The finalists for poetry include Andrea Watson (Denver, Colorado) Second Place; Simon Burr Kress (Greensboro) Third Place; Jim Zola (Greensboro) Fourth Place; and Laura Hope-Gill (Arden, NC) Fifth Place. Other finalists
include Lynne Martin Bowman (Greensboro); Alaina Giesbrecht (Seattle, Washington); Nan Hunt (Woodland Hills, California); Kathleen Lynch (Loomis, California); and Betty Ritz Rogers (Greensboro).
Michael Parker named Paul Mihas (Carrboro) as Second Place winner and Bonnie Roop Bowles (Roanoke, Virginia) for Third Place. Other
finalists in the fiction contest include
James Wray (San Diego, California); Doug Crandell (Smyrna, Georgia); (Wadesboro, NC); Pat Rathbone (Watertown, Massachusetts); Tony Peacock (Chapel Hill); Deborah Gerlach Klaus (Winston-Salem); and Sandra Redding (Greensboro).
The winners and finalists were recognized
at the WGOT Annual Meeting held at
the Greensboro
Central Library, 219 North Church Street,
Greensboro, NC. Selections from the
winning
entries and area finalists were read
at that
time.
Neale McDevitt, winner of the fiction award, is a former
member of the Canadian Weightlifting
team.
Two years ago he "had a moment of clarity"
and retired from playing rugby. He
finds
that writing is much easier on the
knees.
He's been writing fiction since 2000
and
has won a number of awards in Canada
and
the US and his work has appeared in
literary
reviews and anthologies on both sides
of
the border. One of his stories has
been
adapted as a piece of short radio drama
and
has recently been recorded for a spoken
word
CD. Toronot's Exile Editions will soon
be
publishing his first book, a collection
of
short stories titled "One Day, Even Trevi Will Crumble.
Poetry winner Ellen Bass' new book of poetry, Mules of Love, has just been published by BOA Editions.
She co-edited No More Masks!: An Anthology of Poems by
Women and has published four previous volumes
of poetry and two nonfiction books.
Among
her awards for poetry are the Elliston
Book
Award from the University of Cincinnati,
The Pablo Neruda Prize from Nimrod/Hardman and the Larry Levis Prize from Missouri Review. She has taught creative writing since
1974.
Our distinguished judges included Michael Parker, author of Hello Down There, a debut novel the New York Times called a "serious, memorable novel that
begins a very serious career." His
second
novel, Towns without Rivers, continues the story of the residents of
Trent, North Carolina. He teaches
at UNC-Greensboro.
The poetry competition was judged by Fred Chappell, recipient of numerous awards, including
the Yale University Library's Bollingen
Prize
and the Aiken Taylor Award in poetry.
He
is the author of several books of fiction
and poetry. Of the latter, his most
recent
volume is Spring Garden. He is on the faculty at UNC-Greensboro
and is a former Poet Laureate of North
Carolina.
