Humor Writers of AmericA


Adam Selzer's newest book
General Humor News
(click 'contact us' to report nefarious humor hijinks.)

If you're a member, make sure you copy our Humor Writers logo and paste to your own website or blog.

Freewrite has assembled a list of 19 writing contests that they consider 'the best' of 2018 contests. Check it out here. 

Suddenly Senior is looking for columnists writing either serious or humorous content that helps or supports seniors. It's a paid gig, and here are the guidelines. 

The Indie Book Awards have announced they are accepting entries for their 2019 Book Awards for books published in 2017, 2018 or 2019. There are 70 awards over all. They accept indie book authors and publishers, university presses, ebook publishers and self published author. . 

Tim Dorsey's 8th Annual Serge's Swamp Fest is set for Everglades City October 27.  So if you're going to be near Florida check it out here.  

Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop announced that LAUGH OUT LOUD: 40 WOMEN HUMORISTS CELEBRATE THEN AND NOW ... BEFORE WE FORGET is now available on ebook for $3.99. It's available in paperback for $14.95 and is available on Amazon and the Univ of Dayton bookstore. Part of the proceeds benefits the Erma Bombeck Writers' endowment fund that helps writers afford the workshop. Get yours here. 

Lisa Scottoline (who is now a #1 best-selling author! Woo!) and her daughter Francesca Serritella are releasing their new book, I SEE LIFE THROUGH ROSE-COLORED GLASSES on July 10. 

Rob Hiaasen (brother of writer Carl) was one of the shooting victims in the Annapolis shooting. Pens, not guns. 

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists is offering a life-time membership for $500. If you're a member, check out their July newsletter. 

The Writer Magazine is accepting entrants for their 1000 word or less contest, deadline July 15. Click here for more. 

Christopher Moore's new book, NOIR, is out! 

Judy Carter is hosting a free webinar in five steps to getting paid to speak on Wednesday, June 27 6-7pm (Pacific). It's free, so there's no risk, and Judy is very funny, so there are rewards. Check it out here. 

Leisure Living Magazine is accepting Baby Boomer humor essays of 450-500 words.  Click here for more. 

The deadline for Writer's Digest's annual writing contest is June 1. Click here for more details. 

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists Education Foundation is accepting applications for the 20-18 Dear Abby College Columnists Scholarship Contest, open to undergrads who write byline, editorial or other columns appearing in print or online editions of their college publications. There will be a single winner who will be awarded a $5,000 scholarship. Deadline is June 29. Click here for more info. 

Another free webinar by Judy Carter Tuesday May 29 on how to book high paying speaking engagements. Sign up here. 

Judy Carter wrote an excellent article about the loss of comedian Mitzi Shore. Check it out. And don't miss Judy's free webinar on April 19 from 6-7 (Pacific) on How To Get a Comedy Agent. Sign up here. 

Received the following entreaty .. and offer of a free book ... from member Jerry Flu: MUMMY ALERT! NOT YOUR MAMA’S MUMMY MEME! It’s zany! It’s bawdy! It’s almost believable! Now, for the first time in over three thousand years, the story the ancient ones said could never be told: the life, death, and afterlife of Djoe the mummy, as channeled by Jerry Flu. Thrill to Djoe’s tell-all tale of scorpion charmers, temple dancers, sand bandits, and tomb robbers. Laugh till you dribble through your nose at the salacious hijinks happening at High Priestess Lululiutet’s Temple of Qadesh, the goddess of sexual pleasure. Pop your eyes at the never-before-revealed secret behind the failure of Pebekkamen’s planned palace coup following the assassination of Ramesses III. Massage your goosebumps as you tag along with Djoe through the demon-infested Duat, the ancient Egyptian underworld. Then, heave a sigh of relief as you finally kick back with Djoe in the Field of Reeds, ancient Egypt’s five-star equivalent of heaven. All this and much, much more awaits your eyeballs on the pages of The Mummy Cursed: A Hysterical Historical Fantasy by Jerry Flu. So what are you waiting for? Carpe Diem! Seize the day. Seize the book! (The preceding has been a paid promotional message from Citizens for Jerry Flu’s Retirement Fund.) 

