Adult Fiction Judges
Michelle Brafman is a writer and teacher. Her fiction has been published in many literary journals and has received numerous honors, including a special mention in the 2010 Pushcart Prize Anthology, the F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story Prize and the Lilith Magazine Fiction Contest Prize. She teaches fiction writing at Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University and lives in Glen Echo with her husband and two children.
Dana Cann teaches at The Writer’s Center and lives with his wife and two children in Bethesda. His stories have appeared in The Sun, The Gettysburg Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, The Florida Review and other literary publications. He is currently working on a novel.
Paula Whyman’s award-winning stories have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies, including Writes of Passage: Coming-of-Age Stories and Memoirs from The Hudson Review. Her humor writing has appeared in The Washington Post, and her commentary has been on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” She is the creator of the online parody publication Bethesda World News, and her weekly blog, Semi-Charmed Life, can be found on BethesdaMagazine.com. She lives in Bethesda.
Young Adult Fiction Judges
Karen Deans is a Bethesda artist, writer and entrepreneur. She is the author of the children’s book Playing to Win: The Story of Althea Gibson (Holiday House, 2007), and has a second book coming out soon. She is also the founder and owner of Wooden Tile, which produces her original artwork for sale in more than 140 retail outlets nationwide.
Jean Heilprin Diehl’s fiction has received awards from the Maryland State Arts Council and the James Michener/Copernicus Society of America. Her books include Loon Chase (Sylvan Dell, 2006) and the forthcoming The Three Beavers and Paloma’s Pie. She lives in Chevy Chase.
Rachel Wildavsky is a writer whose work spans many genres. Her novel for middle-grades readers—The Secret of Rover, a spy adventure set in suburban Washington, D.C.—was published by Amulet Books in March. She lives in Chevy Chase.
Essay Judges
Anne Cassidy is a writer, editor and the author of Parents Who Think Too Much (Dell, 1998). Her essays and features have appeared in the The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, Parents and Woman’s Day. She is the editor of Georgetown Law magazine and an instructor at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda. She lives in Oak Hill, Va.
Sue Eisenfeld’s essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Gettysburg Review, Potomac Review, The Washington Post, Washingtonian, Under the Sun, Ars Medica and Virginia Living. Her essays have twice been listed as notable in The Best American Essays (2009 and 2010), and she was awarded the 2010 Goldfarb Family Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She teaches at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda and lives in Arlington, Va.
Sara Mansfield Taber received a Bergeron Fellowship to teach writing in London, and was a William B. Sloane Fellow in Nonfiction at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Middlebury, Vt. Her short pieces have appeared in anthologies and literary magazines and have been featured on public radio. Her memoir, Born Under an Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy’s Daughter (Potomac Books), will come out in January. She lives in Silver Spring.
