The judge for the 2024 Best in Rural Writing Contest is Dr. Chea Parton.
Dr. Chea Parton grew up on a farm and still considers herself a farm girl. She was a rural student and is currently a rural middle school English teacher at a school with a working farm. She also works as a limited term lecturer at Purdue University where she teaches education courses in the Transition to Teaching Program. She is passionate about rural writing and education. Her own writing and research focus on the personal and professional identity of rural and rural out-migrant teachers as well as rural representation in literature. She currently runs Literacy In Place where she seeks to catalogue rural YA books and provides teaching resources, hosts the Reading Rural YAL podcast where she gives book talks and interviews rural YA authors, runs the Rural Teen Writing Contest and is co-chair of the Whippoorwill Book Award for Rural YA Literature selection committee. You can reach her at readingrural@gmail.com.