FAULKNER WISDOM COMPETITION!
A national competition open to all writing in English; the William Faulkner - William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition is for previously unpublished work. Entries are accepted in seven categories: Novel, Novella, Novel-in-Progress, Short Story, Essay, Poetry, and Short Story by a High School Student.
This Year's Winners!
The 2008 competition closed on May 1. Winners and finalists have been officially announced! To view the winners, finalists and semi-finalists, CLICK HERE
Winners will be formally presented at the annual meeting of the Faulkner Society and gala, November 22, 2007, during Words & Music, a Literary Feast in New Orleans. Their work will be published in a special on-line editition of The Double Dealer, which will appear next December.
The 2009 competition opens January 15. NOTE: Please do NOT mail entries prior to that date. For an entry form for the 2009 competition (opens January 15, 2009), CLICK HERE!
Please Note: We will be making some changes in the guidelines for 2009. Please do not mail your entries prior to January 15th when NEW guidelines will be posted. We will post guidelines here and issue a release on our news blog.
Previous Winners
We're proud of the accomplishments of our previous winners. Click on each year for a full list of the winners and runners-up making literary history in each category!| 2008 Winners | 2007 Winners | 2006 Winners |
| 2005 Winners | 2004 Winners | 2003 Winners |
About the Competition
William Faulkner
and
William B. Wisdom
The Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society, Inc. founded the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition in 1992. In 2004, the name of the Society's national literary talent search was changed to the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. This important name change was made in grateful appreciation to The Mary Freeman Wisdom Foundation and its trustees: Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin, Helen Hauser Wisdom, Mary E. "Betty" Wisdom, Edward Wisdom Benjamin, Stuart Minor Benjamin, Arthur Mitteer Wisdom, and Matthew Morgan Wisdom. The new name honors their forebear: William B. Wisdom.
It is appropriate that the Faulkner Society be linked with the Wisdom family in this manner. Adelaide Benjamin and her sister Betty were among the first patrons of the Society. Adelaide was an early Chair of the Executive Board, and among the first to recognize the value of a national literary competition operated out of New Orleans, knowing, of course, that if such a venture were successful, it could only enhancethe image of the city as an important intellectual and cultural destination.
Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin
Mrs. Benjamin presented the first cash prize for a novel to a previously unrecognized literary talent, Stewart O'Nan, who has since published nine books of fiction. O'Nan this year regularly participates in the Society's annual writers' conference, Words & Music. Stewart has not failed, given the opportunity, to praise the Society, the Wisdom family, and New Orleans for having faith in him. Since then, the Wisdom family and the Mary Freeman Wisdom Foundation have been underwriters each year, with Adelaide creating the Marble Faun Prize for Fiction as a 100th birthday present for Mr. Faulkner in 1997.
Linking the two Williams is especially appropriate, as they were united by correspondence during their lifetimes William Faulkner was a writer of phenomenal talent and range, who became the best known American writer of the 20th century, capturing the Nobel Prize for Literature for his enormous body of work. William B. Wisdom was truly a renaissance man, playing a substantial role in every cultural undertaking of his community in his time. We celebrate, here, William Wisdom, the collector of books and manuscripts, and his special devotion to Faulkner's work and memorabilia.
The Wisdom Collection is now part of the permanent collection of Tulane University's library. Informed by his good taste and instructed by his keen intelligence, he became a bibliophile nonpareil, recognizing the genius of Thomas Wolfe and William Faulkner early in their careers. Both collections are among the finest ever assembled. The Faulkner work, particularly the New Orleans material, has been the delight of Faulkner scholars including the preeminent Carvel Collins.
| Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society 624 Pirate’s Alley, New Orleans, LA 70116 phone: (504) 586-1609 or (504) 525-5615 fax: (504) 522-9725 info@wordsandmusic.org |
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