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Release day for S.C. Novel Series winner

Robert Maynor debuts as novelist


Copious amounts of high school football scores and updates populated The Hub's X timeline last Friday night—Week Zero, apparently—so we applaud the timing of this book release.

The Big Game Is Every Night, debut novel of South Carolina Novel Series winner Robert Maynor, is set for release by Hub City Press today. Maynor, a Lowcountry writer, was announced as inaugural winner of the novel series roughly a year ago. Writers selected for biennial publication in this series are awarded $1,500 and book publication, including marketing and tour support from Hub City Press and the series partners: the South Carolina Arts Commission, South Carolina State Library, and South Carolina Humanities. The novel also receives placement in all South Carolina state libraries and readings/events with presenting sponsors, making it accessible to broad segments of our population! Keep reading for tour dates.

Cover art for The Big Game Is Every Night, with an owl depicted in black and white sketch sitting on the bare limb of a tree on a black background

About The Big Game Is Every Night

Told in the keen, honest voice of a young man growing up on the rural South Carolina coast, The Big Game Is Every Night grapples with masculinity, race, and family in contemporary blue-collar America. Grady Hayes’s whole life revolves around football. When he breaks his leg starting a game against a rival high school, his life comes unglued. As he recovers, Grady grows bored and angry. He no longer relates to his mom, his cousin, or the girl he’s been talking to, and loses interest in catfishing and eating family suppers on the weekends. When Grady tries to return to the team, his spot has been filled, and there are rumors flying about why Coach made Grady a starting running-back in the first place. Frustrated and alone, Grady falls in with Hambone, a brooding older classmate, who takes him deep into the swamps to hunt racoons and experiment with drugs. After an ugly confrontation with another player in the locker room, his relationship with Hambone turns dark and violent. Out of options, Grady’s mom calls in his estranged father to set him straight, and Grady realizes that his dad isn’t the man he remembers. In his debut novel, Robert Maynor delivers a literary Lowcountry Friday Night Lights that shines a harsh light on the ways American men are steeped in violence, and how hard it can be to shake loose the toxic norms that unchecked can keep us all so far apart. - Hub City Press

Book tour info

TONIGHT! at 5 p.m. The Sparrow, 1078 E. Montague Ave # D, North Charleston SEPT. 12 at 6 p.m. All Good Books, 734 Harden St., Columbia with poet and author Ray McManus, 2023 S.C. Governor's Award for the Arts recipient SEPT. 14 at 6 p.m. Hub City Bookshop, 186 W. Main St., Spartanburg  

Jason Rapp

Hub City Writers’ Project announces new leadership

Hub City Writers Project will undergo a leadership change beginning April 1 when as current Executive Director Anne Waters moves on to new opportunities after six years heading the nonprofit literary organization.

Hub City Press Director Meg Reid will assume the role of executive director and publisher. Reid joined Hub City Writers Project in 2013 as assistant director, and in 2017 became director of Hub City Press and programs amid the press’s move to a national distributor. Reid has been an integral part of Hub City Press’s rise as a nationally significant publisher. Since 2017, Hub City Press books have made regular appearances in national newspapers, including at least eight mentions in the New York Times Book Review, as well as the Wall Street Journal, magazines like the New Yorker, and on NPR and Good Morning America. Books have won many awards and been longlisted for awards like the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry, The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and The Story Prize and have been translated into German, Italian, Vietnamese, Korean and many other languages. Reid was named a Publishers Weekly Star Watch Honoree in 2021. “I've watched Meg absolutely find her niche at Hub City over the last decade, and I know she’s ready to lead,” says Susan Myers, chair of Hub City Writers Projects’ board of directors. “We are beyond lucky to have her immense talent and experience to guide the organization with a clear vision.” “The work I’ve done for Hub City over the past ten years has fundamentally changed the way I think about the world and has fostered in me a belief that inclusive literary communities are vital in all places, large and small,” says Reid. “I’m deeply honored to have the chance to lead the organization into its exciting next chapter.” As the head of HCWP’s leadership team, Reid will develop a mission-driven business strategy and overall artistic vision for the organization, leading from a firm set of values based on equity, community partnerships, and transparency. “Meg has devoted the past decade of her professional career advancing the mission of Hub City Writers Project,” Waters said. “She has done a phenomenal job as director of Hub City Press, and I expect she will do the same as executive director and publisher. I look forward to seeing what she and her extraordinary staff achieve in the coming years.” Since its founding by Betsy Teter, John Lane, and Gary Henderson in 1995, Hub City Writers Project’s mission has been cultivating readers and nurturing writers through its independent press, community bookshop, literacy outreach, and diverse literary programming. Hub City Press has published over 100 high caliber literary works of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, as well as books of regional history, and is the distributor of Southern Foodways Alliance’s Gravy Quarterly magazine. Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Hub City Press books have been widely praised and featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. Hub City Bookshop has twice been named one of the South’s best bookshops by Southern Living, and was named 2019 Bookshop of the Year by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. Every other year, Hub City Press and the South Carolina Arts Commission are partners in recognizing South Carolina authors with the South Carolina Novel Series.

