EMERALD COAST REVIEW NAMES WRITERS, ARTISTS, AND PHOTOGRAPHERS SELECTED FOR 23RD REGIONAL ANTHOLOGY

Emerald Coast Writers would like to announce the upcoming Volume XXIII of the Emerald Coast Review to be launched on October 25th!

Seventy-eight writers, artists, and photographers will be featured in the upcoming issue of Emerald Coast Review, Vol. XXIII. Since 1989, the ECR has been published every two years, emphasizing its mission to showcase high-quality fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and contemporary, emerging, and experimental works alongside outstanding art, graphic design, and photography from creators across coastal Florida and Alabama.

This year’s volume will also include scripts from the winners of the Books By the Bay 2024 Short-Film Screenwriting Contest, along with companion works from Picture Me A Story, a collaboration between Wide Angle Photo Club and Emerald Coast Writers.

The book, scheduled to launch on October 25th, features a vibrant mix of Gulf Coast creativity along with contributions from beyond the region, chosen from hundreds of submissions.

Contributors include (from Alabama) Jessica Jones, Baldwin County, AL; Amy Hadley, Bay Minette, AL; Joe Cuhaj, Fairhope, AL; Mike Turner, Fairhope, AL; Randolph Crew, Foley, AL; Justin Philips, Gulf Shores, AL; Kathleen Duthu, Mobile, AL; Janet Nodar, Mobile, AL; Karen Hydock, Mobile County, AL; (from Florida) Tonya Dalhaus, Beulah; Autry Clifton Dye, Cantonment; Leigh Anne Mabry, Cantonment; Tom Brinton, Crestview; Lauren Whitley, Emerald Coast; David Schjott, Freeport; Terri Barlotta, Fort Walton Beach; Gail Barsh, Fort Walton Beach; Jessica Temple, Fort Walton Beach; Steve Biersdorf, Gulf Breeze; Scott Finelli, Gulf Breeze; Evelyn Fredman, Gulf Breeze; Jacquelyn Roos, Gulf Breeze; Diane Skelton, Gulf Breeze; Bobby J. Touchton, Milton; Bart Daughety, Navarre; Kimberly Hutchinson, Navarre; Claire Massey, Navarre; Mikayla Satterlee, Navarre; Lee Underwood Arndt, Niceville; Benjamin Larrison, Niceville; Alice H. Murray, Niceville; Deborah R. Majors, Niceville; J. Wren Supak, Niceville; Robert Larson, Northwest FL; Stephen Wise, Northwest FL; Betty Hassler, Pace; R.A. Krueger, Pace; Pamela G. Holmes, Panama City; Vanessa Bragg, Pensacola; Lisa Mella Burridge, Pensacola; Todd Chandler Clark, JR., Pensacola; Gina Cooke, Pensacola; Patti Damm, Pensacola; Ron Dowdy, Pensacola; Vee Dowdy, Pensacola; Christy J. Draper, Pensacola; Peter Dye, Pensacola; Stephanie Whibbs Gonzalez, Pensacola; Mary Gutierrez, Pensacola; Laurie Hansen, Pensacola; Terry Henry, Pensacola; Margaret Hildreth, Pensacola; Ron Hixson, Pensacola; Toni Hixson, Pensacola; Yvonne Lashmett, Pensacola; Vera Leon, Pensacola; Jane Gate Lies, Pensacola; Cori Lojo, Pensacola; Heather Mitchell, Pensacola; Karen McAferty Morris, Pensacola; Lisa Joy Newcomb, Pensacola; Leslie E. Owen, Pensacola; Janet Reeves, Pensacola; Renate Reiner, Pensacola; Eric St. Pierre, Pensacola; Richard Smith, Pensacola; Sara Jeanine Smith, Pensacola; Debra Stogner, Pensacola; Carolyn Joyce Tokson, Pensacola; Mara Viksnins, Pensacola; Andrea Jones Walker, Pensacola; Lori Zavada, Pensacola; Emily Rose Proctor, Santa Rosa Beach; Ann Lewis, Seagrove Beach; Christina Larson, Shalimar; M.R. Street, Tallahassee; John Gibson, Vernon; Joanne Blakely, Anna, IL; Lisa Kamolnick, Blountville, TN.

For more information, please contact: Diane Skelton, emeraldcoastreview@gmail.com

Emerald Coast Writers, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all-volunteer organization based in downtown Pensacola, Florida. Initially founded in 1986 as the West Florida Literary Federation, it now has over 100 members. ECW works to preserve the area's literary heritage and cultural scene by hosting contests and workshops, sponsoring various community happenings, youth programs, and the Books by the Bay Festival. 

