Five questions to each of our prize winners.
1. How do you feel to be a prize winner of an international book contest?
2. Is this your first prize or distinction in your writing career?
3. What was the inspiration of your book?
4. What does it mean for you as a writer to win a prize?
5. What are your writing plans for the future?
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IRYNA POLISCHUK
(Ukraine)
CHILDREN’S BOOK UNPUBLISHED
Braveheart
1.It is a great honour for me to be part of an international writing contest, especially of Eyelands Book Awards. This unique competition gives me a chance to become part of it. Thanks to amazing judges to choose my story this year!
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2. It is my fourth prize in my writing career and I am happy to receive it!
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3. My book Brave Heart is a winner this year, the category – Children Books Unpublished. It is part of a book series about an old cat from the shabbycardboard box, a little girl and their friends. It is full of hope, care and love. I understand quite well that today’s life of children is full of troubles and disasters. Unfortunately, they face difficulties and disappointments more often than they should. So, we should care about their mental health most of all.
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4. Kind and good literature helps children to overcome all these difficulties. Warm colour of the rainbow treats better than cold drops of the rain. Literature teaches how tocooperate,to communicate, to create something special, to understand the universe and to help each other in today’s troubled world. Reading is an incredible tool to make children’s dreams come true in adult life.
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5 .As for my future plan, I just say as Elton John said in his song – I’m still standing:) For sure, I will continue to write stories for kids. It has become animportant part of my life. I strongly believethat one day my stories find the way to the heart which needs it, even in the darkest time, and bring a magic light to a child’s world.
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ALEKSANDRA TRYNIECKA
(Poland)
CHILDREN’S BOOK PUBLISHED
Bunky and the Summer Wish
1. It is a true honour to become a prize winner of an international book contest – and, specifically, the prize winner of the amazing Eyelands Book Awards Contest! I am thinking about my wonderful Fellow Authors participating in Eyelands Book Awards 2024 whose books are also written from the bottom of their hearts – and I am honoured to find myself among them. I am also thinking about the wonderful Readers who are behind every book – and I feel a deep responsibility! I am overjoyed inside and deeply grateful to the Judging Committee for finding value in my work – Bunky’s story is a part of me, and receiving Eyelands Book Awards prize means the world to me!
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It is not the first prize in my writing career, yet each of the prizes received for my books means so much to me in unique ways, as each distinction is special, irreplaceable and offers me a conviction that writing is such a significant part of my life – especially writing Bunky’s book series. It also offers me what I call “literary wings” – a desire to offer my Readers the best of my works: to keep creating and writing in a genuine, passionate, graceful and loving way; to always offer “my best”. The feeling accompanying the reception of each distinction cannot be repeated. Receiving Eyelands Book Awards prize is such a significant moment in my writing career, as during the contest I could learn more about my amazing Fellow Authors who were competing in the same category (Children’s Books – Published) and learn about their beautiful works – each being one of the kind! I am deeply honoured that Bunky and the Summer Wish received such an incredible distinction – especially while being able to discover truly fabulous works written by my Fellow Authors!
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I believe that my literary character – Bunky – had always been deep inside my heart even before writing his story. I wrote the first book about Bunky – Bunky and the Walms: The Christmas Story (Wipf and Stock/ Resource Publications, 2021) – my debut novel – while realizing that I would like to share with the readers the world of an imperfect yet noble character with whom they would be able to sympathize and who could become the Hero of his Own Life. In May 2019 I was attending a conference in London and, during one of the breaks, I discovered a store with plush toys. One of the plush toys – a hippo – had a very humanlike expression on his face. It was partly critical, partly joyful – and I thought that this face expression might be hiding an amazing story! I began writing, and Bunky fully came to life! Then, while waiting for the publication of my novel, I took a thread and a needle and sewed my characters and their clothes – I wanted to have them close to me and to bridge the gap between our world and their literary reality. The second novel dedicated to Bunky – Bunky and the Summer Wish (2024) – was inspired by my desire to further portray Bunky as the hero of his Own Life – for I deeply believe that this is the most difficult and beautiful of tasks. While writing Bunky and the Summer Wish I was aware that Bunky’s story was not complete. Also, his further story was planted in my heart as soon as I finished writing the first volume. The Readers were hoping to hear more from Bunky as well, and I felt that, without Bunky’s story, my world would be incomplete too – as he became such a huge part of my life. In fact, Bunky is quite similar to me! In each book about Bunky I also hope to present what I call a “bunkyful life” – the type of life filled with positive magic, hope, goodness, nobility, kindness, gratitude, homeliness and joy from the simplest, tiniest things – a wholesome, fulfilling life that Bunky’s story celebrates. The kind of life we need the most.
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Winning a prize for a writer opens up a new door to creativity and paves the way for a new timeline in one’s writing career. It is like a magical portal allowing the writer to rejoice in each written word on a new, profoundly distinctive level. Winning a prize offers a deep reassurance, joy and powerful motivation to create at one’s best – it offers confidence that one’s voice is needed and creates an impact. It is like a beautiful meadow through which a writer strolls.
