The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources has announced the longlist for the 2020 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, and five of the eight nominees are NCWN members!
Including:
Eden by Jamie Lisa Forbes (Pronghorn Press)
The Inevitable Past by Carrie J. Knowles (Owl Canyon Press)
Songbirds and Stray Dogs by Meagan Lucas (Main Street Rag Publishing Company)
All the Right Circles by John Russell (Rare Bird Books)
Still Come Home by Katey Schultz (Apprentice House)
Awarded since 1953, the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction recognizes the most significant work of original fiction published over the course of the last year by a North Carolina author. The prize is sponsored by the Historical Book Club of North Carolina.
This award is given to an original book published during the 12 months ending June 30 of the year for which the award is given. Author(s) must have maintained legal or physical residence, or a combination of both, in North Carolina for the three years preceding the close of the contest period. For more about nominations, click here.
Past winners of the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction include NC Literary Hall of Fame inductees Allan Gurganus for The Practical Heart (2002) and Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1990); Clyde Edgerton for Where Trouble Sleeps (1998); Charles Frazier for Cold Mountain (1997); and Lee Smith for Fair and Tender Ladies (1989).