South Carolina: First Novel Competition

The biennial South Carolina First Novel Competition is a unique partnership between the South Carolina Arts Commission and Hub City Press, an award-winning nonprofit independent press in Spartanburg. The contest is a highly competitive, anonymous process that is designed to help launch the careers of exceptional South Carolina writers and put top-quality novels in the hands of readers. Unlike some first-novel contests that recognize already published novels, the South Carolina First Novel Competition calls for unpublished manuscripts and offers the winner a book contract and publication of 1,500 copies of the novel with national distribution. Previous competition winners have received critical and popular acclaim and have gone on to publish additional books. Contest winners (Brian Ray, Matt Matthews and Susan Tekulve) also have benefited from their works being read by the distinguished writers who have served as judges, including Percival Everett, Bret Lott and Josephine Humphreys. The most recent winner, In the Garden of Stone by Susan Tekulve, will be released in May 2013. For additional information, contact Sara June Goldstein at the South Carolina Arts Commission.