AUGUSTA, GA.- The winners of the 2020 Porter Fleming Literary Competition have been announced by the
Morris Museum of Art. They are:
FICTION
1st Place: Joseph Kitchens, Jasper, Georgia; Going Home on the Nancy Hanks (1961)
2nd Place: Joseph Kitchens, Jasper, Georgia; The Dove
3rd Place: Bill Phillips, Augusta, Georgia; The Right to Vote
Honorable Mention:
Leslie Peterson, Aiken, South Carolina; The Memories of Cherished Friends
Judge: Matthew Null, a novelist (Honey from the Lion) and short story writer, is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is a winner of the O. Henry Award, the Mary McCarthy Prize, and the Joseph Brodksy Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. After a residency at the American Academy in Rome, he taught in the English Department faculty at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, before moving to Western Pennsylvania, where now lives and works.
NON-FICTION
1st Place: Kristie Johnson, Grovetown, Georgia; A Meditation on Return Voyages
2nd Place: Scott Mason, Raleigh, North Carolina; Annsquam
3rd Place: Sea Stachura, Augusta, Georgia; How Gutters Gave Me Self-Worth
Judge: Barry Yeoman is an award-winning journalist and radio documentarian who has taught at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and Center for Documentary Studies. Besides doing his own journalism, Barry teaches magazine writing to undergraduates at Wake Forest University and narrative non-fiction writing to adults at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies. He works with the non-profit images and Voice of Hope to coach media professionals who are telling stories of community resilience.
PLAYS
1st Place: Evan Guilford-Blake, Stone Mountain, Georgia; The Death of Donald Trump
2nd Place: Devin Lovett, Augusta, Georgia; Session 76
3rd Place: Jack Slay, Jr., LaGrange, Georgia; Tales from a Darker Theater: a play in one act
Judge: Ellen Hemphill, an award-winning poet and playwright, is an Associate Professor in the Theater Studies Department at Duke University. She is also the Artistic Director of Archipelago, a professional theater company in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
POETRY
1st Place: Jonathan Fink, Pensacola, Florida; “Leonardo’s Mistake”
2nd Place: Amy Sladky, Edgefield, South Carolina; “Puberty”
3rd Place: Edward Wilson, Augusta, Georgia; “Wishbone”
Honorable Mentions:
Eric Nelson, Asheville, North Carolina; “Blue Birds”
Beth Ann Fennelly, Oxford, Mississippi; “Ode to Butter”
Jonathan Fink, Pensacola, Florida; “We Love You, My Heart”
Hastings Hensel, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina; “All Things in the Universe are Currently Moving Away from One Another”
Amy Sladky, Edgefield, South Carolina; “Photographs of the Mistress”
Judge: Alan Shapiro, the William R. Kenan, Jr., the William R. Kenan Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a renowned American poet, is the author of thirteen collections of poetry, including Tantalus in Love, Song and Dance, Dead Alive and Busy, as well as two memoirs, Vigil and The Last Happy Occasion.
Awards Ceremony
An award ceremony and reception honoring the 2020 Porter Fleming Literary Competition award winners, originally scheduled for April 18, will be held at a later date in the Morris Museum of Art auditorium. First place winners will read from their entries. Seating is limited: Please R.S.V.P. to 706-828-3800. This event is free and open to the public.
The Porter Fleming Literary Competition, recognizing talented writers who reside in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, was established in 1993 by Shirley Fleming to honor her late father, noted author and artist Berry Fleming. Funded by the Porter Fleming Foundation, which is administered by the Trustees of the Academy of Richmond County, the competition is organized and directed by the Morris Museum of Art. The Porter Fleming Foundation was established by Berry Fleming in 1963 as a memorial to his father, Porter Fleming, a prominent Augustan and one of the city’s leading philanthropists.
