Leah Hampton will judge this year’s Doris Betts Fiction Prize, sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network.
A former Betts Prize winner herself, Hampton is the author of the acclaimed 2020 short story collection F*ckface and Other Stories. After being raised as a military kid, she now splits her time between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Pacific Northwest, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Idaho. A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers, she has been awarded multiple prizes and fellowships and held residencies at the Stadler Center for Poetry, the Folger Shakespeare Library, Hedgebrook, Jentel, and elsewhere. Her work has appeared in North Carolina Literary Review, Ecotone, Guernica, McSweeneys Quarterly Concern, Electric Literature, storySouth, and LitHub.
The Doris Betts Fiction Prize is open from September 15 to October 31 to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. North Carolina Literary Review subscribers with North Carolina connections (NC resident or former resident) are also eligible. The contest does not require writing on a particular topic. Writers who qualify for the upcoming special feature section of NCLR, “Saluting Military Writing” (including but not limited to current military service, veteran from any branch, and family members of same) are encouraged to submit.
The winner of the Doris Betts Fiction Prize receives $250, publication in the North Carolina Literary Review, and nomination for a Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry Award. Finalists, too, will be considered for publication in the NCLR (with additional nominations and varying award money).