Incidentally, in an unabashed attempt to bring its ranking on Amazon up from 42,359 in Humor to 42,358, or even 42,357, Jerry Flu is willing to give away an autographed copy of The Mummy Cursed: A Hysterical Historical Fantasy to the first 25 readers willing to post a review, or just a few words (anything, no matter how brief, I’m desperate) on Amazon customer reviews. Contact me with a mailing address at jerryflu@mtaonline.net if you’re interested. 


The National Society of Newspaper Columnists are taking registration for their June 7-10 annual conference. Their annual writing deadline is March 31. Click here for details. 

The winners have been named in the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition, judged by Dave Barry and a whole slew of other notables. Check out the winners here. 

Tim Dorsey's new book, The Pope of Palm Beach is now out. You can read a sample here. 

The 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards is accepting applicants of both fiction and non-fiction books written in English and released in 2016, 2017 or 2018. there are more than 70 awards with monetary prizes totaling $10,000 with cash prizes, trophies for winners and runners up. Open to all indie book authors and publishers, including small presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers and self-published authors. Enter on-line here 

Judy Carter is conducting a webinar titled, How to Stop Procrastinating and Make a Living as a Writer along with W. Bruce Cameron on Tuesday Jan 16 noon to 1 Pacific Time. It's a free interactive webinar, but they are only taking the first 100 registrants.  Sign up here. 

If you haven't signed up to attend the Erma Bombeck conference, you're out of luck. It fills up quickly. Maybe they have a waiting list. If not, the next one is in two years. 

The National Society of Newspaper Columnist's annual column contest is open.  Check it out. 

The Erma Bombeck Writing Competition is open until 8AM Jan 3.  

Registration for the next Erma Bombeck conference begins Dec 5.

Author Allia Zobel, working in concert with the Erma Bombeck's Writer's Workshop, is open for submissions until October 23 for an anthology titled: From Hot Pants to Hormones: Celebrating How We Were Then — and Where We Are Now — Before We Forget, click here for details

Congrats to new member, Dave Jaffe, whose blog, Sleeping Between Giants was the 2017 winner of the Society of Newspaper Columnists contest.  

From the Erma Bombeck site, here is some advice from Dave Barry and other humor writers on how to make your stuff funny. Dave will also be the finalist judge in the humor writing competition of the 2018 Erma Bombeck Writing Competition, which opens December 4. click here for more. 

The Mark Twain House & Museum's Royal Nonesuch Humor Writing Contest is currently accepting submissions. Submit your original stories and essays (no more than 7,000 words) for a cash prize. Submission fees go to the preservation of the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford Connecticut. (Sheesh, never realized how hard it is to spell, "Connecticut"). Click here for guidelines and submission details. 

Mother/daughter team Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella team up again with their new book, I Need a Lifeguard Everwhere but the Pool is on sale July 11. Click here for more. 


More good stuff from Judy Carter >> Jeanne Robertson is hosting a free webinar on Tuesday, July 11 at 2pm Central to discuss how she became successful in a career in comedy. there will also be a comedy competition where the winner will win $1000 and open for her. Live event where you can ask questions. Click here to go to the site.


Prolific author Judy-Carter hosting a webinar in How to Write Comedy Material on Wednesday, May 10, 6-7 Pacific time. It's free!!   https://themessageofyou.com/how-to-write-comedy-material-webinar/

Love this site!  (caution, it may be political in nature) 

Here's the submission page for the quarterly humor ezine site, National Pasquinade.  

Dave Barry to judge Erma Bombek writing competition. Check it out.  

