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GREENSBORO—The North Carolina Writers’ Network 2022 Spring Conference happens Saturday, April 23, on-site on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and online. If you've already registered, thank you! If not, registration closes Monday, April 18. There will be no day-of registration this year.
2020 NC Literary Hall of Fame inductee Carole Boston Weatherford will give the Keynote Address. Registrants will be treated to a a full day of classes, workshops, readings, and community.
The on-site conference will take place at UNC Greensboro, in and around the MHRA Building and Curry Auditorium. On-site registrants can choose from among five class offerings in both the morning and afternoon sessions, or apply for one of the three Master Classes that will take place over both sessions.
The on-site conference also will offer craft classes on poetry with Charmaine Cadeau Ward (right) and Stuart Dischell; on prose with Caleb Johnson, Travis Mulhauser, and Julia Ridley Smith; and on screenwriting with Joy Goodwin and Mary M. Dalton.
Other classes include “Query an Agent About Querying Agents” with Jamie Chambliss of Folio Literary Management, “Presenting Your Book” with New York Times bestselling author Charlie Lovett, and “The Group: How to Form Your Own Thriving Writing Workshop” with writer and editor Duncan Murrell (below).
The online conference will include livestreams of Carole Boston Weatherford’s keynote address and other general sessions, an Online Picnic hosted by author and NCWN trustee Michele T. Berger, and two sessions of exclusive online-only classes: on publishing with Hub City Press director Meg Reid; on pitching story ideas with The Bitter Southerner assistant editor Rachel Priest; on the flux of the writing process with acclaimed novelist (and occasional banjoist) Steven Sherrill; and on craft with award-winning writer Maegan Poland.
“We’re excited to bring writers together again,” said NCWN Executive Director Ed Southern, “whether they’re joining us online or on-site. The Spring Conference will be a chance to pursue excellence, opportunity, and community, however you participate.”
For the on-site Spring Conference, all appropriate and possible safety protocols will be in place, including masking while indoors (with no exceptions), proof-of-vaccination required of all participants, and as much distancing as the venue will allow.
“We also will encourage faculty to lead their classes outdoors, if feasible,” Southern said, “and to keep their fingers crossed for good weather.”
The NCWN 2022 Spring Conference is made possible with support from the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Chambers Life; Regal House Publishing; Written Word Media; and the general operating support of the North Carolina Arts Council.
Registration and more details on the 2022 Spring Conference are available at www.ncwriters.org.
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ASHEVILLE—Author and playwright Alan Sincic has won the 2022 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize for his entry “God of the Gator,” an excerpt from his unpublished novel.
Sincic, who teaches at Valencia College in Florida, will receive $1,000 and possible publication in The Thomas Wolfe Review.
Final judge Crystal Wilkinson said of Sincic’s entry, “This story is beautifully written and filled with sensory details that draw into both the physical and emotional landscapes of the story right away. It certainly reminds me of what Faulkner said about Wolfe putting the experience of the human heart on the head of a pin in its intense use of language.”
After an MA in Lit at the University of Florida and a poetry fellowship at Columbia, Sincic earned an MFA at Western New England University. He spent more than a dozen years in NYC as a writer and performer of comic pieces that eventually became a pair of full-length plays (American Obsessions and Breaking Glass) at the Orlando International Fringe Festival. His fiction has appeared in New Ohio Review, The Greensboro Review, The Saturday Evening Post, Hunger Mountain, Prime Number, Big Fiction Magazine, Cobalt, Burningword, A-3 Press and elsewhere.
The excerpt "God of The Gator" is from a manuscript titled The Slapjack, an 84,000 word Depression-era novel set in the hinterlands of Florida that Sincic currently is shopping to agents.
Wilkinson also selected “Of Coyotes and Chupacabras” by California writer James Corpora for runner-up. Corpora has been a fiction fellow at Yaddo and MacDowell, and his work has appeared in The Paris Review, Mississippi Review, and elsewhere.
Crystal Wilkinson is the award-winning author of The Birds of Opulence (winner of the 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence), Water Street, and Blackberries, Blackberries. Nominated for both the Orange Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, she has received recognition from The Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Kentucky Arts Council, The Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and is a recipient of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including most recently in the Oxford American and Southern Cultures. She currently teaches at the University of Kentucky where she is Associate Professor of English in the MFA in Creative Writing Program.
The Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, which is awarded to a work of short fiction of 3,000 words or less, is administered by the Great Smokies Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. The program offers opportunities for writers of all levels to join a supportive learning community in which their skills and talents can be explored, practiced, and forged under the careful eye of professional writers. The program is committed to providing the community with affordable university-level classes led by published writers and experienced teachers. Each course carries academic credit awarded through UNC-Asheville.
The Thomas Wolfe Review is the official journal of The Thomas Wolfe Society, publishing articles, features, tributes, and reviews about Wolfe and his circle. It also features bibliographical material, notes, news, and announcements of interest to Society members.
North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938), was born in Asheville. His Look Homeward, Angel is considered one of the most important coming-of-age novels in the English language. Wolfe was considered at the time of his death to be the greatest talent North Carolina had given to American literature. His novels and collected short stories go beyond autobiography, trying to, in William Faulkner’s words, “put all the experience of the human heart on the head of a pin.” His intense poetic language and thoughtfully developed symbology, combined with his uncanny ability to enter the minds of his other characters and give them powerful voices, elevate the books from memoir to undeniable literary art.
The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to all writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.
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GREENSBORO—The North Carolina Writers' Network 2022 Spring Conference happens Saturday, April 23 on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and online. Registration is open through April 18; there will be no on-site registration this year.
We are grateful for the support of our conference sponsors. Thank you for showing them your support by exploring their products and services!
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT GREENSBORO
www.english.uncg.edu/mfa
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The MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro formalized its creative writing offerings in 1965, making it one of the oldest creative writing programs in the country. This two-year residency program helps cohorts of 10-12 students develop their writing careers through classes, seminars, studio time, internships, and more.
The MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro offers general programming support for the NCWN 2022 Spring Conference, including facilities, volunteer staff, and more.
CHAMBERS LIFE
www.chamberslife.com
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This food blog hopes to inspire others to live their best lives. Chef Belynda Chambers is a Duke Integrative Medicine Health Coach; Chopra Center Certified Yoga/Meditation instructor (California) and William Angliss Institute Chef (Melbourne, Australia). She leads walking outdoor yoga sessions and yoga sessions via Zoom.
Chambers Life is the sponsor of the Open Mic sessions at the NCWN 2022 Spring Conference. There will be separate open mics for both in-person and online registrants.
REGAL HOUSE PUBLISHING
www.regalhousepublishing.com
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Founded in 2014, Regal House Publishing supports two imprints: Fitzroy Books, which publishes MG, YA, and children’s literature, and Pact Press, which publishes full-length fiction, memoirs, essay collections, anthologies, and creative nonfiction that offers social impact. Their mandate is to seek, support, encourage, and disseminate literary talent that might otherwise remain unread for lack of publishing opportunity. New and upcoming titles include In the Lonely Backwater by Valerie Nieman; Hemlock Hollow by Culley Holderfield; and Loving the Dead and Gone by Judith Turner-Yamamoto.
Regal House Publishing is the sponsor of the popular Slush Pile Live! program, where a panel of editors responds to anonymous submissions being read aloud in front of a live audience.
WRITTEN WORD MEDIA
www.writtenwordmedia.com
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Written Word Media aims to help writers reach their audiences through five focused "brands" customized to reach every author's ideal reader. They have worked with "over 20,000 authors, most of whom are self-published." In turn, they provide over 1M readers with personalized book recommendations based on personal profiles, through daily or weekly e-mails.
Written Word Media is the sponsor of the Faculty Readings at the NCWN 2022 Spring Conference, which will take place in Curry Auditorium (and via livestream) to allow for better social distancing.
NORTH CAROLINA ARTS COUNCIL
www.ncarts.org
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For more than half a century, the North Carolina Arts Council has provided resources for arts programming, education, and leadership across the state. The North Carolina Arts Council delivers resources to arts organizations and artists to support projects and programs of public value that revitalize downtowns, educate and empower North Carolina youths, and fuel a thriving non-profit creative sector that generates over $2 billion annually.
The North Carolina Arts Council is a program sponsor of the North Carolina Writers' Network.
The 2022 NCWN Spring Conference features classes in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and screenwriting, as well as conversations on the craft and business of writing. The faculty includes fiction writers Caleb Johnson, Derek Palacio, and Maegan Poland; creative nonfiction writers Rachel Priest and Julia Ridley Smith; poets Charmaine Cadeau and Stuart Dischell; and screenwriters Joy Goodwin and Mary M. Dalton. Participating publishing professionals include agent Jamie Chambliss (Folio Literary Management) and editor Meg Reid (Hub City Press).
To register, click here.
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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