The International Mystery Writers’ Festival “Discovering New Mysteries” returns in 2008 – and is accepting play and screenplay submissions.
FIRST-TIME playwright Elizabeth Orndorff won the 2007 prize for Best New Work (a cool $10,000) and Most Promising Writer ($5,000) – so don’t go thinking it can’t happen to you. Kentuckian Orndorff’s “Death by Darkness” was set in the Star Chamber of the Mammoth Cave in 1841, where the unlikeliest set of people (including Charles Dickens) have come down river from Cincinnati for a tour. Fun stuff.
If you have a mystrey that has never been professionally presented – the festival is waiting for you. New categories include short plays, short stories and works for young adults and children. (Cash prizes are smaller.)
Finalists in every category receive full performances during the festival, June 12-22 in Owensboro, Ky.
No entry fee for submission, deadline is Nov. 30. Send your submission to: “Discovering New Mysteries,” c/o RiverPark Center, 101 Daviess St., Owensboro, Ky. 42303.
For more information go online to www.newmysteries.org or call 1-877-639-6978. WKET filmed a “making of” festival documentary, scheduled to air in September. Watch your TV listings.
Jackie Demaline
