Achievements
!! FEATURED !!
My short story “The Yellow Line” is appearS in the December issue of StoryBoard Memphis. I am so pleased that this story about coming out of homelessness is in a new Memphis print publication. You can see the online version at the StoryBoard website. You’ll see a teaser for the story in the upper right corner of the edition. My interview and the story appears on page 19. Scroll through the pages, enjoying yourself along the way (they included a review of Writing Our Way Home: A Group Journey Out of Homelessness–be still my heart!)
I’ve been PUBLISHED, an essential foundational achievement
Making Crosses: A Creative Connection to God (2009, Paraclete Press); Cain’t Do Nothing with Love, CIPA EVVY AUDIO BOOK AWARD 2014; “Tetanus, You Understand?” included in Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir by Sue Silverman (2009, University of Georgia Press)
I’ve been a REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR to various publications
Contributor, Radio Commentaries West TN and MS NPR affiliates 2000-2007 (PRNDI Award, 2nd Place, Commentary/Essay 2000); Contributor, Strut! Magazine (2004-2008); Contributor, Church Health Reader
My work has been in LITERARY JOURNALS
Hotel Amerika (one of the prettiest journals I’ve been in), Alimentum, (the only piece I’ve ever written about food) Brevity, Southern Women’s Review, Tertulia Magazine, StorySouth, The Rambler, KWG Anthology, North Dakota Quarterly, Alaska Quarterly Review (two of my “frozen tundra” publications), Barrelhouse (which gives me street cred), Texas Review, Fourth Genre, River Teeth, New Madrid, Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression, Arkansas Review, Southern Hum, Image: A Journal of Art and Religion, Gulf Coast Literary Journal, Eureka Literary Magazine, Hurricane Review (my husband’s favorite), The Pinch
I’ve won AWARDS, a happy occurrence
Special Mention, Pushcart Prize XXXI, “Held at Gunpoint,” 2007; Nominated, Pushcart Prize, 2007, “Gift of the Elephant”; TN Writers’ Alliance Nonfiction Winner, 2007; TN Writers’ Alliance Fiction, Winner 2005; Winner, Memphis Magazine Fiction Contest, 2009; Peralta Press, 2K2 Award Winner 2002; Cain’t Do Nothing with Love CIPA EVVY Audio Book Award, 2014
I’ve been RECOGNIZED for my writing
Peter Taylor Fellow, Kenyon College Summer Writing Program, 2005; Sewanee Writers Conference, 2002; Richard Bausch Moss Group; Upstander, Facing History and Ourselves
My novels have PLACED IN CONTESTS
Jazzy and the Pirates, Finalist, Novel-in-progress, William Faulkner-William Wisdom Competition, 2018
The Bone Trench, Short List Finalist, Novel-in-progress, William Faulkner-William Wisdom Competition, 2012; Second Round, Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, 2014
In the Name of Mississippi, Short List Finalist, Novel-in-progress, William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition 2009, and Semi-finalist (25/600) James Jones First Novel Competition 2005
Train Trip: Lucinda Mae’s Quest for Love, Honor, and the Chickens, Semi-finalist, William Faulkner-William Wisdom Competition, Novel, 2012
Joanne Corey
Wow!
Ellen Prewitt
It would be funny, wouldn’t it, Joanne, if I added a “Spectacular Failures” page? That would be a long list too!
Joanne Corey
Not that I think you should have a “Spectacular Failures” page, but, as a newbie in trying to submit for publication, it is heartening to have reminders that even successful writers with publications and prizes(!) have weathered a lot of rejection notices. Some of the teachers of our community poetry workshop point out that they get many times over more rejections than acceptances, which makes me not feel so bad when I look at my rejection folder.
Ellen Prewitt
When I switched from being a lawyer to a writer, I had to switch my expectations from one of success to one of failure: I would probably get rejected, and when I got an acceptance, I shouted it from the rooftops!