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Shenandoah Calls for Submissions for the Bevel Summers Prize

Shenandoah, the Washington and Lee University Review, will be accepting entries of short short stories for the annual Bevel Summers Prize from March 13 to March 31. This year’s judge will be disclosed after the 2013 winner is announced, which should occur in May.

Up to three unpublished entries of less than 1,000 words each may be submitted either via postal mail or through the submissions site accessed through Shenandoah’s website (https://shenandoah.submittable.com/submit). Anyone with questions about submissions should email shenandoah@wlu.edu.

The prize category will be accessible through this same submissions link on March 13. The winner of the contest will receive $1,000 and will be featured prominently in the next online issue.

The prize is named for the fictional evangelist Bevel Summers and the also fictional impressionable young boy who adopts his name in “The River,” by Flannery O’Connor, a widely acclaimed writer of short stories.

When the prize began in 2011, there were over 200 entries and in 2012, over 400.  The 2011 winner was Marsha McSpadden, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., for her piece “Facsimile in Boots,” and the 2012 winner was Jim McDermott of the Washington, D.C., area for “The Pointer.” The judge in 2012 was Prof. Chris Gavaler of the Washington and Lee English Department.

The 2013 prize winner will be announced on the Shenandoah and the Washington and Lee websites as well as in other news media. All finalists will be eligible for publication in Shenandoah.

Postal mail should be addressed to: Shenandoah, 17 Courthouse Square, Lexington, VA  24450

News Contact:
Julie Cline
News Writer
jcline@wlu.edu
540-458-8954