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Thank you! I cannot imagine my life without writing, and there is so much writing-related planning going on in my heart now at the onset of 2025. I definitely hope to expand Bunky’s story. Currently, I am also putting the finishing touches on my poetry collection which means a lot to me on a personal level too. Moreover, I am writing and editing a novel dedicated to adults, and it will be my first adult fiction. I am excited while thinking about the future writing journey – about each book, every Reader and Fellow Author encountered on this beautiful literary path! However, wherever it takes me, I am taking Bunky with me! J
With love and best wishes,
Aleksandra
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KAREN MARTIN
(Australia)
SELF PUBLISHED
Dancing the Labyrinth
1. Receiving the news I had won was a shot of pure happiness. I feel proud, happy and thrilled. It’s an honour forDancing the Labyrinthto be recognised internationally, andthe Award affirmsall the passion and hard work that went into writing it. By celebrating the quality and innovation of self-published novels, the Eyelands Book Award showcases its forward-thinking and inclusive approach to the literary world. It’s a privilege to be part of this prestigious recognition.
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2. Dancing the Labyrinth was my debut novel and to receive an Award for it, acknowledges my voice on the page and the stories I wish to write. I have received other awards and distinction for my theatre work: writing, and notably directing, The Women’s Jail Project, as well presentations and papers delivered at conferences and events.
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3. The seed of this novel came from a deeply personal question: How, as a mother, can I raise my son to be a decent human being? The unspoken part of that question, of course, is: “in a patriarchal society.” In Australia, where domestic violence rates continue to rise, I felt a sense of accountability – not just as a mother, but as someone contributing to the next generation. As a theatre writer, I was surprised when the idea presented as a novel. I decided to embrace this and, having planned to spend a year in Crete, began writing there. At the time, I knew nothingof the Minoans, so I was delighted to find myself walking the ancient paths of this matriarchal society. The more I researched, the more the narrative emerged.The novel became dual time, and it was satisfying learning aboutan area of women’s history I was ignorant of, and then use this knowledge to feed into the contemporary sections of the novel. I couldn’t have written this book anywhere else – Crete is a place of incredible strength and inspiration.The land itself breathes stories.
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4. Winning this prize is deeply affirming – it’s like the Muses handing me a little note that says, ‘Keep going, you’re on the right path.’ Writing can be a solitary, doubt-riddled process, so recognition through this Award celebrates the heart, soul and vulnerability integral to my creative process.
On a broader level, it’s heartening to see self-published works being acknowledged for their quality and innovation. Awards like this help shift perceptions, opening doors for indie authors and celebrating the diversity of voices in the literary world. For me personally, it supports my dream of writing layered and ambitious stories that contribute in some way to society, and to trust that the stories I want to write have a place in the world.
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5. I have recently released the sequel – Delphi, to great acclaim, and feel for the time being, Cressida’s story and healing is complete. My next project is a memoir of when I lived in Crete and wrote Dancing the Labyrinth:
What is the outcome of awakening a persona unhindered by constraints of known behaviour, established expectations or obligations? Where the shift and sway of the cloak of responsibility to a different rhythm enables a capacity to listen without prejudice to one’s heart. For one year I lived encased in a foreign terrain of body and spirit, and it is an analytical plungeinto its potential influence onmy creative process that forms this narrative.
Notwithstanding, this memoir could also be read as a travelogue of Crete. Pick your poison.
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PAUL W.B. MARSDEN
(Wales)
HISTORICAL NOVEL/MEMOIR UNPUBLISHED
Darkness in 1984
1 I am thrilled to have won Historical Fiction Unpublished Prize. When you write you don’t write to win prizes. You write because you have the passion inside to create. As Albert Camus said, you live twice by creating, whether that is writing, art or music. But, it does make a world of difference to your self confidence to be validated and recognised by Eyelands, especially as it is an international award. With so many writers from different cultures and native languages it feels like an even greater recognition.
My book, Darkness in 1984, was a full-on commitment, including visiting the North Wales cottage, where George Orwell stayed with Arthur Koestler at Christmas 1945. An English writer, born in India staying with a Hungarian writer in Wales!
I am so grateful to Mr and Mrs Brown, the owners of Bwlch Ocyn cottage, for letting me look inside and especially looking through the window of Arthur’s study, hidden behind the fireplace!
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2. This is the first prize I have received for a novel and the most important one to date.
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3. I have always been fascinated by writers meeting writers. What do they talk about? Do they share ideas? Are they jealous of each other? Do they steal ideas?! When I heard of the tale that George Orwell stayed with Arthur Koestler at Christmas in 1945, I thought there has to be a good story in it! And there was!
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4. Surprise! Joy! Relief! It means that someone else likes what I have written and, more importantly, someone who is a professional has judged it worthy.
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5. I have finished writing ‘Making A Moveable Feast’ which is the ‘Hemingway Tapes in Paris’ of the daily conversations of 1922 between Hadley, Hem, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Djuna Barnes and all the other members of the Lost Generation. I am seeking a publisher or I may self publish as an ebook. A sequel has mostly been drafted of the Hemingways in 1923 as they visited Italy, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.
Thank you Eyelands!