Judy Carter will have award winning speaker, trainer and motivational movie star Ed Tate in for a FREE webinar on how to make a living as a paid speaker on Thur March 23, 8pm Central. Register here. 

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists' 2017 annual column contest is open for submissions. Open to both columnists and bloggers. There are eight categories including humor  See rules here. 

From the Erma Bombeck newsletter:  How to Write Better Using Humor by Leigh Anne Jasheway. Worth checking out!

Read the preview to Tim Dorsey's new book, Clownfish Blues.

Christopher Moore's new book Secondhand Souls is out!​

Member Judy Carter set up an online university called The Message of You University! (TMOY U) dealing with how to become a paid speaker. videos downloads and more. Check it out. 

Here's a cool marketing gimmick. Tim Dorsey is giving away original hand-corrected and autographed manuscript pages with a purchase of selected hardcover novels. Tim has quite the on line store. Check it out. 

Read a fundraising effort by new member Lenora Thompson, whose husband is battling Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis. (scroll down to her Dec 25 blog). 

HumorFeed restarted their sister publication, Check Please!, which was founded in 2004 dedicated to the examination of humor and satire. Check it out, interviews, features, history of important satire, and more! Click to check it out.

Our friend Nuthouse Magazine is looking for submissions of humorous short stories, commentary and verse. They will consider previously published work if noted. Payment is a complementary copy, but also the prestige and honor of being published by such a fine organization. Send submissions to Twin Rivers Press, PO Box 119, Ellenton, FL 34222. A sample copy is available for $1.50 payable to same (Fla residents add 6% sales tax). For more info, go to nuthousemagazine.com.


The Erma Bombeck Writer's Workshop newsletter listed two excellent sites for people who need to feed their funny bones,  comedywire.com and HumorOutcasts.com. Humor Outcasts is a site where more than 100 Humorists submit funny stuff. 

Donald J. Bingle's new book Frame Shop has hit the bookshelves. Check it out!

 HA member Lisa Scottoline's new book EVERY FIFTEEN MINUTES came out in April, Not humor, but it got great prepublishing reviews.

Sad news:  Terry Pratchett, creator of the Discworld series, passed away.  He'll be missed.

The Robert Benchley Society announced its semi-finalists in its annual humor writing competition. The winner will be announced on April Fools Day.

Here's some exciting news, Anderson's Bookshops, winner of Publisher's Weekly 2011 Bookstore of the Year award, is exploring doing a humor writers convention. Met with Becky Anderson at their highly successful YA breakfast, which brought in best selling authors from all over the nation, and she is very interested in putting together a program. We'll update the site here when we know more.

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists is accepting entries for its 2015 contest. You don't have to be a member to enter. Deadline March 15. 

New book by Tim Dorsey is out. Sharkskin Suite!  (Norm read it already and the court room scenes made him cheer!)

Here's a good site; The 100 Best Websites for Writers for 2015. Worth a look. 

It's fun to go to bookstores and see books by some of our members. Jen's book People I Want to Punch in the Throat was prominently displayed in Barnes & Noble's Urbana Illinois store.

​(Guh: had some stuff right here... yes, right here where you're reading ... and it got bleeped out of existence by this program. Whatever it was, you can be assured it was really interesting!) 

We're excited to partner with Unhinged Magazine. Well, maybe not partner. Affliated.  No, not that either. I know, we're associated with each other!  Anyway, check them out.​

Black Friday Special - Tim Dorsey's "When Elves Attack"


Here's something interesting. New member Don Bingle is doing a Kickstarter program for a book. Interesting concept. Check it out here 

Tim Dorsey has released a photo book travel companion to his popular Serge Storm novels, Click here to check them out >>> here, this spot.

Update to the 2014 Robert Benchley humor writing contest. The entrants are now available for reading.  Click here. 

Another humor legend passed, Joan Rivers. Heaven is a lot funnier now.

