The 2023 Vocal Writing Awards: Community Judging is Open
Your Voice. Your Choice.
Our esteemed panel of judges, led by former Times literary editor, Erica Wagner, have sieved through all of the submissions to the Vocal Writing Awards to bring forth finalists that epitomizes craft and artistry. The shortlists for all eight categories are officially live and awaiting your verdict. Vocal community, the fate of the 2023 Vocal Writing Awards is in your hands (and reading minds).
Key Dates to Remember
- Community Judging Commences: 10/15/23
- Community Judging Ends: 11/16/23
- Winners Announcement: 11/17/23
Community Judging & Your Role
There are 6 shortlisted finalists per category. The entries have been anonymized, ensuring a fair and unbiased voting process. As you engage with each piece, let the quality of the content guide your scores.
After reading each story or poem, you will score it based on a category-specific rubric and have the option to provide feedback. Scoring will determine the winner; feedback will be shared with the authors, but will have no bearing on the results. The shortlists for each category are presented in no particular order.
Please note:
Why Rubric?
The evolution of our judging process from ranking favorites to adopting a rubric format was driven by a commitment to transparency, fairness, and objectivity. Ranking inherently relies on personal preferences, which, while valuable, can sometimes sideline certain kinds of creativity or specific narratives due to inherent biases or popular trends. By utilizing a rubric format, we provide a structured framework that ensures each entry is evaluated on consistent criteria, emphasizing craft, structure, and content.
This approach not only allows for a more comprehensive assessment, but also ensures that every submission is given its due consideration, with respect to the genre or style. This change underpins our dedication to celebrate the diverse voices in our community while maintaining the highest standards of evaluation. It is also reflective of the way in which we judge Vocal challenges internally.
How to Vote
- Go to the Vocal Writing Awards voting site.
- Click the category you want to vote for. You do not need to vote for all categories at once.
- Enter the email address associated with your Vocal account. If you are not sure what email is associated with your Vocal account, please visit: https://vocal.media/settings.
- Score each piece within the chosen category based on the provided rubric. You will have the option to offer written feedback at the end of the rubric questions for each piece.
- Review your scores for all of the pieces in the category on the final score summary screen and click "Yes, I am ready to submit my votes" or "No, I want to review the stories again." Once you click "Yes," your vote will be counted and cannot be changed.
If you want to edit one of your scores, use the black arrows in the lower right-hand corner to navigate backwards and forwards, or scroll up and down.
If you recognize your piece in the shortlist, congratulations! You may vote for yourself - just once. Please support the anonymity and equity of the judging process by keeping that exciting news to yourself for the duration of the community judging period.
The belief that creativity flourishes when the community comes together is central to the Vocal Writing Awards. By voting, you're not just supporting the works that resonate with you, but celebrating in this shared ethos.
Let us know your questions and feedback in the comments below. We can't wait to see the results in November.
🔗 Read the Shortlists and Start Judging:
About the Creator
Vocal Curation Team
Collaborative, conscious, and committed to content. We're rounding up the best that the Vocal network has to offer.
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Comments (28)
What time are we expecting the winners announcement tomorrow? I’m in EST so I’m going to struggle at work with excitement over seeing who wins lol
I found the same problem; I scored four out of six stories on a previous occasion but when I logged on again I was asked again to score points for the stories I'd already scored? Does this mean my scoring hasn't gone through? Not sure what to do now and judging ends soon?
I judged four stories in the horror section yesterday, and when I logged on to judge more horror stories today, I was shown the same first story I judged yesterday: “Palm Springs.” I can’t - and won’t - judge the same story twice, and I can’t seem to move beyond it to judge more stories. HELP!
I can't seem to record my vote. When I click my choice, it says that I didn't make a choice and I can not move on. Help!
These awards are a great idea, and the way in which the shortlist judging was realized was most welcome. There are at least two issues though. (I’m not noting these as a participant, since I wasn't one.) 1) The veil of anonymity is rather thin: even I easily spotted stories I’ve read before, and thus their authors. Ideally, the entries would have been all new and published on Vocal only after the contest is over. (That previous contest winners were re-submitted makes the veil thinner still.) 2) If I followed the criteria (for giving points) to the letter, I'd easily end up ranking the stories differently than how I'd actually rank them. (This is for several reasons.) I would’ve preferred a simple ranking of the stories, or a simple overall grade to each. This could also have made the judging a little less complicated and thus encourage more members to take part in it.
I will give it a whirl. Kudos to shortlisters.
Hmm. Little bit annoying we can’t skip stories we don’t want to judge…I don’t want to leave a score for a story that lost my interest by the second paragraph… but I can’t skip past it without scoring 💁♀️
I started with the haikus as I knew it would be the quickest to complete.. And it takes surprisingly long!!!!! And is harder than I expected…. I much prefer writing to judging 😉 there is no envy of your jobs from me, Vocal! Well done to everyone who recognises their work here! Whoever wrote the Haiku, Natures Morse Code - you are my favourite by far 👌👏✨🩷
Cool!
I love the community engagement aspect of this. I also appreciate a clear rubric. Great innovation by the Vocal team. I am curious about the order of the stories. Will they remain in the same order for all participants? It seems that it will be skewed in rating totals for the earlier stories, as it is a pretty big time commitment to get through all 6 in each category, just to be sure that every story was given equal attention.
Congratulations
Congrats to all who made the shortlists, I can’t wait to read your stories/poems!
Game time, I wish all well that succeeds in shortlisting and well done all for taking part and putting yourself out there in the first place. Let's get voting now!
Awesome!! Would've loved to know how many are shortlisted in each category in order to estimate the amount of time needed to spend reading and voting. Good luck to everyone! May the odds be ever in your favor :)
Looking forward to doing some reading
Congratulations and best of luck to those shortlisted.
Congrats to all who made the shortlist.
Wow. So cool. My patience is not good, I don't like waiting so it is tough to enter contests, and I will read and judge and see how it goes! Good luck everyone!
🙈 Ah, this is so exciting! I can't wait to read all the entries! <3 <3 <3
Very excited for all who shortlisted and for the process itself. Best of luck! 🤩
The instructions and rubric are clear and easy to use. Great job!
Congratulations to all the shortlistees!
Appreciate you all doing this. Congrats everyone!
Congrats everyone! I've read some incredible pieces so far! Good luck to all and may the force be with you:)
Fabulous, & congratulations!💕♥️