2020 CALEB Award Finalists Announced

By Iola Goulton, 2020 CALEB Coordinator

Like so much of what has happened this year, the 2020 CALEB Award hasn’t gone according to plan. Our past practice has been to have a combination of published and unpublished categories in the Award each year, and to announce the winners at the annual Omega Writers Conference.

Well, between fires, disease, and murder hornets, the 2020 Omega Writers Conference has now morphed into the 2021 Omega Writers Conference. The place is the same: Peppers Kingscliff, in northern New South Wales, from 8 to 10 October 2021.

This change led to us switching up the 2020 CALEB Awards. As such, the 2020 Awards are for manuscripts from unpublished authors in three categories:

• Adult Fiction
• Young Adult Fiction
• Nonfiction

The first-round judges have completed their tasks and returned their scoresheets. I’ve done my Excel magic, and I am thrilled to be able to announce the finalists in the 2020 CALEB Award.

Finalists: Adult Fiction

Helen Carr
Emily Maurits
Mindy Shaw

 

Young Adult Fiction

Kirsten Hart
Judy Rogers
Jean Saxby

 

Nonfiction

Susan Barnes
Jeffrey McKee

Congratulations, everyone!

Note that the Unpublished Award is a blind contest. Judges don’t know whose manuscripts they are judging, and we don’t reveal the manuscript titles to keep that anonymity.

The final-round judges now have until 30 September to read the full manuscript and pick the winner for each category. I don’t envy them!

The winners will be announced via a Zoom celebration in lieu of a conference.

This is provisionally scheduled for 16 October 2020, and the time is to be confirmed. We’d love it if you could join us!

Members of Omega Writers will receive an email invitation. If you’re not a member of Omega Writers but would like to join us, then consider joining us!

Alternatively, email me at caleb @ omegawriters [dot] org, and we’ll add you to the invitation list (note: finalists and members will be given first priority if we have any limit on numbers).