The Carrie McCray Memorial Literary Awards
Named in honor of one of SCWW's founding members, the Carrie McCray Memorial Literary Awards is open to all registered attendees of the 2008 conference. You may enter one manuscript in each category:
| Short Fiction | Word Limit: 4,000 |
| Novel - First chapter(s) | Word Limit: 4,000 |
| Non-fiction | Word Limit: 4,000 |
| Plays & Screenwriting – Beginning Scene(s) | Word Limit: 4,000 |
| Poetry | Limited to 40 lines |
Eligibility:
Work must be original and unpublished, except for works published in The Quill. First-place winners for 2007 are not eligible to submit in the category in which they won. Works submitted to the 2008 SCWW literary journal and works by faculty members are also ineligible.
Format:
All entries must be typed. Prose must be double-spaced. The author’s name, address, phone number, e-mail address and the title of the entry must appear on a separate cover sheet. Each page should include the title and page number. The author's name may appear only on the cover sheet. Entrants failing to comply with the above guidelines may have their work disqualified at the sole discretion of the contest coordinator.
Prizes
Prizes for each category of the Carrie McCray Memorial Literary Awards will be awarded as follows:
- First Place - $500.00 and the winning entry will be professionally reviewed.
- Second Place - $100.00
- An Honorable Mention certificate in each category will also be presented.
Presentation of awards will take place on Saturday evening.
To Enter:
After you have completed the registration process, send four copies of each entry and 1 cover sheet to:
The Carrie McCray Memorial Literary Awards
Kim Blum-Hyclak
1315 Treetop Drive
Lancaster, SC 29720
Deadline: September 1st, 2008
Winners
As we open the contest for the 2008 Carrie McCray Memorial Literary Awards, we would like to again recognize previous years' winners. Visit the winners page.
Judges
Poetry
Irene Blair Honeycutt, awarded the Teacher of the Year for Teaching Excellence at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC founded and subsequently directed the college’s Annual Literary Festival for 14 years. In 2006 the college established the Irene Blair Honeycutt Distinguished Lectureship. Irene’s first children’s book, The Prince with the Golden Hair, was published in 2006 by D-N Publishing. She has three published poetry manuscripts: It Comes as a Dark Surprise, winner of Sandstone Publishing’s Regional Poetry Contest in 1992; Waiting for the Trout to Speak (Novello Festival Press 2002); and Before the Light Changes, available this Fall from Main Street Rag Publishing.
Nikky Finney is the Grace Hazard Conklin Writer-in-Residence at Smith College for 2007-2009. She is also Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Kentucky. She is the author of Wings Made of Gauze (1985), Rice (1995), Heartwood (1998) and The World is Round (2003). She recently edited The Ringing Ear (2006), an anthology of 100 Black poets in America writing about the South. Her contagious energy and passion for writing extend beyond academia. Born and raised in South Carolina, she travels extensively, reading to listeners, staying connected and engaged, and maintaining her commitment to the risky business of creativity.
Rick Mulkey is the author of four collections including Toward Any Darkness, Before the Age of Reason and Bluefield Breakdown. His work appears in the anthologies American Poetry: the Next Generation, The Southern Poetry Anthology: Volume I, and A Millennial Sampler of South Carolina Poetry, among others. Individual poems and essays have appeared in a variety of venues such as Crab Orchard Review, Denver Quarterly, The Literary Review, The Connecticut Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Poet Lore, Poetry East, Shenandoah, Southern Poetry Review and Verse Daily. Recently he has been a visiting writer at Michigan State University, Wichita State University and Radford University. Formerly the director of the MFA in Creative Writing at Wichita State University, he has taught at a number of universities and writing workshops, He currently directs the low-residency MFA and the BFA creative writing programs at Converse College.
