MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. —(April 8, 2015) Are you twisted? Twisted Road Publications announced on the first day of the Association of Writing Programs (AWP) Conference that it is celebrating the great storytelling tradition of the American South with a contest aimed at finding the next William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, or Tennessee Williams. Winners will receive cash prizes and publication in a Southern Gothic short story anthology to publish in 2016.

For Twisted Road Publications, “Southern Gothic” refers to the southern literary tradition of gritty and sometimes disturbing tales examining the lives of flawed or marginalized characters that point out the conflicts and contradictions of society. Call it Southern Gothic, Grit-Lit, Rough South, or simply weird. Entries do not necessarily have to be set in the south, nor do authors need to be of southern origin or residence. Salem, Mass., author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, for example, set in New England, certainly fits the bill.

Bestselling author Dorothy Allison will select the final winners of the Twisted Road Publications Southern Gothic Fiction Short Story Anthology Contest.

Allison’s first novel “Bastard out of Carolina” was a finalist for a National Book Award, won an ALA Award and became an award-winning movie. She has won numerous other awards and was described by the Boston Globe as “one of the finest writers of her generation”.

In 1998, Allison founded The Independent Spirit Award, a prize given each year to an individual whose work with small presses and independent bookstores has helped to sustain that enterprise. She also serves on the Advisory board of the National Coalition Against Censorship and Feminists for Free Expression, and the advisory board of the James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award, a prize that is presented annually to a science fiction or fantasy work that explores and expands on contemporary ideas of gender.

For contest rules and submission guidelines visit our Contests page.