The time for procrastination is over! Waterston Desert Writing Prize submissions for the 2019 prize are due by midnight April 1. If you are planning to submit, it’s time to warm up your keyboard and put print to paper. Find all the guidelines and a link for submissions at waterstondesertwritingprize.org.

The Prize winner will receive a $2,500 cash award, a reading and reception at the High Desert Museum in Bend, and a four-week residency at PLAYA at Summer Lake, Oregon. The winner and finalists will be announced in early May. The award event, including A Desert Conversation, will take place Wednesday, June 26, 2019 at the High Desert Museum.

The Prize honors creative nonfiction that illustrates artistic excellence, sensitivity to place and desert literacy, with the desert as both subject and setting. Inspired by author and poet Ellen Waterston’s love of the high desert of Central Oregon, a region that has been her muse for over 30 years, the Prize recognizes the vital role deserts play worldwide in the ecosystem and the human narrative.

The Prize is funded from an endowment managed by the Oregon Community Foundation, with the impetus for the creation of the endowment provided by actor Sam Waterston, after whom the prize is named.

waterstondesertwritingprize.org • info@waterstondesertwritingprize.org • 541-480-3933 • 541-419-0414