Eligibility Criteria & Submission Guidelines

• The James Applewhite Poetry Prize competition is open to any writer who fits the NCLR definition of a North Carolina writer: anyone who currently lives in North Carolina, has lived in North Carolina, or uses North Carolina as subject matter.
• Poets may submit between February 15 and May 1: up to 3 poems for a $15 entry fee, up to 5 poems for a $20 entry fee (checks payable to NCLR).
• Submit poems in a single Word file, electronically via the NCLR’s online submission process before midnight May 1. For electronic submission instructions, start the online submission process.
  * Contact NCLR’s Submission Assistant if you have any questions about the electronic submission process.
• Names should not appear in the Word file with the poems; poets will register with the NCLR’s online submission system, which will collect contact information and connect it to the submissions.
• The entry fee must be mailed to the NCLR office (address below) by the postmark deadline (May 1 each year or the following Monday if May 1 falls on a Sunday).
  * At this time, we cannot accept credit card payments, but these guidelines will be emended when we are able to do so.
• The submission fee will be waived for NCLR subscribers and members of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association (NCLHA).† You may subscribe to NCLR or join the NCLHA with your submission.
  † Members of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association receive both the NCLR and the North Carolina Historical Review as part of their membership fees.
• Make submission entry fee checks payable to NCLR. Make subscription checks payable to the North Carolina Literary Review. Make checks for membership in NCLHA, if choosing that option, payable to the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association.
• Mail all checks or money orders to (checks for membership in the NCLHA will be forwarded by the NCLR staff):

  North Carolina Literary Review
  ECU Mailstop 555 English
  Greenville, NC 27858-4353

NCLR Poetry Editor Jeffrey Franklin will select poems to be published in the next year’s issue from the submissions to this competition. James Applewhite will choose the winning poem from these finalists.

The winner and finalists will be publicly announced in September at the Eastern North Carolina Literary Homecoming, held annually at East Carolina University in Greenville. All who submit will also receive notification of the competition results via email; you do not need to be present to participate in the competition. A press release will be posted on the NCLR website and on NCLR’s Facebook page, as well as sent out to the media.

The winning poem and select finalists will be published in the following year’s issue of the North Carolina Literary Review. The authors of the published poems will receive two complimentary copies of the issue in which their poem(s) appear(s).

Questions may be directed to the NCLR Submissions Assistant or to the NCLR Editor.