Jason Rapp

Lowcountry writer wins S.C. Novel Series with debut work

A look at blue-collar Lowcountry life

Hub City Press announced today that Robert Maynor was selected as the winner of the 2022 South Carolina Novel Series for his debut novel, The Big Game is Every Night.

Hub City Press will publish the novel in the fall of 2023. The South Carolina Novel Series publishes a novel by a South Carolina writer biennially. Writers selected for publication in this series are awarded $1,500 and book publication, including marketing and tour support from Hub City Press and the series partners. The novel also receives placement in all South Carolina state libraries and readings/events with presenting sponsors. The Big Game is Every Night is told in the keen, honest voice of a young high school football player growing up in rural South Carolina Lowcountry and gives readers a glimpse into the cultural forces that shape contemporary blue-collar America. “The South Carolina Arts Commission is proud to provide South Carolina’s artists with career development opportunities like this one. We are excited to read a novel that is set in our state and is by a South Carolina author. Congratulations to Robert on this achievement, and we thank Hub City Press for being our partners,” South Carolina Arts Commission Executive Director David Platts said. “Hub City Press is thrilled to publish Robert's debut novel as the inaugural selection of the South Carolina Novel Series next year, and to continue the great work we have accomplished in our 15-year partnership with the South Carolina Arts Commission,” said Meg Reid, director of Hub City Press.

About Robert Maynor

Robert Maynor is from the Lowcountry of South Carolina. He lives and writes in a patched-up fish camp on the bank of the Edisto River, the longest free-flowing blackwater river in North America. His fiction explores the spectrum of complexities and contradictions in the contemporary American South. His short stories have appeared in Blood Orange Review, BULL, the Carolina Quarterly, and CRAFT, among other outlets. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and he is the past recipient of the Larry Brown Short Story Award and the Coker Fellowship in Fiction from the South Carolina Academy of Authors. The Big Game Is Every Night is his first novel.

About the S.C. Novel Series

The South Carolina Novel Series is open to writers of all levels who have lived in South Carolina for at least one year prior to submission of their manuscript. Co-sponsors include the South Carolina Arts Commission, the South Carolina State Library and South Carolina Humanities. Submissions for the series will open on Jan. 1, 2024 and close April 15, 2024. No submission fee is required.

Series Partners

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 works to increase 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, by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources. Visit SouthCarolinaArts.com or call 803.734.8696, and follow @scartscomm on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for #Arts4SC and #SCartists content. Founded in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1995, Hub City Press is the South’s premier independent literary press. Focused on finding and spotlighting extraordinary new and unsung writers from the American South, our curated list champions diverse authors and books that don’t fit into the commercial publishing landscape. The press has published over ninety high-caliber literary works, including novels, short stories, poetry, memoir, and books emphasizing the region's culture and history. Hub City is interested in books with a strong sense of place and is committed to introducing a diverse roster of lesser-heard Southern voices. The South Carolina State Library develops, supports, and sustains a thriving statewide community of learners committed to making South Carolina stronger. The Library serves the people of South Carolina by supporting state government and libraries to provide opportunities for learning in a changing environment. It is the primary administrator of federal and state support for the state’s libraries. In 1969, as the result of action by the General Assembly, the State Library Board was redesignated as the South Carolina State Library and assumed responsibility for public library development, library service for state institutions, service for the blind and physically handicapped, and library service to state government agencies. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the Library is funded by the state of South Carolina, by the federal government through the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and other sources. For more information, please visit www.statelibrary.sc.gov or call 803.734.8666. South Carolina Humanities is the state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The mission of South Carolina Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. South Carolina Humanities programs and initiatives are balanced, reflect sensitivity to a diversity of ideas, encourage open dialogue, demonstrate integrity, and are ethical in operations. For more information, visit www.schumanities.org or call 803.771.2477.

