2021 CALEB Awards Wants You … to Volunteer as a Judge

It is almost time for the 2021 CALEB Awards from Omega Writers. CALEB stands for Christian Authors Lifting Each other’s Books. The CALEB Award:

• Supports excellence in Australasian Christian books by encouraging and educating writers, regardless of genre.
• Encourages excellence in Australasian Christian books by recognising and rewarding our best writers across a range of genres.

The 2021 Awards will be for books published in 2019 or 2020 in the following genres:

• Adult fiction
• Young Adult fiction
• Early Reader and Middle Grade (also open to books published in 2018)
• Picture Books
• Adult Biography or Memoir
• Adult Nonfiction (also open to books published in 2018)

The 2021 Awards will open for entries in March (watch this space to find out more).

However, before we open for entries, we need judges.

Who can judge?

Anyone! Well, almost anyone.

• This is a contest for Christian writers, so we want judges who agree with the Omega Writers Statement of Faith.
• We’re looking for keen readers who can read and judge the first fifty pages of between four and ten entries between 1 May and 20 June.
• Books (other than picture books) are provided as PDF files, so you will need to read on your computer, tablet, smartphone, or Kindle device. Picture books are judged in hard copy.

All we ask is that you judge each entry fairly, according to the judging criteria.

Judging is a great opportunity to sample books from some new-to-you authors and perhaps discover a new favourite.

Each entry will be judged by three judges in the first round. Finalists will be judged by three new judges. That means we need a lot of volunteers to support the contest. If we don’t get enough judges, we may need to combine or cut some categories.

Each category is judged separately, so we encourage you to enter the awards in one category and volunteer to judge another.

Note that judges in the Published contest only have to provide scores for each category in the judging sheet. We’re not asking for feedback from judges, like we do for the Unpublished contest.

(But if you enjoy the book and would like to bless the author, may we suggest a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Koorong? Just remember to mention you received a free copy of the book.)

To volunteer as a judge, fill out the form at https://bit.ly/JudgeCALEB2021

Thank you!