The West Virginia Writers Competition, with a late deadline of March 31, features twelve adult and four children and youth categories. Judges, chosen from leading professional writers and educators, have been announced for the following categories:

APPALACHIAN -- TOM DOUGLASS teaches Contemporary Literature at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. He has written extensively on Appalachian authors and is currently at work on a biography of Davis Grubb. He received his BA degree from Davis and Elkins College and MA and Ph D degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

SHORT STORY -- BARBARA SMITH is a free-lance writer, editor, medical ethicist, poet, novelist, book reviewer, literary critic, editor, educator, ethicist, and essayist-at-large has served as both writer and editor for many creative writing publications throughout West Virginia and the Appalachian region.   A resident of Philippi, WV, she is professor emeritus at Alderson-Broaddus College.  Along with Kirk Judd, Barbara Smith is one of the souls responsible for assembling the acclaimed collection of West Virginia poetry, Wild Sweet Notes.  She is a charter member of West Virginia Writers.  

GENRE SHORT STORY: ROMANCE -- BARBARA ANDREWS is the author or co-author of 48 books with number 49 in the works. She wrote romances for Dell under her own name, and in partnership with her daughter, Pam Hanson, has worked for various publishers, including Harlequin and Guideposts.

SHORT NON-FICTION -- CLAUDIA O'KEEFE is a former newspaper correspondent for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. As a writer/editor, her three family-themed anthologies, Father, Forever Sisters, and Mother, showcase original essays, memoirs, and short stories from such luminaries as Jonathan Kellerman, Whitney Otto, Winston Groom, Fay Weldon, and Joyce Carol Oates.

HUMOR - DEB DISANDRO is a syndicated columnist, writing instructor, comedy and columnist coach and humorist. She is author of the book, Tales of a Slightly Off Supermom: Fighting for Truth, Justice and Clean Underwear, and has published hundreds of articles.

CHILDREN'S -- MEREDITH SUE WILLIS, born and raised in West Virginia, graduated from Barnard College Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude, and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University. She has written numerous books, and was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

BOOKS -- PAM CABLE, a West Virginia-born writer and speaker, attended The University of Akron and Kent State University. Her award-winning stories, articles, and essays have appeared in magazines, anthologies, and newspapers in several states. She is author of the award winning book, SOUTHERN FRIED WOMEN.

LONG POETRY -- LAURA TREACY BENTLEY is a poet and fiction writer from Huntington, WV, whose work has been published in the United State and Ireland. Her first book of poetry, Lake Effect, was published in 2006. Her poetry has been featured on the Prairie Home Companion and Poetry Daily websites. She received a WV Commission on the Arts fellowship.

SHORT POETRY - MARIAN HADDAD a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, works as a lecturer, freelance manuscript editor and consultant, and visiting writer in public and private schools and universities. In addition to her poetry collection, Saturn Falling Down, her poems and essays have appeared in The Texas Observer, and The Rio Grande Review, among others. She has taught creative writing and literature at Northwest Vista College, Our Lady of the Lake University, and St. Mary's University.

EMERGING POETRY -- E. D. (EDDY) PENDARVIS, author of the poetry collection, Like the Mountains of China, spent her childhood in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. She draws on her Appalachian experience in her writing, in her teaching at Marshall University, and in her work as associate editor of the Journal of Appalachian Studies.

EMERGING PROSE -- MARIAN HADDAD a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, works as a lecturer, freelance manuscript editor and consultant, and visiting writer in public and private schools and universities. In addition to her poetry collection, Saturn Falling Down, her poems and essays have appeared in The Texas Observer, and The Rio Grande Review, among others. She has taught creative writing and literature at Northwest Vista College, Our Lady of the Lake University, and St. Mary's University.

MIDDLE SCHOOL -- CASEY LYNCH lives with her husband in Friendswood, Texas. She graduated from Marietta College with a Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Education, where she worked in the Campus Writing Center as a writing tutor. She has worked in classrooms from kindergarten through sixth grade as a substitute teacher.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL -- FAY THOMPSON, a resident of Ripley, WV has been widely published periodicals in the United States and several foreign countries. She has won many awards for her writing in various genres, and is the recipient of a WV Commission on the Arts fellowship.

HIGH SCHOOL WRITERS: POETRY -- COLLEEN ANDERSON is the owner of Mother Wit Writing and Design in Charleston, WV. In addition to travel writing, stories, poems and essays, she has produced two collections of original songs, Fabulous Realities and Going Over Home.

HIGH SCHOOL WRITERS: PROSE -- FRAN SIMONE received a PhD in English Education from Duke University. She is Director and Professor, Elementary and Secondary Education at Marshall University Graduate College in South Charleston, WV.

STAGE PLAY (THE JOE MCCABE MEMORIAL PLAYWRITING COMPETITION) --  ELIZABETH SCALES RHEINFRANK a graduate of the M.F.A. Playwriting Program at Columbia University, Elizabeth Scales Rheinfrank has had plays produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Women's Project & Productions, Chashama, Inc., the Culture Project, the Drilling Company, the Interart Annex, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, the Abraxxas Theatre Company, Raw Impressions Music Theatre, and Screaming Venus in New York City. Regional credits include The Civic Theatre of Central Florida in Orlando, the CollaborAction Theatre Company in Chicago, and Oberlin College, where she studied as a Battrick Poetry Fellow. She was a member of Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City from 1999-2003, the Women's Project Playwrights Lab from 1999-2002, and was recently selected as a Heideman Award Finalist by the Actors Theatre of Louisville. She has also received awards from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the American Academy of Poets, and the Mississippi Writers' Club, among others.