We at Hippocampus Magazine are excited to announce the winners of our 2012 Remember in November Contest for Creative Nonfiction. This year we received about 100 entries and were quite impressed by the caliber of many submissions. A big congratulations to the following creative nonfiction writers:

~~

Grand Prize ($150)

Janice Anderson – How to Move in One Direction While Flying in Another

Second Place ($75)

Jim Gray – A Snip Decision

Third Place ($50) – Tie

MT Cozzola – Tell Me Something Wonderful

Veronica Picone – Tesoro: Treasure

Honorable Mentions ($10)

Nancy J. Brandwein – Letters from my Mum-in-Law

Dawn Zera – Distant Relatives

To learn more about our contest winners, you can find a bio of each at the bottom of their story and in some cases, a link to more of their work.

~~

The six winning stories are featured in this month’s issue — November is National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. A portion of contest entry fees will be donated to Alzheimer’s Association. A big, heartfelt thank you to all contest participants for supporting this cause by way of their creativity. (The rest of the entry fees helped support the prizes.) To learn more about this important organization, visit its official website.

Reader’s Choice Award

This award is selected by YOU! The Hippocampus Magazine reading panel narrowed down finalists and our special guest judges — Beverly Donofrio, Kevin Oderman and Susan Rukeyser (last year’s grand prize winner) — voted  (by scoring them in the following categories: originality of writer’s voice, ability to engage reader, quality of writing and story development), thus deciding how the winners placed. Throughout the month of November, these six stories also will compete for the title of ‘Most Memorable’ – our usual monthly contest. However, for this special issue, the prize is $50. Good luck to our six winners – one of you will be rewarded one more time!

More Chances to Win…

Ten reader participation prizes of $5 Amazon.com gift cards will be awarded to readers of our magazine. Simply comment on winning stories or share them on Facebook or Twitter (use hashtag #contestforCNF or mention us using @hippocampus mag to help track). Reader participation awards will be randomly selected (from posts we can track) and announced in the December issue. Good luck!

* * *

Also in this issue…

Craft
Risa Nye tackles perhaps the most difficult part about writing memoir – the ending – in All’s Well if it Ends Well.

Interviews
Interviews editor Lori M. Myers speaks with Marion Roach Smith, author of The Memoir Project.

Insider Tips
Insider Tips returns this month in the form of an interview with Duotrope.

And, finally, a big shout out to Debbie Hemley who won Most Memorable award for the October 2012 issue. Her story, “The Loyal Order” received the most comments, and also had some good social media buzz and traffic to her story. She will receive a $10 Amazon.com gift card for this achievement!

Please enjoy the November 2012 issue of Hippocampus and also please join me in a warm congratulations to our Remember in November Contest for Creative Nonfiction winners.

-Donna

P.S. If you can spare a bit of change during these difficult economic times, remember that this month is National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month; consider making a donation of any size.