Submission period begins: November 15, 2026
Deadline: January 15, 2027
The Jasper Project is excited to help spread the news that the SC Academy of Authors announces the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker CALLS for Fellowships in Poetry and Short Fiction opening on November 15th
Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship in Poetry
The Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship in Poetry, supported by the Penelope Coker Hall/Eliza Wilson Ingle Fund of Central Carolina Community Foundation and sponsored by the South Carolina Academy of Authors, recognizes the talent of poets in the state of South Carolina.
The award is $1,250 and an invitation to be honored at a future SCAA event.
There is no restriction on form or content. Submit up to 5 unpublished poems (totaling no more than 10 pages). You may submit multiple entries, but each entry must be accompanied with entry fee.
The entry fee is $20 per entry. Entry fee will be made to the SCAA PayPal account under the Donate category on this website.
Authors grant the SCAA first publication and electronic reprint rights to prize-winning work. Authors retain all re-publication rights and are free to reprint the work in any publication, subject to acknowledging original publication in South Carolina Academy of Authors annual publication. The author guarantees that the submitted work has not previously been published elsewhere. Entries generated by AI will not be accepted.
We will accept entries in doc, docx, rtf, and pdf file formats.
Applicants must be full-time residents of South Carolina and must not have won this fellowship (previously known as the Carrie McCray Nickens Fellowship in Poetry) in the previous three years.
Your name should not appear anywhere on the poems submitted. Include contact information with a brief bio in the body of the email. Submissions should be sent to scaacokerfellowship@gmail.com.
The 2026 contest will once again be judged by Rachel Hadas.
Questions about the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship in Poetry should be sent to: scaacokerfellowship@gmail.com.
Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship in Fiction
The Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship in Fiction, supported by the Penelope Coker Hall/Eliza Wilson Ingle Fund of Central Carolina Community Foundation and sponsored by the South Carolina Academy of Authors, recognizes the talent of fiction writers in the state of South Carolina.
The award is $1,250 and an invitation to be honored at a future SCAA event.
There is no restriction on content, but submissions may not exceed 15 pages double-spaced and must be either one original, unpublished short story or one excerpt from a longer, unpublished work. You may submit multiple entries, but each entry must be accompanied with an entry fee.
The entry fee is $20 per entry. Entry fee will be made to the SCAA PayPal account under the Donate category on this website.
Authors grant the SCAA first publication and electronic reprint rights to prize-winning work. Authors retain all re-publication rights and are free to reprint the work in any publication, subject to acknowledging original publication in South Carolina Academy of Authors annual publication. The author guarantees that the submitted work has not previously been published elsewhere. Entries generated by AI will not be accepted.
We will accept entries in doc, docx, rtf, and pdf file formats.
Applicants must be full-time residents of South Carolina and must not have won this Fellowship in the previous three years.
Your name should not appear anywhere on the pages submitted. Include contact information with a brief bio in the body of the email. Submissions should be sent to scaacokerfellowship@gmail.com.
Judging the 2026 Coker Fellowship in Fiction will be Wiley Cash.
Questions about the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship in Fiction should be sent to: scaacokerfellowship@gmail.com.
WILEY CASH
Wiley Cash is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of four novels, host of the Our State Book Club Podcast, and co-owner of Floodplain Books in Wilmington, North Carolina. He teaches fiction writing at UNC-Asheville and lives in North Carolina with his wife, photographer Mallory Cash, and their daughters. He is the 2025 recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature, the state’s highest civilian honor.
https://www.wileycash.com/
RACHEL HADAS
Rachel Hadas is an American poet, teacher, essayist, and translator. Her most recent poetry collection is Pastorals (2025). Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Ingram Merrill Foundation Grants, the O.B. Hardison Award from the Folger Shakespeare Library, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Hadas taught English at Rutgers University-Newark from 1981 to 2023, and was named a Board of Governors Professor in 2001. She has also taught courses in literature and writing at Columbia and Princeton Universities, the Ninety-second Street Y, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the West Chester Poetry Conference, and the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center. https://www.rachelhadas.net/
CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE ELIZABETH COKER FELLOWSHIP IN STUDENT POETRY AND HERE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE ELIZABETH BOATWRIGHT COKER FELLOWSHIP IN STUDENT SHORT FICTION.