The North Carolina Writers’ Network is now accepting submissions for its annual Doris Betts Fiction Prize, administered by the North Carolina Literary Review.
The Doris Betts Fiction Prize awards $250 and publication in the NCLR to the author of the winning short story, up to 6,000 words. The contest is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina, a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network or a subscriber to the NCLR.
Published since 1992 by East Carolina University and the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, the North Carolina Literary Review has won numerous awards and citations. The Doris Betts Fiction Prize honors beloved writer and teacher Doris Betts (1932-2012), who in the course of her long career won three Sir Walter Raleigh awards, the Southern Book Award, the North Carolina Award for Literature, the John Dos Passos Prize and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Medal for the short story, among other recognitions.
Her “Souls Raised from the Dead” was on the New York Times’ list of top 20 best books in 1994. Among her many other acclaimed works are “The Astronomer and Other Stories,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories” and “The Scarlet Thread.” She was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame in 2004.
Full submission guidelines are as follows:
Entry deadline: Feb. 15
The competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of N.C. or a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. NCLR subscribers with NC connections (who live or have lived in NC) are also eligible.
The competition is for unpublished short stories up to 6,000 words. One entry per writer. No novel excerpts. No simultaneous submissions.
Submit story electronically via the NCLR’s online submission process. For electronic submission instructions and to start the online submission process, go to: www.nclr.ecu.edu/submissions/submit-online.html.
Author’s name should not appear on the manuscript. Author will register with the NCLR’s online submission system, which will collect contact information and connect it to the author’s submission.
An entry fee must be mailed to the NCLR office (address below) by the postmark deadline (Feb. 15).
You may pay the network member/NCLR subscriber entry fee if you join the NCWN or subscribe to the NCLR with your submission: $10 (NCWN members, NCLR subscribers) or $20 (nonmembers/ nonsubscribers — must be a NC resident).
Checks should be made payable to the North Carolina Writers’ Network. (Separate checks should be made payable to the North Carolina Literary Review only if purchasing a subscription to the NCLR.)
Mail checks or money orders to: North Carolina Literary Review, ECU Mailstop 555 English, Greenville, NC 27858-4353
The winner and finalists will be announced in May.
Questions may be directed to the NCLR at NCLRSubmissions@ecu.edu.
Leah Hampton of Waynesville won the 2012 Doris Betts Fiction Prize for her story, “The Saint.” Gregg Cusick, Ronald Jackson and Kathryn Lovatt received honorable mentions.
The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.