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

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good morning Jan Burke!

I am singing praise for both Bones and Disturbance. I have read Bones over several times and it is by far my favorite novel. I was extremely excited to see Distrubance make its way to continute the story! I did notice a "whoops" in the novel however as I finished it last night. So as not to spoil it for other readers I will describe the scene as "lunch" on pg 270 (hardcover). You mention "Ian". I have read, and reread previous pages thinking I have missed something, but "Ian" does not exist in your story. I believe you meant "Kai"?

Did I miss something in the story?

Jenna

Claiborne said...

Glad to know about these scholarships, and your books. I picked up "Bloodlines" as a used paper back in Maine and thoroughly enjoyed it. Looking forward to more.

A quick question. On p. 555 there is reference to blue eyes in a 1945 photograph. Since it's an Easter picture of siblings, I envision a portably camera. But I don't think color was available, at least not portable color, in that time. Just a little curious..

Claiborne