Our Latest News
COVID 19 NEWS
First, we hope everyone is doing well, staying safe, remaining healthy. Second, we want to tell you how grateful we are to our friends, colleagues, writers, volunteers, interns and supporters during this really trying time. While we are still in operation, some of our programs have been put on hold in order to allow our reduced workforce to catch up on our submissions and awards. There has been some delay with our publishing activities, but we do have several new titles (check out "Our Imprints" for more details) which have been launched in the last few months, with several more truly wonderful books still in the pipeline (more on those as we move forward). Our courses are on hold, currently, as we work to move them online. Sadly, plans for our long-awaited online arts journal have had to be canceled. Finally, this was supposed to be our anniversary year -- the 25th anniversary for Hidden River Arts and the 10th anniversary for Hidden River Publishing. The celebrations and activities have been put on hold and we are hoping that we'll be able to have an anniversary +1 (or +2) celebration in the future. So, thanks so much for your patience, your kindness and your friendship. As ever, we are committed to "Serving the Unserved Artist" and to supporting the arts community. We send love to each and every one of you in these trying times.
WINTER/SPRING 2022
We are slowly catching up on the delays in our publishing pipeline and with our award announcements. Two books launched this summer - The Emigrant and Other Stories, by Justine Dymond, 6th winner of our Eludia Award, out on our Sowilo Press imprint. On our Hidden River Press imprint, we launched Hillbilly Guilt by Roy Bentley, winner of our Willow Run Poetry Book Award and Houses by Charles Wyatt, inaugural winner of our Hawk Mountain Award. You can see more information on both of those books under "Our Imprints". We're thrilled with the new books and really proud to have Justine, Roy and Charles as our newest members of the Hidden River family.
Books still in our pipeline, to launch in 2022:
Remembering Water by Tuan Phan, winner of the Panther Creek Nonfiction Book Award
Karpa Talesman by Robert Knox, winner of the Prophecy Creek Award in Speculative Fiction.
Points of Light, by Cameron Walker, winner of the Tamaqua Essay Collection Award.
Crazy Mountain, Elise Atchison, 7th winner of our Eludia Award
Travels with Ferdinand, by Mark Nuckols, winner of the Panther Creek Nonfiction Book Award.
The Austenites, by Beatriz Seelaender, winner of the Sandy Run Novella Award
Mediterranean by João Luís Guimarães, winner of our Willow Run Poetry Book Award
Home is a Made-Up Place, winner of our 8th Eludia Award, by Ronit Plank
Our open readings and some of our awards programs have been put on hold, since the pandemic has caused such delays and we want to continue focusing entirely on those authors awaiting publication and those writers whose submissions are still under consideration. We will be announcing updates to our publications, programs and awards as they arise.
We wish all of you continued good health, safety and great creative progress. Please keep checking in for updates and news. We are still here; we are still dedicated to our mission of Serving the Unserved Artist; and we still send you all much love, respect and best wishes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Past News:
JANUARY 2020
And here comes 2020! It's our ANNIVERSARY!
Hidden River Arts was established by our Founder, Debra Leigh Scott, in 1995. She took a portion of an arts grant that she received for her own writing and launched Hidden River Arts as a way to pay forward her own good fortune. It began small, with one yearly short fiction award, given for either a short story or a novel excerpt. The award was named after Debra's beloved teacher and mentor, William Van Wert, a writer and poet and dedicated educator. Since that time, the organization has grown to provide live arts events, gallery events, public readings, workshops, classes, more awards and, in 2010, an independent small press, Hidden River Publishing. So -- not only is 2020 our 25th anniversary, it is the 10th anniversary for our publishing venture. We're planning events, activities, offers, book sales, new activities and launches, a few relaunches. It's going to be a very active and exciting year.
To Recap:
The year 2019 was one of our busiest. We saw more growth, more announced awards and an expanded internship program. We’re currently working with our new team of interns and assistants, and are busy with the reading cycle for our newest competitions. We are currently wrapping up last year’s competition decisions. For updates on all our activities, awards and events, please be sure to follow our blog.
We dramatically expanded our awards program in 2018/2019, and have detailed information at our blog, where we provide information about the winners of these awards, and the future deadlines for submissions. The awards now include not only our three long-standing awards (The William Van Wert Award, The Hidden River Playwrighting Award, and The Eludia Award), but we now are offering awards for historical fiction, speculative fiction, non-fiction, as well as poetry. We have also added a short play award to our script awards. In 2020, we'll be expanding into awards for visual art, music, film.
