FLORIDA KEYS COUNCIL OF THE ARTS
Press Release
Contact: Liz Young
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 305-295-4369
7/18/2022

Janette Stone wins 2022 Key West Writers Guild Award

The Florida Keys Council of the Arts, in conjunction with the Key West Writers Guild, is pleased to announce that Janette Stone has garnered this year's writing award for her manuscript, “Prairie Lotus Flower”. Janette, a native Australian, is living her dream of teaching around the world, while being based in Key West.

This year marks the nineteenth annual award which is supported by an endowment under the administration of the Arts Council. Past winners include: C.J. Geotis, Kristina Neihouse, Dale Dapkins, Lisa Mahoney, Joanna Brady Schmida, Richard DeGrasse, Harry Schroeder, the late Elizabeth Warner, Eddie Goldstein and Rusty Hodgdon. Ms. Stone has a diploma in Teaching from Alexander Mackie College, Sydney, Australia, and a Bachelor of Education in Secondary Music and a Master of Education in Elementary Curriculum from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. She founded and directed award winning choirs in Australia and Canada and has performed in plays, musicals, television, and film. Other book titles include Gifts from Time and Place, a collection of short stories portraying the resilience of the human spirit, and Alexis’ Island, a co-authored book for children about a ten-year-old boy living on a sailboat in Key West.

The manuscript was anonymously reviewed in a competitive field of submittals and selected by three distinguished judges: Bonnie Greenberg of Conch Key, has 30 years of grant writing and business management experience and holds a BFA in professional writing from Emerson College. Stephen Kitsakos is an opera librettist, stage director and art maker. A graduate of New York University and the BMI Musical Theater Workshop, he was also a member of the Theatre Arts Faculty at SUNY New Paltz in New York’s Hudson Valley. Lois Wolfe Markham worked as an Associate Professor of English at Florida Keys Community College, and prior to that was a Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at University of Miami, Florida International University, and Miami Dade College. Lois received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Florida International University and her PhD in Comparative Studies: Literature and Linguistics from Florida Atlantic University.

Local writers with works in progress are encouraged to apply for the 2023 award of $2000. To qualify, one must be a resident of Monroe County, a member of the Key West Writers Guild, and working on either a novel or a work of non-fiction. Applicants must read from their work at two meetings of the Key West Writers Guild. Membership is paid annually, and meetings are held at 9:00 a.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. For more information – please visit the Arts Council website www.keysarts.com

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