking for a fight. When we found him we changed our minds.

#4       Ariel Lenarduzzi

What do you look like in color? Your photo is in black and white.

A picture in the back of the bulletin. Square. Like a picture from a passport for a foreign traveler who has long been forgotten by the passing of time.

The last time you spoke; the last time you preached. I was sitting too far to see you. I heard you. Your voice, your message, your call to action, your forgiveness.

#5       Alan Cutter

I woke up about 0430, buckled up my .45, grabbed a bottle of Johnnie Walker, and went outside to wait. The early air was already hot, a still humid haze hanging on the bay, morning light lifting the darkness, hinting at the tantalizing possibility of a beautiful day in Vietnam. Pouring three fingers, taking the day’s first sip, I said aloud, letting the words challenge the oppressive humidity, “It’s a good day to die.”

# 6      Matthew Rich

“It is fine,” he had said. Last year a few more new members joined the church than saints entered life eternal; steady giving with the expected December bump; a preschool full of laughing toddlers; programs every night of the week; no significant conflict. Yes, everything was “fine.” And yet . . .

Looking out the window, he wondered if fine was faithful, as someone slid behind the green dumpster. Who was she? What was she doing?

#7       Susan Baller-Shepherd

The vicodin settled in nicely as Stephanie pulled into the church parking lot for second service.

“Where in the world could I have put those? Have you seen them, Steph?” Joan asked at home, guessing her Rheumatoid Arthritis meds weren’t actually lost at all.

“Mom, you’re so forgetful, I swear!” Stephanie protested.

Getting out of the car, Stephanie held onto the door for support, nauseous and lightheaded, she felt herself going down for the count.

#8       Andrew Taylor-Troutman

On the morning her preacher promised that God would annihilate the world by fire, she awoke and crept outside, only to watch the pagan squirrels in her backyard scolding one another as they raced headlong around the ancient trees. By the time dust bit into the far horizon, she was unable to pray. But, damn it, could she ever curse!

#9       Lara MacGregor

I turned 40 that summer and I was between churches (an ironic way of saying “unemployed,” since “between” implies something on either side). Turns out, circulating a résumé when you are married with a toddler isn’t the same as looking for a new job when you’re single. Mobility becomes an issue. Money is more of an issue. And then there is your spouse’s job to consider. Where does God’s call fit in all of this?

#10    Deb Hadachek

The day she made three little boys and one mother cry during Sunday school, God made clear she was trying to claim a gift she did not possess.

Novel set during Civil War wins First Book Award Reply

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Presbyterian Writers Guild selects Robert John Andrews for prize

By Jerry L. Van Marter

ImageThe Presbyterian Writers Guild has selected Robert John Andrews, a pastor in Danville, Pennsylvania, to receive this year’s Presbyterian Publishing Corporation (PPC) First Book Award for his novel set during the Civil War, Nathaniel’s Call. The award honors the best first book by a Presbyterian author published during the calendar years of 2012–2013.

Andrews’ book, self-published in 2012, was selected from among 17 entries in a variety of genres to receive the biennial award. The PPC First Book Award winner is recognized at the Presbyterian Writers Guild’s General Assembly luncheon, which this year will be Thursday, June 19, in Detroit.

Announcing the award, Jane Hines of Nashville, retired director of communications for the Synod of Living Waters and chair of the PPC First Book Award Committee, said, “Several genres are represented in the 17 books we received (teen science fiction, memoirs, poetry, young adult fiction, novels, journals, dissertation re-writes). We were just looking for the best writing in any category and found it in Nathaniel’s Call.”

Andrews’ novel is told from the point of view of a Presbyterian chaplain and a physician attached to a Pennsylvania regiment during the Civil War. “From the first page to the last page,” Hines said, “we were captivated by the vivid descriptions, the characterizations, the historical research, the love stories, the flow of words.

“As a Nashville-based committee comprised of Southerners,” Hines added, “we don’t think it will be a best-seller in Vicksburg and Richmond, but we see Nathaniel’s Call as a splendid example of the art of writing.”

Andrews has been the pastor of Grove Presbyterian Church in Danville since 1989. He has theology degrees from Princeton and Pittsburgh Theological Seminaries and was ordained in 1978. He and his wife, Elaine, have three children. He has been moderator of Northumberland Presbytery and writes a weekly column for the Danville News.