Winners recently named are: Jeffrey Voccola who won our Blue Mountain Novel Award for Kings Row, a fictionalized account of an actual murder which took place in Kutztown, Pennsylvania; Carol Tyx won the Willow Run Poetry Book Award for her wonderful manuscript, Remaking Achilles: Slicing Into Angola's History; Marjorie Sandor won the Tuscarora Historical Fiction Award for her novel, The Secret Music at Tordesillas; and Justine Dymond is the most recent winner of our Eludia Award, for her story collection, The Emigrant and Other Stories.
Our newest Sowilo Press book, the fifth Eludia Award winner, is In Progress, by Catharine Leggett. We are currently working on our sixth Eludia Award winner, The Emigrant and Other Stories, by Justine Dymond, Please be sure to follow us here and on our blog, where we'll be announcing more information about that launch.. Our most recent books, all published under the Hidden River Press imprint, are Kings Row by Jeffrey Voccola, Remaking Achilles, by Carol Tyx and The Secret Music at Tordesillas by Marjorie Sandor. More information about each of these titles can be found under "Our Imprints". Follow us, too, for announcements and profiles of other award winners and information about their forthcoming books.
This year will also see the launch of the first title on our Many Frog imprint – an imprint dedicated to the exploration of arts, arts education and alternative education and learning methods. This first title, by Jeffrey lesser, is Your Voice, Your Instrument: Learning to Play. Jeff is a musical theatre performer, a cabaret performer who has a run a very successful cabaret class in Philadelphia, with sold-out performances at L’Etage nightclub being a long-time favorite among Philadelphia cabaret lovers. He has recently moved to California and is taking Palm Springs by storm, with new cabarets and performances, classes and programs. He has been teaching voice for well over two decades, and decided that it was time to share some of his experience in print. We’re planning an interactive eBook with links to a youtube channel where you will find videos of lessons and voice technique, and a website that allows you to contact Jeff directly for voice advice. We are also planning the launch of an interdisciplinary online arts review, and will provide additional information as the launch approaches.
First, we hope everyone is doing well, staying safe, remaining healthy. Second, we want to tell you how grateful we are to our friends, colleagues, writers, volunteers, interns and supporters during this really trying time. While we are still in operation, some of our programs have been put on hold in order to allow our reduced workforce to catch up on our submissions and awards. There has been some delay with our publishing activities, but we do have several new titles (check out "Our Imprints" for more details) which have been launched in the last few months, with several more truly wonderful books still in the pipeline (more on those as we move forward). Our courses are on hold, currently, as we work to move them online. Sadly, plans for our long-awaited online arts journal have had to be canceled. Finally, this was supposed to be our anniversary year -- the 25th anniversary for Hidden River Arts and the 10th anniversary for Hidden River Publishing. The celebrations and activities have been put on hold and we are hoping that we'll be able to have an anniversary +1 (or +2) celebration in the future. So, thanks so much for your patience, your kindness and your friendship. As ever, we are committed to "Serving the Unserved Artist" and to supporting the arts community. We send love to each and every one of you in these trying times.
WINTER/SPRING 2022
We are slowly catching up on the delays in our publishing pipeline and with our award announcements. Two books launched this summer - The Emigrant and Other Stories, by Justine Dymond, 6th winner of our Eludia Award, out on our Sowilo Press imprint. On our Hidden River Press imprint, we launched Hillbilly Guilt by Roy Bentley, winner of our Willow Run Poetry Book Award and Houses by Charles Wyatt, inaugural winner of our Hawk Mountain Award. You can see more information on both of those books under "Our Imprints". We're thrilled with the new books and really proud to have Justine, Roy and Charles as our newest members of the Hidden River family.
Books still in our pipeline, to launch in 2022:
Remembering Water by Tuan Phan, winner of the Panther Creek Nonfiction Book Award
Karpa Talesman by Robert Knox, winner of the Prophecy Creek Award in Speculative Fiction.
Points of Light, by Cameron Walker, winner of the Tamaqua Essay Collection Award.
Crazy Mountain, Elise Atchison, 7th winner of our Eludia Award
Travels with Ferdinand, by Mark Nuckols, winner of the Panther Creek Nonfiction Book Award.
