(GREENVILLE, NC) The North Carolina Literary Review is pleased to announce essayist Paul Crenshaw as the judge for this year’s Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize Competition. The annual prize is awarded to the best short creative nonfiction story by a North Carolina writer or set in North Carolina.
Paul Crenshaw is the author of the essay collections Melt with Me: Coming of Age and Other ’80s Perils and This One Will Hurt You (The Ohio State University Press), and This We’ll Defend: A noncombat veteran on war and its aftermath (University of North Carolina Press). His work has garnered a Best American Essay four times, and been in Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Pushcart Prize, anthologies by W. W. Norton and Houghton Mifflin, Oxford American, Glimmer Train, Tin House, North American Review, and Brevity, among others. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UNC-Greensboro, where he was a Fred Chappell Fellow.
Crenshaw writes, “In an age of AI and algorithms, of social media and strategic marketing, of misinformation and mass media, when we’re often told how to think and when to think it, writing is the most important act left to us. Whether we set out to enlighten, to educate, or to entertain, the personal essay exists because our stories still matter, and there are still storytellers among us to tell them.”
The Albright Prize Contest is open to any NCLR subscriber and on any topic. Writing related to the current Feature Call for Submissions by North Carolina Active Military and Veterans is particularly welcome. Crenshaw stated in a 2020 article in The Army Times, “That’s the most important thing I want veterans to do: Tell stories. Start with what happened, tell the narrative. Let the story grow out of that. Hopefully through telling the story, you’ll figure it out.”
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. Prior judges include Alex Albright himself, Randall Kenan, Elizabeth Hudson, and others. 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 Previously unpublished short pieces up to 7500 words are accepted through March 1st.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: https://nclr.ecu.edu. In addition to a monetary prize, the winning essay is published in NCLR and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Finalists are also considered for publication.
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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