Susan Hunter Wins Dream On Writing Scholarship from Winter Story Summit
Her manuscript, 77 Letters, has profound effect on the judges
Susan Hunter, 52, a writer from Gallatin, TN has won the Dream On Writing Scholarship from the Winter Story Summit.
Dream On Scholarships are designed to reward talented writers 50 years or over who have an unrealized dream of bringing a story to life. Susan’s working manuscript, 77 Letters, was chosen for the top prize in an extremely competitive field.
According to Dream On judge, Jeff Arch, Academy Award-nominated writer of Sleepless in Seattle, Susan Hunter has the opportunity with 77 Letters “to hit the sweet spot between something highly commercial and deeply emotional.”
The manuscript is based on the true story of Susan’s Boston-based mother, Joan, who during the controversial Vietnam War, spearheaded “Operation Morale Booster,” a mission to ensure that every G.I. received mail at weekly mail call.
77 Letters chronicles one profound relationship between her mother and a combat solider from Philadelphia that spanned a lifetime.
“This story will be depicting the Vietnam Veteran in a way they have never been portrayed before,” says Susan Hunter who is currently working on the manuscript. “Not glamorizing an awful war with some fictitious story, but rather sharing a true story of humanity at its brightest during a dark period of our nation’s history.”
The Dream On Scholarship Program had the most applicants of any of the Winter Story Scholarships. There were several strong writing submissions that did not win the top prize.
In order to honor and accommodate these submissions, it has been decided by Story Summits to offer ten significant scholarships to the ten finalists. These gifts will be known as the “Founder Awards.”
Those finalists will or have been notified by email, as of this writing, of their award wins.
For Susan, who entered the Dream On scholarship from a prompting of her cousin, Nancy Lima, something amazing has now happened to her.
Susan will be mentored not only by Jeff Arch but also by Debra Landwehr Engle, the best-selling writer, and the author of Twenty, in bookstores in January, 2020.
Susan Hunter, a mother of three, will be attending the Winter Story Summit this February in the Caribbean with other writers from around the globe. The Summit takes place from February 22–27, 2020.
Story Summits refresh and inspire gifted writers in an immersive and inviting global setting. A stimulating community of successful writers guide Summit participants in completing writing projects, the goal being to launch scripts and novels as commercial products. Go here for more information on the summits.
