ISSUED: 25 April 2016
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV —
The May 1 deadline for the West Virginia Fiction Competition, supported by the West Virginia Center for the Book and Shepherd University’s Appalachian Heritage Writers Project, is fast approaching. Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain, Thirteen Moon, and other works of fiction, will judge the competition.
Frazier will receive the Appalachian Heritage Writer’s Award, supported by the West Virginia Humanities Council and the Shepherd University Foundation, on September 29, in a ceremony on the Shepherd’s campus. Frazier will also present cash prizes and awards to the fiction competition winners.
The West Virginia Fiction Competition aims to encourage writers and storytellers whose talent and ability in creative writing is distinctive and promising, and to foster and encourages an appreciation of Appalachian culture and values through literature. Any resident or student from West Virginia is encouraged to enter. Winners receive cash prizes of $500 for first place, and $100 for second and third place and the opportunity for publication. All finalists will receive written critiques from Frazier.
Interested writers should email their manuscripts to AHWIR administrator and resources coordinator Brenda Feltner, bfeltner@shepherd.edu, along with submission information found at www.shepherd.edu/ahwir/west-virginia-fiction-competition, or click on the Fiction Competition link at the Appalachian heritage website at www.shepherd.edu/ahwir. For more information, contact Dr. Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt, AHWIR project director, at sshurbut@shepherd.edu.
— 30 —