The deadline to enter the 2014 Robert Benchley Society Annual Award for Humor Writing competition is September 15, 2014 (the anniversary of Mr. Benchley's birth). For more details visit  here 

Humor lost a legend. RIP Robin Williams. We'll miss you.

HA founder Norm Cowie is a judge again (second time) for the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, the largest children's film festival in the world.

Fun interview with HA founder Norm Cowie by Nathan Smith at Accounting-4-life.com. 

Christopher Moore's new book, The Serpent of Venice is out, starring the Fool and a long, black slimy water creature.

Tim Dorsey's Serge Swamp T-shirts are in. Check them out here.

The feature, “Dock Tale Hour” debuts this month in Laker Magazine, a print and online bi-monthly publication of Times-World LLC magazine that provides light hearted humor on life at and around Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia and beyond. Its creator, Kimberly “Kimba” Dalferes is also the author of I Was In Love With a Short Man Once. Laker Magazine is always looking for fresh ideas for stories and features. If you would like to share a story suggestion, contact Laker Magazine editor Andie Gibson at Andie.Gibson@smithmountainlaker.com or 540.721.4675, ext. 402. Check out this month’s column:: http://www.smithmountainlake.com/lifeStyle/lakerMagazine/wb/322397

New blog "Chasing Dave" on our pursuit of Dave Barry and a bit on some history of HA. ​

Best selling author Tim Dorsey joined the Humor Writers of America!

Exciting news: Teri Rizvi, founder of the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop, has agreed to a relationship (defined as, we don't know the nature of the relationship yet) with the Humor Writers of America. More info later as it develops. We, of course, are happier than a hedgehog in a needle factory about this.

HumorFeed, the online "associated press" of satire news, has been revived. This selective association of humor sites brought together headlines from more than 50 independent satire sites for seven years, and ran the annual Satire News Awards for five. After a hiatus of a few years, it's back in action and accepting applications from writers who publish humor, particularly news satire, online. It's a free service that can help connect people with other humor writers and also bring a few extra readers to their sites. http://humorfeed.com 

We've picked up fantastic new members from the attendees at the Erma Bombeck Writer's conference April 10-14, including NYT Best selling authors W Bruce Cameron, Mary Lou Quinlan and Lisa Scottoline.

Erma Bombeck's partner, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, invites columnists and bloggers to enter its annual national contest Cash prizes and more . Deadline is midnight, March 15 (PST).  

The Erma Bombeck Writing competition is open for personal essays of 450 words. Competition closes Feb. 17. Click here. 

Comedy Writers & Humorists Wanted. If you're from the southwest Florida area, the CWHW is looking for original comedy writers and humorists. Contact Carl Megill at carlmegill@msn.com

Looks like our site got a little attention from Stacked, a site by and for librarians. Thanks for noticing!

Best selling author Christopher Moore is now a member of the Humor Writers of America!  

Another Lisa Lutz Spellman Files book is out! THE LAST WORD. Make sure you watch the video trailers on her website - Hilarious. ​

Here's the review Norm posted of The Sh!t No One Tells You on Goodreads. 

Good news. It's time to sign up for the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop April 10-April 12, 2014 (uh, oh, it's all booked. If you didn't get in, you'll have to wait until 2016.

The winners of the "Shirley You Jest!" 2013 Book Award winners are Amy Sprenger for her fiction book, BABY BUMPS: THE ALMOST, BARELY, NOT-QUITE-TRUE STORY OF PREGNANCY, BED REST AND ONE BATSHIT CRAZY FAMILY, and the non-fiction champion, Dawn Dais, author of THE SH!T NO ONE TELLS YOU: A GUIDE TO SURVIVING YOUR BABY'S FIRST YEAR. Besides being really long titles, they are awesome books.


The Robert Benchley Society announces winners of their yearly humor writing competition.

Carl Hiaasen's new book Bad Monkey is out! 

HA!  is now a sponsor of the Shirley You Jest! book awards. 


