Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Helen McCloy Scholarships for Mystery Writing

Many years ago, I was on the board of Mystery Writers of America, and had the pleasure of serving with Elizabeth Foxwell.  Her contributions to our field are innumerable, and as in all her endeavors, she  served the organization with excellence.  One of her many innovations on behalf of MWA was to conceive of and work to establish the Helen McCloy Scholarships.

Helen McCloy (1904-1994) was an author, editor, publisher, and agent.  Over the course of her writing career, she was an Edgar winner, Grandmaster,  MWA President (its first woman president, in 1950), and helped to establish the New England Chapter of the organization.

I have just seen an announcement in the MWA newsletter by Chris Roerden, the current chair of these scholarships.   For 2012, there are two $500 scholarships available to help a promising mystery writer pay the registration fees for live writing programs, classes, courses, or workshops.  The scholarships are open to U.S. citizens or permanent residents only.

The deadline for application submissions is February 29, 2012, which sounds as if it is a long way off, but two letters of recommendation are needed, and those can take a while to gather, so if you are interested, please start the process now!

Please visit this site for more information:
http://www.mysterywriters.org/?q=AwardsPrograms-McCloy