Saturday 1 August the 2015 International young writers 'Basil Sellers Award' will be announced at the annual Press Service International young writer conference.
After 25 weeks of markings by a group of five panellists which concluded last Friday 10 July, the points have been sent to statistician John Grocott who is engaged in the tallying process as this article is published.
The International Panellists who spent 25 weeks doing the hard yakka of reading their articles deserve the accolades of the awards program which was initiated in 2013.
In previous years the International young writers have been lumped in either the Australian or New Zealand young writer groups for Panellist determination. 2015 is the first year the International young writers will have their own award.
The 2015 Panellists for the International Basil Sellers Award
Christina Tyson - Wellington NZ
Euan McDonald - Brisbane
Vic Matthews - Moruya
Deidre Tronson - Sydney
Natalie Chu - Christian Today
This group of Panellists were established this year as Christina, Euan and Vic had been New Zealand or Australian Panellists last year and sought a lessor work load and hence the International young writers suited them ideally. The International young writers are compiled into Week 1 of each Cycle.
Proclivities
The first thing to note are the number of Cycles in these 25 weeks. Each Cycle consists of 5 weeks. Therefore there have been 5 complete Cycles over these 25 weeks, and it represents 5 articles by each International young writer.
What needs to be understood in the first instance, is that the only International young writers in the hunt for this book award are those who have written five articles. Should any young writer not complete all 5 articles, clearly their points tally will be seriously truncated. There is an old adage that 95% of success is turning up!
Another consideration is what each Panellist proclivities are. Christian Today's Natalie Chu like her predecessor David Chang Point allocations are solely on the basis of readership statistics. The more readers, the more likely to get higher Point allocations.
The other four Panellists range between an emphasis of the message (the heart) while others have priorities of good English, logic, syntax and spelling. One Panellist is a theologian, another an editor, another a pastor. Overall there is a great mix of Panellists who collegiately determine the winner.
Who is in the running
You check them out on the PSI site
Genevieve Wilson – Canada
Helen McIntosh – England
Oscar Duan – China
Tina Hakimi – USA
Kandima Awendila – ambique
Paul Lewis – West Indies
Dan Peterson – USA
Mumin Faizy – Middle East
Sharma Taylor – West Indies
Rosie Robinson – England
Stacy-Anne Smith – West Indies
Lisa Goetze – Canada
Lason LaLone – USA
Danielle Jones – West Indies
Charis Jackson – USA
Beckie Bowie - England
We have less than two weeks to learn who the Panellists have honoured with top marks.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html