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TIMOTHY JAY SMITH
(France)
NOVELS PUBLISHED
Istanbul Crossing
1. It feels great, of course! It’s also reaffirming. It impliesthat I have readers who like my work and my stories, I’m especially glad to win an ‘international’ book contest because my books are set around the world: Istanbul, a Greek island, Warsaw, Jerusalem, elsewhere where I’ve lived or spent enough time to portray the setting with authenticity. It’s a challenge nevertheless, so I’m always glad when an international committee feels that I’ve succeeded on that score.
2. No, it’s not, though an EyelandsBook Award is certainly a coveted one. For novels, I’ve also won or placed in the Faulkner-Wisdom Writing Competition, the Lambda Literary Awards, the Paris Prize for Fiction (now the DeGroot Literary Prize), and others.I also write stage plays and screenplays, including spec scripts and adaptations of mynovels. Altogether, I’ve won or placed in 100+ writings contests.
3. My partner and I have been going to the same Greek village on the island of Lesvos for the last 20 years. By happenstance, our village was Ground Zero for the refugee crisis peaking in 2015-2017. In one twelve-month period, an estimated 500,000 refugees landed on the beach adjacent to our village of 1500 year-round residents.
When I start a novel, I first decide on what pressing issue of our timesthat I want to illuminate for my readers. I’ve written about human trafficking, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and what the fall of communism meant for ordinary families in Eastern Europe. I decided I wanted to write a novel highlighting the refugee crisis through the story of one or two refugees.
That book, Fire on the Island, ultimately became more of an homage to Greece than a refugee story. That’s understandable. My first job after college was in Greece and I fell in love with it. Ultimately, I would spend some 7 years of my life in the country. So what Fire on the Island became was a story about how the villagers responded to the refugees, and how the refugees reignited conflicts among the villagers that went back 100 years.
When I finished Fire on the Island, I still wanted to write a refugee story. I realize that I could describe every step a refugee would take once he or she arrived on Greece’s shore to make their way to northern Europe. What I didn’t know was how the refugees made their way to Istanbul to get on a raft to make the dangerous crossing to Greece.
I went to Istanbul to find out. I hired a young Syrian refugee who worked for an organization helping other refugees by providing various social services. I asked him to show me Istanbul from the refugees’ perspective. It turned out that he was also a people smuggler. That is to say, he survived by helping other refugees make the crossing to Greece. Though he wasn’t gay like my main character in Istanbul Crossing, he was still the inspiration for that character in terms of his compassion and willingness to take risks to help others.
4. I have a new publisher, Leapfrog Press, who plans to reprint Fire on the Island. That’s scheduled to be released on April 29th and I am working on some edits to it. I also have a challenging new novel in mind. It would be my first book set in America. I’m 16th generation American and for most of my life I’ve been proud of that. Lately, I’ve become less so. I’m at the very beginning stages of writing a novel that questions what is the legacy of those 16 generations.
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REV PHILIPS
(USA)
POETRY UNPUBLISHED
Waiting for Godot in the blue Corolla
1. I am honored and pleased to be recognized in this international assembly of poets and writers. Thank you.
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2. I have been writing since I was seven and publishing in many poetry journals, but since I retired from full-time work, at last I have time to write more, send more work out into the world, and enter some contests. This past year I was nominated for two Pushcart poetry awards. I have been a finalist many times, including last year’s Eyelids Book Award for my previous collection, “Wrestling With the Angel”, published last Fall by Wipe and Stock Publishers. I have won First Prizes in The Letter Review Poetry Contest (2023), the Westmoreland (PA) Arts and Heritage Festival Poetry Contest (2022), the Lincoln (CA) Poetry Contest (2022), The Princemere Poetry Contest (2021), and the WOMR/WFMR Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest (MA) (2022, plus a couple of second prizes and honorable mentions/shortlists.
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3. One of my recurring themes is spiritual exploration, in the widest sense. Like many poets I revisit my particular story to trace its meanings and possibilities, as well as parsing the wider world for meanings, for some threads of transcendence, joy, and justice.
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4. It is a nice affirmation that some people far beyond my circle find the work worthy, enjoyable, and ready to be shared more widely. I love the human response to words sent out hopefully, like bread on the waters, not knowing whether anyone will hear or resonate with them. I am grateful to those who lend their expertise and time and care to judging and editing poets’ work.
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5. I have a third chapbook coming out from Finishing Line Press this coming Fall: “Sailing To the Edges”, containing a long narrative poem about the voyage of Amundsen to first explore Antarctica on the ship Belgica. I am also working on a second collection: “Memos To the Great Attractor”. I write every day, so there’s no telling what might come forth next!
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JIMMY TINDEL
(India)
SPECIAL DISTINCTION (novels unpublished)
The Lost Vimana
1. I feel very great after winning contest because I didn’t expect that I am 16-17 year old and I just upload my book and win I am just wordless.
2. It is my first prize and I like it so much it is inspiration for me to write more books
3. the inspiration of my book is our Hindu religion refrences and books and scriptures.
4. It means alot so much I can’t even express it I am so happy thank you eyeland book awards.
5. In future I am gonna write one book on self help or this part continues
Eyelands Book Awards 