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SC Arts Commission Press Releases

September 19 , 2007

Media Contact:

Milly Hough
(803) 734-8696
mhough@arts.sc.gov

COLUMBIA, S.C. –The South Carolina Arts Commission is proud to announce the 12 winners of the 2007-2008 South Carolina Fiction Project, a contest of previously unpublished short stories sponsored in partnership with The Post and Courier. Honorees will receive $500 for first publication rights of their stories, which will be published in a special newspaper insert on Sunday, Sept. 23, and then posted on www.charleston.net. A direct link will also be posted on www.SouthCarolinaArts.com.

This year’s honorees are:
Brandon Cooper Dyches, Chapin – “Silent Pancakes”
Charles Geer, Charleston – “Honor Student”
Randall Kent Ivey, Union – “A Soldier for God”
Nancy Mace Kreml, Columbia – “Not Now”
Brenda Dale McClain, Edisto Island – “My Father’s Story”
Joel Andrew McCollough, Taylors – “Night Shift”
Catherine McKinney, Simpsonville – “Girls”
Michael Miller, Columbia – “The Lamp”
Brian Ray, Columbia – “Self-portrait in C”
Wilma W. Reitz, Greenville – “On a Downtown Street”
Fred M. Robinson, Mount Pleasant – “A Leaky Roof”
Cameron Sperry, Ravenel – “Calamity”
Anthony Varallo, Charleston – “Kin, Kind”

Entries, which were judged by novelists Mike Heppner and Ellen Litman, were evaluated on literary quality and suitability for a general newspaper audience. Biographies for honorees and judges are listed below. Extended biographies and photos of each honoree, as well as comments from the judges, can be found at www.southcarolinaarts.com/fictionproject.

The S.C. Fiction Project is open to any South Carolina resident who is at least 18 years old. Writers can submit previously unpublished short stories of 2,500 words or less. Stories are judged by a panel of professional writers; selection will be based on literary quality and suitability for a general newspaper audience. Entries for the 2008 contest must be postmarked by Jan. 15, 2008.

For more details about the Fiction Project, visit www.southcarolinaarts.com or contact Sara June Goldstein, director of Literary Arts at the SC Arts Commission, at (803) 734-8694 or goldstsa@arts.sc.gov.

2007–2008 S.C. Fiction Project Honorees
Brandon Cooper Dyches (“Silent Pancakes”) grew up in the Midlands of South Carolina and now divides his time between Chapin, S.C., and New York. “Silent Pancakes" is his first short story.

Charlie Geer (“Honor Student”) is the author of the novel “Outbound: The Curious Secession of Latter-Day Charleston,” which won the 2006 Independent Publishers Book Award for Best Regional Fiction, Southeast. His work has appeared in Tin House, The Sun, and the Southern Review.

Randall Ivey (“A Soldier for God”) is an English instructor at the University of South Carolina in Union and the author of two short story collections, “The Shape of a Man: A Novella and Five Stories” and “The Mutilation Gypsy” and a recent book for children, “Jay and the Bounty of Books.”

Nancy Kreml (“Not Now“) lives in Columbia, Chicago, and Pawley's Island. She has taught English for many years at Midlands Technical College in Columbia, and has also taught in Beijing, China. She reads her poetry at Piccolo Spoleto, and has authored a textbook for freshman composition.

Brenda McClain (“My Father's Story”) writes out of her barn at Edisto Island, and, for that, she calls herself a blessed woman. She's working on a story inspired by a major historical event in the early 1950s in South Carolina.

Joel McCollough (“Night Shift”) of Taylors was a winner in the 2004 Piccolo Spoleto Short Fiction Open. His poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in numerous publications, including Southern Poetry Review, Cumberland Poetry Review and Illuminations.

Catherine McKinney (“Girls”) grew up in Aynor, S.C., and later spent many years moving up and down the East Coast and once to the Midwest. She is currently working on a master's degree in communication disorders at USC and lives outside Greenville.

Michael Miller (“The Lamp”) earned a degree in English from the College of Charleston and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina. He is a former reporter, features writer and columnist for The State newspaper in Columbia.

Brian Ray (“Self-portrait in C”) recently finished his Master of Fine Arts at the University of South Carolina, where he is now teaching full-time. His stories have appeared in Green Mountains Review, Louisiana Review, and Re:al. He is currently at work on a novel and a nonfiction book.
Wilma W. Reitz (“On a Downtown Street”) graduated from Concord University and taught English at National College in Virginia. Now a resident of South Carolina for more than 20 years, she has completed one novel and has received regional writing awards for short fiction and non-fiction.

Fred M. Robinson (“A Leaky Roof”) is a native of Mount Pleasant. He retired in 1989 after 30 years of civil service in Charleston. His writing includes several family history books, two nostalgia books and one fiction novel. He is working on a true history of Shop-31 and a futuristic, science fiction novel.

Cameron Sperry (“Calamity”) is a native of Charleston. She holds a master's degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and is coordinator of the writing center at Trident Technical College in North Charleston. "Calamity" was inspired by her friends, the huntresses at Lightsey Hunt Club for Ladies in Brunson, S.C.

About the Jurors
Mike Heppner is the author of two novels, “The Egg Code” (Knopf, 2002) and “Pike's Folly” (Knopf, 2006). His writing has also appeared in Esquire Online and Nerve.com. The Egg Code was named by the Washington Post and Publishers Weekly to their "Best of the Year" lists and was nominated for a Quality Paperback Book Club New Voices Award. Pike's Folly was praised by Publishers Weekly for its "...haunting and redemptive vision of New England's past and present," and by Esquire for its "...breezy black humor that cloaks a biting satire." He lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, and teaches Creative Writing at Emerson College. A third novel is forthcoming.

Ellen Litman is the author of The Last Chicken in America, a novel in stories. Her stories have appeared in Best New American Voices 2007, Best of Tin House, Ontario Review, Triquarterly, Ploughshares, and other magazines. Her fiction won first prize in the Atlantic Monthly 2003 Fiction Contest, and she's been awarded the 2006 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, as well as fiction fellowships at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Fine Arts Center in Provincetown, and scholarships to the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. She holds an Master of Fine Arts from Syracuse University and teaches Creative Writing at the University of Connecticut.

About SCAC
The South Carolina Arts Commission is the state agency charged with creating a thriving arts environment that benefits all South Carolinians, regardless of their location or circumstances. Created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the Arts Commission focuses on increasing public participation in the arts by providing services, grants and leadership initiatives in three areas: arts education, community arts development and artist development. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the Arts Commission is funded by the state of South Carolina and by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information, visit www.SouthCarolinaArts.com or call (803) 734-8696.

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