The DDG Deserving Reader Award Takes Root<\/a>, reminds me that I have been meaning to celebrate the newest winner of the Flying Pig’s award for as-yet-unpublished humor writing. Every year, we give this award to a Vermont College of Fine Arts student.\u00a0Back in 2004, when I graduated from their\u00a0fabulous MFA program in writing for children and young adults, there were several literary awards available to students, but, as with many awards, \u00a0they tended to go to more serious manuscripts; drama “weighs” more than comedy, although both forms take tremendous skill. So, back at work, we\u00a0created the Flying Pig Grade-A Number-One Ham Humor Award, or FPGANOH-HA! (Pronounced, of course, eff-puh-gah-no-ha!, emphasis on the ha.)
\n
\nEvery year, VCFA sends the ‘blind’ (i.e., no author-identifying information) manuscripts to us at the Flying Pig, and our committee\u00a0reads, laughs, and awards. We know the title of the winning manuscript, but often don’t learn\u00a0the name of the winner until the actual awards ceremony at VCFA, when the program director, Melissa Fisher, hands us an envelope with the winner’s certificate.
\nSince 2004, we have had 12\u00a0winners and 3\u00a0honor recipients. Some of the writers have subsequently been published and others are in various stages of the writing and publishing process. All are incredibly talented.\u00a0We are extremely picky about this award;\u00a0we only give it when there is\u00a0superior work to honor, work that does justice to masterful\u00a0humor writers like\u00a0E.B. White, Norton Juster, James Thurber, Roald Dahl, Jules Feiffer, Katherine Paterson, Christopher Paul Curtis, Kevin Henkes, to name a few.
\nThe criteria are as follows:
\nThis award is intended to celebrate, support, and encourage the inclusion of humor in even the most serious books\u00a0for children. The full amount of the scholarship is $775 to use\u00a0toward the\u00a0next semester\u2019s tuition. In the last couple of years, the VCFA Scholarship Fund has teamed up with us to contribute to the award. Thanks, VCFA!
\nOnly unpublished writers are eligible to submit manuscripts; that is, contestants may not have had a book\u00a0published, nor can they have published\u00a0more than two stories, poems, and\/or articles in a national magazine.\u00a0Materials submitted (up to 20 pages in any genre) must not be under consideration for any other contest, or with any publisher or agent in any\u00a0form or at any time during the judging process. Previous winners may not apply.\u00a0The submissions are blind; the VCFA office has\u00a0a cover sheet identifying the author, but the manuscripts themselves must contain only the title of the work.
\nThis year’s submissions were especially good, and the winning piece was one of\u00a0the funniest, most polished pieces we have seen in these 12 years, which is saying something. It was a clever, fresh, sly, delightful twist on a fairy tale fantasy world. The writing turned familiar tropes\u00a0on their heads, with a light touch. I was eager to meet the winner.
\nAt the ceremony, our award was fifth in the line-up. It is always a pleasure to hear the faculty singing the praises of\u00a0the students who have won the\u00a0awards. (Writers giving awards to writers tend to whip up some terrific, thoughtful, sometimes tear-inducing introductions.) The program is vibrant; the students and faculty are warm and enthusiastically supportive of one another. As I awaited my turn to present the award, one particular student had a very, very good day. When her name was announced for the first award given out, there was a giant whoop from the crowd and an immediate standing ovation.\u00a0When\u00a0her name was called for\u00a0a second\u00a0award, the crowd laughed and cheered again. Rarely does someone win more than one award. When I peeked in my envelope, this\u00a0same name graced my certificate. Three awards?! Unheard of. This student is clearly on her way to great things.
\nAmerica, keep an eye out for Jennifer Bailey!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most rewarding aspects (literally) of being a Flying Pig bookseller. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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