2011 Linda Flowers Award Details and Guidelines
History
The North Carolina Humanities Council was privileged to have Linda Flowers as one of its members from 1992 to 1998. During the years we shared with her, she taught us many things. Above all, Linda showed us what it means to live by one’s belief that “the humanistic apprehension is as necessary for living fully as anything else. Education in the humanities,” she wrote, “is equipment for living.”
In addition to honoring Linda Flowers (1944-2000) with a literary award named for her, the Humanities Council seeks to draw to the attention of others something special that Linda passed on to us. We want to celebrate excellence in the humanities achieved by people like her, those who not only identify with our state, but who explore the promises, the problems, the experiences, the meanings, in lives that have been shaped by North Carolina and its many cultures. This is true to the portraits in Linda Flowers' book, Throwed Away: Failures of Progress in Eastern North Carolina; it is just as true of “I Have Come Home,” the Crossroads (May 1999) essay she wrote about her experience with cancer. Both are superb examinations of intimate, provocative, inspiring portraiture of North Carolina, its people and cultures. The Linda Flowers Literary Award is intended for an entry that demonstrates these powers of recognition.
Description
The Humanities Council invites original entries of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry for the Linda Flowers Literary Award. Submissions should detail examinations of intimate, provocative, and inspiring portraiture of North Carolina, its people and cultures, bringing to light real men and women having to make their way in the face of change, loss, triumph, and disappointments.
While authors do not have to be North Carolinians, entries are expected to draw on particular North Carolina connections and/or memories. Above all, entries should celebrate excellence in the humanities and reflect the experience of people who, like Linda Flowers, not only identify with the state, but also explore the promises, the problems, the experiences, and the meanings of lives that have been shaped by North Carolina and its many cultures.
Guidelines
Entries should be original, unpublished works of up to 2,000-2,500 words, typed and double-spaced. Five copies of each submission are required with a cover letter (copies will not be returned). The author’s name should not appear on the submission. Only one entry per writer will be accepted. You may wish to enclose a SASE postcard for the Humanities Council to acknowledge receipt of your manuscript and a SASE for notification of the award selection, though this is not required.
Selection Process
A panel of judges will select the Linda Flowers Literary Award winner. Panel members will be invited to judge by the Council Chair and will include North Carolina Humanities Council trustees or alumni, as well as writers, scholars, and other public members.
The annual prize will be announced in fall 2011.
Timeline
Send entries for the 2011 Linda Flowers Literary Award, postmarked by August 15, 2011, to the North Carolina Humanities Council, 122 N. Elm Street, Suite 601, Greensboro, NC, 27401.
Recipient
The winner of The Linda Flowers Literary Award will receive a cash prize of $500 and a stipend for a writer’s residency at Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Her/his original work will be published in the Council’s bi-annual magazine, North Carolina Conversations.*
*The writer will maintain copyright of the literary work with the understanding that the Council may publish or republish it at a later date (for example, in an anthology).
Questions may be directed to Executive Director Shelley Crisp at (336) 334-5383 or scrisp@nchumanities.org.