🏆Writing Contest Winners🏆
We're very pleased to announce the winners in NBR's Writing Contest for 2023!
Find the Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners in our Fiction and Nonfiction contests below!
🏆Fiction🏆
3rd
Place
False Idols
by
Mark Damon Brooks
In a world where superheroes exist, it will take one normal man to remind everyone what it means to be a hero. Malcolm Mills has a problem with the Newton Force. He has his reasons. Yet the rest of the world loves the world’s only superheroes. Gifted with super strength, flight, telepathy, and indestructible skin, the Newton Force aren’t the heroes they appear to be. They’re more comfortable doing commercials and signing autographs than fighting crime. When an exo-suit clad criminal conducts a brazen attack in broad daylight, it results in the death of Malcolm’s friend. Now Malcolm is going to do the one thing the Newton Force won’t. He’s going to find the criminal and save the day. Along the way, Malcolm discovers a criminal who is as brilliant as he is ruthless. And who is rapidly evolving from a low-level villain to a full-fledged supervillain.
1st
Place
The Secret of the Magic eyePad: Putney Hicks Inventor Adventures
by
Marsha Tufft
She dreams of becoming an inventor. First, she has to survive middle school… Putney Hicks just wants things to go right for once. A socially awkward girl dropped among rich kids in an experimental STEM institution, the anxious twelve-year-old can’t seem to see her own potential. But life sprinkles in a surprise when she receives a mysterious tablet housing an advanced, talkative intelligence. Wondering if the friendly pixie in the device is alien or supernatural, Putney is determined to keep it safe while exploring its possibilities. But when competitive art and science projects lead to an ill-advised bet with a wealthy mean girl, the would-be engineer may be in way over her head. Will Putney’s mysterious new mentor help her make it through her first week in class? The Secret of the Magic eyePad is the award-winning first book in the Putney Hicks Inventor Adventures middle grade series. If you like girls in STEM, preteen drama, and clever innovations, then you’ll love Marsha Tufft’s lighthearted tale. Buy The Secret of the Magic eyePad to click through to fabulous fun today!
2nd
Place
Seriously, Murder?
by
Monica Hoopes
Alice Humphries is a small-town Jersey lawyer, and she knows what she’s doing. Kind of. And hell—even if she doesn’t, she and her best friend Don can normally figure it out. They are recent law school grads who’ve opened up their own practice, and they’ll take just about any case they can get to keep the electricity on and buy donuts on Fridays. But when they’re assigned to a high-profile murder through the Public Defender’s Office, they find themselves in over their heads. The victim: a well-known divorce attorney found shot to death in his office. Their client: his blond, botoxed, and bitchy wife. Alice and Don have to get her out of jail, keep her out of jail, and figure out what the hell they’re doing in the process. And meanwhile, they still have two other clients to contend with: a 23 year-old hot-blooded drama queen who pelts her on-again-off-again older lover with snowballs and erects giant snow penises on the hood of his car, and a brash-mouthed Texas pageant mom who assaults a fellow contestant with a giant cupcake and stuffs her four-year old’s bra for the win. And then there’s sexy Assistant Prosecutor/enemy of the defense, Jake Harris. Alice can’t figure out whether she wants to strangle him or make out with him, but the feeling is definitely mutual. Seriously, Murder? is the first installment in a laugh-out-loud romcom murder mystery series that will keep you wanting more! Don and Alice are at the heart of this story, and they just might save the day (if they don't kill each other, first).
🏆Nonfiction🏆
3rd
Place
The Luckiest Unlucky Person I Know: A Practical Memoir
by
Kristin Smith Westbrook
“I’m sorry to report this, my dear, but you have invasive ductal carcinoma,” the doctor said. Carcinoma, I thought. Sounds like a fun, funky dance step from the ’60s. Come on, everybody, let’s do the carcinoma! Ever wonder how to live your best life when you’re in the middle of your worst nightmare? If so, this is the guidebook for you. The Luckiest Unlucky Person I Know is a memoir that offers practical exercises to find clarity and balance in the face of adversity. Through personal stories of living with metastatic breast cancer, surviving a near-death experience, and managing grief and loss, this book will inspire you to approach challenges and adversities with humor, grace, and gratitude. If you are living with a chronic disease, trauma, grief, or a difficult obstacle in your life, the lessons in The Luckiest Unlucky Person I Know will have you feeling lucky too.
1st
Place
ER Doctor: Tales of an emergency room doctor
by
Paul Weinberg, M.D.
Paul Weinberg spent 30 years in the Emergency Room (or ER) as a medical doctor and has seen everything, Described as "a strange career" by the author, entry into the field is unrestricted and open to all who are brave (or foolish) enough to start into the stream without the knowledge of the tsunami ahead. The strangeness of the practice is apparent from the very first visit to a busy urban ER. The swarm of commotion and great vividness of the scene can be dizzying. The relentlessness of the torrent and its strange day and night rhythms can enthral and repel like no other practice or job. In turns shocking, sad and funny, this book contains remarkable tales, inside stories and the experiences of a doctor's career in ER. Emergency medicine in America is a critical asset to its healthcare system. The ER doctor is located at the interface of the public and the first point of healthcare. If a doctor is needed outside of office hours, nights, or holidays, if the patient is uninsured or has inadequate insurance, or is of such a social state that they might be unpleasant to be around, no one is turned away at the ER. In short, the life of the ER doc is one where no situation is off limits.
2nd
Place
The Life She Once Knew: The Incredible True Story of Queena, The Bloomingdale Library Attack Survivor
by
Vanna Nguyen
In 1981, a young woman faced death as she lay on the floor of a small boat in the South China Sea fleeing the life she once knew in Vietnam. In 2008, her teenage daughter lay fighting for her life after being brutally raped and abandoned while returning books at a library near Tampa, Florida. The attack in front of the Bloomingdale library left Queena with a traumatic brain injury, sentenced to a life unable to walk, see, or speak. As Vanna Nguyen lovingly poured herself into caring for her now severely disabled daughter, she also battled with reliving her own Vietnam War survival story. And she must decide, can she forgive the attacker whose unforgivable decision changed both their lives as they knew them forever? In The Life She Once Knew, Vanna candidly chronicles the deeply spiritual and emotionally powerful journeys of these two strong women as they fight for their lives and their futures decades apart.