2021 CALEB Awards Wants You ... to Volunteer as a Judge

 

It is almost time for the 2021 CALEB Awards from Omega Writers. CALEB stands for Christian Authors Lifting Each other's Books. The CALEB Award:

·         Supports excellence in Australasian Christian books by encouraging and educating writers, regardless of genre.

·         Encourages excellence in Australasian Christian books by recognising and rewarding our best writers across a range of genres.

The 2021 Awards will be for books published in 2019 or 2020 in the following genres:

·         Adult fiction

·         Young Adult fiction

·         Early Reader and Middle Grade (also open to books published in 2018)

·         Picture Books

·         Adult Biography or Memoir

·         Adult Nonfiction (also open to books published in 2018)

The 2021 Awards will open for entries in March (watch this space to find out more).

However, before we open for entries, we need judges.

Who can judge?

Anyone! Well, almost anyone.

• This is a contest for Christian writers, so we want judges who agree with the Omega Writers Statement of Faith.
• We’re looking for keen readers who can read and judge the first fifty pages of between four and ten entries between 1 May and 20 June.
• Books (other than picture books) are provided as PDF files, so you will need to read on your computer, tablet, smartphone, or Kindle device. Picture books are judged in hard copy.

All we ask is that you judge each entry fairly, according to the judging criteria.

Judging is a great opportunity to sample books from some new-to-you authors and perhaps discover a new favourite.

Each entry will be judged by three judges in the first round. Finalists will be judged by three new judges. That means we need a lot of volunteers to support the contest. If we don’t get enough judges, we may need to combine or cut some categories.

Each category is judged separately, so we encourage you to enter the awards in one category and volunteer to judge another.

Note that judges in the Published contest only have to provide scores for each category in the judging sheet. We’re not asking for feedback from judges, like we do for the Unpublished contest.

(But if you enjoy the book and would like to bless the author, may we suggest a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Koorong? Just remember to mention you received a free copy of the book.)

To volunteer as a judge, fill out the form at https://bit.ly/JudgeCALEB2021

Thank you!

Aussie Writer on the Journey: What I’ve learned from judging Writing Contests

by Narelle Atkins

I’ve been judging writing contests for a few years now, and I believe my experiences have helped me to revise my own stories.

My goal as a judge is to provide constructive feedback to the entrant to help them improve their story and grow as a writer. Sometimes this means providing gentle comments about why something in their story isn’t working for me. Or explaining why they need to improve a specific aspect of writing craft and directing them to helpful writing books. It always means providing positive and encouraging comments on the aspects of their story that work well. And occasionally I’m wowed by an entry that is ready for publication. In this instance I will give an entry a perfect score and let the author know I’m looking forward to buying their book!

It’s very important as a judge to explain why you are giving an entry a less than perfect score. The entrant will want to know why their story isn’t working for you and I offer direction or suggestions on ways to improve their story. It is not the role of a judge to do line edits or rewrite sentences.

Contest judging has helped me to hone the critiquing skills I need to apply to my own work. I find it much easier to see the flaws in other people’s manuscripts than in my own. Judging has helped me to step back and critically appraise my own work during the editing process.

By judging contests I’ve also learned more about writing craft. I need to understand point of view and characterisation in order to effectively judge these craft elements in contest entries. When reading a contest entry with a critical eye, I am learning the importance of writing craft in our stories. If a story isn’t working, I try to discern the aspects of writing craft that need to be improved. An understanding of story structure is also important and I believe we learn this by reading widely in different genres. I also look at whether a story fits genre conventions. For example, a romance must have a hero and heroine facing conflict and struggling to achieve their story goals and happily-ever-after romantic ending.

Contest judging is a way of giving back to the writing community. I’ve appreciated the time and effort volunteer judges have put into reviewing my entries and I hope my comments help contest entrants move forward in their writing journey. I’ve also received some lovely thank you notes and it’s good to hear that contest entrants have appreciated the time and effort I’ve put into judging their entries.

Have you judged any writing contests? What have you learned from your judging experiences? Have you been a reader judge for published or unpublished contests? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Narelle Atkins writes contemporary inspirational romance. She resides in Canberra, Australia with her husband and children. She can also be found at the International Christian Fiction Writers blog.

Narelle is a co-founder of the 30 Minute Bible Studies website. In May she will be launching a new 30 Minute Bible Studies blog. To learn more about Narelle, please visit her website.