2003 Awards
2003 Prize Winners: Cathy Cruise, Michael H. Levin,
Mary Collins and Charles Pekow. Photo © Alice Starcke.
For Immediate Release: Contact: Amy Swauger,
May 16, 2003 WIW Executive Director
(202) 737-9500
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Washington Independent Writers (WIW), the nation’s largest regional writers organization, awarded the first annual Washington Writing Prizes to Mary Collins, Cathy Cruise, Michael H. Levin and Charles Pekow. The awards were announced May 16 at the 2003 Washington Writers Conference.
Begun by WIW “to recognize the outstanding work of WIW members in the highly competitive freelance marketplace,” the Washington Writing Prizes were open to members in good standing in the categories of personal essay, poetry, reported nonfiction article and short fiction.
· Collins received with the award for personal essay for “Don’t
Have a Seat,” published in the Washington Post “Health” section
March 5, 2002.
· Cruise won the short fiction prize for her story, “Other People’s
Lives,” published in the January 2001 issue of the Michigan Quarterly Review.
· Levin took the top prize for poetry with his piece “Silences (Supper
at the Hotel Adlon, Berlin 1936),” published in the April 2002 issue of
the monthly Jewish review, Midstream.
· The reported article award went to Pekow for his piece, “Lines
of Fire,” published in the January-February 2002 issue of Washington Monthly.
Lester Reingold and Martha Frase-Blunt each received honorable mentions
in the reported article category.
· Reingold was recognized for “Special Report: Aftermath,” published
in the Air & Space/Smithsonian Magazine.
· Frase-Blunt was honored for “The Sugar Daddies’ Kiss of
Death,” published in the Washington Post’s “Outlook.”
The awards were presented by WIW Vice President and Washington Writing Prizes Committee Chair Beryl Lieff Benderly.
Winners were chosen by a panel of distinguished Washington writers, including Anne Cassidy, Jeff Richards, Linda Stern, Michele Wolf and Benderly. Eligible pieces were published between Jan. 1, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2002, on a freelance basis in a print or electronic publication regularly distributed to the general public or to a controlled readership.
Washington Post “Book World” Editor in Chief Marie Arana gave the conference keynote speech following presentation of the awards. The 2003 Washington Writers Conference also featured John F. Baker, editorial director of Publishers Weekly, and Howard Means, author and former senior editor of Washingtonian magazine.
More information about WIW is available at www.washwriter.org or from the WIW office, 733 15th St. N.W., Suite 220, Washington, DC 20005, phone (202) 737-9500, fax (202) 638-7800, e-mail info.
WIW also sponsors an Internet-based Listserv e-mail discussion list, WIW-L. For a free subscription, send an e-mail message to listserv@cmich.edu and, in the body of the message, type “subscribe WIW-L your name” (without the quotation marks).