rmfw logo long
Menu
  • Join!
  • Members
    • Member Hub
    • Professional Authors Alliance
  • Blog
    • Blog
    • Blog Contributors
  • Events
  • 2025 Conference
    • Conference Homepage
    • Registration
    • Keynotes
    • Agents
    • Presenters
    • Workshops
    • Thursday Intensives
    • Masterclasses
    • Add-Ons
    • Schedule
    • Program
    • Handouts
    • Sponsors
    • Scholarships
    • FAQ
      • Code of Conduct
      • Accessibility
  • Awards
    • Colorado Gold Rush Literary Awards Contest
      • Colorado Gold Rush Winners & Finalists
    • Jasmine Awards
    • Honored Guiding Members
    • PEN Awards
    • Writer of the Year Award
      • Writer of the Year Award
      • 2025 WOTY Nominations
  • Books
  • Anthology
  • Resources
    • Podcast
    • Critique Groups
    • Service Providers
    • Youth Writers Program
  • About
    • About Us
    • Board of Directors
Menu

Call for Judges

The Goal:

We are looking for judges for the Colorado Gold Rush Literary Award contest! Our goal is to have contestants easily understand their manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses by assessing predesignated benchmarks and providing knowledgeable and supportive feedback.

The Categories:

Mainstream
Mystery, Thriller
YA, Middle Grade
Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror
Women’s Fiction, Romance

The Judges:

Each entry will be judged by one Judge and one Category Captain. The two RMFW judges evaluate whether an entry meets a list of predesignated benchmarks. The submissions that hit the most benchmarks will become the finalists in each of the five categories.-

Judges should be experienced in critique and have a working knowledge of the genre(s) in which they are judging.

Category Captains should be published (traditional or self) in their assigned categories OR be professional editors by trade OR have extensive critique experience.

The Process:

  • Each entry will have one set of manuscript pages and one evaluation.
  • The Judging Coordinator will distribute entries to the Judges and Captains.
  • Judges will evaluate their assigned entries, determine whether the benchmarks were successfully hit, make comments and/or suggestions on the manuscripts and evaluations, and provide critiques where requested.
  • Judges will forward entries, as completed, to their assigned Captain.
  • Captains will evaluate the judged entries and add their own comments and/or suggestions to the evaluations, manuscripts pages, and critiques—without altering or deleting the previous Judge’s comments.
  • Captains will turn in completely judged entries to the Contest Chairs.
  • The entries that hit the most benchmarks in their categories will become the Finalists. If there is a tie for fifth position, a third read will be conducted by the Contest Chairs.
  • The Contest Chairs will forward the Finalist entries to the VIP Judges (vetting agents, editors), along with a short feedback questionnaire to be filled out by the final judges and later given to the Finalists.

Submission deadline is May 1st, 2024.

Judges will receive their assigned submissions soon after.

Volunteer now!

Contest Eligibility and Guidelines | Contest FAQ | Contest Home

Call for Judges | Judging Benchmarks | Previous Contest Winners

Mission Statement

Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization dedicated to supporting, encouraging, and educating writers seeking publication in fiction.

Important Links

Board of Directors

By-Laws (Updated 2024)

Conference Code of Conduct

Diversity Statement

Privacy Policy

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Newsletter Signup

© 2025 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme