NCLR announces new submission period, $1,000 for Creative Nonfiction Prize

Published Feb 21, 2019 by
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The North Carolina Literary Review is now accepting submissions for the 2019 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize. The first-place winner will receive $1,000, thanks to a generous donation from the North Carolina Arts Council, as well as publication in NCLR. The new submission period is Feb. 15 through April 1.
According to NCLR editor Dr. Margaret Bauer, this is the second year of the $1,000 prize.
“And for the 2018 contest, we were also able to give prizes for the other three finalists selected for publication, thanks to a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council,” she said.
Currently, Bauer is working on another grant application to also provide prizes for the 2019 finalists.
The judge for the 2019 prize is Tony Earley. Earley grew up in Rutherfordton in western North Carolina. He studied English at Warren Wilson College, located in North Carolina’s Swannanoa Valley near Asheville, and later earned his master of fine arts in creative writing from the University of Alabama.
Earley has lived in Nashville, Tennessee since 1997, where he is the Samuel Milton Fleming Chair in English at Vanderbilt University. His books include the memoir “Somehow Form a Family: Stories that Are Mostly True” (Algonquin Books, 2002), which, like his fiction, shows that even though he lives a state away, he draws from his North Carolina roots for his writing.
“The theme of NCLR’s 2020 issues will feature North Carolina ‘expatriate’ writers like Earley,” Bauer said.
However, the Albright Prize competition is open to any writer with ties to the state. Writing about North Carolina by non-North Carolinians is also acceptable. The competition is for previously unpublished creative nonfiction pieces up to 7,500 words.
There is no submission fee for the Albright competition, but writers must subscribe to NCLR to submit. Finalists will also be considered for publication.
For complete competition guidelines, visit http://www.nclr.ecu.edu/submissions/albright-guidelines.html.