High Desert Retreat Scholarship Contest!

By Lizzie Vance

Are you so busy struggling to make ends meet that you don’t have time to finish your book or screenplay? Would you love to treat yourself to a luxurious mini-vacation and a dedicated block of time to get away from it all, complete a writing project, or kick-start a regular writing practice?  Do you dream of studying with award-winning writers and literary agents who can help you get your work published? If you feel like writers’ retreats are a fantasy that would require cash to rain from the sky, you may be in luck!

Beautiful Joshua Tree National Park

Writing Pad is holding a scholarship contest to fund one talented but broke writer’s admission to our High Desert Retreat (an $815 value!).  The retreat will be held at the fabulous 29 Palms Inn in tranquil Joshua Tree, CA from October 21-23rd.

Writing Pad’s retreats have helped many, many writers create, polish, and publish written material that may otherwise never have been born. Jim Gillett, the March retreat scholarship winner, for instance, was inspired by a writing exercise at the Ojai retreat.  He wrote a draft of an essay at the retreat that will be published in Southwest’s Spirit magazine in October!  This kind of serendipity may be at your fingertips… so what have you got to lose?

Writers Toasting Their Literary Productivity
at Last Year's High Desert Retreat--
Enter the contest, and this could be you!

This year, the contest will be judged by the incredible Antoine Wilson author of The Interloper, as well as Panorama City, which will be released later this year, the impressive Joe Donnelly, award-winning journalist, former deputy editor of the L.A. Weekly, and cofounder of Slake Los Angeles, and the amazing Janelle Brown, journalist and author of the best-selling novels This Is Where We Live and All We Ever Wanted Was Everything.  One other judge will be announced later this week, so stay tuned! Here is the how the contest works:

On September 29th, the contest will begin on this blog. If you’d like to enter, you will post a short essay, story, poem, or scene (3-5 paragraphs maximum) in response to the contest writing prompt and email it to marilyn@writingpad.com along with proof of current or long-term economic hardship (ex. bank statements, letter demonstrating that you have been laid off from your job, etc.). Contest entries should be posted and emailed NO LATER than Thursday, October 6 at 10 a.m. The winner will be announced on October 11th.

They say that money doesn’t grow on trees; but in this case, if you win the contest, it just might!