Chesapeake Bay Writers

It's time for our Annual Gala Luncheon and All Stars Contest!

Share your work and compete for prizes! Those in attendance will vote for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners who will receive cash prizes of $75, $50 and $25, respectively. All work read is eligible for a separate contest for the Rick Baily Humor Award and $25 prize. You may choose one piece of your work--fiction, nonfiction or poetry to read  on November 28th.

Make your reservation today! The contest entry form is on this page after the luncheon reservation form.

Only members of CBW in good standing for 2018 who also make a luncheon reservation are eligible to compete. Facebook group members are not eligible to compete unless they are also CBW members, but all are welcome to make a reservation to join us for lunch and to enjoy the contest readings.

Maximum reading time is 8 minutes for one piece of work--fiction, non-fiction or poetry.  Readers going over 8 minutes will be permitted to finish, but will be disqualified for prizes.

Join the fun and festivities!

Lauran Strait, former writing instructor and workshop facilitator at the Adult Learning Center in Virginia Beach, is the founder and executive director of Hampton Roads Writers. She occasionally teaches writing workshops for HRW and the Muse Writers Center. She also works as a freelance book editor for a few select clients.

Her print and online work appears in Dog-eared, The Gator Springs Gazette, Atomic Petals, Retrozine, The Copperfield Review, A Woman of a Certain Age, Moondance Magazine, Monkey Bicycle, Insolent Rudder, LongStoryShort, Edifice Wrecked, The Virginian Pilot, Whistling Shade Literary Review, Somewhat.org, The Green Tricycle, Reading Divas, The Angler, Salome Magazine, Quiction, Bewildering Stories, Tiny Lights—a flash in the pan, Down in the Cellar, Tuesday Shorts, Six Sentences, and HeavyGlow. Some of her other fiction and creative nonfiction appears in anthologies such as Random House’s Knitlit the Third—We Spin More Yarns,Better Non Sequitur's See You Next Tuesday, and Smith Magazine’s Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak.

      If you love to write, it is possible to turn that skill into a fulfilling and even lucrative second career. Ann Eichenmuller will introduce you to the world of freelance magazine writing and share from her own experience the possibilities and pitfalls of getting paid for what you write.
      Learn about the markets available to writers, the kinds of articles magazines want, and how to research, develop, and pitch winning ideas. Become familiar with the business side of this kind of freelance writing, from contracts and invoices to payments to kill fees. No matter what your age or interest, there is an audience out there waiting to hear from you.
     The library is located at 117 N. Church Lane, Tappahannock, to the right off US 17N, between Tappahannock Elementary School and Queen Street (Route 360). There is no charge and non-members are welcome to attend.

About Ann Eichenmuller
     Ann Eichenmuller is an award-winning educator and writer and creator of Motorhome magazine’s popular “Classic Ride”  series. A regular contributor to Chesapeake Bay Magazine, Chesapeake Style,  and the Caribbean All at Sea, her articles were recognized at the 2016 and 2017 Boating Writers International Annual Awards. She is a former recipient of the WashingtonPost Agnes Meyer Award for Excellence in Education and the author of two mystery novels, Kind Lies (2017) and The Lies We Are (June 2018). Ann has recently completed her first non-fiction book, The Writing Cure, about the healing power of writing.