The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow

Heidi Durrow

$22.95

Hardcover

This is a true story: I almost chose not to submit The Girl Who Fell From the Sky for the Bellwether Prize.  I was grumpy the day it was due.  Dispirited.  I didn't have enough printer ink and didn't want to buy more; didn't want to go to the post office; and didn't want to send my work to be rejected.  I'd had enough rejection that week: a short short rejected, and a slight by a guy (who I knew) who couldn't remember my name. 

Besides, the application was a little different than others for which I had applied.  I had to show "proof" of publication and explain "why" my work counted as literature of social change.  It just seemed like too much work.  Why bother?

I swear: I almost didn't send it in.  But then I did.  Thank goodness I didn't listen to myself.  But now, I hope you will listen to me: if you have a novel that fits the Bellwether Prize --please send in your manuscript.  The submission period runs from Sept. 1 to Oct. 2.  Complete application information can be found here.

"Fiction has a unique capacity to bring difficult issues to a broad readership on a personal level, creating empathy in a reader’s heart for the theoretical stranger. Its capacity for invoking moral and social responsibility is enormous. Throughout history, every movement toward a more peaceful and humane world has begun with those who imagined the possibilities. The Bellwether Prize seeks to support the imagination of humane possibilities."