Posted Aug 17, 2025
Posted Aug 17, 2025
Bestselling author W. Bruce Cameron and nationally renowned stand-up comic Wendy Liebman will select two humor writers for a fun, unconventional writing residency that promises winners the gift of time to hole up in a hotel, write — and order free room service.
The University of Dayton’s Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop is offering two emerging writers the opportunity to dive into their comedy writing for two weeks at the University of Dayton Marriott Hotel along the Great Miami River, dubbed the “Dayton Riviera.”
Applications will be accepted Sept. 2-Oct. 6 for A Hotel Room of One’s Own: The Erma Bombeck Humorist-in-Residence Program, what Forbes says “may be the best writer’s residency in the country.” The winners will be announced in November and honored at the March 26-28, 2026, Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop, where they will be presented with plush, custom-embroidered bathrobes to kick off their residency. The package is worth approximately $5,000, but the experience is priceless. There also will be cash prizes for finalists and honorable mentions.
About the Finalist Judges
Bruce Cameron
Bruce Cameron is a bestselling prolific author, screenwriter, producer, humorist and former nationally syndicated columnist. He has published 40 books, including four humorous ones, that have been translated into over 50 languages.
He is most well known for his novel, A Dog’s Purpose, which spent 63 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. The book was the basis for the 2017 film starring Dennis Quaid. It went on to become the most successful international live action dog movie of all time. The book’s popular sequel, A Dog’s Journey, was also adapted for the screen by Cameron and Cathryn Michon. His award-winning A Dog’s Purpose trilogy has the highest overall reader rating of any New York Times bestseller.
Early in his career, Cameron’s newspaper column, 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, became a New York Times bestselling book and a People’s Choice award-winning series on ABC.
Wendy Liebman
While working at Harvard Medical School doing psych research with the intention of becoming a therapist, Wendy Liebman took a class, “How to be a Stand-up Comedian” at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education in 1984. Since then, she has performed on Carson, Letterman, Leno, Fallon, Kimmel, Ferguson and Hollywood Squares as well as in clubs throughout the country. She has done specials for HBO, Comedy Central and Showtime, was a semi-finalist on NBC’s America’s Got Talent, Season 9, and in 2021 she appeared on Showtime’s Even More Funny Women of a Certain Age. She also has appeared in the solo television special, Wendy Liebman: Taller on TV.
Liebman lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two rescued Jindo dogs and produces “Locally Grown Comedy” at Flappers in Burbank, a show featuring her favorite stand-ups.
Both Cameron and Liebman have keynoted and served on the faculty of the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop. Liebman also has hosted the workshop’s closing-night stand-up comedy show several times.
A Hotel Room of One’s Own: The Erma Bombeck Humorist-in-Residence Program attracts hundreds of applications from writers working on comedic novels, narrative non-fiction, plays, essays, sitcom scripts and other humor-writing projects. A panel of established writers will blind judge the entries and narrow the field to 10 finalists. Cameron and Liebman will then select two grand prize winners as well as a select number of finalists and honorable mentions.
The program is supported with a generous gift from the Bombeck family and in-kind support from the Marriott at the University of Dayton. The residency is the brainchild of Anna Lefler, who funded its launch in 2017 and the early years of its operation. She’s a Los Angeles-based author of two funny books, Preschooled and The Chicktionary, and a three-time workshop faculty member.
The Humorist-in-Residence Program is part of the enormously popular Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop, believed to be the only conference in the country devoted to both humor and human interest writing. The Writer magazine named it the best writing conference in Ohio and “THE conference for humor writers.” Registration for the spring workshop will open on Nov. 5.
For more information, email [email protected].