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“It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else,” Erma Bombeck wrote.

Writers, it’s time to put your best writing on the line and enter the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition. Previously unpublished 450-word entries in humor and human interest categories will be accepted Dec. 4-Jan. 8.

Hosted every two years by the Washington-Centerville Public Library and the University of Dayton’s Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop, the international competition pays tribute to Erma Bombeck, a hometown writer and one of the greatest humorists of the 20^th century.

Four winners will receive $1,000 and a free registration to the April 4-6, 2024, Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop. Writers receiving honorable mentions will be awarded $100 prizes. Winning entries will be posted online and in the workshop's program.

Vick Mickunas, creator of "The Book Nook," one of the longest-running radio shows about books, and Bill Scheft, novelist and longtime staff writer for Late Show with David Letterman, will serve as finalist judges. Nearly 50 preliminary judges, including nationally known authors, columnists, sitcom writers and stand-up comedians, will judge the early rounds with winners expected to be announced the week of Feb. 19.

Betsy Bombeck, Erma’s daughter, will keynote a 7 p.m. awards ceremony on Wednesday, April 3 at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills Ave., Centerville, Ohio. It’s free and open to the public, though space is limited.

In 2022, 486 writers from six countries, 48 states and the District of Columbia entered previously unpublished essays in humor and human interest categories — roughly 218,000 words. Read their winning entries here.

For submission guidelines, visit the competition’s website. The entry fee is $25.

For more information or questions about the competition, please call Debe Dockins, coordinator of the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition, at 937-610-4429 or send an email to ddockins@wclibrary.info.