Non-Fiction
Edwin Epps is the author of Literary South Carolina (Spartanburg: The Hub City Writers Project, 2004) and editor and feature contributor to Spartanburg Today. He is the former editor of South Carolina Writing Teacher and his essays and educational features have appeared in a variety of professional trade publications. His poetry has been published in POINT; The Savannah Literary Journal; Drift; and the anthologies Southern Poetry Anthology Volume I: South Carolina, Still Home: The Essential Poetry of Spartanburg, Out of Unknown Hands, and Rhythms, Reflections and Lines on the Back of a Menu. He is currently working on a book to be called Beautiful Duncan Park: A Father and Son Explore a Classic American Ballpark.
Meg Barnhouse grew up in North Carolina and Philadelphia, and has lived in Spartanburg, SC since 1981. After graduating from Duke University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she worked as Chaplain to Converse College for six years, teaching Public Speaking, Human Sexuality and World Religions, trying not to get them mixed up. Meg has been active in the community, helping to found SAFE Homes Network for battered women. Credentialed as a Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, she retains a small private pastoral counseling practice while serving as the full time minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spartanburg. She travels nationwide as a speaker/songwriter and humorist. Meg is the mother of two wise, funny and handsome sons, ages 18 and 21. She has a second-degree black belt in karate, and is a commentator for NC Public Radio on a segment called “Radio Free Bubba.” She has also been heard on National Public Radio’s “Weekend All Things Considered.” Her books, “Rock of Ages at the Taj Mahal,” “The Best of Radio Free Bubba,” “Waking Up the Karma Fairy,” “Return of Radio Free Bubba,” and “Did I Say That Out Loud?” are compilations of stories from the radio. Her CD, “July Blue” is a mix of 12 original songs and 3 stories. The newest CD, “Mango Thoughts in a Meatloaf Town,” contains more original songs, including “All Will Be Well.”
Kay McSpadden writes about teaching and education issues for the Charlotte Observer, where she has been a community columnist since 1999. Her writings draw from her experiences in the classroom. She has taught high school English in rural South Carolina for nearly 30 years. In addition to her twice monthly Observer columns, Kay speaks regularly on education issues, and has written and recorded radio commentary for WFAE, the Charlotte affiliate for National Public Radio. Her first book, Notes from a Classroom, Reflections on Teaching, was published in 2007. Kay and her husband Randy, a Presbyterian minister, have two sons: Jamie, a senior at Yale and Will, a sophomore at Emory.
Short Fiction
Jimmy Carl Harris lives to write near Birmingham, Alabama. Following a career as a Marine Sergeant Major, he earned a doctorate at the University of Alabama and taught at Southeastern Louisiana University. Today, he teaches creative writing workshops and prizewinning fiction. His stories were published in two collections, Walking Wounded and Wounds That Bind. Mark Powell said, “Jimmy Carl writes with a stunning tenderness about those life has deemed out of bounds. Wounds That Bind is a fierce, gut-wrenching collection, but always beneath the hard edges one senses deep love and understanding for the men and women life has not always treated gently.” http://jimmycarlharris.com
Author June McCash holds a doctorate in comparative literature from Emory University. As a professor at Middle Tennessee State University for more than thirty years, she was founding director of the University Honors Program and chair of the Department of Foreign Languages. Currently a full-time writer of poetry and fiction, she is a recent winner of four literary awards. She has been a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Education, as well as the recipient of awards for Distinguished Research and Career Achievement at MTSU and Outstanding Alumna at Agnes Scott College. Author, co-author or editor of six books and numerous articles, she has appeared in three film documentaries and on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Raymond L. Atkins resides in north Georgia with his wife. His stories have been published in Christmas Stories from Georgia, The Lavender Mountain Anthology, The Blood and Fire Review, The Old Red Kimono, Long Island Woman and Savannah Magazine. His columns appear regularly in The Rome News-Tribune, Memphis Downtowner Magazine, Purple Pros, and Maintenance Technology Magazine. His first novel - The Front Porch - was published by Medallion Press in July of 2008. His second novel - Sorrow Wood - will be published by Medallion Press in August of 2009. He is currently at work on his third novel. He can be contacted through his website at www.raymondlatkins.com
Play/Screenplays
Jon Tuttle is Trustus’ Playwright-in-Residence and Literary Manager and Professor of English at Francis Marion University. His plays have received over 100 productions in 25 states and include Trustus Playwrights Festival winners Holy Ghost (2005), Drift (1998) and The Hammerstone (1994). His other published plays include The White Problem , Terminal Café, A Fish Story and Sonata for Armadillos. Two small collections of his work are forthcoming from Intellect Press in England and the Hub City Writers Project in Spartanburg. Jon and his wife Cheryl live in Florence and are the parents of Staci, Jill and Josh.
