Call for Submission: County Lines: A Literary Journal -- August 15, 2020

Call to Writers and Artists for 8th Edition of County Lines: A Literary Journal.

County Lines Literary Journal is an annual literary anthology compiled by the Franklin County Arts Council Writers’ Guild. They are calling for entries of prose, poetry, and art for their eighth edition to be published for 2021. There are no restrictions on age or residence of persons submitting. In the past, there have been writers and artists from all over North Carolina and the Southeastern states.

County Lines Literary Journal is accepting poetry, short or flash fiction, essays, and creative non-fiction. They will not accept work containing erotica, violence, hate, political editorial, or excessive profanity.

Type your name, address, phone number, word count (line count for poems), and email address in the upper left-hand corner of the cover page of your manuscripts, and your name and title of submission in the header of each manuscript page.

Poetry – no more than 30 lines per poem, single-spaced. You may submit up to five poems.
Prose – no more than1500 words or five double-spaced pages per entry. Limited to three entries per author.

Art – Send copies of art as a jpeg attachment in high resolution. Paintings, drawings, and photographs are acceptable. The person whose art is chosen for the cover will be awarded $25.
There is a 5 entry limit per artist. Cover art should reflect the title, County Lines. All journal submissions should be sent to CountyLinesLiteraryJournal@gmail.com.

In addition, The FCAC Writers’ Guild is sponsoring its 8th annual FCAC Writers’ Guild Carolina Prize for Writing. The contest is open to writers of any age and location for previously unpublished (this includes online publication) poetry, short stories, essays, or creative non-fiction. This year two prizes will be awarded, one for prose and the other for poetry. Each prize will be $100.00 plus two copies of the journal and publication in the 2021 issue of County Lines: A Literary Journal. Up to five honorable mentions may also be named. Honorable mentions will receive publication in County Lines and one free copy.

Contest entries must have a cover page with title, author’s name, and contact information. Name and contact info must not be on the body of the work. Be sure your title is on the first page of your manuscript. All submissions must be in Word Documents, prose double spaced, poetry single-spaced, and be emailed as attachments to fcaccarolinawritingprize@gmail.com.
Include a short writer’s bio on the cover page. Only email submissions will be accepted.

Contributors chosen for publication will receive one comp copy of the journal.
Write checks to the Franklin County Arts Council with “Contest entry” in the memo. Entry fees are $10. There will be no refunds. Mail checks to PO Box 758, Louisburg, NC 27549. You may also pay using the Paypal button at FCACARTS.ORG.

If you want your piece also considered for publication in County Lines: A Literary Journal, you must submit it separately to CountyLinesLiteraryJournal@gmail.com. There is no additional fee to submit to County Lines.

Please adhere to these guidelines for your submission. Entries not adhering to these guidelines will not be considered. The deadline for submissions to County Lines and for the contest is August 15, 2020.

Call for Submission: Red Clay Review--July 15, 2020

Red Clay Review, a literary magazine for the CCCC community and its members, past, present, and future, is accepting submissions for its next issue, for which the theme is ACCESS. Contributors can submit prose up to 1500 words, up to three poems of up to 80 lines each, and/or up to three original images. 

• Poetry and prose submissions must be sent electronically as .doc, .docx, or .rtf file attachments. 
• Each document must be submitted in its own file. 
• Images must be submitted as high-resolution files. 
• Submissions should be sent to rcr@cccc.edu. Submission emails should include the writer's name, mailing address, and phone number. 
• Please submit entries by July 15, 2020. 
• Questions may be sent to the same address.

If you have questions, please let me know. We look forward to seeing your work and appreciate your continued support and interest.

Take care, 

Summerlin Page Webb
Lead Instructor, Humanities

Inspiration: The Poem You Asked For

If you are had a difficult time composing a poem for April's Poetry Month--or if you are having difficulty writing anything these days, Tom Dow offers this: 

The Poem You Asked For

My poem would eat nothing.

I tried giving it water

but it said no,

worrying me.

Day after day,

I held it up to the llight,

turning it over,

but it only pressed its lips

more tightly together.

It grew sullen, like a toad

through with being teased.

I offered it money,

my clothes, my car with a full tank.

But the poem stared at the floor.

Finally I cupped it in

my hands, and carried it gently

out into the soft air, into the

evening traffic, wondering how

to end things between us.

For now it had begun breathing,

putting on more and

more hard rings of flesh.

And the poem demanded the food,

it drank up all the water,

beat me and took my money,

tore the faded clothes

off my back,

said Shit,

and walked slowly away,

slicking its hair down.

Said it was going

over to your place.

                           by Larry Levis

Poem: The Winter of Birds

The Winter of Birds

Birds do not sing in winter,

Cherubic tongues snowed in

By a desperate northern wind

The aftermath of a storm – debris

& broken wings.

In the silhouette of memories,

The tinge of dying light, fields

Of snow that clothed the ground –

They never croaked a sound,

Perhaps, they'll wait for spring.


                                        by Sally Delancy ©

Poem: Didactic Poem for Virus Days

Didactic Poem for Virus Days

Yup, one day at a time

they tell us but wait

what about all tomorrow’s problems

that i can worry about right now?

So what if maybe I’ll be OK

I don’t want to waste any anxiety.

I treasure all the terrible things

that can go wrong, even all at once.

This is better than disaster movies

and I’m the director and star.

Wanna struggle along with me?

It’s never too early to fret.

I like to get things done in advance

so let me be a victim right now

while I have the energy and the leisure

Or how about I first do the dishes?

                                                          By Tom Dow

Weekly Inspiration: Write, Write, Write

Inspiration:  Write, Write, Write:  My biggest problem in writing, I think—aside from the whole spelling and grammar thing—is that I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I feel every time I put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, the words I put down must be profound, moving, beautiful at the very start or they don’t deserve to be there. It doesn’t help that I know writers whose rough drafts are awe-inspiring.

My worthiest words come not from my writing prowess but because my muse sends me voices unhindered and demanding I write their story. And receiving such material, I begin revising, rewriting, and revising again. Moving words around, cutting tangents, filling holes. Spending hours, if not days, on a word or a phrase in hopes I give justice to the story given to me.

Every time I sit down, I wait for my muse to take over. When it doesn’t come, I give up, do something else, discouraged that I’ll never again write a decent word.  I do this knowing that those free-writers whom I admire have become admirable because they didn’t give up, they didn’t do something else. They wrote.

Writing this, I realize that if I want to write brilliantly each time I put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, I need to, well, I need to write. I need to encourage my muse, not wait passively for her to show up. 

So, I ask myself, seeing the StoryADay challenge in a recent Writer Unboxed blog, why not now? Seems like this self-isolating, social distancing routine is going to go on for a while. And, I’ll enjoy writing, even if it is crap, more than cleaning my house ~  

Julie Duffy runs the StoryADAy project and offers prompts and encouragement along the way. Happily, she says there are no rules except to try to write 31 stories in the month of May.  Easy-peasy, right? 

Want to join me?  Here’s the rundown on Writer Unboxed

~ carol 

Carol Phillips

LIterary Happenings 4/29

Make Your Dialogue Work Naturally with Xhenet Aliu, A NC Writers' Network online class, May 20 at 7 pm.  Find out more here.

Some authors will be talking and reading this coming week: 

April 27, 7 pm: John Grisham and Stephen King are having a conversation.

April 28, 3pm:  Kristy Woodson Harvey (Feels Like Falling) at Readers Meet Writers with Authors Round the South Readers

April 30:           Garrett M Graff (The Only Plan in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11)is with Avid Reader Press Virtual Book Cub

May 1, 12 pm:  Myla Goldberg (Feast Your Eyes) is joining Book Club Discussion at JJC Metro West

May 3, 2 pm:    Jen Gotch (The Upside of Being Down) is having a conversation at Brazos Bookstore

May 5, 7 pm:     Jennifer Weiner (Mrs. Everything) is having a kick-off event at Midtown Scholar Bookstore

May 7, 7 pm:    Emily Gould (Perfect Tunes)talks with the Avid Reader Press Virtual Book Club