The Austenites, by Beatriz Seelaender, winner of the Sandy Run Novella Award
Mediterranean by João Luís Guimarães, winner of our Willow Run Poetry Book Award
Home is a Made-Up Place, winner of our 8th Eludia Award, by Ronit Plank
Our open readings and some of our awards programs have been put on hold, since the pandemic has caused such delays and we want to continue focusing entirely on those authors awaiting publication and those writers whose submissions are still under consideration. We will be announcing updates to our publications, programs and awards as they arise.
We wish all of you continued good health, safety and great creative progress. Please keep checking in for updates and news. We are still here; we are still dedicated to our mission of Serving the Unserved Artist; and we still send you all much love, respect and best wishes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Past News:
JANUARY 2020
And here comes 2020! It's our ANNIVERSARY!
Hidden River Arts was established by our Founder, Debra Leigh Scott, in 1995. She took a portion of an arts grant that she received for her own writing and launched Hidden River Arts as a way to pay forward her own good fortune. It began small, with one yearly short fiction award, given for either a short story or a novel excerpt. The award was named after Debra's beloved teacher and mentor, William Van Wert, a writer and poet and dedicated educator. Since that time, the organization has grown to provide live arts events, gallery events, public readings, workshops, classes, more awards and, in 2010, an independent small press, Hidden River Publishing. So -- not only is 2020 our 25th anniversary, it is the 10th anniversary for our publishing venture. We're planning events, activities, offers, book sales, new activities and launches, a few relaunches. It's going to be a very active and exciting year.
To Recap:
The year 2019 was one of our busiest. We saw more growth, more announced awards and an expanded internship program. We’re currently working with our new team of interns and assistants, and are busy with the reading cycle for our newest competitions. We are currently wrapping up last year’s competition decisions. For updates on all our activities, awards and events, please be sure to follow our blog.
We dramatically expanded our awards program in 2018/2019, and have detailed information at our blog, where we provide information about the winners of these awards, and the future deadlines for submissions. The awards now include not only our three long-standing awards (The William Van Wert Award, The Hidden River Playwrighting Award, and The Eludia Award), but we now are offering awards for historical fiction, speculative fiction, non-fiction, as well as poetry. We have also added a short play award to our script awards. In 2020, we'll be expanding into awards for visual art, music, film.
Winners recently named are: Jeffrey Voccola who won our Blue Mountain Novel Award for Kings Row, a fictionalized account of an actual murder which took place in Kutztown, Pennsylvania; Carol Tyx won the Willow Run Poetry Book Award for her wonderful manuscript, Remaking Achilles: Slicing Into Angola's History; Marjorie Sandor won the Tuscarora Historical Fiction Award for her novel, The Secret Music at Tordesillas; and Justine Dymond is the most recent winner of our Eludia Award, for her story collection, The Emigrant and Other Stories.
Our newest Sowilo Press book, the fifth Eludia Award winner, is In Progress, by Catharine Leggett. We are currently working on our sixth Eludia Award winner, The Emigrant and Other Stories, by Justine Dymond, Please be sure to follow us here and on our blog, where we'll be announcing more information about that launch.. Our most recent books, all published under the Hidden River Press imprint, are Kings Row by Jeffrey Voccola, Remaking Achilles, by Carol Tyx and The Secret Music at Tordesillas by Marjorie Sandor. More information about each of these titles can be found under "Our Imprints". Follow us, too, for announcements and profiles of other award winners and information about their forthcoming books.
This year will also see the launch of the first title on our Many Frog imprint – an imprint dedicated to the exploration of arts, arts education and alternative education and learning methods. This first title, by Jeffrey lesser, is Your Voice, Your Instrument: Learning to Play. Jeff is a musical theatre performer, a cabaret performer who has a run a very successful cabaret class in Philadelphia, with sold-out performances at L’Etage nightclub being a long-time favorite among Philadelphia cabaret lovers. He has recently moved to California and is taking Palm Springs by storm, with new cabarets and performances, classes and programs. He has been teaching voice for well over two decades, and decided that it was time to share some of his experience in print. We’re planning an interactive eBook with links to a youtube channel where you will find videos of lessons and voice technique, and a website that allows you to contact Jeff directly for voice advice. We are also planning the launch of an interdisciplinary online arts review, and will provide additional information as the launch approaches.
