Pitch Wars Going Forward … Part One

We are sure you and many others in the writing community have questions about and for Pitch Wars. Therefore, we are starting a series of blog posts to address the recent and important issues brought up surrounding things like: the fee; inclusivity within Pitch Wars; how Pitch Wars addresses concerns of the public; and what is happening with Pitch Wars going forward.

First, we would like to thank the community for its honest conversation surrounding issues related to Pitch Wars. We understand that your honesty cost many of you emotional labor and we want you to know that your voices have been heard. We want you to always feel comfortable sharing your concerns with us and asking questions, which can be done via the Pitch Wars Twitter account as well as the Pitch Wars curious cat account. We hope this will both allow open communication between the public and Pitch Wars as well as give us comments and suggestions for how to better the program.

In addition to hearing the concerns and suggestions of the public, we created a questionnaire for our mentors (both past and present) and learned their honest opinions and advice. With all this in mind, we will be rebooting Pitch Wars with a new steering committee that will provide leadership for this year’s event. It will ensure the responsibility for the whole program no longer falls on just one or two shoulders. I will still be involved as a member of this new committee. But I have also taken a small step back to allow Kellye Garrett to take the reins. I will lend my advice based on my long experience with Pitch Wars, but I genuinely believe that Kellye will be a fantastic person to help Pitch Wars provide mentorship and support to writers.  Kellye and her committee are already doing wonderful things for Pitch Wars. I have been at peace since turning Pitch Wars over to the committee. The pressure that’s been behind my eyes for years is gone. Even though the committee is taking the reins, I’ll be around helping the committee, ensuring my experience with the program is put to good use!

Through the committee, Pitch Wars will have an inclusive and diverse cross-section of leadership that will hopefully provide insight into how to better serve all members of the writing community. We’ve already announced the committee and will be revealing more details about other changes to Pitch Wars next month. This is only a first step, and we understand that we have a ways to go to prove that mistakes of the past won’t be ignored in creating a better and more inclusive Pitch Wars that works for all.

Please follow our Twitter account @PitchWars to be alerted when each post is published and feel free to continue asking questions!

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