Mitchell named winner of NCLR’s creative nonfiction prize
Steve Mitchell of Greensboro is the winner of the 2021 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize for “Ultimate Trip.” Mitchell will receive $400, and his essay will be published in the North Carolina Literary Review’s 2022 print issue.
Steve Mitchell (Contributed photos)
Mitchell is the author of the novel “Cloud Diary” and the short story collection “The Naming of Ghosts.” He is a winner of the Curt Johnson Prose Prize and the Lorian Hemingway International Short Story Prize. Mitchell is a co-owner of Scuppernong Books in Greensboro.
Final judge Michael Parker said the essay connects space, consciousness, memory, time, mystery, wonder, joy, art, faith, the body and the self — all inside 12 pages.
“That the essay also manages to honor, with grace, all that it cannot communicate is what convinced me of the possibilities of looking inward and upward at once,” Parker said.
Parker selected Emily Carter’s “Sandspurs and Briars” for second place, describing it as “vignettes assembled … from the wispiest of memory or detail … developed, without evident exertion, and with great economy, into nuanced observations about family, time, memory, landscape and language. … In choosing and distributing the details of her past, courting nostalgia but avoiding sentimentality, she has brought the world, lively and flawed, to us.”
Parker gave honorable mention to Eve Odom’s “Semi Shallow,” remarking that the essay’s humor “comes from its honesty and its gentle ribbing of our most earnest altruistic impulses.”
Emily Carter
Eve Odom
Carter is a lifelong North Carolinian: She grew up in the Sandhills, went to Appalachian State University and currently lives in Beaufort with her husband. She is a board member of The Writers’ Exchange, and a contributor to Haunted Waters Press. She will receive $200 for second place.
Odom lives in Asheville with her husband and son. She received her Master of Arts degree from UNC Greensboro. She will receive $100 for honorable mention. Both pieces will be published in NCLR Online, and this will be Odom’s first publication.
The other contest finalists under consideration for publication are: “Taking Leave” by Barbara Bennett, “Clay Peas” by Denise Hart, “Walking the Walk” by Adrienne Hollifield, “To Walk on Burning Embers” by Sarah Jones, “Ice Chest” by Jody Mason, “Native” by Meredith McCarroll, “Love — and Mushrooms and Zooms — In the Ruins” by Caroline Rash, and “Cadence of Light” by Spaine Stephens. The authors of those essays selected for publication will receive $50 each.
Parker is the author of 11 works of fiction. A North Carolina native, he taught for nearly 30 years at UNC Greensboro. Among his awards is the R. Hunt Parker Memorial Award for significant contributions to North Carolina literature, given by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. Funding from this organization provides honoraria for Albright Prize honorees, judges and finalists selected for publication.
Association members also receive NCLR as part of their membership. Readers may also subscribe via Duke University Press Journals Services. A two-year subscription to NCLR will include the 30th issue this summer, and the 2022 issue, both featuring Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize winners. For subscription information, visit the NCLR website.