The North Carolina Literary Review (NCLR), produced at East Carolina University, publishes interviews and literary criticism about North Carolina writers and high-quality poetry, fiction, drama, and creative nonfiction by North Carolina writers or set in North Carolina. Our definition of a North Carolina writer is anyone who currently lives in North Carolina, has lived in North Carolina, or uses North Carolina as subject matter.
A cross between a scholarly journal and a literary magazine, NCLR has won numerous awards and citations, including six from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals: the Best New Journal award in 1994, the Best Journal Design award in 1999 and 2010, the Parnassus Award for Significant Editorial Achievement in 2007, the Phoenix Award for Significant Editorial Achievement in 2014, and Best Public Intellectual Special Issue in 2023.

Latest News
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2026 Applewhite Poetry Prize Goes To Becky Gould Gibson
The 2026 James Applewhite Poetry Prize contest received a record number of submissions – over 425 poems from 135 different poets. Final Judge Tyree Daye has selected “Landscape with Snow” by Becky Gould Gibson as this year’s Prize winner, describing his selection as “a poem that uses its form to express loss, but more importantly,…
Call for Submissions
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Doris Betts Fiction Competition Opens 9/15
2026 Betts Fiction Competition opens for submissions from Sept 15-Oct 31.
Upcoming Events
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Upcoming Fall Events
Click for a list of upcoming events we’re attending. Join us! Up first, a reading by Rebecca McClanahan at ECU 9/21.
From the Archives
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All Ideas in the Library
Friday from the Archives: “Who Knows What You’ve Been Reading?” by Gene D. Lanier in NCLR 1993
Book Reviews
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Froemel reviews Revis and Yero
Saturday Review: “Journey Through Forgetful Skies and Crash Landings in Near-Future Young Adult Literature,” a review by Alyssa Froemel of Beth Revis’s Full Speed to a Crash Landing (2024) and Lauren Yero’s Under this Forgetful Sky (2023), in NCLR Online Spring 2026
Editors’ Blog
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Where Were You on 9/11?
Writers and readers have the advantage of developing an understanding of or finding a way to make peace with such tragedies as 9/11: writing and/or reading about it.
North Carolina Literary Review
East Carolina University
Mailstop 555 English | Greenville, NC 27858-4353
NCLRstaff@ecu.edu | 252-328-1537






