03/08/2023
By Patricia Coffey

The Pollard Memorial Library Foundation is now accepting submissions for the Elinor Lipman Award for Writing. This award honors Elinor Lipman, a distinguished, prolific and much-loved author born and raised in Lowell, by awarding a prize of $1,000.

Submissions are welcome on or before 11:59 pm EDT, May 19, 2023.

The Pollard Memorial Library Foundation established The Elinor Lipman Award for Writing, a competition for fiction and creative nonfiction written by a current resident of Lowell, a current student of the University of Massachusetts Lowell or a current student of Middlesex Community College.

The award pays tribute to the work of Elinor Lipman, author of numerous novels, stories, essays and poetry for which she has received the New England Book Award for fiction, a lifetime achievement award from the New England Library Information Network, and the Paterson Fiction Prize of the Poetry Center.

The judges will include Elinor Lipman herself, and Pilar Garcia-Brown, an editor at publishing imprint Dutton. Joining them this year will be Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, a professor at Northeastern and Lowell resident who won the Award in 2022.

The Lipman Award recognizes the importance of literacy and learning in the City of Lowell and the lives of its residents.

The Lipman Award has been funded by a generous donation from Loom Press to the Pollard Memorial Library Foundation. For more information, please visit the Pollard Library website.