Detroit Writing Room Awards 2025

Last night's Detroit Writing Room Awards Ceremony was so much fun and inspiring! I loved being surrounded by at least 50 other writers and photographers who are passionate about creating meaningful stories and beautiful artwork.

The awards ceremony took place at the Detroit Public Theatre in downtown Detroit, and boy did I feel like I was breaking curfew by going to the big city on a school night! My husband and I hardly ever get to have a date night which made the evening even more special.

After an hour of cocktails, hors d'oeuvres (a word I can never spell correctly!), and mingling with other writing finalists, we were ushered into the theater part of the building were 34 awards were handed out to nine different categories. Neal Rubin, a columnist from the Detroit Free Press, led the award ceremony by announcing the judges who critiqued each category's entries.

My stomach was in a bunch of nervous knots throughout the ceremony! I knew I was guaranteed one of the awards in the Children's Story category, but I didn't know which one would be awarded to me. When they finally got to the Children's Story portion of the award ceremony and my name was called for third place....I wasn't sure if my lead-filled feet would be able to move!

As soon as I walked up the steps to the stage, I was immediately greeted by the CEO of the Detroit Writing Room, Stephanie Steinburg and the other winners of the Children's Story category. Everyone was so kind and welcoming...they made me feel like one of the "official" writers, like one of the people who are seriously pursuing writing. It was a VERY wonderful feeling.

When I came home last night, my daughter told me she was pretty sure I was going to get third place all along because...third place runs in our family. What do you mean, I asked her. She told me that since she got third place at her horseback riding competition this past fall, she knew I was going to get third place for my story. Once she told me that, I kind of liked being third place...because it runs in our family! That almost sounds like another children's story that needs to be written, haha!

My story called The Noise, as well as all the other stories that received awards, are published in a book called Detroit Voices. All proceeds from the sales will go to The Detroit Writing Room's nonprofit called Coaching Detroit which offers free writing summer camps to high school students in the Detroit area.

Thank you for all your love and support, and as always, thanks for reading my Country Squawk!

Kelly