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Furman to receive awards at Southern Literary Festival


Last updated March 17, 2017

By Tina Underwood

Founded in 1937, the Southern Literary Festival is an organization of 18 southern colleges, which aims to promote southern literature. Each year a different school hosts the festival, an undergraduate writing conference that offers participants workshops, readings, and master classes in a wide variety of genres, including fiction, poetry, playwriting, and non-fiction. This year’s festival will be held at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith March 30-April 1.

Two Furman students and last year’s editor of The Echo will come home with prizes. Julia Britt, a junior Religion major from Greenville, S.C., won third prize for creative nonfiction. Britt’s essay, “Holy Ground,” about place, belief, and barbecue, was one of only three essays to be honored. Margaret Shelton, a senior English major from Myrtle Beach, S.C., won Honorable Mention for formal essay for her work, “Anne Carson: Shaping the Self and Shifting Under the Reader’s Gaze.” Furman’s literary  magazine, The Echo, won third prize. Editor Cory Bailey, an English major, graduated in 2016. Southern Literary Festival member universities nominate works, and prize winners are included in the Festival anthology.

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