Jason Rapp

Hey writers: One more week to finish up your manuscripts

S.C. Novel Series submission deadline is April 15

Frustrated woman writer lost concentration feeling lack of creative ideas

If this is you, we're sorry. But...

You have ONE WEEK to finalize that manuscript for the South Carolina Novel Series. The Hub brought you updates for the partnership this past December, so you have surely been hard at work ever since. We felt a reminder was in order just in case. Here's the program in a nutshell: Every other year, the South Carolina Novel Series recognizes one of South Carolina’s exceptional writers. Writers selected for publication in this series are awarded $1,500 and book publication, including marketing and tour support from Hub City Press and the series partners, as well as placement in all South Carolina state libraries and readings/events with presenting sponsors. The series is open to writers of all levels who have lived in South Carolina for at least one year prior to submission of their manuscript. Submissions for the series opened Jan. 1 and will close next Friday, April 15. Good news: they require no submission fee. The South Carolina Novel Series is a partnership of the South Carolina Arts Commission, Hub City Press, South Carolina Humanities and the South Carolina State Library.

Jason Rapp

S.C. Novel Prize announces changes

Hub City Press and the South Carolina Arts Commission announce changes to their South Carolina Novel Prize.

[caption id="attachment_48686" align="alignright" width="250"]Logos for Hub City Press, South Carolina Arts Commission, South Carolina State Library and South Carolina Humanities. To partner on the South Carolina Novel Series an expansion of the South Carolina Novel Prize that will publish new fiction from S.C. writers. Click image to enlarge.[/caption] Starting in 2022, the prize will be renamed the South Carolina Novel Series and will biennially award $1,500 and book publication to a novel by a writer living in South Carolina. Final selection will be made by Hub City Press editors. The series is open to writers of all levels who have lived in South Carolina for at least one year prior to submission of their manuscript. Co-sponsors include the South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC), the South Carolina State Library and South Carolina Humanities. Submissions for the series will open on January 1, 2022 and will close April 15, 2022 and will require no submission fee. Hub City Press Director Meg Reid says of the new series, “We are thrilled to announce this expanded series that continues the good work we have accomplished with the Novel Prize over our 14-year partnership with the South Carolina Arts Commission. Our shared priority with this series is to increase accessibility while elevating the finest writers living and working in South Carolina.” SCAC Executive Director David Platts adds, “Like any good draft, this partnership is evolving to improve. As it does so, it furthers the South Carolina Arts Commission’s mission to cultivate creativity in the Palmetto State while creating professional opportunities for artists. Hub City Press is nationally recognized, award-winning, and already does those things. We are grateful to have them as the strongest possible partner for this program and are proud they call South Carolina home.” The selected author will receive a book contract with Hub City Press. Upon successful execution of the contract with Hub City, the selected author will receive a $1,500 advance against royalties. Submission information can be found here. Manuscripts will be taken through online submission during the open reading period only.
Founded in Spartanburg in 1995, Hub City Press is the South’s premier independent literary press. Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and focused on finding and spotlighting extraordinary new and unsung writers from the American South, their curated list champions diverse authors and books that don’t fit into the commercial or academic publishing landscape. Hub City Press books have been widely praised and reviewed in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, and many other outlets.

Jason Rapp

Hub City to celebrate publication of S.C. Novel Prize winner

An Evening with Maris Lawyer

Join Hub City Writer's Project for a special book launch event with Hub City Press author Maris Lawyer tonight at 7 p.m.

