Please read our complete submissions guidelines before submitting.
Categories are active (i.e, genre/section submission categories are visible) during the submission period.
If you have difficulty making your submission via Submittable, you can email your files to NCLRStaff@ecu.edu. Be sure to provide your North Carolina connection, and to send creative writing submissions for contests only. See submission guidelines for more information.
2025 Final Judge: Tracy Crow
We welcome creative nonfiction (including memoir, personal essays, travel writing, and other forms of cnf) up to 7500 words BY MARCH 1.
NO SUBMISSION FEE. But you must be an NCLR subscriber to submit to the Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize competition (you may subscribe after submitting--but by end of day, March 1).
- With a one-year subscription to NCLR, submit one creative nonfiction piece. With a two-year subscription, two. Members of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association can submit any number of essays with no additional subscription (members receive NCLR as part of their membership).
- Once you have submitted your piece(s) on Submittable (in a single submission), you will receive an email with a link to subscription information.
- Please direct questions about the competition to nclrstaff@ecu.edu.
- To check on your subscription status, please email subscriptions@dukeupress.edu or call (919) 688-5134 or (888) 651-0122.
Before submitting, please read the full guidelines for the Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize competition, including eligibility requirements.
You are welcome to submit on topics we have already covered in past issues. We consider interviews, literary criticism, and one-act plays for our Flashbacks section. (poetry, fiction, and any form of creative nonfiction must be submitted through our competitions. For more information, see NCLR's full submission guidelines.)
Please consult the author style sheet before submitting your manuscript.
Email queries regarding such submissions to the Editor at bauerm@ecu.edu.
We are always interested in interviews with North Carolina writers and literary criticism that introduces a new NC writer or that reintroduces a forgotten NC writer. One-act plays (by a NC playwright or set in NC) may also be submitted in this category. (Creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry must be submitted through our competitions. For more information, see NCLR's full submission guidelines.)
- Before submitting, consult the Author Style Sheet.
- Please also check to see if your submission would be more appropriate for submitting to the Flashbacks section--i.e., if we have covered the subject or author in the past. Check our content indexes here and our back issue themes here.
- Email queries to the Editor (not necessary).
Submissions accepted for publication may be eligble for the John Ehle Prize or the Randall Kenan Prize. Find information about these honors in the above-linked submission guidelines.
The North Carolina Literary Review is seeking submissions on “Teaching North Carolina Literature.”
Submissions may be related to teaching in K-12 or post-secondary education and might take a variety of forms, including but not limited to a pedagogical essay, a unit or lesson plan, an assignment, or a digital repository of materials related to teaching the work of a (or works by) North Carolina creative writer(s). Find submission instructions on the NCLR website: https://nclr.ecu.edu/submissions/
Essay submissions accepted for publication will appear in NCLR’s open access online issues. Other content—lesson plans and digital projects—will be promoted via NCLR Online and archived in or linked through NCLR’s website, the goal being to make this material widely and easily accessible to teachers.
If the submission employs NCLR, we will provide enough copies of that issue for a class (if available).
Guest Editor: Barbara Bennett Read the press release about the 2027 issue theme here.
DEADLINE AUGUST 31, 2026 for interviews and literary criticism
Fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction must be submitted through our competitions, NOT in this category (unless invited by the Guest Editor). Those submission categories will be available for submission when each reading period is open.
For more information, see NCLR's full submission guidelines. Please consult the Author Style Sheet before submitting to this category.
Submissions on a neglected, forgotten, or overlooked writer will be considered for NCLR's John Ehle Prize, sponsored by Press 53. Submissions on a new writer will be considered for NCLR's new Randall Kenan Prize, sponsored by the Creative Writing program at UNC Chapel Hill. Recipients of these honors receive $250.