The Carolina Prize
for Writing

STATUS: CLOSED
January 15, 2024 — March 15, 2024
The contest opens to entries on January 15, 2024, and closes at midnight on March 15, 2024 (eastern time, USA).

[These rules and guidelines can also be downloaded as a PDF here.]

The Carolina Prize for Writing contest is sponsored annually by the Carolina Piedmont Writers Guild. This year, three prizes will be awarded: one for prose, one for poetry, and one for cover art/photography. Up to five honorable mentions may also be named for each.

(Past winners listed at the bottom of this page.)

Winning entries will receive:

Honorable mentions will receive:


General Restrictions


How to Enter Your Work

one entry = email + attached cover sheet + attached work(s)
(limited to one category: prose, poetry, or art)

Step 1. Email Your Entry


Detail: The Attached Work(s)


Prose entries may contain only 1 work of prose of no more than 3,000 words (excluding title).

Poetry entries may contain up to 3 poems of no more than 30 lines each (excluding title and stanza-separating empty lines). Attach each poem to the email as a separate .docx or .doc document.   Restated: up to 3 poems, each no longer than 30 lines, each attached as a separate document, to 1 submission email.

Art entries may contain up to 3 separate .jpg images.

Formatting the content of your work …


Step 2. Send Your Entry Fee


Rights

The Carolina Prize is an independently judged competition (see below). Winners and honorable mentions will be published in County Lines. Non-winning works will NOT automatically be included in the next issue of County Lines. If your entered work does not win or receive an honorable mention, please submit it during our general, non-contest, open submissions reading window for County Lines when it opens in mid-March.

By entering a work for consideration, you implicitly grant first publication rights to the Carolina Piedmont Writers Guild in the event the work is accepted for inclusion. All proceeds from the Carolina Prize contest help fund the Carolina Piedmont Writers Guild’s efforts to promote and support the activities and endeavors of the Guild.

Judges

Poetry

Law Bullock

Born in Fayetteville, NC, Law is the owner of M.U.G. LLC, aka MUGwithUs, which was created as a brand for spoken word, publishing, photography, public speaking, hosting, and video recording. Law has been a traveling artist going on twelve years. He has published five books and one spoken word album and has been published in magazines, anthologies, and literary exhibits. Law has taken part in and/or been featured at festivals, showcases, slams, open mics, and conferences. He has also hosted some of these events. Law is part of Black on Black Rhyme Carolina. He is a staff photographer with Fayetteville Comic Con, a member of Toastmasters International, a member of Lets Make It Happen Together, and a graduate of Fayetteville State University. Law lives by the mantra that art has the ability to build connections between generations. Learn more at linktr.ee/LawdaPoet.

Poet Law Bullock
Author Lori Hayes

Prose

Lori Hayes

Lori Hayes is an award-winning, bestselling author who writes compelling, heartfelt stories with themes of community, family, friendship, and deep connections with complicated people, feral animals, and wild horses. Her unique settings come to life and become characters themselves. Learn more at lorihayesauthor.com.

Art and Photography

Diana Johnson

Diana Johnson is a former computer graphic designer who moved to North Carolina from Florida 13 years ago. Enjoying the mountains and the shore for inspiration, she picked up her almost forgotten passion for graphite pencil drawing and watercolor. She has made a retirement career out of drawing and painting pet portraits on commission, as well as teaching both mediums through various non-profit organizations. Her pet portraits always bring her great satisfaction when a cherished pet is captured in a forever memory. As an animal lover, Diana has helped the Triangle Beagle Rescue as an Application Coordinator for four years. Helping people bring home a furever beagles that didn’t have a great beginning to their life is so rewarding. Diana and her husband, Bruce Watson, have one very spoiled beagle named Daisy.

Artist Diana Johnson

Carolina Prize for Writing
Winners of Yore

2024
County Lines vol12, 2025

Poetry: "The Porch Seat" - Brian James
Prose: "Thanksgiving Turkey Neck" - Donna Campbell Smith
Cover Art: "After the Rain" - Todd Warner

2023
County Lines vol11, 2024

Poetry: "Turning the Corner" - Kathryn Ewers Bundy
Prose: "Requiem for a Fir Tree" - Renee Skudra
Cover Art: "Good Morning Sunrise" - Judy Spruill

2022
County Lines vol10, 2023

Poetry: "Grief, finally" - Teresa McLamb Blackmon
Prose: "Mittens Can Help You With Everything" - Kim Beall
Cover Art: "Mystic Morning" - Tammy Winkel

2021
County Lines vol9, 2022

Poetry: "Deer Crossing" - Mark McAllister
Prose: "Frayed Edges" - Melanie Raskin
Cover Art: untitled - Patricia Joynes

2020
County Lines vol8, 2021

Poetry: "Coyote on Wisconsin Highway 63" - Mark MacAllister
Prose: "Walk With Me Through Bennington" - Wendy Harder
Cover Art: "Fence Lines" by Patricia Joynes

2019
County Lines vol7, 2020

Poetry: "Aimless Odyssey" - Alice Pettyjohn
Prose: "Crabapples from Heaven" - Colleen M. Arnold

DD's Starving Writers Fiction Contest

1st: "Golden Delicious" - Ashley Memory
2nd: "End of Times in the Santa Susanna Pass" - Leslie Carlin
3rd: "Full" - Yong Takahashi

2018
County Lines vol6, 2019

Poetry: "Fontevraud Abbey" - Sylvia Freeman
Prose: "June Magic" - Judy Reed

2017
County Lines vol5, 2018

Poetry: "Women Talking in Circles" - Joyce Compton Brown
Prose: "Farewell, Mr. Blue" - Pat Tyson

2016
County Lines vol4 2017

Poetry: "A Past Present" - Linda Riggins
Prose: "Honor" - RJ McCarthy

2015
County Lines vol3, 2016

Prose: "Do You Love Me?" - RJ McCarthy