DEVELOPMENTAL MENTORSHIP
Our finalists plus the winner of the Sandra Carpenter Prize will receive one-to-one developmental mentoring with an experienced writer/editor.
Together you and your mentor will set expectations, clarify goals and next steps for your writing project. The developmental mentorship will include virtual meetings to discuss your work, review of select pieces of your work and potentially a written report from the mentor. Each mentor/mentee experience will reflect the needs of the winning writer.
The developmental mentorship experience will be complete by the end of the year 2023.
MEET OUR 2024 MENTORS…
Cathleen O’Connor, PhD is a published author, editor, book coach and former President of the International Women's Writing Guild (IWWG). A lifelong New York resident, her articles have been published in Canada’s ALIVE magazine and Australia’s THE SPHERE. She has been featured on ABC News in Green Bay, WI and quoted in the Huffington Post. Cathleen has offered programs in writing through the IWWG and not-for-profit organizations in her community, including Support Connection, a Westchester County organization providing services to women with breast and ovarian cancer, and Wainwright House, a non-profit center dedicated to education and programs for transformational living. She served on the Board of the Barbara Giordano Foundation, a NY nonprofit offering services and support to women veterans. She has taught her own original program called Spiritual Living since 2000 and is a specialist in dream interpretation and metaphysical counseling.
Her books include, High Heels on the Hamster Wheel (Balboa Press, 2013), The Everything Law of Attraction Dream Dictionary (Adams Media, 2010), and The Collection: Flash Fiction for Flash Memory (Anchala Press, 2018). She is at work on her first novel.
Find more about Cathleen at www.cathleenoconnor.com.
Bethany Ritz is an editor and writer. She was the co-founding editor for Emergence Magazine exploring ecology, culture, and spirituality; the digital editor for Global Oneness Project, an online storytelling and educational platform; and a board member at BOMB magazine, publishing conversations between artists of all disciplines. She excels in developmental editing and has worked with both new and established writers to offer editorial insight on their projects through well-considered developmental and line editing. Her approach is to look for what is most alive in a work and hold that as a lodestone for suggestions.
After studying creative writing at Columbia University, she organized and managed the launching projects for Climate Resolve communicating climate science across Los Angeles County, designed a storytelling template for TreePeople, edited UCLA’s Center for Sustainable Urban Systems’ inaugural White Paper for policy-minded readers, and more. In addition to her background in climate emergency, ecological, and cultural narrative-driven storytelling, she has a special interest in decolonized eco-feminism, especially as informed by bell hooks, Françoise d'Eaubonne, and Vandana Shiva, as well as all artistic explorations expressing this focus.
She is currently writing a novel and developing a book of essays. Reach out to Bethany through her website: www.bethanyritz.com.
Paula Chaffee Scardamalia is a multi-published author, book coach and editor. Schiffer Publishing published her nonfiction books, Enchanting Creativity: How Fairy Tales, Dreams, Rituals & Journaling Can Awaken Your Creative Self (September 2022) and Tarot for the Fiction Writer (2019). Her fantasy romance novel, In the Land of the Vultures, was released by Wild Rose Press in December 2018. She self-published her first book, Weaving a Woman’s Life: Spiritual Lessons from the Loom, in 2006, which won Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards, Bronze.
Paula’s presented workshops across the country at: Romance Writers of America national and regional events; San Diego University Writers Conference; International Women’s Writing Guild; and at smaller venues like destination resorts and bookstores. She’s edited for and coached authors across the US, Canada, and Europe. As a freelance writer, she wrote book reviews for publications like Foreword Magazine, Crafts Report Magazine, and Faery Magazine. She publishes Divine Muse-ings, a weekly e-newsletter, since 2009. She was dream consultant for PEOPLE Country Magazine from 2010 until it ceased publication. She received her MFA from International College (Los Angeles, CA), and BA, from Penn State University.
Learn more about Paula at www.diviningthemuse.com or at www.paulachaffeescardamalia.com.
photo credit: Daniel Fryer
Much of Mamta Chaudhry’s professional career was in television and classical radio at stations in Calcutta, Gainesville, Dallas, and Miami. Mamta has studied with Marilynne Robinson and has also taught literature and creative writing at the University of Miami. Her early fiction, poetry, and feature articles have been published in newspapers and magazines in the States and in India. She is the author of Haunting Paris and is currently working on a second novel.
Learn more about Mamta at www.MamtaChaudhry.com
See what past winners have to say..
“The Developmental Mentorship helped me look critically at my project as a whole and pinpoint where to focus my energy as I redrafted my manuscript. My mentor also guided me through the process of writing a synopsis and shared useful resources for querying agents.” Greg Tebbano, 2nd Place 2022
“During our meetings, Bethany and I worked to identify my writing's strengths and areas of growth and talked through various strategies to improve the structural organization of my draft. I truly felt that she dissected my pages with such care and that she was invested in my success and my vision for this project. I finished my Developmental Mentoring sessions with the tools, insights, and confidence necessary to improve my current piece and develop my writing style at large.” Elise Thi Tran, 1st Place 2022