Hub City and Emrys Foundation Announce Writing Contest Winners

The annual Hub City/Emrys Creative Writing Prize has been awarded to Preston Lewis in fiction and Dawn Johnson Mitchell in poetry. The contest, sponsored by the Hub City Writers Project and the Emrys Foundation, is open to adults in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties in South Carolina, and Polk County in North Carolina.

Preston Lewis of Spartanburg won the fiction contest for his story, “Midday at Mama’s," about a woman named Frances whose “attic was full of ideas just waiting to come to life.” His story illustrates complex family bonds with humor as Frances goes about an afternoon preparing and eating lunch with her family.

Dawn Johnson Mitchell of Greer won the poetry contest with her poem “Wellington, Kansas 1961.” The poem describes a photograph of a young girl and explores the author’s desire to get to know her mother as a child.

The fiction runner up was Jules Hogan of Spartanburg for her story, “Still Life.” The poetry runner up was Torie Amarie Dale of Taylors for her poem “Tremulant.”

The winners of the Hub City/Emrys Upstate Writing Prize receive a full scholarship to Hub City’s Writing in Place Conference, held annually at Wofford College and the runners-up receive $50 scholarships to the Conference.

The Hub City Writers Project is a non-profit organization in Spartanburg dedicated to cultivating readers and nurturing writers through its independent small press, community bookstore, and diverse literary programming that serves our community and beyond. The Emrys Foundation, based in Greenville, nurtures creativity among emerging and established writers.

Preston Lewis

Lewis is a science teacher at the South Carolina School for the Blind in Spartanburg. In his spare time, he enjoys writing short stories that depict the humor in the mundane, inspired by his upbringing in a rural South Carolina community.

Dawn Johnson Mitchell

Mitchell spent the last eighteen years working with both students and teachers at Spartanburg District Six, Furman University, and with the Spartanburg Writing Project at USC Upstate. Dawn is committed to being an advocate and a source of support for teachers and students.

Jules Hogan

Hogan's work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Appalachian Heritage, the Raleigh Review, BULL: Men's Fiction, and elsewhere. In the fall, Hogan will join the fiction program at Arizona State University.

Torie Amarie Dale

Dale’s work was adapted into a film and has appeared in numerous literary and research journals, including: Iodine, The Petigru Review, Writers’ Inc.,and others. In addition to working on her own poetry manuscript, Torie works as the Director and Managing Editor of V Press LC.