South Carolina Academy of Authors announces Fiction Fellowship winner

The South Carolina Academy of Authors is pleased to announce Nancy Brock of Columbia, S.C, as the 2014 Fiction Fellowship winner. Brock’s short story, “Davy Crockett’s Last Stand,” was chosen by this year’s judge, professor and author Randall Kenan of the University of North Carolina.

“Davy Crockett’s Last Stand” is set in 1956, when Disney’s “Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter” was met with eager anticipation by television audiences–particularly by an earnest young high school history teacher who finds herself in a battle of wills with her better-informed, even-more-earnest student. Of the story, Kenan said, “this story has a simple, almost old-fashioned shape, like a bell. And though it is set in the so-called more innocent times of the 1950s, it gets at some important social undercurrents efficiently and not at the expense of character and story and drama. The main character remains a captivating young woman throughout this journey, and her parents have so much personality. Well-written, well-made, wonderfully memorable. I admire ‘Davy Crockett’s Last Stand’ tremendously.”

Of the pool of submissions, Kenan added, “This lot of writers covered the water front, from soldiers in Iraq to shape-shifters, from moonshine runners to noir-ish lovers running about in the night, from family dramas to dystopian trouble. This group of stories shows me how varied the world of writing remains, and, more important, it demonstrates how strong the written word remains in our land. Congratulations to them all.”

Brock will receive a $1,000 prize at a special brunch held in conjunction with the Academy’s annual induction ceremony. This year’s ceremony will be held in Greenville, S.C., April 26-27, when John Lane, Gilbert Allen, Janette Turner Hospital and Robert Quillen are inducted into the state’s literary hall of fame.

The submission period for the 2015 Fellowship will open next autumn.

For more information about the South Carolina Academy of Authors, visit www.scacademyofauthors.org.