Writers Sharpen Your Pencils!

  Surely there are gifted writers among you readers, who have—throughout life or only since retirement—put your thoughts to paper. The Garden Valley Syringa Club is betting on it and putting out the call for submissions from RESIDENTS OF BOISE COUNTY, who will be FIFTY years of age or older, by December 31, 2013.

  Members of the board of directors of the GV Senior Center also have faith that you are out there, and they have awarded a grant to the Syringa Club to make possible the publication of a book of prose and poetry by over 60ers, to be published by this summer.

  This book will be a fundraiser for the Syringa Club, a women’s community service organization since 1915. The club has funded or sponsored the school and its students, the library, emergency services, the radio, the pioneer cemetery, and has served in many other capacities in the community.

  The reward for your effort and talent will be the participation in this fundraising effort and the fame you will achieve from being included in this soon-to-be-published book that will celebrate the new legacy generation of Garden Valley!

  Judging will be done blindly, with no names on your work, and all submissions will be seriously considered by three qualified and thoughtful judges, who will carefully choose those works to be published in the Syringa book.

  Jody Mabe graduated from the University of Idaho, with her degree in French, and did a year of teaching as an assistant in English, at the U of I. She received her masters in History from BSU, in 1987.  Named Educator of the Year at Boise River Festival, she worked in Boise and Meridian schools for thirty-one years, teaching French, Latin and Advanced Placement English. Jody served four years on the board of the Idaho Humanities Council, the last two as chair of the evaluation committee. She served for two and a half years on the board of Garden Valley District Library and currently is president of the Friends of the GV Library.  

  Barbara Olic-Hamilton has an M.A. in English. She retired in 2005, after spending twenty-five years as an English teacher, with ten years as English Department Chair at Boise High School. From 2007 through 2010, she worked as an adjunct instructor at Boise State, teaching future teachers of English how to teach literature in grades 7-12.  Barbara has been a part of a monthly writing group for thirty years. She has published short stories and poetry and in the last few years, placed two times in contests sponsored by the Gulf Coast Writers Association. She has completed a literary science fiction novel and is in the market for a good agent. 

  Jim Stark grew up in Challis, Idaho, and divides his time between Boise and Stanley. With a B.A. in Mathematics and an M.A. in Education/Technology, he worked for the schools in the Boise and Nampa districts for thirty-three years, as a teacher in multiple disciplines, including English, Mathematics, Business and Computer Science. He was an administrator, before retiring in June of 2007. 

  Jim wrote a book on Insurance Plan Administration and has had numerous articles published. He was the co-founder of a writing group in Boise, thirty years ago, and continues his writing with them.

  Work submitted may be on any topic in free verse, formal verse, and prose poetry, or prose (short stories, essays, and creative nonfiction). Syringa would like to hear about your insights and experiences, your wisdom on friendships, families, love, disparity, etcetera, whether humorous or serious. The world is your oyster.

  Submissions should be unpublished, original, typed and single-spaced. Send up to 5 poems, not to exceed 60 lines each or 3 prose, no longer than 800 words each, or a combination. Please include a cover letter, with your name, address, phone, e-mail address, titles of submissions, and word counts. On your reading pages, please only put the page number.   

  Please DO NOT include your name or personal information on any sheet but your cover sheet.

  E-mail submissions are preferred and may be sent in the body of an e-mail and/or as an attachment in Word doc, to afoofymax@aol.com.

  If you are unable to send via e-mail, please follow the guideline instructions and you may send your hardcopy submissions to: Submissions, 223 Middle Fork Road, Garden Valley, ID 83622.

  The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, April 30, 2013.

  Syringa Club appreciates that everyone has something important to say and welcomes the expression of new voices, who have never written with the intent of publication; of course, professional writers are encouraged to submit.