Essay Contest: Biblical Womanhood

I can’t describe how excited I am.  We’re only a couple of weeks away from the release of Rachel Held Evans‘ new book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood.  I don’t know about you, but I’m anxious to get my hands on a copy so I can read and review it here on my blog.

In honor of the impending book release, I’m announcing a contest right here.  I hope you are all ready to sit down at your computers or break out a pen and paper, because it’s going to require some writing on your part.

Here are the official rules:

1. Write an essay of 500-750 words telling me how you define Biblical womanhood or what Biblical womanhood means to you.
2. Using the “contact me” page on this blog, copy and paste your essay into the text field.  No attachments, please.
3. Submit the essay by 6pm EDT on Friday, November 2, 2012.

That’s it!  I will select a winner from among the entries based on content and skill.  The essay will be featured as a guest post on my blog on Tuesday, November 6, 2012.  My husband and I will also donate $100 to a charity benefiting girls and/or women, to be chosen by the winner.  Other submissions may be chosen for future guest posts as well, with the permission of the writer.

A few of other items of note:

• You don’t have to be a woman, or even a Christian, to write an essay.  Everyone is welcome!
• Please self-edit.  I do not have time to comb through every essay for grammar and punctuation, as well as returning it to you all for correction.  I will format the winning essay for publication on the blog, but it will appear as-written.
• Regarding charities: My husband and I agreed that it should be the winner’s choice, and that we would donate the money even if it’s an organization we would not ordinarily support.  However, there are a few rules: It must directly benefit girls and/or women; no political or lobbying organizations; no hate groups; and no organizations actively promoting lies about or oppression of the LGBT community.
• We will provide a receipt to the winner regarding the donation.

These rules also appear on the “Biblical Womanhood Contest” page on this blog.  Please share this with anyone you think might be interested.  Good luck, have fun, and I hope to see all your submissions!