Gail Blanton has over 35 years experience in the field of drama as director, writer, sometime actress and conference instructor. She has authored six collections of short plays for Lillenas Publishing, including Sarah Mae and Her Kinfolk, Eva’s Daughters and Seniors CenterStage; all have enjoyed widespread performances. She was also a featured writer in All the Best Sketches 2. She has been editor, compiler and writer for two collections of Southern Baptist presses and has well over 200 dramatic sketches or articles on drama in various publications.
H. Byron Ballard holds a BA in drama from UNCA, a MFA in theater from Trinity University through the Dallas Theatre Center where she worked with theatre innovators Paul Baker and Irene Corey. She co-founded and directed Smokey Mountain Repertory Theatre from 1983-2000. Her plays include adaptations of “The Odyssey”, “Beowulf”, “The Three Sisters”, and “Moby Dick”, and she is best known for her locally-themed history plays, including “West End Trilogy”, “Brown Mountain Lights” and “Judaculla”. She currently freelances for a number of magazines, is a frequent contributor to Mountain Xpress in Asheville and blogs as “the Village Witch” for Gannett’s Asheville Citizen-Times. She lives in Asheville with her husband Joe and daughter Kate, three cats and a hive of bees.
Novel/First Chapter(s)
Janette Turner Hospital grew up on the steamy sub-tropical coast of Australia, but has taught in universities in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States. Her first published short story appeared in the Atlantic Monthly where it won an ‘Atlantic First’ citation in 1978. Her first novel, The Ivory Swing, won the $50,000 Seal Award in 1982. The Last Magician was a New York Times ‘Notable Book of the Year.’ Oyster, her sixth novel, was listed in ‘Best Books of the Year’ by The Observer in England, which noted “Oyster is a tour de force* Turner Hospital is one of the best female novelists writing in English.” In 2003, Hospital received Australia’s Patrick White Award for Due Preparations for the Plague. Orpheus Lost, her most recent novel, was listed in “Best 30 Novels of 2007" by the American Library Association. Dr. Hospital holds an endowed chair as Carolina Distinguished Professor of English at the University of South Carolina.
Karon Luddy was born in Lancaster, SC. She now lives in Charlotte, NC. Her first poem was published in 1999. The South Carolina Review published her first short story in 2002. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University in 2005 as well as a book contract for her first novel, Spelldown, which was published in 2007 by Simon & Schuster. Publishers’ Weekly and Kirkus Reviews praised the novel and both gave it a starred review. Spelldown also received a Parents’ Choice Award for fiction. Luddy’s first book of poetry, Wolf Heart, was published by Clemson University Press in 2007. Luddy is an adjunct professor at UNC-Charlotte. She also teaches writing retreats with Cathy Smith Bowers.
Joanne Liggan is a novelist, public speaker, instructor, and founder of the Hanover Writers Club and the Hanover Book Festival. She is also a writer of award-winning short fiction and magazine articles and has been an active member of the Board of Governors for the Virgina Writers Club for over 10 years. As an instructor, Liggan teaches writing courses for the Cultural Arts Center of Glen Allen, Hanover Parks and Recreation, and King William Parks and Recreation. Her novels, Heir of Deception and Air of Truth, are the first two of a three-part family saga mystery-suspense series. To learn more about Liggan and her books, visit www.liggan.net