Thomas Hornby Ferril,

first Colorado Poet Laureate 

Poet Thomas Hornsby Ferril was a founding board member Colorado Authors League. Born in 1896, Ferril graduated from Colorado College. He worked for Great Western Sugar Company as publicity director for more than 40 years. He and his wife Helen also published the weekly Rocky Mountain Herald from 1939 to 1972. Ferril remained active in Colorado’s writing community and was appointed Colorado’s first Poet Laureate in 1979.

Ferril’s poetry engages the American West through science and mythology. Read More

Lillian de la Torre,
Early CAL Member

During the 1940s, de la Torre began her writing career in earnest. After a year's absence in 1945, working as a technical advisor to 20th Century-Fox in Hollywood, she began to write mystery stories. Her 1946 collection of Dr. Sam Johnson stories were well received. She held board positions in national and local writers organizations. A regular contributor to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and the Armchair Detective, she also reviewed books. Her byline appeared in The New York Times and the New Republic, and local newspapers. Read More

Mary Coyle Chase

Pulitzer Prize Winner

In 1944 the Colorado Authors League awarded Denver playwright Mary Chase with the William McLeod Raine Award for her blockbuster play about a slightly tipsy gentleman named Elwood P. Dowd and his six-foot invisible rabbit friend Harvey. The year after, she received the Pulitzer Prize in Drama over Tennessee Williams's iconic play The Glass Menagerie. Today she remains the only Coloradan to have received this honor. In her lifetime Mary Chase published fourteen plays, three screenplays, and two award-winning children's books. Read More



Submission period: Nov 1-Jan 31

Eligibility: You must be a CAL member to enter (See Membership tab above)

Categories: Multiple categories are judged from essays, articles, and poetry to full-length novels.

Awards announcements: May or June

Contest Info & Entry

The Colorado Authors League held their first-ever virtual awards ceremony on the evening of June 7, 2020 to announce the winners of the 79th Annual CAL Writing Awards. You can see a complete list of finalists and watch the video right here!

Awards Finalists