After five months in the process the winners of LDEI’s 2018 M.F.K. Fisher Awards Contest were announced.

Elaine Cicora (Cleveland), a freelance journalist and editor, was selected as the Grand Prize winner and Print Category winner for “Me and Chef Boyardee,” published in the summer 2017 issue of Edible Cleveland.  Her story is about how Ettore Boiardi (“Chef Boyardee”), Cleveland’s first celebrity chef, influenced Cicora’s career. The entry can also be read online.

Twice before since LDEI’s writing awards began, the grand prize was won by Dames: Kitty Crider (Austin) in 2006 (the first year of the culinary writing contest) and Sandra Gutierrez(North Carolina) in 2017.

The 2018 winners include three other Dames:

• Eagranie Yu, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, an author and editor, won first prize and $500 in the Internet Category for her entry, “Vancouver’s Wildly Popular Dinner Series is Helping Syrian Women Settle into a New Home,” published at www.saveur.com/tayybeh-vancouver-immigrant-dinner-series.
• Catherine Neville, St. Louis, Missouri, Publisher of Feast magazine, won second prize and $100 in the Print Category for her story “The Kings of Kansas City,” published in the August 2017 issue of Feast which can also be read online at: www.feastmagazine.com/features/kansas-city/article_df738fb4-8761-11e7-ac98-8323da185876.html
• Jamie Schler (Philadelphia), an American writer living in Chinon, France, won third prize and $50 in the Print Category for her story, “My brother was deteriorating before my eyes,” published in The Washington Post September 19, 2017.

Of the nine prizes, four were won by Dames. This year, 26 Dames entered the contest—up from 15 last year.

Other prize winners are:

Book Category
First Prize ($500): Bianca Bosker, New York City, an award-winning journalist, for her excerpt, “The Secret Society,” from her book Cork Dork (Penguin Books/Penguin Random House, 2017)

Second Prize ($100): Laura Shapiro, New York City, a culinary historian and author of What She Ate (Viking/Penguin Random House, 2017). Entered excerpt: “Introduction.”

Third Prize ($50): Jess Thomson, Seattle, Washington, author of A Year Right Here (University of Washington Press, 2017). Entered excerpt: “To Market, To Market.”

Internet Category
Second Prize ($100): Bianca Bosker, New York City, author and writer, for her story, “Is Terroir Real?” published at www.foodandwine.com/wine/is-terroir-real

Third Prize ($50): Heather Arndt Anderson, Portland, Oregon, book author and writer, for her story, “Before Guy, There Was Graham,” published at www.tastecooking.com/before-guy-there-was-graham/

All the winning stories will be posted at www.ldei.org.

The deadline for the 2019 contest is March 31 to enter writing published during 2018. The more Dames who enter, the more Dames will win!