Writing Awards

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It is a privilege to receive an award for anything, and I feel blessed to have been honored with multiple writing awards; however, the strongest testament to my ability to write is that I received my first paid writing assignment in 1978 and I'm still writing on assignment in 2016.  Last year I wrote more than 70 articles on assignment.  To me, the fact that my clients keep coming back and awarding me more assignments is my biggest accomplishment.  But here are some other honors:
  • “Swindled,” the blog at http://www.sharoncairnsmann.com/blog-swindled, was a finalist in the Colorado Authors League 2017 contest in the “Blog” category.
  • "Tesserae: A Mosaic of Story" won a Merit Award in the Colorado Independent Publishers Association's EVVY Awards,  announced on August 20, 2016.  Read the Award List here. 
  • "Knife River Flint," published in Rozlyn: Short Fiction for Women and Tesserae: A Mosaic of Story in 2015, was a Puschart nominee and won the Colorado Author's League (CAL) 2016 Annual Award for Short Fiction.  You can read the full story here.  Congratulations to all the CAL winners!
  • "Cowboy Heart,"  finalist Colorado Authors League 2016 Awards (Winner to be announced May 6, 2016).
  • "Kinfe River Flint," finalist Colorado Authors League 2016 Awards (Winner to be announced May 6, 2016).
  • "Knife River Flint" nominated for a 2016 Pushcart Prize by Alacrity Publishing House LLC. 
  • Winner, Colorado Author’s League 67th Annual Writing Contest (2015 for works published in 2014), Short Fiction, “Pockets,” Published in Progenitor: The Art & Literary Journey of Arapahoe Community College, May 2014.
  • Winner, Colorado Author's League Grant for 2015. 
  • Finalist, Colorado Author’s League 67th Annual Writing Contest (2015 for works published in 2014), Essays, “Divine Heat,” Published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Touched by an Angel, October 2014.
  • Winner, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Colorado Gold Contest, 2004, General Fiction Category:  Mother of Exiles.
  • Honorable Mention, Abilene Writer’s Guild, 2004: Mother of Exiles.
  • Top Ranked Student Paper, Language and Social Interaction Interest Group, International Communication Association (ICA), May, 1995. Readying the Client for Challenge:  A Discourse-Analytic Examination of Attorney-Client Conferences.

Professional Memberships

  • Colorado Authors' League
  • Power of the Pen (A Writing Ministry of Shorter AME Church in Denver, and loose affiliate of Writer's on the Rock)
  • Writers on the Rock