Lawyer's debut novel, The Blue Line Down, is the winner of the 2020 South Carolina Novel Prize.  It was officially released Tuesday. Tonight's event unofficially launches the book and welcomes her to the Hub City family. Just 20 in-person seats are available for the event. If you're in or near the Spartanburg area, reserve an in-person seat for free here. For those who aren't able to attend in person, Hub City Press will also stream live on Facebook. Interested in the book? Hub City will be glad to help with that.

Jason Rapp

Tuning Up: SEPF, Hub City Press news

Good morning! 

"Tuning Up" is a morning post series where The Hub delivers curated, quick-hit arts stories of interest to readers. Sometimes there will be one story, sometimes there will be several. Get in tune now, and have a masterpiece of a day. And now, in no particular order...
In-person SEPF scheduled. Cancelled last year like so many things, the Southeastern Piano Festival announced its plans to return to an in-person format this year. Make plans now for events June 12-20. Pre-college pianists aged 13-18 have just days to apply for its Arthur Fraser International Concerto Competition (which was held late last year via livestream). Community-facing highlights include the competition and public performances by a stellar roster of international guest artists. Hub City Press is a recipient of a South Arts Resilience Fund grant supporting their ability to pivot in the face of the pandemic, and emerge more resilient than before. With these funds, Hub City Press reshaped their editorial team to better tell the untold stories of the South, connect with unheard voices across the region, and transform the landscape for Southern literature. Read their story on the South Arts website.      

Jason Rapp

Prize-winning novel’s cover revealed

Pre-orders open for Blue Line Down


The 2020 South Carolina Novel Prize winner is inching closer to its publication date.

Late last week, Hub City Press revealed the cover art for Blue Line Down (below) and began accepting pre-orders for Maris Lawyer's new novel. Lawyer, a writer from Easley who lives in Greenville, was judged best among the submissions for the state's biennial book award. It is slated for a June 2021 release. (In a spin on what the youth say, "That's it. That's the post.")  

Jason Rapp

2020 S.C. Novel Prize goes to Upstate writer

Winning manuscript publishes in 2021


The South Carolina Arts Commission, Hub City Press, the College of Charleston, the South Carolina State Library,  and South Carolina Humanities are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2020 South Carolina Novel Prize is Maris Lawyer for her manuscript The Blue Line Down.  

Lawyer’s winning manuscript will be published in 2021 by Hub City Press of Spartanburg.

Maris Lawyer (right) grew up in Oconee County and hasn’t strayed far since. Graduating with a degree in Creative Writing from Anderson University in 2017, she then moved into a tiny apartment in Greenville with her husband, where she spent her evenings hunched over a laptop writing stories. Maris and her husband (and two cats) are now homeowners in Easley, where she still catches a glimpse of the Blue Ridge Mountains every day.

Stephanie Powell Watts, author of We Are Taking Only What We Need and No One is Coming to Save Us was the judge of the biennial prize this year. Of the winning manuscript, Watts wrote, “Readers are always looking for the topic that both feels familiar until we scratch the surface a little and realize we know almost nothing about it. In the clear light of the present, movements, protests and even revolutions of the past can seem obvious and inevitable. History loves to condense the story, connecting dots to make the narrative cohere. However, there is turmoil, angst, and great human suffering in between those dots. This story shows us how a decent enough person might be compelled to aid and abet bullies and killers. The story also shows us the main character's remarkable path to possible redemption.”


The South Carolina Novel Prize is funded by the following partner organizations:

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.

Hub City Press was founded in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1995 and since then has emerged as one of the South's premier independent presses.

The College of Charleston is home not only to a cadre of nationally and internationally recognized writing faculty, but also houses one of the country’s premiere literary journals, Crazyhorse, published since 1960 and consistently ranked as among the top publishing venues in the nation. The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program provides students an immersion in a world of prose and poetry and the practical aspects of establishing a career in the arts.

