Langston Hughes 2012 Creative Writing Award


CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
(Surprise us. Move us.)

The Lawrence Arts Center and the Raven Book Store announce their sponsorships of the 2012 Langston Hughes Creative Writing Award. Two awards of $500 each will be given annually, one in the area of poetry and one in the area of fiction.

Growing up in Lawrence prepared Langston Hughes (1902-1967) to understand the difficulties of a racist society as well as the complexities of life itself. He responded by writing in diverse genres--poetry, fiction, drama, memoir, travel narrative--and in diverse styles, drawing on the rich culture of African Americans and the many voices of American democracy. His writing reflected this diversity--shifting from the psychological and political to the lyrical, the tragic, the humorous, crossing literary boundaries, always experimental, always seeking to express a clearer, more memorable vision of the reality he experienced. The Langston Hughes Award seeks to encourage and support poets and writers who, today, are continuing to present their life experiences creatively through poetry, stories, and experiences creatively through poetry and stories. Surprise us. Move us. Help us see ourselves and our lives in new ways.

Writer Eligibility:

  • Writers of poetry or fiction
  • Writers currently living in Douglas County and who have lived here for one year prior to submission of materials
  • Writers who are 21 years old or older
  • Writers who have published a book-length volume of poetry or fiction are not eligible. (Self-published works are exempted.)
  • Previous winners are not eligible.

Application deadline for submissions is December 16, 2011. All manuscripts should be submitted electronically, via email. Selection will be based on artistic quality of the materials submitted and will be made by a committee of outstanding regional writers.

SUBMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS

APPLICATION DEADLINE IS DECEMBER 16, 2011

  • The first two pages of your manuscript will contain your name, address, telephone number, email address and short biography, as well as a current resume.
  • Writer's name should be on the first page of the manuscript and in the biographical information only.
  • The manuscript itself should be typed, double-spaced in 12-point type with one-inch margins.
  • No more than 20 pages or 5,000 words will be accepted.
  • Manuscripts must be in English.
  • Chapters of a novel are to be accompanied by a brief synopsis of entire work.
  • Writers may enter in either or both category, but an individual may win in only one category.
  • No entry fee required.
  • Manuscripts will be submitted electronically, via email to lhsubmissions@lawrenceartscenter.org

Award Announcement:
Wednesday, February 1, 2012, Langston Hughes' Birthday. A celebration and reading will be held in honor of the award winners. All applicants will be notified by letter prior to the announcement.

Please note: SUBMIT VIA EMAIL ONLY. Hard copy manuscripts will not be accepted. Please attach your submissions according to SUBMISSION GUIDELINES (above) to lhsubmissions@lawrenceartscenter.org

Application deadline is December 16, 2011.



2012 Judges

Tasha Haas is on the English faculty at Kansas City Community College, teaching creative writing, children’s literature, and composition. Certain Dawn, Inevitable Dawn (Woodley, 2011) is her first book and her fiction and poetry have also appeared in Conjunctions, Coal City Review, Flint Hills Review, South Dakota Review, Stickman Review and elsewhere. She’s also won the Langston Hughes Award for Fiction and earned teaching and writing residencies in Lithuania and Costa Rica.

Megan Kaminski's first book of poetry, Desiring Map, is forthcoming from Coconut Books (2012). She is also the author of five chapbooks. Her poetry won a Grey Book Press Chapbook Prize and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is a Creative Writing Lecturer at the University of Kansas, where she directs the Creative Writing Exchange and the Undergraduate Reading Series.

Denise Low, Kansas 2007-2009 Poet Laureate, posts commentary about poets and writers on her blog. Members of the Associated Writers and Writing Programs elected her to the national board 2008-13, and she serves as president of the AWP board 2011-2012. She has been visiting professor at the University of Richmond (2005) and the University of Kansas (2008). Her home institution is Haskell Indian Nations University, where she has been an administrator and/or faculty member for over 25 years. Her book of essays Natural Theologies: Essays about Literature of the New Middle West (The Backwaters Press 2011) is the first book about contemporary grasslands-region literature.

Mary O'Connell's novel, The Sharp Time, was published in November by Delacorte/Random House and received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly ("An evocative first novel") and Kirkus Reviews ("an extraordinary debut"). She is also the author of the short story collection Living With Saints (Grove Atlantic), which was translated into French, Dutch and German. She is the recipient of a James Michener Fellowship and a Chicago Tribune Nelson Algren Award. Mary lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with her husband and children.

Elizabeth Schultz lives in Lawrence, Kansas, following retirement from the English Department of the University of Kansas. She is committed to writing about the people and the places she loves in academic essays, nature essays, and poems. These include Herman Melville, her mother, and her friends, the Kansas wetlands and prairies, Michigan's Higgins Lake, Japan, where she lived for six years, oceans everywhere. She has published several books, and her work appears in numerous journals and reviews.

Mary Wharff’s work has been published in Water-Stone Review, Room Magazine, Connecticut Review, Mochila Review, Water-Stone Review and others. She and her husband have an adopted four-legged family, gardens instead of grass and shelves of novels she thinks she’ll read once she gets over her thing with short stories.



Sponsors of the Langston Hughes Creative Writing Award