Other notable entries in the Presbyterian Writers Guild’s PPC First Book Award competition:

  • Second place: Tuesday’s Muse, a book of poetry illustrated with black-and-white photographs, written by J. Todd Jenkins, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Fayetteville, Tennessee, self-published in 2013.
  • Third place (tie): Something Greater: Culture, Family and Community as Living Story, by Jeanne Choy Tate, published by Pickwick Publications in 2013; and Chasing the Divine in the Holy Land, by Ruth Everhart, published by Wm. B. Eerdmans in 2012.
  • Fourth place (tie): Take My Hand, a Theological Memoir, by Andrew Taylor-Troutman, published by Resource Publications in 2012; and Learning from My Father, by David Lawther Johnson, published by Wm.B. Eerdmans in 2012.
  • Honorable mention: Matthew A. Rich for A Week from Next Tuesday, published in 2013 by Wipf and Stock; Neal D. Presa for Here I Am, Lord, Send Me: Ritual and Narrative for a Theology of Presbyterial Ordination in the Reformed Tradition,published in 2012 by Wipf and Stock; and MaryAnn McKibben Dana for Sabbath in the Suburbs, published in 2012 by Chalice Press.

All those who entered the First Book Award competition will be given a chance to stand and be recognized at the Presbyterian Writers Guild luncheon at General Assembly. Those who entered, and especially those who placed in the competition, are encouraged to bring a copy of their book to the luncheon.

Presbyterian Writers Guild seeks best new author Reply

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Award goes to best first book by a Presbyterian writer

by Jerry L. Van Marter

The Presbyterian Writers Guild (PWG) is seeking entries for its biennial First Book Award. The award, previously known as the Jim Angell Award, has been presented since 1996 to the Presbyterian author of the best first book published during the previous calendar year.

Nominations are being accepted now for the best first book by a Presbyterian author published during the calendar years of 2012-2013. Books may be of any type — fiction, non-fiction, theological, how-to, photos with commentary, poetry, etc.

The award was established by the Guild and the estate of the late James W. Angell, a prolific and respected Presbyterian writer, as a means to recognize and encourage new writers. It is now sponsored by the Guild and the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation.

Entries may be submitted by the authors or by others on their behalf. Three copies of the book and a brief statement attesting to the author’s current active membership in a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation or presbytery should be sent to the First Book Award Committee, c/o Jane Hines, P.O. Box 50832, Nashville, TN, 37205.

Deadline for submissions is April 1, 2014.

The book needs to be the author’s first book, and has to have a publication date in 2012 or 2013. Include an e-mail address if the sender wishes to be notified that the books were received. The three copies of the book cannot be returned.

Questions about the award or entry process may be directed to Guild President John Underwood or Jane Hines.

Previous Angell Award winners are listed on this website.

Nominees sought for best Presbyterian writer Reply

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Presbyterian Writers Guild will honor winner at 221st General Assembly (2014)

The Presbyterian Writers Guild (PWG) is accepting nominations for its 2014 David Steele Distinguished Writer Award.

The award is given biennially in even-numbered years to recognize the cumulative work and influence — regardless of genre or subject matter — of a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) writer. The award will be presented at the PWG luncheon at next summer’s 219th General Assembly.

Previous winners include The Christian Century editor/publisher John M. Buchanan, The Message author Eugene H. Peterson, former Presbyterian News Service director Marj Carpenter, former Presbyterians Today editor Eva Stimson, novelists Doris Betts and Katherine Paterson, poet Ann Weems, Kansas City Star columnist Bill Tammeus, African-American religious historian Gayraud Wilmore, essayists Kathleen Norris and Frederick Buechner, and journalists Gustav Niebuhr and the late Vic Jameson.

The award is named for R. David Steele, a Presbyterian pastor best known for his whimsical books of poetry and thought-provoking column, “Tuesday Morning,” in The Presbyterian Outlook.

Nominations for the award should include the writer’s PC(USA) affiliation, list of published work, and a 100-word essay describing why the nominee is deserving of the award. Contact information for both the nominator and the nominee should be included.

Send nominations to Emily Enders Odom by email; by fax to (336) 299-5304, or by mail to 308 N. Chapman St., Greensboro, NC 27403.

Deadline for nominations is Jan. 15, 2014.