Second-Year MFA Student, Isaac Hughes Green, Won the 2021 Jacobs/Jones African-American Literary Prize & 2021 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers!

Congratulations to our second-year MFA student, Isaac Hughes Green, for winning the 2021 Jacobs/Jones African-American Literary Prize for his work, “Fifteens.” In addition, he won the 2021 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers! We couldn’t be more proud of him! #WolfpackWriters #GoPack

Our English Department reached out to him to share a few words about his award: “I’m honored to have won the 2021 Jacobs/Jones African-American Literary Prize not only because of the possible publication in The Carolina Quarterly, but also because it is an opportunity to be celebrated by the Southern writing community. As a Graduate Teaching Assistant who is excited about the prospect of publishing my drafted novel and teaching after I graduate from North Carolina State University’s MFA program this May, I am deeply grateful that a judge like W. Ralph Eubanks, who has published in the magazines that I continue to submit to, and who teaches at a leading institution like Ole Miss, saw fit to recognize my story “Fifteens” with this honor. Both Taylor Young and Evette Evans, who received Honorable Mentions, have participated in creative writing workshops and I feel lucky to have been awarded the top honor among such talented and scholarly competition. The narratives of escaped slaves Harriet Jacobs and Thomas H. Jones continue to be a source of inspiration. I am glad that Cedric Brown took the initiative to create this award and feel that it represents an unrivaled opportunity to express the uniqueness of the Black North Carolinian experience. I owe thanks to my father who praised “Fifteens” early on and to my advisor Wilton Barnhardt who called me to tell me how much he enjoyed the story after hearing me read it for the first time during a Zoom reading with So and So Books. Barnhardt and the NCSU program have allowed me to develop my writing and appreciate my craft in ways that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to.”

#CreativeWriting #FictionWriter #MFA