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CARY—Zachary Lunn, a poet and Army veteran who lives in Hoke County, has won the first Sally Buckner Emerging Writers’ Fellowship.
Lunn, originally from Las Vegas, served two tours in Iraq as a medic with the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. After the Army, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and then earned his MFA in Creative Writing at North Carolina State University, where he was awarded an Academy of American Poets Prize. His writing appears or is forthcoming in Oxford American, Carve, CONSEQUENCE, Pedestal Magazine, and other literary journals.
“Informed by my own experience as an Army medic twice deployed to combat operations, I write poems to reveal the burnt edges of life during and after our most recent war in Iraq—and to perhaps learn something of myself and make sense of my time in combat,” Lunn said. “During my fellowship year, I will create a writing group for combat veterans who live on or near Fort Bragg . . . to help them begin to tell their stories through poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.”
To honor and encourage the lifelong generosity displayed by its namesake, the late poet, editor, and educator Sally Buckner, the Buckner Fellowship invites each recipient, during their award year, to help at least one other writer in whatever way the recipient sees fit.
“This is a competitive fellowship, with applications submitted from numerous talented North Carolina poets,” Buckner Fellowship coordinator June Guralnick said. “Zachary’s hard-hitting poems and his commitment to inspire veterans and others to write impressed the fellowship’s judges,” Ruth Moose, John Amen, and Malaika Albrecht.
The annual $500 fellowship will support an emerging North Carolina writer, between the ages 21-35, whose work shows promise of excellence and commitment to a literary career. Each year, the fellowship will be awarded to a writer working primarily in a designated genre (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or drama), with the genres rotating on a four-year cycle. Fellowship recipients will use the award to allay costs associated with the business of writing: paper, printing, writing supplies, submission fees, research expenses, travel, conference registration fees, etc. In addition to the cash award, recipients receive a complimentary one-year membership in NCWN, as well as scholarship aid to attend the Network’s annual Fall Conference.
The North Carolina Writers’ Network connects, promotes, and serves writers of this state, providing education in the craft and business of writing, opportunities for recognition and critique of literary work, resources for writers at all stages of development, support for and advocacy of the literary heritage of North Carolina, and a community for those who write.
For more information about the Sally Buckner Emerging Writers’ Fellowship and NCWN, visit www.ncwriters.org, or contact Charles Fiore, NCWN Communications Director, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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CHARLOTTE—At the North Carolina Writers' Network 2018 Fall Conference, bestselling author Gail Z. Martin will lead the fiction session "Worldbuilding: Making Your Setting Come Alive!"
Fall Conference runs November 2-4, at the Hilton Charlotte University Place. Registration is now open.
Gail Z. Martin writes epic fantasy, urban fantasy, and steampunk for Solaris Books, Orbit Books, and Falstaff Books. Series include Darkhurst, the Chronicles of The Necromancer, the Fallen Kings Cycle, the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, the Assassins of Landria, and Deadly Curiosities. Newest titles include Vengeance, Tangled Web, and Assassin’s Honor. Gail has also written five nonfiction books on social media and marketing and life change. 30 Days to Social Media Success was named by Life Hack to be one of the Top 20 Business Books to Read in 2016. Her newest books are The Essential Social Media Marketing Handbook and Fresh Start Success (co-written with Larry N. Martin).
This year, NCWN has been celebrating publishers based in North Carolina, so we asked Gail to answer the following prompt:
"Congratulations! You've inherited a large fortune, on the condition that you use it to start your own publishing house. What kind of books are you going to publish?"
Here's what Gail said:
"The best way to make a small fortune in publishing is to start with a large one. But I’d do what I’m doing right now, publish fantasy, sci fi, spec fic."
Whether you write contemporary, historical, or futuristic fiction, your setting is an essential “character” in your book. How do you create a believable society from scratch? What are the tricks to using real people, places and historical events without getting yourself in trouble? What must you keep in mind to make a historical setting fresh for readers, or to help them connect with feeling to a futuristic world? Gail Z. Martin writes epic fantasy, urban fantasy, steampunk, and paranormal romance, and she will share her tips and tricks about creating worlds your readers will never forget!
