Challenge to N.C. writers
North Carolina has seen its share of upheaval during the financial crisis, the ongoing wars and the 2008 elections.
While no one can predict what will happen, every North Carolinian can and should record what has happened, and how it felt, says Ed Southern, executive director of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. It has been said you can’t spit in North Carolina without hitting a writer. Here is an opportunity for those writers to do something for the people of this state.
The NCWN will launch “Writing the New South,” offering its members a platform to record and share their experiences and interpretations of living in the state as it changes dramatically.
“Whether they do so through essays, short stories, poetry or even letters or journals, we want our members to grapple with what’s going on in the state and in the world,” Southern, said.The Network has created a special section on its Web site, http://www.ncwriters.org/features/writing-the-new-south, for submissions to Writing the New South. Each submission will be reviewed by editors, and the best of the submissions will be displayed online. The Network is also in discussions to have the submissions published in book form.
Southern said, “… the goal of Writing the New South is to show the essential and public value of our writers, while creating a record of, and a frame for understanding, our times.”
Submission guidelines:
– Authors must be members of NCWN.
– Submissions can be no longer than 5,000 words.- Submissions may be in any genre: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, drama, journalism.
– Submissions must deal with one (or both) of two themes:
ó Current or recent events of historical significance (for example: 2008 financial crisis, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) as they relate to life in present-day North Carolina;
ó Snapshots of life in a particular city or region of North Carolina, in 500 words or less.
– Submissions do not have to be objective; however, submissions may not proselytize or attempt to convert readers to any particular viewpoint, political affiliation or religion.
– Submissions must be original and unpublished.
– The NCWN reserves the right to reject any submission.
– Accepted submissions will be considered for publication in a possible anthology. By submitting their work to Writing the New South, authors agree to execute whatever steps are necessary in the event that their work is selected for such an anthology.