2010 Hub City Creative Writing Prizes Announced

The Hub City Writers Project recently announced the winners of their 12th annual Hub City Creative Writing Prizes. Here’s the PSA …

The 12th annual Hub City Creative Writing Prizes have been awarded to Carol Isler in poetry and Erika McBeth in fiction. Bertice Robinson received the Scott Lax Prize, which given to emerging writers over the age of 50. The contest, sponsored by the Hub City Writers Project, is open to adults in Spartanburg County.

Award-winning fiction writer Erika McBeth, in Harry Potter fan shirt.

Poetry winner Carol Isler lives in Lyman and teaches chemistry at Byrnes High School. She has previously won Hub City’s fiction prize. Of her poem “The New Bee Keeper,” the judge wrote: “This poet shows an ability to let the event speak for itself: the language is simple, the facts are simple, while the meaning …remains unspoken yet clear.’”

Second place in poetry went to Mary Peyton-Crook, an AmeriCorps Vista volunteer working at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Spartanburg, and third to Marie Griffin.
McBeth won the prize in fiction for a story called “Rise.” A lifelong Spartanburg resident, McBeth is enjoying her first year of motherhood. “The narrative voice exhibits the confidence of a true storyteller, which kept me engaged throughout this fine story,” the judge wrote.

Second place in fiction went to Bill Pell, a retired Spartanburg High English teacher who now teaches part-time at the Spartanburg Day School, and third to Carol Isler.

Bertice Robinson, who won the prize for emerging writers over 50, is a native of Newberry who is active in state and local writers groups. The Scott Lax Prize was established in 2008 and is underwritten by Hillcrest Publications of Spartanburg to honor novelist Scott Lax of Ohio.

First place winners of these contests receive a scholarship to the week-long Wildacres Writers Workshop in Little Switzerland, N.C. in July. Second and third place winners receive full or partial scholarships to Hub City’s Writing in Place conference July 30-Aug. 1.

The judge in the poetry contest was Jennie Neighbors of Spartanburg, author of Between the Twilight and the Sky (Parlor Press, 2008). The judge for the fiction was short story writer Sam Howie, who teaches at Converse College.

Congratulations to all of the winners.