2015 royal palm literary award
23 Oct 2016

2016 Royal Palm Literary Award: Who Won?

by | posted in: Florida Writers Association | 0

Woohoo! It is our pleasure to announce the winners of the 2016 Royal Palm Literary Awards (RPLA) competition. Huge congratulations to everyone who won, finaled, semifinaled, or entered. This was one tough and nuanced competition. Congratulations! RPLA is a service of the Florida Writers Association that recognizes excellence in members’ published and unpublished works while providing objective and constructive feedback for all entrants. There’s even a Youth component. This year, we had a record-breaking 479 entries, a 22% jump over … Read More »
28 Sep 2016

Hear ye, hear ye! The list of 2016 RPLA finalists is out!

by | posted in: Florida Writers Association, Writing Competitions | 0

The list is out! The list of Royal Palm Literary Awards (RPLA) finalists, that is. What’s next? Winners will be announced at the RPLA Awards Banquet October 22, 2016, during the annual Florida Writers conference at the Hilton Orlando Altamonte Springs. The Banquet is included in the full conference and the Saturday-only conference packages. Or you may attend the Banquet a la carte. To get in on the fun, please click here. You may register for the full conference, Saturday … Read More »
17 Apr 2016

RPLA Update

by | posted in: Florida Writers Association, Writing Competitions | 0

We’re rounding the bend with RPLA—you know, the Royal Palm Literary Awards. It’s FWA’s flagship writing competition, where entries are accepted in 26 genre-categories for adults and 15 for youth. Where published and unpublished works are judged separately. Where semifinalists, finalists, and winners earn electronic badges. Where the trophies are beyond cool, and for every entry, the feedback is priceless. More so every year. For the 2016 competition, we’re definitely approaching some milestones. If you’re familiar with RPLA, you may … Read More »

Royal Palm Literary Awards
17 Oct 2015

Royal Palm Literary Award Winners Announced

by | posted in: Florida Writers Association, Writing Competitions | 0

Drum roll, please! Announcing the winners of the 2015 Royal Palm Literary Awards! Drum roll, indeed! We have the results of the Florida Writers Association’s largest, most competitive Royal Palm Literary Awards (RPLA) competition in history. The winners were announced during the special awards banquet, part of FWA’s four-day annual conference in Altamonte Springs, Florida, October 15-18, 2015. The competition, which received 393 submissions, was RPLA’s fourteenth. Adults and Youth submitted entries in 30 adult genre-categories and 15 Youth categories, … Read More »
6 Sep 2015

Join Us, But Not for the Reason You Think

by | posted in: Florida Writers Association, Writers Conference, Writing Competitions | 0

Well well well. I happened upon an article by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Writers’ Institute about writers’ conferences. The topic was why authors should attend. Why indeed? Laurie Scheer, director of the Institute, offered seven reasons, all aligning with what FWA unearths in our yearly post-conference surveys. One reason in particular caught my eye. And it’s not what you’d expect. But first, the conference. Our conference. The 14th Annual Florida Writers Conference. And let’s focus on the Banquet for the … Read More »
17 Apr 2015

Welcome, Published & Unpublished Writers: Part 2

by | posted in: Florida Writers Association, Writing Competitions | 3

In Part 1 of this two-part post about FWA’s Royal Palm Literary Award competition, we discussed how RPLA benefits writers at all stages of their writing journey and the value of the feedback offered to every entrant. In Part 2, here, we discuss who your judges and administrators are, how we deal with disparate scores, how we review completed rubrics, how you can suggest new genre categories, and more. So here goes. First, the judges and administrators: Our judges are … Read More »

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