The 2022 GCWA Writing Contest
deadline January 31, 2022.
Adult Contest (18 and older) and Youth Contest (ages 11 through 17).
Guidelines and Documentation Here
Thank you to our Sponsors
Authors, sign up for the Southwest Florida Reading Festival Saturday, March 5, 2022. GCWA has afternoon (1:00 to 4:00 p.m.) openings at our tables on the campus of Fort Myers Regional Library, 2450 First Street, Fort Myers, FL.
The festival has a first-rate reputation with a diverse line-up of nationally acclaimed, bestselling authors and consistently receives rave reviews from authors and attendees.
PLEASE NOTE: The Reading Festival is NOT accepting individual author applications so you must sign up with GCWA if you would like to participate. Authors can sign up by emailing Christie Zarria. Registration must be made by January 30, 2022.
Please read and familiarize yourself with ALL the Reading Festival Guidelines if you decide to participate.
Speaker: Angelina Assanti
Topic: Turning a Book into a Movie
February 19, 2022, 10 a.m. to Noon
Location: Map
Word of Life Church
6111 South Pointe Blvd.
Fort Myers, FL 33919
Angelina Assanti is an award winning author. Her humorous non-fiction cancer book is being made into a documentary. Writers don’t realize their books can be made into film, right here in Florida. Angelina will give writers information about finding sponsors, producers, and grants to make a movie in Florida.
“My name is Angelina Assanti and I am a humor writer. My first book, The Lottery Heiress came out in 2013. My second book, Mark Taylor’s Checkered Past came out in 2014. While I was writing the third book in that series, I was diagnosed with cancer and wrote my most-successful book to date, Thank God I Got Cancer…I’m Not a Hypochondriac Anymore! which won two national awards and was a finalist in the International Readers’ Favorite contest. It’s also an Amazon Bestseller.”
Angelina’s website: https://angelinaassanti.us/
Speaker: Brenda Spalding
Topic: How to Publish Children’s Books
March 19, 2022, 10 a.m. to Noon
Location: Map
Word of Life Church
6111 South Pointe Blvd.
Fort Myers, FL 33919
Brenda Spalding will present what she has learned about creating and publishing children’s books.
Brenda is the founder and president of ABC-Books, Inc. a networking organization to help other self-published authors connect and share information. They are a 501c3 and promote literacy in the area.
Brenda is an award-winning author of many children’s and adult books. She is past president of , and ociation.
PayPal $5.00 for non-members to attend GCWA monthly meeting.
If you are a GCWA member or affiliate member, meetings are free.
FAPA President’s Book Awards For 2022
Recognizing book publishing excellence and creativity in design, content, and production.
Deadline April 30, 2022
Each year the Florida Authors and Publishers Association (FAPA) sponsors the FAPA President’s Book Awards, which recognizes book publishing excellence and creativity in design, content, and production for authors and publishers. This year we have opened the competition from North America only to the English-speaking world. We hope to encourage entries from all who share our complex and wonderful language.
Finalists are chosen by publishing professionals and librarians from both within and outside of Florida and are announced at the President’s Book Awards Banquet the last weekend of July.
FAPA membership is not required for entry, although FAPA members receive a $20 discount. Not a member? Join FAPA Here.
The Visual Arts Center in Punta Gorda is holding its Biannual National Art Exhibit beginning February 18, 2022, and running through April 16, 2022. In connection with the exhibit, they will hold a special Evening of Poetry and Art on March 23 from 7-9 pm.
We are looking for poets to be a part of this evening, where the visual arts come together with poetry. To do so, submit a poem for consideration inspired by one of the works in the exhibit. Deadline for submission is March 15, 2022. Ten poems will be selected to be read by the poets that evening.
Details about how to submit poems and how the selection process works are included in the Call for POETRY Submissions.
We are hoping to get poets from all of SW Florida! In order to get the word to GCWA poets, perhaps you could post the attached Call for Poetry Submissions on the website, or include the information in a newsletter. I’d greatly appreciate it. It’s always a wonderful exhibit of art from all over the country, and the evening of poetry is always fun and exciting.
Any questions, please contact Dorothy Brooks at dhbrooks430@gmail.com.
Each year Black Lawrence Press will award The Hudson Prize for an unpublished collection of poems or short stories. The prize is open to new, emerging, and established writers. The winner of this contest will receive book publication, a $1,000 cash award, and ten copies of the book. Prizes awarded on publication.
DEADLINE: MARCH 31
Early Bird Deadline: January 31
Early Bird Entry Fee: $22
For more information
and to submit your manuscript,
We look forward to reading your work!
Submissions for Cow Pure Slush Vol. 23 are 
now open. They opened 1st January 2022.
Last day for submissions will be 28th February 2022.
More Information
Saddlebags of Gold
by DJ Kristoff
The Secrets of the Five Rays of Light
by DJ Kristoff
AND THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES…in the next book of the spine-tingling Dino Diane’s Adventures series.
DJ Kristoff is a world traveler, adventurer, seeker of truth, and award-winning science teacher extraordinaire. The locations in her story are real. The science and history are real. She earned the nickname Dino Diane on a dinosaur dig with the Museum of the Rockies at Camposaur in Montana, the excavation site of the real Dr. Alan Grant of Jurassic Park, paleontologist John Horner.
Kristoff has backpacked and rafted the Grand Canyon, scuba-dived the Great Barrier Reef, ridden a camel around the Pyramids at Giza, cruised the Nile, and explored the tombs of the pharaohs. She’s trekked the outback of Australia and the tropical rainforests of Hawaii, ventured along volcanic lava flows, gone on photo safari in Tanzania, helicoptered over Victoria Falls, walked with lion cubs in the African bush, hot-air ballooned over the Maasai Mara, witnessed the male elephant gathering on the Zambezi River, and much more.
Currently living in Fort Myers, Florida, DJ Kristoff began her education career teaching eighth-grade science in Tempe, Arizona. There she founded and directed the Students for Environmental Awareness Club. Kristoff guided as many as 50 adventurous eighth graders hiking and backpacking into the deserts and wildernesses of Arizona and Utah, teaching geology, biology, anthropology, paleontology, and ethnobotany. Now, as a children’s author, she inspires middle-grade students to love nature and science with her magical books.witnessed the male elephant gathering on the Zambesi River
Kristoff has inspired hundreds of adventurers to learn how to survive in the wilds, become self-reliant, and appreciate and respect nature, and each other. As a result of her years of teaching as a master educator, she was awarded the prestigious Silver Apple Award by Channel 3 and the Dial Corporation and was the recipient of the Science Teacher of the Year by the Salt River Project for the state of Arizona.
Dino Diane’s Adventures is a magical science adventure cloaked in a historical fantasy that chronicles the author’s real-life experiences and fanciful inspirations. Saddlebags of Gold and The Secrets of the Five Rays of Light are the first two books in the Dino Diane’s Adventure series by the famous children’s author and educator. There are more adventures to come in Hawaii, Australia, Africa, and Egypt, with lots of new characters and amazing magic!
DJ Kristoff has recently launched her children’s book series, Dino Diane’s Adventures. Visit her website for Saddlebags of Gold and The Secrets of the Five Rays of Light for upper middle-grade, young adults. www.dinodianesadventures.com
