Crook's Corner Fiction Prize

Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill awards an unusual prize for a first novel. Each year the winner gets $1,000 and a free glass of wine every day for the year.

Lee Smith is the judge for this year's contest. The winner will be announced on January 4.

Submissions for next year's contest open January 1, 2016. Entry must be the author's first novel (published in 2015 or the first six months of 2016) and set predominantly in the South.

The deadline is June 1.  Send two copies of the work to The Crook's Corner Book Prize, 313 Country club road, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.

Crook's Corner fiction Prize

Coming Competitions

Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition. 
Postmark deadline: January 15 (annual)

Full contest guidelines at: www.ncwriters.org

Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize
Postmark deadline: January 30 (annual)

Doris Betts Fiction Prize
Postmark deadline: February 15 (annual)

Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition
Postmark deadline: March 1 (annual)

 Full contest guidelines at: www.ncwriters.org

Poetry Contest winner

 The winning entry in our 6th annual Poetry contest is Mary Barnard.

ORANGE   

Morning sun still in the east,

her wings a dedicated orange

within black solder,

their hinges warming up

for the flight south.

This year every girl,

arms outstretched,

wears a Monarch costume.

City streets their flyway,

plastic pumpkins bulging.

The real Monarchs bulge

with eggs, future King Willies

named by homesick Dutch

colonists for their monarch,

Prince William of Orange.

Single females converge

in central Texas by magic,

nymphalidae magic,

cohorts cavorting map-less

toward oyamel trees.

A color:  best on redheads,

the dusk of a green leaf,

plump glow of some squash,

and as long as sanctuaries intact,

the velvet of a butterfly wing.

CCCC Open Mic

The Central Carolina Community College Continuing Education Creative Writing program invites the public to join writers of prose and poetry for its annual open mic night.

The event will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 23, at the Chatham Community Library, Mary Hayes Holmes Meeting Room, Chatham Campus, Pittsboro.

The event will have a Halloween theme. Feel free to dress as your favorite fictional character or literary luminary. Light refreshments will be served.

Although the reading is not required to be in theme, original poetry and prose honoring all things ghostly, ghastly, and Gothic; back-to-school and bountiful; unpredictable and pumpkin-spiced; chilly and changing; or fallen and flannel are welcome.

Notes to writers who plan to read:

• Sign in when you arrive.

• You’ll read in the order you signed in. (Note: if you want to read later in the evening, sign at the bottom of the page.)

• You’ll have six minutes, including any introductions, background information, and closing remarks you wish to make.

For more information, contact:

Maggie Zwilling
Continuing Education
Community Services Coordinator
CCCC, Pittsboro Campus

Poetry Contest

Just a reminder:

Seventh  Annual Writers’ Morning Out Poetry Contest

Rules: This contest is open to any NCWN member residing in Chatham or Lee counties, and to any member of Pittsboro Writers’ Morning Out.

Any style, any genre on the theme “Halloween”

Length not to exceed 40 lines, single-spaced, in 12 point type. Submit as an email attachment (.doc  .docx  .rtf ) Include name and contact information in the message.  Name must not appear on the poem.

 The winning entry will be published on our blog, and read at our November   meeting.

Deadline:  Saturday, October 31.  Submit to Al Manning (The Resident Curmudgeon) at amanning@richkwok.com

Writers' Morning Out

Pittsboro Writers’ Morning Out will meet Saturday, October  10, 2015, 1:00 PM.

We meet at the Carolina Brewery in the Barley Lounge.  120 Lowes Drive, #100 .

Program :  "Be nice to your local independent bookstore.  It can help you gain sales and recognition."

 All writers, any genre are invited. Come early and join us for lunch.

The North Carolina Writers' Network will hold the Fall Conference on November 20-22 in Asheville.  Early registration is now open on the website: www.ncwriters.org

Pittsboro Writers' Morning Out is  a program of the North Carolina Writers' Network.

N C S U Short story Contest

An unpublished SHORT STORY of no more than 20 double-spaced pages; limit 5000 words. The James Hurst Fiction Prize for the winning story is $500. There will also be some Honorable Mention awards.

A unpublished SHORT-SHORT FICTION story of no more than 5 double-spaced typed pages; limit 1200 words. Top prize $250.

You may enter one story in both categories.

Here are the RULES:

The contest is open to all North Carolina residents except 1) tenured/tenure-track professors in the University of North Carolina system or 2) writers with a published book, 3) previous winners.

Your entry may not have been published in either printed form or by an established online venue.

All entries must be double-spaced, typed, and please include a word count on the first page. Do NOT put your name on the story, so it may be judged anonymously. Put your name, email address and phone number on a separate cover sheet.

Previous finalists should submit new work.

No email submissions accepted. Due to volume, we cannot contact each contestant or return stories afterwards.

DEADLINE (all entries must be postmarked by) OCTOBER 12th, 2015

Contestants should submit their entries to:

NCSU Short Story Contest
Campus Box 8105
English Department
NC State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8105

Up the stairs Poetry

Up The Stairs Poetry at the Carolina Artists’ Colony (formerly held on the third Tuesday of the month has been moved to the third THURSDAY of September)

When:  6:00-8:00pm Thursday, September 17, 2015 

Where: The Carolina Artists’ Colony    148. S. Moore St.    downtown Sanford

***Please note: This 9/17/15 happening is the LAST Up The Stairs Poetry event scheduled at the Colony for 2015***

Featured Poet, C. Pleasants York, will present her original poetry and a display of her visual art in a “Fragments of Forever”- themed reading. Open Mic will follow. 

Light refreshments will be available beginning at 5:30pm. Open Mic poets are requested to sign up by 5:45pm.

Attendees are invited to come early and mingle in the Colony’s ten ground floor rooms among the art craft of 100+ NC artists. 

Visit www.facebook.com/carolinaartistscolony/events or call the Colony at (919) 776-3489 for more info.