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NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
Winter 2022
NATANIA BARRON WINS 2021 MANLY WADE WELLMAN AWARD in July 2021 in Winston-Salem, NC, at ConGregate, a science fiction convention. The author of novels, novellas, and short stories, Barron has a bachelor’s degree in English from Loyola University in Maryland and a master’s degree in medieval literature from UNC Greensboro. Queen of None, she says, is the “thesis [she] should have written.”1 In it, she reimagines the tale of Anna Pendragon, King Arthur’s sister. The book follows Anna Pendragon’s journey back to Carelon (Barron’s version of Camelot) after she is widowed and the adjustments to life and troubles in King Arthur’s court. A sequel, Queen of Fury, is coming out in 2022. Barron, originally from Massachusetts, lives in Chapel Hill, NC, and works as a Global Marketing Director in clinical research.
COURTESY OF VERNACULAR BOOKS
Natania Barron received the 2021 Manly Wade Wellman Award for her 2020 novel, Queen of None, published by Vernacular Books.
Founded in 2013 by the North Carolina Speculative Fiction Foundation, the Manly Wade Wellman Award honors and recognizes North Carolina’s own speculative fiction writers. The award was presented to Barron
1
Quoted from the author’s website.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: THE PAUL GREEN PRIZE sponsored by the Paul Green Foundation To inspire scholarship on the works of North Carolina’s preeminent playwright, the author of The Lost Colony, the Paul Green Foundation has provided a $250 honorarium for the author of the best Greenrelated content accepted for publication in NCLR. Submit for prize consideration using the Flashbacks category in Submittable, unless your submission is relevant to the next issue’s special feature section theme. Submissions will be blind reviewed by appropriate Green experts. Scholars interested in this opportunity might consider applying for an Archie K. Davis Fellowship for funds to visit the Southern Historical Collection at UNC Chapel Hill, where the Paul Green Papers are located (Davis fellowship applications are due by March 1 each year).
Upon receiving the Wellman Award at the ConGregate science fiction convention, Barron credited John Hartness and Falstaff Books, and the group that has really invigorated my career when, about five or six years ago, I wasn’t sure I was going to keep writing. . . . So, if you’re a writer, if you feel that you’re struggling, if you want to tell stories, find your community, find your people, you never know what is there – and that’s one of the things I love so much about being here, and being part of this. We’re so incredibly lucky. Thank you to everybody.2
Barron may not be a native North Carolinian, but these remarks suggest she has figured out what makes the writing community of the Writingest State so special. Welcome to North Carolina and congratulations to her. n
2
Quoted from “Announcing the Winner of the 2021 Manly Wade Wellman Award,” North Carolina Speculative Fiction Foundation, WordPress, 15 July 2021: web.
