Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship in Fiction
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Winner: Joe Oestreich is the author of Waiting to Derail (with Thomas O’Keefe), Partisans, Lines of Scrimmage (with Scott Pleasant), and Hitless Wonder. His work has appeared in Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Salon, Creative Nonfiction, River Teeth, Ninth Letter, The Normal School, and many other magazines and journals. Four of his pieces have been cited as notable in the Best American series, and he’s received special mention twice in the Pushcart Prize anthology. He teaches creative writing at Coastal Carolina University and plays bass and sings in the Columbus, Ohio-based band Watershed. For more information, visit joeoestreich.com.
Judge John Dufresne’s comments on “The Transplants” (a novel excerpt): A brilliant opening to a novel that I want to read the rest of, and I want to read it now! Please send it to me if it’s done. Two distinct comedic voices. A brilliant opening. Moon Pie and RC cola: Tastes like diabetes! Give me more. And that pool! And the novel’s epigraph is by one of the characters! This is a writer having fun and taking us where we have never been before. |
Deadline: Ended March 20, 2025
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The Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship in Fiction, supported by the Penelope Coker Hall/Eliza Wilson Ingle Fund of Central Carolina Community Foundation and sponsored by the South Carolina Academy of Authors, recognizes the talent of fiction writers in the state of South Carolina.
The award is $1,250 and an invitation to be honored at the SCAA Induction Ceremony. There is no restriction on content, but submissions may not exceed 15 pages double-spaced and must be either one original, unpublished short story or one excerpt from a longer, unpublished work. You may submit multiple entries, but each entry must be accompanied with an entry fee. Entry fee is $20 per entry. We will accept entries in doc, docx, rtf, and pdf file formats. Applicants must be full-time residents of South Carolina and must not have won this Fellowship in the previous three years. Your name should not appear anywhere on the pages submitted. Include contact information in the appropriate fields along with a brief bio in the cover letter field on the submission manager. Be sure to click on the correct SC Academy of Authors submission link. This year’s final judge will be John Dufresne. Questions about the Coker Fellowship in Fiction should be sent to: [email protected]. |
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John Dufresne is the author of six novels: Louisiana Power & Light, Love Warps the Mind a Little, (both New York Times Notable Books of the Year) Deep in the Shade of Paradise, Requiem, Mass., No Regrets, Coyote, and I Don't Like Where This Is Going. He also wrote two short story collections: The Way That Water Enters Stone and Johnny Too Bad, as well as three chapbooks: Lethe, Cupid, Time and Love; Well Enough Alone; and I Will Eat a Piece of the Roof and You Can Eat the Window. He has two books on writing and creativity: The Lie That Tells a Truth: a Guide to Writing Fiction and Is Life Like This?: a Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months.
John was one of the thirteen authors of the mystery novel, Naked Came the Manatee. His short story “The Timing of Unfelt Smiles” was included in Miami Noir and in Best American Mystery Stories 2007. Another short story, “The Cross-Eyed Bear,” was included in Boston Noir and Best American Mystery Stories 2010. John wrote a full-length play, Trailerville, which was produced at the Blue Heron Theatre in New York in 2005. He also wrote the screenplay for the award-winning short film The Freezer Jesus. He co-wrote the screenplay for To Live and Die in Dixie with Don Papy. John was a 2012-13 Guggenheim Fellow and teaches in the MFA program at Florida International University in Miami. |