Crab Orchard Review Vol. 12, No. 2, our

The Charles Johnson Student Fiction Award
The Charles Johnson Student Fiction Award from Southern Illinois University
Carbondale is an annual competition intended to encourage increased artistic and
intellectual growth among students, as well as reward excellence and diversity in
creative writing. Each year, $1000 and a signed copy of a Charles Johnson book
will be awarded to the winner. The winning entry will also be published in the
Winter/Spring issue of Crab Orchard Review. The award is co-sponsored by Charles
Johnson, Crab Orchard Review, and the SIUC Department of English and College
of Liberal Arts. The award competition is open to all undergraduate and graduate
students currently enrolled full-time or part-time in a U.S. college or university.
There is no entry fee. Entrants may only submit one story. All entries will be
screened by published and accomplished writers and editors. The award winner
will be selected by Charles Johnson. Finalists must meet all contest guidelines
and be able to verify their status as students. (Evidence of current enrollment: a
xeroxed copy of a grade transcript, a class schedule or receipt of payment of tuition
showing your full-time or part-time status for the Spring 2008 semester. The name
of the institution and its address must be clear. Please indicate the name of the
department of your major field of study.)
Submit one unpublished short story, no longer than 20 pages in length. All
entries must be typed double-spaced. Please type or print full name, complete
address, phone number, e-mail address, and name of college or university attending
on a cover page for the manuscript. Cover letters are not required. Submissions
must be postmarked in March 2008. Entries will not be returned, and we are
unable to provide feedback on the entries. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable,
but the contest director must be informed immediately if a story is accepted for
publication elsewhere. Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for notification
of contest results. If you would like confirmation that the manuscript has been
received, please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard as well. The winner
each year will be announced in September on the Southern Illinois University
Carbondale website at http://www.siu.edu/~johnson.
Mail entries (with a self-addressed stamped envelope) to Allison Joseph, English
Department, Mail Code 4503, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 1000
Faner Drive, Carbondale, IL 62901. You may email questions or comments to
aljoseph@siu.edu. Electronic submissions and faxes are not accepted.
Dr. Charles Johnson, a 1998 MacArthur Fellow, received the National Book Award for his
novel Middle Passage in 1990, and is a 2002 recipient of the Academy Award for Literature
from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2003, he was elected to membership in
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has published three other novels, including
Dreamer, Oxherding Tale, and Faith and the Good Thing as well as three story collections,
The Sorceror’s Apprentice, Soulcatcher, and Dr. King’s Refrigerator and Other Bedtime Stories.
Charles Johnson earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Southern Illinois University
Carbondale in 1971 and 1973, respectively. In 1995, he received an honorary doctorate in
Humane Letters from Southern Illinois University, and in 1994 an honorary Doctor of Arts
degree from Northwestern. A literary critic, screenwriter, philosopher, international lecturer
and cartoonist with over 1,000 drawings published, he is the S. Wilson and Grace M. Pollock
Endowed Professor of English at the University of Washington in Seattle. You may visit his
author’s website at www.oxherdingtale.com, and additional information on his work can be
found at these web pages, http://www.siu.edu/~johnson and http://charlesjohnson.wlu.edu.