Fall Conference attracts hundreds of writers from around the country and provides a weekend full of activities that include lunch and dinner banquets with readings, keynotes, tracks in several genres, open mic sessions, and the opportunity for one-on-one manuscript critiques with editors or agents. Master Classes will be led by Judy Goldman (Creative Nonfiction), Maureen Ryan Griffin (Poetry), Randall Kenan (Fiction), who, as a 2018 inductee into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, also will give the Keynote Address.
The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to all writers, in all genres, at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.
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CHARLOTTE—At the North Carolina Writers' Network 2018 Fall Conference, Bryn Chancellor will lead the Pre-Conference Tailgate sponsored by the The University of North Carolina at Charlotte Department of English.
Bryn also will lead the fiction session "Dialogue from the Ground Up: Amplifying Place and the Sensory World."
Fall Conference runs November 2-4, at the Hilton Charlotte University Place. Registration is now open.
Bryn Chancellor is the author of the novel Sycamore (Harper/HarperCollins 2017), which was a Southwest Book of the Year, an Indie Next pick, an Amazon Editors’ Best Book of 2017, and among Bustle’s Best Debuts of 2017. Her story collection When Are You Coming Home? (University of Nebraska Press, 2015) won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize, and her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications. A recipient of a 2018 North Carolina Artist Fellowship, her honors include fellowships from the Alabama and Arizona state arts councils and the Poets and Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award. A graduate of Vanderbilt University’s MFA Program, she is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
This year, NCWN has been celebrating publishers based in North Carolina, so we asked Bryn to answer the following prompt:
"Congratulations! You've inherited a large fortune, on the condition that you use it to start your own publishing house. What kind of books are you going to publish?"
Here's what Bryn said:
"Welcome to Ghost Crab Press
"At Ghost Crab Press, we’re a little obsessed with our eponymous hero, a shy, omnivorous, mostly nocturnal sand burrower who can change colors to match its surroundings. Ocypode quadrata can high-tail it when startled and change directions abruptly; it also is a rather tenacious digger and defender of its spaces on the fringes of the sea. With its large eyes on stalks, it can see 360 degrees, with deep sensitivity to light.
"As we pondered the trajectory of our new literary press, we couldn’t help but see the metaphor in this eccentric creature.
"We seek ghost crab writers, those who dwell in the margins, whose work sometimes goes unnoticed but startles us with its beauty and strangeness when it comes into focus. Such writers explore and defend their beloved habitats, showing us places that are often overlooked: rural areas, small towns, neglected ‘burbs, uncharted avenues and alleys. Our writers have vision for days, looking ahead, behind, above, and below, always poised to see something new about humanity and the world.
"Like other publishing houses, we employ a smashing editorial and publicity team, a big ol’ roomful of smart folks who love reading and talking about books. We’ll edit your work till it shines, put it in a gorgeous cover, and argue splendidly for its space on bookshelves and in readers’ hands.
"So dig deep, ye ghostly ocypodes. An ocean of stories awaits."
In her classs, Bryn will explore how to enrich and intensify dialogue especially through setting, drawing from Janet Burroway’s assertion that “your fiction must have an atmosphere because without it your characters will be unable to breathe.” She'll discuss craft techniques and short examples but focus primarily on writing through targeted exercises that can be used to generate new material or develop works in progress.
During the Pre-Conference Tailgate at 12:00 pm on Friday on the campus of UNCC, which is free and open to the public, Bryn will lead participants through writing exercises and discussion to get some creative juices flowing just before conference registration opens later that day.
Fall Conference attracts hundreds of writers from around the country and provides a weekend full of activities that include lunch and dinner banquets with readings, keynotes, tracks in several genres, open mic sessions, and the opportunity for one-on-one manuscript critiques with editors or agents. Master Classes will be led by Judy Goldman (Creative Nonfiction), Maureen Ryan Griffin (Poetry), Randall Kenan (Fiction), who, as a 2018 inductee into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, also will give the Keynote Address.
The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to all writers, in all genres, at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.