Lena Shull Book Award

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Sponsored annually by the North Carolina Poetry Society, the Lena Shull Book Award honors the best manuscript of unpublished poetry written by a native or resident of North Carolina.  

The North Carolina Poetry Society is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2023 Lena M. Shull Poetry Book Award is It’s the Unremarkable that Will Last by Jim Zola of Greensboro. 

Contest judge Connie Post stated, “All of the manuscripts were very good. And I truly enjoyed reading all of them. However, these three stood out for their strong use of metaphor, effective and creative language and excellent use of economy of language. They all packed a powerful poetry punch! I chose It’s the Unremarkable that Will Last because it contains a tremendous amount of powerful themes, interesting use of language and inventive ideas. I felt the poet’s use of metaphor was especially strong and many poems had me hooked right from the beginning.  As Jane Kenyon said, “The poet’s job is to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, in such a beautiful way that people cannot live without it” and this poet, has certainly achieved this, in the manuscript.”

Jim Zola grew up in Niskayuna, New York. He went to school at the University of Missouri and graduated with a master’s degree in library science from the University of North Carolina Greensboro. He has worked as a security guard, as a librarian at the Central North Carolina School for the Deaf, and as a children’s librarian in High Point NC. He has published a chapbook titled The One Hundred Bones of Weather and three full-length poetry books — What Glorious PossibilitiesMonday After the End of the World, and Erasing Cabeza de Vaca. Zola currently lives in Greensboro. 

Honorable Mention was awarded to Headstrong by Nancy Martin-Young of Fuquay-Varina and Like Wind into Air by Joanie McLean from Siler City. 

The 2023 Lena Shull Poetry Book Contest judge was Connie Post.  She served as the first Poet Laureate of Livermore, California.  Her first full length book, Floodwater (Glass Lyre Press), won the 2014 Lyrebird Award.  Prime Meridian (Glass Lyre Press) was named as a distinguished favorite in the Independent Book Awards.  Her poetry awards include the Liakoura Award, the Caesura Award, and the Crab Creek Poetry Award.  Her most recent book, Between Twilight (New York Quarterly Books), will be released in February of 2023. 

To read more about previous winners of the Lena Shull Book Award, click here.

Lena Shull Poetry Book Contest Guidelines

ELIGIBILITY

  • The contest is open to any North Carolina poet.
  • Entrants must be native-born North Carolinians or current residents.
  • The manuscript must never have been previously published.

AWARDS

There will be a contest Winner and two Honorable Mentions.  The Winner will receive:

  • A cash prize of $250 presented to the winner only.
  • Publication of their book by Redhawk Publications.
  • 50 copies of their book.
  • The Winner and two Honorable Mentions may be invited to read at the fall meeting of the NCPS.  

SUBMISSIONS

The 2023 submission period will open June 15th and close July 20, 2023.

  • Each submission should include:
    1. A full-length manuscript of poems (approx. 50 or more).
    2. The manuscript should be correctly formatted with table of contents, title page and page numbers.  Please do not include a bio. or an acknowledgements page if individual poems have been previously published.  These will be requested if the manuscript wins.
    3. Submissions will be read blind.  The author’s name must be removed from all pages of the manuscript, including the title page.  You may not enter the contest if you are a family member, close friend, or current student of the contest’s judge.  No manuscript will be selected if the judge recognizes its author.
    4. No cover letter is necessary, but please include the author’s contact information including name, email, phone number and/or mailing address separate from the manuscript.
    5. Email submissions are strongly encouraged.  If you must submit a hard copy, postal entries may be sent to Sherry Pedersen-Thrasher, 3921 Kildaire Farm Road, Apex, NC 27539 and must be received by the closing date of the contest.
    6. Electronic entries should be sent as attachments in .doc, .docx, or .pdf.  pdf is strongly suggested so as to retain your intended formatting.  Please send the manuscript in an email attachment to sherrythrasherwriter@gmail.com.  Email must be received by midnight of the closing day of the contest (July 20, 2023).
    7. All entrants will receive email notification of the Winner and Honorable Mention. Please provide a SASE with your mailed entry if you cannot be reached by email.

ENTRY FEE

  • The entry fee for the contest is $25.  Pay the contest fee by using the DONATE button below and indicate you are paying the Lena Shull contest entry fee.
  • Checks (payable to NCPS) and postal entries may be sent to Sherry Thrasher at the address below and must be received by the closing date of the contest.  Unpaid entries will not be considered for the contest.

Send postal entries and entry fee to:

Sherry Pedersen-Thrasher
3921 Kildaire Farm Road
Apex, NC  27539

 Any questions?  Email Sherry at sherrythrasherwriter@gmail.com.

Contest Judge

  • The 2023 judge will be Connie Post

Past Judges

  • Ray McManus
  • Marcus Jackson
  • Allison E. Joseph
  • Patricia Fargnoli
  • Patricia Jabbeh-Wesley
  • Ann Garbett
  • Tom Yuill
  • Diane Lockward

We look forward to your participation!  Please feel free to contact Sherry Thrasher, contest coordinator, with any questions.

Please see our Facebook page for more information.

For a list of previous winners of the Lena Shull Book Award, click here.

The North Carolina Poetry Society would like to thank Red Hawk Publications for their generous support of and collaboration on this contest.