The jury prize is back!

There’s no summer slump here at yeah write as ten virgins joined the challenge grid, helping to unlock a fourth vote and the editor-curated invitational grid. Welcome virgins! And thanks to everyone for submitting your best stuff, waiting patiently through moderation, reading in community, and voting fairly for your top picks. We’ve got lots of badges to hand out to our winners, so here goes…

Editor picks and invitational grid

Our challenge grid tipped over the magic 30 post requirement, opening up the invitational grid for the first time in 12 weeks. The editors chose five posts to compete for the yeah write jury prize. Congratulations to Adele Joyce, Carolyn, Cyn K, Cynthia Kim, and Tim! See those editors’ pick badges in the sidebar? They’re yours to keep.

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Jury prize

“The Common Story of the Ziegfeld Follies” by Tim Torkildson at iwritetheblogggs 

Tim Torkildson takes the editor-awarded jury prize with his post “The Common Story of the Ziegfeld Follies,” a piece about his grandmother and her empty candy dish. The author fluidly combines his childlike innocence with his grandmother’s melancholy and adds a dash of humor. Rich and vivid details enliven the scene: a room filled with chipped knickknacks, smelling of lavender sachets, and containing the woman herself, with her mail order dentures. He describes her thusly: “[W]ith her humped back she was shaped somewhat like a crescent roll, so I could snuggle right into her, fitting in like a jigsaw puzzle piece.” It’s a child’s eye view of an adult situation he can’t quite grasp, beyond the fact that there is no more candy.

Crowd favorite

“It’s Best Not to Wonder” by Michelle Longo at The Michelle Longo

While our editors are not eligible for the invitational or the jury prize, they still compete on par with everyone else on the challenge grid. This week, contributing editor Michelle L takes crowd favorite with “It’s Best Not to Wonder,” an elegy to a fatherless father’s day. Michelle is never better than when she writes autobiographically, and here she wraps her own imaginings on how her father might be spending the day around her story of abandonment. With deceptively simple writing, she bares herself without resorting to emotional manipulation. The result is a final line that is a punch to the gut.

Congratulations Michelle! The crowd favorite badge is waiting just for you.

Congratulations also to the rest of the top row: Erica M, Tim T, and Natalie D! You know what you should do? Go get your top row badges and display them proudly!

Who does Comment Bob love this week?

Comment Bob loved Stacie’s post this week with its reminders to vote and campaign fairly. He also loved the two yeah writers who best embodied this spirit of sportsmanship. Congratulations to CC of conscious cacophony and April at Love, Life & Caffeine for playing fair and supporting your fellow bloggers! Go visit Bob in the sidebar to get your badge. He’s waving his pom-poms just for you.

Weekend moonshine grid opens today at 6 p.m. eastern time

It’s the weekend, and Natalie D will shortly be setting up the moonshine grid and bathtub gin just for you. The moonshine grid is the flip side of our weekly challenges: a no-stress link-up where we accept anything except commercial or sponsored posts. There’s no velvet rope, so show us the other facets of your blog – those posts that might not meet the challenge grid submission guidelines. Closing time is midnight on Monday.

Win-win

The thumbnails are now sorted in the grid from most votes to the least. In the case of a tie, the thumbnails are additionally sorted by page views. Do not be discouraged if your blog has landed near the bottom of the grid; especially if it was a tight race. The fun lies in getting better exposure for your blog and, in the spirit of competition, an incentive to improve your writing and blogging skills. It’s a win-win for everybody involved. Thanks again, everybody, for submitting, for reading, and for accepting the weekly writing challenge. And for making yeah write the most welcoming spot on the Interwebs for writers who blog and bloggers who write.

Before you go

Take a moment to congratulate this week’s winners in the comments, and give a shout-out to your favorites on the grid. Come back next week and spin another yarn for us in about 600 words.

Yeah write #167 opens with the kickoff post on Sunday, the gargleblaster on Monday, and the challenge grid and speakeasy fiction jam on Tuesday. Be sure you’ve subscribed to our email list to get notice when prompts are posted, grids open, and voting begins. It’s easy to do! Just sign up right here. And then come back and bring your best writing to the best writing community around! See you next week.

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