The South Carolina State Library develops, supports, and sustains a thriving statewide community of learners committed to making South Carolina stronger. The Library serves the people of South Carolina by supporting state government and libraries to provide opportunities for learning in a changing environment.

South Carolina Humanities is the state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. SC Humanities presents and supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, publications, oral history projects, videos and other humanities-based experiences that directly or indirectly reach more than 250,000 citizens annually.

For more information about the Novel Competition, visit or call http://www.SouthCarolinaArts.com, 803.734.8696; and http://www.hubcity.org, 864.577.9349.


More about Maris Lawyer

Maris Lawyer is a born and bred native of the South Carolina Upstate. She graduated with a degree in creative writing from Anderson University and has since gone to work as an HR generalist for an environmental consulting firm in Greenville. Maris lives in Easley with her husband Benjamin and two cats, Merlin and Luna. Alongside reading and writing, Maris spends much of her time fussing over the vegetable garden in her back yard. In The Blue Line Down, protagonist Jude Washer leaves his tormented childhood in the Virginian coal mines to join the Baldwin-Felts agents—the very agents who hunted down and disbanded the unionizers at his own mine camp. Instead of living a life of power and control, Jude finds himself disturbed by the brutal brand of justice dealt out by the Baldwin-Felts, and seeks to free himself and his young trainee, Harvey. An unplanned escape turns into a harrowing manhunt as Jude and Harvey flee the Baldwin-Felts, traveling down the Blue Ridge Mountains only to fall into the hands of bootleggers—who may present a greater threat than the Baldwin-Felts.

Submitted material

Finalists named for 2020 South Carolina Novel Prize

Winner to be selected next week


The South Carolina Arts Commission and Hub City Press announce the three books named finalists in the 2020 South Carolina Novel Competition.

The finalists are: Rebecca Helms of Murrells Inlet for her manuscript Singing in the Corn, Maris Lawyer of Easley for The Blue Line Down, and Susanne Parker of Spartanburg for her novel What Happens to the Children. The winner will be announced next week and will have her book published in 2021 by Hub City Press of Spartanburg. Stephanie Powell Watts, was the judge of the biennial prize. Watts is the author of the novel, No One Is Coming to Save Us, and a short story collection, We Are Taking Only What We Need, which won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. Her short fiction has been included in two volumes of the Best New Stories from the South anthology and honored with a Pushcart Prize. Born in the foothills of North Carolina, with a PhD from the University of Missouri and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, she now lives with her husband and son in Pennsylvania where she is an associate professor at Lehigh University.

Rebecca D. Helms is a South Carolinian novelist, short-story writer, and poet who discovered her love of literature by the time she was only ten years old. Her style is influenced by the grit and grace of the Carolina low-country and her voice is an echo of the maternal village who raised her and showed her the way. Her first novel, Singing in the Corn, carries her readers deep inside every adventure with humor, fear, darkness, and joy—in many scenes, all at the same time. Ms. Helms is currently finalizing her Doctoral degree in Educational Leadership and works abroad while writing her next novel.

Maris Lawyer grew up in Oconee County, South Carolina, and hasn’t strayed far since. Graduating with a degree in Creative Writing from Anderson University in 2017, she then moved into a tiny apartment in Greenville, South Carolina with her husband, where she spent her evenings hunched over a laptop writing stories. Maris and her husband (and two cats) are now homeowners in Easley, South Carolina, where she still catches a glimpse of the Blue Ridge Mountains every day.

Susanne Parker is a Hub City native and graduate of the Converse College Creative Writing MFA. She loves to read journey and travel narratives when she isn’t embarking on some new adventure herself. Susanne works as a library assistant and spends her free time tending the single, enormous sunflower in her garden and snuggling with her pets. What Happens to the Children is her first novel.


The South Carolina Novel Prize is funded by the South Carolina Arts Commission, Hub City Press, South Carolina Humanities, South Carolina State Library, and the College of Charleston's Masters of Fine Arts Creative Writing department. For more information about the Novel Competition, visit or call the South Carolina Arts Commission (SouthCarolinaArts.com | 803.734.8696); or Hub City Press (HubCity.org | 864.577.9349).

Jason Rapp