Hawksley Workman, Amelia Curran and Drew Jacobs are among the winners in the 15th Annual USA Songwriting Competition. Workman and Curran, of Toronto, Canada, captured first place in the Folk category for their co-write “The Mistress,” while Jacobs of Latham, New York, took top honors in the Novelty/Comedy category for “”I’m Allergic to My Job.” The Overall Grand Prize went to Rock/Alternative category winners Alannah Myles and Nancy Simmonds, of Toronto, for “Give Me Love.”

Winners in 15 categories were selected by a judging committee comprised of music industry professionals and will receive cash, merchandise and/or services as prizes. The winning songs also will appear on a compilation CD and will receive airplay on the nationally syndicated radio program “Acoustic Café” as well as on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. The songs were evaluated based on originality, lyrics, melody and composition, without consideration for quality of performance and production.

Curran, who also was named Solo Artist of the Year last month in the inaugural Canadian Folk Music Awards, views the craft of songwriting as an act of “expressing the inexpressible, a means of describing the indescribable.”

Acoustic Humorist Drew Jacobs (Photo: Monique Jean Hilton Jacobs)

Jacobs, a self-described “acoustic humorist,” writes about “what makes me laugh: relationships, modern society and life as a baby boomer.” He cites such diverse musical influences as The Beatles, Arlo Guthrie, Loudon Wainwright III, Steve Goodman, Weird Al Yankovic and Groucho Marx.

Workman, a two-time Juno award winner, had the distinction of having three songs place in the finals in the competition – including “Be a Man,” a co-write with Justin Rutledge, in the Folk category. Other finalists in the Folk category included Edie Carey for “Red Shoes,” Robert Giles for “Saturday in June,” Robyn Landis for “Lowlands,” Madison Violet (Lisa MacIssac and Brenley MacEachern) for “The Ransom,” Terry Penney for “Town That Time Forgot,” Tom Schreck for “I Never Sang for No One But Myself,” Simon Spire for “No Solid Ground” and Chris Volpe for “Peace of Mind.”

A complete list of USA Songwriting Competition winners and finalists appears in the Winners section on www.songwriting.net.