Tim Dorsey's new book Riptide Ultra Glide is available now! 

Posted a review of Diary of a Nobody

Dave Barry's new book! Read about it here.

Craig P Kelly reviews DL Morrese's The Warden Threat

Here's Norm's review of Christopher Moore's Sacre Bleu.

Lisa Lutz has a new Spellman Files book out. Check it out here.

Christopher Moore's Sacre Bleu tour. Click here for info.

Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel's new book Lunatics
(Go to the home page and click 'blog' to read our review)

Norm checked out one of Alan Zweibel's books and posted a review here 
















"Voted the number one something in the area
by we don't know."
News and Stuff: 
also see our Facebook page and blog  www.humorwriters.blogspot.com

Newest member books (books under names):

  Norm Cowie              Adam Selzer









Christopher Moore          Craig P. Kelly










   Tim Dorsey            Allan Woodrow










  Seth Brown            Lance Carbuncle










​T. R. Granville             Rebekah Webb










Karly Kirkpatrick        Dale Andrew White
             Sponsor! 2013  
Allison Hawn
Elaine Ambrose
Dax Varley
Mike Cyra.
Ira Nayman
Alicia Long &
Jayne Jones
Jillian Klein Der Lowe
Jen of people I want
to punch in the throat
Johnnie W. Lewis
Kathy Carmichael
Horace J Digby
Stacey Rourke
Gil Givens
Carl Megill
Ronnie Walter
Jayne Martin
Eve Gaal
Wendi Bear
Valentine J. Brkich
Christy Heitger-Ewing
Elaine Ambrose
Laurel McHargue.
W Bruce Cameron
Lisa Scottoline
Mary Lou Quinlan
David Henry Sterry
& Arielle Eckstut
Wanda Argersinger
Stacey Gustafson
Kim Bongiorno.
Barbara Younger
Jane Rosen
Janie Emaus
Kimba Dalferes
Betsy Bitner.
DL Morrese
Ronald Pecorry
Jill Fales
Pat Nelson
Suzette Martinez Standring
Rae Ellen Lee
Angie Klink
Linda Wolff
Gianetta Palmer
Barb Best
Kate Hannigan
Gale Borger
Michael R Dougherty
Barbara Silkstone
Angie Bailey
Nikki Hanna
Jim Stevens.
Dick Bentley
Morris DuBose
Spade Braithwaite
Danielle Schaaf
Elaine Smith
Michelle Kennedy Hogan
Donald J. Bingle
Noell K. Wolfgram Evans
Zack Matheson
Angela Weight
Gene Lubin
Anne Bardsley.
James L. Weaver
Benjamin J Gohs
Sarah del Rio
Jane Franklin
Dr. Larry Day
Keith Hutchinson
Jim Harris
William Darrah Whitaker
Mark J. Drozdowski
Don Roble
Brenda Kearns
Jerry Flu
Chris Miksanek
Bart Jackson
Ann DeFee
Bill Naylor
Amy McVay Abbott
Laura Harrison McBride
Shlomo Yermoyahu
Lori Duff
Marie-Therese Miller
Barry Parham
Keith Stewart
Sarah E Glenn
Jenny Lawson
Peter Marino
Adam Rice
Daphne Lamb
Jianna Higgins
Mark Sanders
John Branning
Laverne H. Bardy
David Roberts 
Kara Martinez Bachman
D.M. Barr
Randi M. Sherman
Jeff Gerstenfeld
Laurie Oien
James D. Beers
R.S. Dees
Joel Bresler
Robert Mackey
Ina Hillebrandt
Lisa Shiroff
Allia Zobel Nolan
Kathy Minicozzi
Richard Bell
Katie Bryan
Dave Henry
Brendan Smith
Jerry Flu
Ron Hellard
Brett Busang
Lee St. John
Peri Kinder
Jerry Zezima
Donald Roper