AWC’s 2025 Annual Conference was a hit this year! Workshops, presentations, socializing, networking, Friday’s open mic, the Saturday Awards Banquet, the huge author bookstore—so much fun and writing crammed into an incredible weekend. Let’s keep building on the success that gathering together brings!

Please plan to attend the AWC 2026 Conference in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 11, 2026, through September 13, 2026

More details will follow on the AWC website and official social media channels, but for now, please save the date and plan to join us for another amazing year!

On September 14th at the Annual Membership Meeting following the 2025 Annual Conference in Orange Beach, the AWC Board will be voting on nominees to fill vacant board positions.

Submit your nominees for these vacant positions in the form below. (Google Form will open in a new browser tab.)

AWC Zoom Workshop on August 26th from Noon to 1 PM

Free to AWC Members

Registration Link

Join writer and editor Aimee Hardy for an interactive discussion of how to land a book contract with a small press.

Aimee Hardy is the author of Pocket Full of Teeth. She is a writer and editor dedicated to storytelling and cultivating a passion for creative storytelling in the larger community. She is married and has two children. She loves being outside and volunteering with the community. Aimee received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in English from National University. She has taught creative writing courses and is an editor for Running Wild Press. Check out her previously published work HERE.

Aimee has been writing for as long as she could hold a pen. She is inspired by the world around her, especially her upbringing in the South. She loves getting her ideas from ordinary events and bringing them to life: a twist on fairy tales told as she was getting tucked into bed, a song on her way home whose lines get stuck in her head, a smell that reminds her of a trip she once took with her grandmother. The possibilities are endless.

Aimee is a writer and editor in Birmingham, AL. She has a passion for storytelling and is the author of Pocket Full of Teeth. She has been published in Stonecoast Review, Writer’s Digest, Running Wild Press’ Short Story Anthology, Havik2020, Bluntly Lit Mag, Adelaide Literary Magazine, and Lost Pilots Lit and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2020. She frequently gives workshops and panels on storytelling in the modern world. When she’s not writing or editing, she enjoys going on hikes with her husband and two kids or curling up with a good book and a hot cup of tea.

www.aimeehardy.com

AWC could really use more sponsors for our Writing Contest this year. It is very reasonably priced. $150 will send a flurry of writers fluttering into frenzies of the written word - entirely focused on whatever subject matter You choose.

What’s not to love?

Sponsorship deadline is July 12th!

Email AWC’s Contest Chair Jessica Temple at AWCcontests@gmail.com.

The Emerald Coast Review is currently accepting submissions until July 15 for the 23rd edition.

The Emerald Coast Review publishes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, contemporary, emerging, and experimental works, along with the best of art, graphic design, and photography from artists living along the Emerald Coast.

Alabama writers in Escambia, Mobile, and Baldwin counties as well as Emerald Coast Writers living elsewhere are eligible to submit for this publication.

Visit their website for more details and submission guidelines.

Join AWC for a Zoom Workshop on March 27th from 12-12:40 PM with Clinical Psychologist, Patricia Black-Gould. Free to AWC Members.

Countdown to Book Launch: What I’ve Learned About Marketing The Hard Way

If you think marketing begins after you’ve written your book, think again. Experts say marketing should start from a year to six months before you launch your book. A year might be a bit much, but there are marketing strategies you can incorporate during the writing process.

We will discuss several marketing strategies, ranging from obtaining editorial reviews to use for your book cover (Kirkus, Foreward, Indies Today), finding Advance Readers (ARCs) for prepublication reviews on Goodreads; using services such as NetGalley, and Book Funnel to increase readership; locating influencers through social media sites; entering book contests, working with virtual promotional tours (Look Book Tours, Children’s Book Review); and if you can survive and get through all this and much more—hosting a launch party! 

Workshop Registration form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfpyPuPIN32HaXyYLBuP4M-zGYYHDI8JepOy5zBnoFe0juxVQ/viewform?usp=sharing

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BIO

Pat Black-Gould is an award-winning author, speaker, and psychologist. Her novel All the Broken Angels, co-written with Steve Hardiman, is a family saga set during the Vietnam War era. As a psychologist, Pat specialized in working with Vietnam Veterans, and the novel pays tribute to those who served and their families. Her children’s book The Crystal Beads, Lalka’s Journey, tells the story of a hidden child of the Holocaust. 

Pat’s writing explores themes of compassion, inclusion, and diversity, and she gives presentations nationally on these topics. WSRE PBS TV featured her on the program Conversations with Jeff Weeks. As a speaker, Pat also conducts workshops on marketing and the craft of writing.  In addition, Pat was a theater director and producer of a New England summer stock company and a murder mystery dinner theater.

