(GREENVILLE, NC) The North Carolina Literary Review is pleased to announce author and professor Rebecca McClanahan as the judge for the 2024 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize competition. The annual prize is awarded to the best short creative nonfiction by a North Carolina writer or set in North Carolina.
McClanahan most recently led a master class in creative nonfiction at the North Carolina Writers’ Network Fall Conference. She has published twelve books, is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, the Wood Prize from Poetry, and the Glasgow Award in Nonfiction for The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings, as well as received the NC Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education, a MacDowell Colony fellowship, and four literary fellowships from New York Foundation for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council, among other honors and awards. She taught at Queens University in Charlotte.
“After reading The Tribal Knot by Rebecca McClanahan some years ago, I took her creative nonfiction master class at the North Carolina Writers’ Network’s fall conference, where I picked up her book, The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings,” stated Editor Margaret Bauer. “Her feedback was exactly what I needed to revise an essay I’ve been working on for some years. Between my reading and the stellar experience of that workshop, I knew she would be an excellent reader for NCLR. I am so grateful that she agreed to judge this year’s Albright Prize contest.”
Since its start over 30 years ago, NCLR has been a venue for strong creative nonfiction. The Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize was created in 2015 to honor the founding editor of NCLR. The North Carolina Literary and Historical Association funds this contest, providing honoraria for Albright Prize honorees, judges, and finalists selected for publication. Previously unpublished short pieces up to 7500 words are accepted through March 1st. In order to submit, writers must subscribe to the journal. More details on the submission requirements can be found on the website. In addition to a monetary prize, the winning essay is published in NCLR and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Produced since 1992 at East Carolina University, the North Carolina Literary Review serves to preserve and promote North Carolina’s rich literary culture. The journal and staff have won numerous awards, most recently the “Best Special Public Interest Issue” from CELJ. NCLR introduces new and emerging writers; reintroduces forgotten authors; showcases work in literary criticism, interviews, book reviews, fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry; and reports on literary news stories. We complement the writing with the work of North Carolina artists and photographers.
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