The annual NC State Fiction Contest awarded its finalists and winners Wednesday, Nov. 5. Open to all North Carolina residents regardless of age or background, the event seeks to highlight the strength of the writing community in the South.

Hosted by the Department of English, the contest is made possible by an endowment from former faculty member William Barnhardt. It is split into two categories, fiction and short fiction, and applicants are allowed to submit to any category they haven’t already been published in. 

This year, Emilio Cabral, an MFA candidate in the creative writing program, won the James Hurst Prize for Fiction. The Shorter Fiction Prize went to Ayomide Bayowa, a candidate in the MFA poetry program.

Chelsea Krieg, the administrative director of the creative writing MFA program, manages graduate students and opportunities such as the Fiction Contest. She said the contest is the department’s way of encouraging, cultivating and sharing creativity in North Carolina.

“We really hope to reach widely across the state and to encourage all different kinds of writers and different walks of life, and give people the opportunity to win the awards,” Krieg said. 

The contest encourages unpublished and less experienced writers to submit their work, and Krieg said this draws in many young writers from the area — whether from our MFA program or neighboring universities and high schools.

Especially within the MFA program, NC State draws in many important southern voices. Krieg said she always finds it exciting to host this contest and engage with the many diverse perspectives that are not always allowed into the spotlight. 

“One of the things that I think is particularly valuable about having a southern-based contest is thinking about the ways in which we might be able to take back the South through our stories, our voices and the unique variety of people that are writing, living and working today,” Krieg said.

For the Department of English, the events surrounding the contest are often the most successful out of the whole year. Krieg said it’s because people feel the significance of the art and are excited to celebrate up-and-coming voices in fiction. 

“Yes, it’s fiction, but I think story is where we all begin, right? I think that it is really important to think: What are our stories, what are our origins, what are our histories, our folklore, our fairy tales and where are we coming from?” Krieg said. “I think that this is a really beautiful opportunity to elevate that in our community and to celebrate it.”

Faculty and other qualified writers screen the anonymous entries and select the most compelling stories. From there, they are sent to a guest judge who determines the runner-ups and winners.

This year, short-story writer Halle Hill was brought to Raleigh to guest judge and spend some time with MFA fiction students. An alum of the Savannah College of Art and Design, her collection, “Good Women” centers on the experiences of Black women living across the Appalachian south. 

Hill said it was important for her to emphasize her experiences of being othered within her writing, and to make connections with writers and creatives who may have had similar experiences.

“For anybody who’s lived on the margins, it’s really important to show a liveness, to show spirit and to show presence,” Hill said. “So, to be able to be here and to offer that type of communion and connection with others is not lost on me.”

Hill, a North Carolina resident who is originally from East Tennessee, said she felt the immense significance of judging this contest at NC State. Not just because of her Southern connections, but because the MFA program has such a strong community and support system. She said it was an honor to be trusted with these works.

“I’ve won prizes before, and it took somebody giving me a chance on my work to help me,” Hill said. “And to be able to pass it along is very full circle.”

Hill said she finds it important to encourage young and diverse writers to share their work publicly in order to cultivate these communities throughout their lives. The contest is an opportunity to bring people together and encourage creativity. 

“I feel like we are living in a time where rigor and curiosity is being dampened, so I hope that they will keep up the momentum through the program and post-graduation,” Hill said.

You can view the full list of finalists for the James Hurst Prize for Fiction and the Shorter Fiction Prize here.