Emyl Jenkins Award winner is Valley Haggard

James River Writers announces the 2018 winner of the Emyl Jenkins Award is Valley Haggard, founder of Richmond Young Writers and Life in 10 Minutes.

Award will be presented on Saturday, October 13, 2018, at 3:15 p.m. at the James River Writers Conference to be held at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. News media is welcome. 

The award, which honors the memory of Emyl Jenkins, who passed away in 2010, recognizes organizations and individuals who continue her legacy of inspiring a love of writing and writing education in Virginia.

This year’s recipient, Valley Haggard, founded Richmond Young Writers in 2009, an organization dedicated to introducing young people to the joy of creative writing through workshops taught by professional writers in the community. In 2010, she began teaching creative nonfiction to adults in book and coffee shops around Richmond that became Life in 10 Minutes, a method in which participants respond by writing to a prompt for ten minutes. Haggard hosts classes, workshops, retreats, and living room tours around Virginia aimed at helping draw out our deepest stories and helping heal the wounded writer within.

In her nomination of Haggard, Amanda Sue Creasey wrote, “Valley Haggard’s approach to writing and writing education is incredibly inclusive, encouraging, and nurturing. Her dedication to Richmond Young Writers is inspiring, and her work with Life in 10 Minutes is also more than notable. She has written two books, both of which encourage writers in their journeys, in addition to creating a website to publish writers’ 10-minute pieces and to producing a podcast where writers can showcase their work. I have participated in several of her workshops and attended some of her presentations at Master Classes, and her ability to see the absolute best in every writer’s piece never ceases to amaze me.

Haggard embodies the supportive spirit of Jenkins, an author of numerous nonfiction works and two detective novels. While Jenkins served the state’s writing community on the JRW board and the Library of Virginia Foundation board, it was often her one-on-one encouragement and mentorship that most defined her.

The winner will receive their award at JRW’s 16th Annual Writers Conference, October 13-14, 2018. Tickets to the conference may be purchased through the James River Writers website at www.jamesriverwriters.org.

James River Writers is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to building community by connecting and inspiring writers and all those in central Virginia with a love for the written word.