ISSUED: 11 April 2017
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — The deadline for Shepherd University’s West Virginia Fiction Competition is May 1. Writers may submit their original, unpublished work that is 5,000 word maximum and has not received any other award, recognition, or special honor.
The competition is open to any resident of West Virginia or any student attending school in the state. Submissions along with an application form can be mailed to West Virginia Fiction Competition, Department of English, Shepherd University, P.O. Box 5000, Shepherdstown, WV, 25443-5000, or sent electronically to bfeltner@shepherd.edu. The application form and additional information is available at www.shepherd.edu/ahwir/west-virginia-fiction-competition.
The annual literary competition aims to encourage writers and storytellers whose talent and ability in creative writing is distinctive and promising, and to foster an appreciation of Appalachian culture and values represented in the diverse writing of the region. The first prize winner will receive $500 and possible publication. Second and third prizes of $100 each will also be awarded. The West Virginia Center for the Book cosponsors the competition and provides the prizes.
A panel of writers, editors, and creative writing instructors will choose finalists, and the 2017 Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence (AHWIR), Wiley Cash, will select the first, second, and third place winners from these finalists. The competition is part of the 2017 AHWIR project and Cash’s residency at Shepherd. Cash’s novel, “A Land More Kind Than Home,” is the One Book, One West Virginia state common read for this year. All finalist stories will be considered for the “Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Wiley Cash Volume X,” which will be published in the spring of 2018.
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