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Funny and heartwarming essays poured in from 10 countries, including New Zealand, Russia and Afghanistan. Writers in nearly every state (with the *notable* exceptions of North Dakota and Wyoming) entered their best original work.

Throw in entries from the Cayman Islands and Washington, D.C., which are neither countries nor states, and the 2020 Erma Bombeck Writing Competition attracted the most geographically diverse field of entries in its history.

In all, the competition, sponsored by the Washington-Centerville Public Library in affiliation with the University of Dayton's Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop, drew 559 entries from hopeful writers competing for cash, free registrations to the sold-out workshop and acclaim from the writing world. Most writers (378) entered work in either the global or local humor categories, with 181 submitting human interest essays.

"Everything I have heard from our first-round judges about the quality of the entries has been very positive," said Debe Dockins, contest coordinator. "They say 'it's a joy' to read them. One said her batch included 'lots of fun entries and a few that particularly stood out with LOL jokes and swell writing.' I can't wait to read the winning entries."

It takes a small village of established authors, columnists, creative writing teachers, screenwriters, editors and stand-up comedians to read and evaluate more than 250,000 words during preliminary and second rounds of judging. Two prolific authors - Bill Bryson and Jess Montgomery - will serve as finalist judges for thehumor and human interest categories, respectively.Meet the panel of judges.

Winners are expected to be announced by Feb. 24, according to Dockins.

Betsy Bombeck, Erma's daughter, will keynote the 7 p.m. awards presentation on April Fool's Day at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills Ave. The ceremony is free and open to the public, but space is limited. To RSVP, clickhere.

Besides the writing competition, the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop sponsors a biennial writer's residency, A Hotel Room of One's Own: The Erma Bombeck | Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence. Meet the two winners.

Winners of both competitions will be recognized and honored at the April 2-4 Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop.

- Teri Rizvi

Teri Rizvi is the founder and director of the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop at the University of Dayton, where she also serves as executive director of strategic communications.