RANDALL KENAN SELECTS NANCY WERKING POLING WINNER OF THE 2018 ALEX ALBRIGHT CREATIVE NONFICTION PRIZE
(31 August 2018)
Nancy Werking Poling is the winner of the 2018 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize competition for “Leander’s Lies.” Poling will receive $1000 from the North Carolina Literary Review,thanks to a generous NCLR reader’s donation that allowed this year’s honorarium to increase (from the previous award of $250). Her winning essay will be published in the North Carolina Literary Review(NCLR) in 2019.
Editor Margaret Bauer reports that submissions for the competition doubled from previous years. A total of 15 finalists out of 63 submissions were sent to this year’s final judge, Randall Kenan. Kenan is the author of several books, including the nonfiction Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century, and will be inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame in October. Kenan selected Poling’s story for the 2018 Albright Prize, saying, “It was love at first read to me, and stands out in originality and in tone.”
After years of living in many parts of the country, Nancy Werking Poling reports that she is “now happily settled in Black Mountain, NC, an area where nature and history are honored.” Historical influences are woven into her 2017 nonfiction book, Before It was Legal: A Black–White Marriage (1945–1987). Poling is also the author of Had Eve Come First and Jonah Been a Woman (2010), a short story collection, and Out of the Pumpkin Shell (2009), a novel. She has recently completed another novel, currently titled “Wrap Me Tight in Earthen Cloak,” which is set in North Carolina and inspired by the question: During this period of environmental crisis, how do I make my voice and life count?
Nancy Werking Poling 
Oh, Nancy. This is thrilling! What an honor. Now, how can I read it? Congratulations. Cannan
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I think the Review is in production. When it comes out I’ll let you know.
Yay! Im so proud to know you! Take me out to dinner!
Jerry Pope http://serpentchild.org — “The Art of Community”
On Wed, Sep 5, 2018 at 4:11 PM, Nancy Werking Poling wrote:
> Nancy Werking Poling posted: “RANDALL KENAN SELECTS NANCY WERKING POLING > WINNER OF THE 2018 ALEX ALBRIGHT CREATIVE NONFICTION PRIZE (31 August 2018) > Nancy Werking Poling is the winner of the 2018 Alex Albright Creative > Nonfiction Prize competition for “Leander’s Lies.” Poling will re” >
McDonald’s or Taco Bell?
Wonderful, wonderful! Congratulations!
Hope to see you Tuesday.
Judy
Thanks, Judy.
Hi Nancy, I can’t tell you (but I will) how happy I am for your well-deserved recognition (and the $$$$) award! Yahoo! and Congratulations!😍 Judy
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A special thanks to you and other friends who encourage me.
Wonderful news and what an honor. You are a rock star dear hard working Nancy. Whooohoo! Mary
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Thanks so much, Mary.
Congratulations, Nancy. Nice to see hard work rewarded.
Susan
Thanks, Susan. We miss you in our book group.
Woohooooo!! Congratulations! This is wonderful.
Good for you! Don’t spend all that money in one place.
Verna
Thank you. Your friendship and encouragement have meant so much to me.
Wonderful news! I am so happy to see that you are being recognized and honored in this way. Well deserved.
Congratulations on being recognized and honored in such a meaningful way.
Thank you. The support of many along the way, including you, has meant a lot.
CHEERS! I’m really behind in reading emails…Congratulations!