Pat Black-Gould, PhD

Author, Clinical Psychologist

https://patblackgould.com/

Author of All the Broken Angels (First place, Digital Book Times Literary Award and Winner of a 2024 Royal Palm Literary Award from Florida Writers Association) and The Crystal Beads, Lalka’s Journey (Three-time Gold Medal winner).

2026-2029 Alabama Poet Laureate Nominations Guidelines

Deadline for nominations: July 25, 2025

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Alabama Writers’ Cooperative has opened nominations for the office of Poet Laureate of the State of Alabama until July 25, 2025.

What is the Alabama Poet Laureate Position?

The Alabama Poet Laureate recognizes and honors a citizen poet of exceptional talent and accomplishment. The Alabama Poet Laureate also encourages appreciation of poetry and literary life in Alabama. This position was created by the state legislature May 5, 1931.

What is the Term of Service and Compensation?

The term of service is a four-year renewable term. The award is honorific; there is no compensation. The term begins January 2, 2026.

Who is eligible to be nominated Alabama Poet Laureate?

Any citizen of the state of Alabama may nominate a poet for the Poet Laureate position. A poet may not self-nominate, and no award will be given posthumously.

Nominations for Alabama Poet Laureate will be accepted for Alabama poets who meet the following eligibility requirements:

1. Must currently be a resident of Alabama and have resided in Alabama for at least ten years.

2. Must be at least 21 years old.

3. Must have at least one book of poetry published by a commercial or small press within the past ten years.

4. Must be available to travel and give presentations.

5. Must have produced work of the highest caliber and critical acclaim and have contributed substantial service to the development of the literary arts as demonstrated by the submitted application.

What is the selection process for Alabama Poet Laureate?

The President of Alabama Writers’ Cooperative has appointed a Poet Laureate Nominations Committee Chair. The Chair has appointed a committee who will review applications and present a candidate for election at the AWC Annual Meeting on September 14, 2025. The Governor of the State of Alabama will then appoint the selected candidate in an official ceremony.

How will Alabama Poet Laureate nominations be evaluated?

1. Excellence as evidenced by the submitted poetry sample.

2. Exemplary professionalism as evidenced by an established history of substantial and significant publications in journals and books including at least one book of poems published by a commercial or small press (see eligibility requirements) and special honors, awards, fellowships, or other recognition.

3. Advancement of poetry in Alabama communities as evidenced by an established history of activity in Alabama’s literary community through readings, publications, public presentations and/or teaching.

To be considered, nominations must include the following:

1. Completed nomination form.

2. Completed nominee form signed by the nominated poet that includes a binding statement that the poetry sample is their own original work and the materials submitted are true and complete.

3. A cover letter from the nominator of no more than two pages providing the following information: name and a short biography of the nominated poet and a summary of significant awards and published works.

4. The nominated poet’s resume.

5. A summary of no more than one page indicating why the nominator considers the work of the nominated poet to be of the highest quality.

6. A work sample of no more than ten poems. Submissions may not exceed 15 continuously numbered 8 1/2” x 11” pages (one side), no less than 12 point type. Please provide copyright information where appropriate; all submissions become part of the public record. Both published and non-published poetry may be submitted. All submissions must be typewritten or computer-generated. Materials hand-written will not be accepted.

7. A recent photograph of the nominated poet.

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Receipt deadline for all nominations is July 25, 2025.

The nomination form and information can be found here: 

Please send questions to Nominating Committee Chair Tina Mozelle Braziel at ALpoetsearch@gmail.com.

The 2025 Alabama Writing Workshop is an annual one-day writers conference held in Birmingham on Friday, March 14, 2025: https://alabamawritingworkshop.com/

The full-day “How to Get Published” writing event will be held at the Embassy Suites Birmingham.

This writing event is a great opportunity to:

• get intense instruction

• pitch a literary agent or editor

• get your questions answered

• and more!

Seats are limited to 140, so Register Today!

The Alabama Writers’ Forum is planning to give this award out to organizations and individuals who have followed Jeanie’s example in promoting the literary arts in our state.

Jessica Jones Langston, President of AWC, will accept the award on behalf of AWC at the Alabama Writers’ Forum Gala on March 7, 2025 at the Bryant Conference Center in Tuscaloosa, AL.

Cheers to an incredible night celebrating the AWC, the AWF, and all that Jeanie Thompson has done for writers throughout Alabama and beyond. Congratulations to the 8 inductees to the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame! The 2025 class inductees include Ace Atkins, Frye Gaillard,  Joy Harjo, Janice Harrington, Robert McCammon, and Dr. Sue Brannan Walker. Authors C. Eric Lincoln and Brad Watson will be inducted posthumously.