The North Carolina Writers’ Network 2016 Fall Conference runs November 4-6 at the Raleigh Marriott Crabtree Valley, in Raleigh. As part of a full weekend of courses, readings, panels, and more, we offer an exhibit hall packed with vendors representing some of the best and brightest literary organizations, publications, and retailers North Carolina has to offer.
The exhibit hall is a key part of the conference experience and definitely should not be missed. This is your chance to chat face-to-face with publishers and marketers who are at their booths with nothing better to do than talk to you too! (In fact, that’s why the exhibitors are there!) It’s a great opportunity to get a feel for the literary landscape in North Carolina. And even if you find yourself talking to a press that doesn’t publish what you write, they may have recommendations as to where else you can send your work.
So, who’s all going to be there? Here are a few, to get us started:
Durham-based Backbone Press is a small press with a big vision. It’s a venue for ethnic poets, including African-American writers, which has a deep interest in poetry by Latino/a, Asian, and other Ethnicities. The press is also a seeker of poetry that is political, evocative, social, gritty, and also personal and poignant. Their forthcoming poetry chapbooks include Memory of a Girl by Aozora Brockman and Strange-tongued Names by Aaron Counts.
Carolina Wren Press is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to publish quality writing, especially by writers historically neglected by mainstream publishing, and to develop diverse and vital audiences through publishing, outreach, and educational programs. This Durham-based publisher hosts the annual Bakwin Award for Writing by a Woman, which opens for submissions each spring. CWP authors include Quinn Dalton, Ravi Shankar, and North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee Jaki Shelton Green.
Ecotone literary journal and Lookout Books are a magazine and small press based at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Ecotone’s mission is to publish and promote the best place-based work being written today. Their contributors include winners of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, as well as MacArthur, Guggenheim, and NEA fellows. But they’re equally excited to honor new voices. Lookout Books seeks out emerging and historically underrepresented voices, as well as overlooked gems by established writers. Their authors include Matthew Neil Null, Edith Pearlman, and Clare Beams, who will teach a fiction course at the NCWN 2016 Fall Conference.
The Greensboro Review, published by the MFA in Creative Writing Department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, has been “old school” since 1965. Edited by Jim Clark with Terry L. Kennedy serving as assistant editor, works from the journal are consistently cited and anthologized in the Pushcart Prize, New Stories from the South, Best American Short Stories, and other annual collections honoring the finest writing by both established and emerging talent. TGR offers two awards of $500—one award for fiction, one for poetry—and the winning manuscripts appear in the spring issue.
Minerva Rising Press, an independent literary press, celebrates the creativity and wisdom in every woman by giving them space to tell their stories and to tell them well. They publish thought-provoking and insightful fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry through chapboks and a literary journal. They pride ourselves on building a supportive community of women, because they believe that when women come together, they flourish. They are committed to working with both established and emerging women writers to hone and develop their craft in the direction of growth—both personally and professionally. They offer the annual Owl of Minerva Award: a $500 scholarship established by Minerva Rising to provide one woman writer with financial support to further her writing endeavors.
Registration for the North Carolina Writers’ Network 2016 Fall Conference is open.
Check back soon for more exhibitor introductions!