Connecting, Promoting, & Serving Writers Across North Carolina and Beyond

Online Classes in YA and Romance

January 9, 2023

Kick off our online series with our first two class offerings of the year. Open to the public, these classes will be lead by Emily Colin: Writing Romance Novels Readers Will Love (Thursday, January 26) and Writing Young Adult Fiction That Shines (Thursday, February 2). Register for one or bundle and save.

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It's Contest Season

Two contests are open to submissions now.

Now open: the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize until January 30; and the Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition until March 1.

The Network awards more than $4000 annually through its five contests.

And we’re now offering an additional prize. The Network will offer full scholarships to their Spring Conference to the five contest winners. We also will recognize these writers during the Spring Conference’s opening general session.

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Book Buzz: recent publications by our members

Published January 2023

Hats Off! Member accolades and announcements

Hats Off to Paul Jones!

“Talking in the Dark” appears in both January issues Walter (Raleigh) and in PineStraw (Southern Pines) with a different illustration in each magazine. Collect them all!“Hell” is featured in the January issue of the The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. Who knew that Dead Mules had their own School? Click here for previous Walter poems.

Hats Off to Maren O. Mitchell!

Maren O. Mitchell recently had poems featured in Tar River Poetry, Vol. 62, No. 1, Fall 2022, "I have no earth-shaking news, my friend Janice" and in POEM, November 2022 issue, "Black Is Not the Lack of Light" and "We are all stray cats." Her work was also featured in Twelve Mile Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2022, "Hickory Tree." The Lake, an online UK journal, January 2023 issue, "Quantum Beats" and "To My Husband in the Time of Covid-19."

Hats Off to Valerie Nieman!

Valerie Nieman’s latest novel, In the Lonely Backwater (Regal House 2022) received the 2022 Sir Walter Raleigh Award, the highest award for fiction by a North Carolina writer. She joins luminaries such as Reynolds Price, Lee Smith, Charles Frazier, and last year’s honoree, National Book Award winner Jason Mott. The presentation has been made annually since 1953 by the Historical Book Club, through the book awards program administered by the Office of Archives and History within the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Her book also won the Mystery/Suspense category of the American Writing Awards. In the Lonely Backwater was also selected as an Official Pick of the International Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Club. It will be featured in July with an online book club on Tuesday and postings throughout the week. Learn more about Val here.

More accolades and announcements

Resources & Community for NC Writers

Membership is open to writers of all experience levels and genres, across the state and beyond. Members receive our newsletter, discounts on Network-sponsored programs and events, and exclusive access to opportunities, services, and resources.

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