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In 1855, the minister of Bethania Moravian Church in North Carolina made the following journal entry:
Yesterday word came of Becky Saylor’s home-going. Today at 11 the funeral was held, not very well attended. She was not prominent enough to bring the people together. Preached on Rev. 7:14,"
which was boilerplate scripture for a harlot.
This was one of the few journal entries made about my great-great-great-grandmother, who bore a son out of wedlock and held land in her own name even after she married. I became fascinated by this apparently very stubborn woman and wanted to write her story back into history.
The result is The Seasoning of Rebecca.
Out of the 130 submissions received, my short story "The Mayor of Biscoe" was among the six finalists for the Linda Flowers Award. It's about a vet who loses himself and enters an alien world to find his way home. I've since made it into a screenplay.
Winston-Salem today bursts with new life in its hospitals, its science parks, its colleges, its arts shops and galleries and its bustling downtown evenings; and yet bears witness to its long history. Taking Flight, Winston-Salem in Prose and Poetry, celebrates the city from its 1750's Moravian settlers to its 2010 ballpark, and features the winners of the Winston-Salem Writers' 2011 Contest - an open contest judged by Joseph Mills (Poetry), Ginger Hendricks (Flash Fiction), Leigh Somerville (Short Story), Anna Fields (Creative Nonfiction) and Emily-Sarah Lineback (Overall Winner). First Place winners were Robin Chalkley (Flash Fiction), Arthur Hondros (Creative Nonfiction and Overall Winner) and Claude Limoges (Poetry and Short Story). Other winners included are Barbara Engler Buskirk, Bonnie Davis, David Hill, John Korzen, Tony R. Lindsay, Kathy H. Mendenhall, Steve Mitchell, Ray Morrison, Bill Pfefferkorn and Jennifer L. Stevenson. The anthology is edited by Carol Roan and Susan Williamson.
CLAUDE LIMOGES' photograph titled "The Visitor" was chosen as the cover photo for the current issue of the literary journal Up The Staircase. The photo was taken at Old Salem in Winston-Salem. More at http://www.upthestaircase.org/
