Cisco Writers Club pays out approximately $1,500 every year in prizes, made possible by CWC’s generous underwriters. Besides juicy first, second, third and honorable mention awards, contestants can win one of ten special awards.
Take the Lela Latch Lloyd Nonfiction Book Award, named for a beloved charter member. This award goes to the highest-ranking nonfiction book. It must achieve third place or higher, however. Its counterpart, the Mary Carey Fiction Book Award, is named for Lela’s adventurous Alaskan homesteading sister. Also an early member of the Club, Mary Carey on her swings through Texas often regaled CWC members with exploits of her latest protagonist.
One award stands head and shoulders above the rest, however. That’s the David Autry Sweepstakes Award. To add this coveted honor and its $250 purse to a contestant’s other winnings, he or she must accumulate the most points and at least one First. Points come with winning entries: First receives 4 points, a Second gets 3, Third=2 and Honorable Mention=1. And yes! The more pieces a contestant enters, the easier to garner this prestigious prize.
This year Cisco College continues its tradition of underwriting the David Autry Sweepstakes Award. They have our deepest thanks.
Since first admitting students in 1940, Cisco College has offered programs and activities intended to encourage lifelong learning and enhance the quality of life in the communities it serves.
As a member of the Texas state system of publicly supported institutions of higher education, Cisco College maintains an open-door admissions policy and provides an array of learning, skill development and life experiences to motivate and challenge students. Classes are offered at two primary locations, Cisco and Abilene, in addition to several other off-campus sites. The College strives to maintain a student/faculty ratio which facilitates close interaction between faculty and students.
Cisco College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
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“The Gateway to West Texas” describes Cisco Aviation, the FBO at the Gregory Simmons Memorial Airport west of Cisco. Manager Scot Penn works hard to make every visit live up to their motto, “A Better Experience.”
With easy access to surrounding cities, a 6,500 foot runway, superior amenities and a state-of-the-art facility, Gregory Simmons Memorial Airport is the airport of choice for general and corporate aviation.
It also provides CWC’s 2023 noncash prize for young writers.
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Wilks Brothers LLC is a multifaceted, family-based partnership headquartered in Cisco, Texas, with interests in construction, financial services, auctions, equipment, insurance, real estate, oil and gas, logistics, trucking, farming, and ranching. Wilks Brothers, LLC, recently completed an IPO for its Pro Frac division.
Investing in relationships and recognizing the value in people, communities, and businesses, they believe, is crucial to success.
Their customers, like their employees, are not a number; they are a name, a family member, a friend. In good times or difficult, they believe in treating these friends equally – exactly how they want to be treated. Business, they say, is not just about profit – it is personal too.
At Wilks Brothers, respect for the people that make their business grow – their employees and their customers – is a primary motivator. That shapes their goal of developing mutually beneficial partnerships based on core values of: Faith, Integrity, Team, Growth and Loyalty.
Once again, Wilks Brothers underwrites our Articles contest category.
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Passion for music and education led Eris Ritchie to found faithful CWC supporter and co-sponsor Southwest Emblem in 1960 in Cisco. It is the nation’s number one supplier of custom embroidered patches for school, music groups, festivals, and parades and a leading source for custom lapel pins, award medals, emblems, ribbons decals, chenille patches and more.
Southwest Camps held its first cheer camp in 1964, providing summer camps across Texas for high school, junior high and elementary age cheerleading and dance teams.
Eris Ritchie led operations while band director for Cisco High School, then Cisco Junior College. He handled public relations and advertising until 1977, when he dedicated himself to Southwest Emblem. Current owner and President is Eris’ son Michael Richie.
CWC is honored to have Southwest Emblem co-sponsor our Short Stories category.
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For more than 130 years, CWC co-sponsor First Financial has served financial needs of customers. Through the Great Depression, the 1980s Texas economic collapse and the Great Recession it remained stable and trustworthy. It continued to grow through acquisitions, new branches and expansion of services.
Today, First Financial Bankshares is recognized as one of the nation’s top performing banks in the $5 Billion to $50 Billion asset category, detailed in the May 2020 Bank Director Magazine.
First Financial has 78 convenient locations across Texas, offering local, personal, customer-centered convenience. It prizes community involvement, as Cisco Writers Club can attest. Though impacted by turbulent economic conditions, First Financial Bank of Eastland continues to support CWC’s outreach by co-sponsoring Short Stories again this year.
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Tea Party Patriots of Eastland County is on a mission: “To promote the values, principles and ideals of freedom that made America great; to take back our country from those politicians and government bureaucrats who are promoting Socialism; to promote the importance of the U.S. Constitution, the rule of law, private property rights and individual liberty.”
Tea Party Patriots of Eastland County meets at the beautiful Myrtle Wilks Community Center in Cisco, Texas, on the second Thursday of each month at 6:30 PM. The Texans of Eastland County are taking back America with informative and educational speakers, movies, workshops, activism and community service. If you love freedom and abhor governmental tyranny, get involved! They would appreciate your help.
Tea Party Patriots of Eastland County underwrites our Articles category again.
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Everybody likes and needs encouraging words – public servants included. The Grateful Texan does the “hunt work” so sending positive support to liberty-minded officials is easy, fun, and effective. Subscription to this service is free.
To help busy, ordinary citizens send positive, timely appreciation to public servants who act with integrity and conservative principles, The Grateful Texan sends short texts and emails on a daily basis with a specific reason to encourage, appreciate and/or celebrate an exemplary public servant – especially those on their focus list. The Grateful Texan suggests wording, but participants are free to speak – or not – as they wish, then to drop their personal card into the mail to deliver encouragement and appreciation.
Our Poetry category is again underwritten by The Grateful Texan.
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Eastland Earthwork Estimating, LLC (dba E3 Estimating) is an exciting new company providing management, take-off, estimating, and GPS technology solution services for dirt and civil construction contractors. Because they perform their work in-house, without outsourcing overseas like most estimating services, they are able to leverage decades of firsthand experience to help their customers level-up regardless of where they find themselves in the industry. Averaging over $10MM per year in client project award and management consulting, E3 Estimating’s proven track record is paving the way for smarter, faster, and more profitable earthwork and civil construction.
Cisco Writers Club is grateful to have E3 Estimating sponsoring our 2023 Book category.
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The support of these generous organizations in our 47th annual contest is key. Learn more and enter at ciscowritersclub.org/contest.
