Judges

ZELDA LOCKHART holds a PhD in Expressive Art Therapies, an MA in Literature and a certificate in writing, directing and editing from the New York Film Academy. Her latest book, The Soul of the Full-Length Manuscript takes readers on the emotional, psychological and spiritual journey of utilizing personal stories to transform their lives while completing a work of fiction, memoir or poetry. Lockhart is author of novels Fifth Born, a Barnes & Noble Discovery selection and a Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award finalist, Cold Running Creek a Black Caucus of the American Library Association Honor Fiction Awardee, and Fifth Born II: The Hundredth Turtle, 2011 Lambda Literary Award finalist. Her fiction, poetry, and essays appear in several anthologies as well as in periodicals like Chautauqua, Obsidian II, and USAToday.com.

Lockhart is Director at Her Story Garden Studios: Inspiring Black Women to Self-Define, Heal, and Liberate Through the Literary Arts. Lockhart is also publisher at LaVenson Press helping women and girls to take ownership of their stories through publication.

Scott Huler is the senior staff writer at Duke magazine and a Piedmont Laureate Emeritus. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa membership.

Now based in Raleigh, Huler has written for newspapers such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Los Angeles Times and magazines including Fortune and ESPN. His award-winning radio work has been heard on "All Things Considered" and "Day to Day" on National Public Radio and on "Marketplace" and "Splendid Table" on American Public Media.

His seventh book of nonfiction, A Delicious Country, about Carolina colonial explorer John Lawson, is in press at UNC Press

Rebecca Stephens Duncan grew up in Warren Ohio, the daughter of a music teacher and Republic Steel’s first computer programmer. She spent her 18^th year as a Rotary Exchange student in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and then earned a B.A in history and an M.A. in International Studies at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. As an undergraduate she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Alpha Theta, Phi Kappa Phi, and Mortar Board.

Rebecca taught at Carlow College in Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania and in 1997 joined the faculty at Meredith College here in Raleigh. She teaches courses in British and Post-colonial literature, composition, professional writing and new media. Her scholarly essays have appeared in such journals as Genre, Mosaic, and Journal of Postcolonial Studies; her essays on sustainability and popular culture topics have appeared in the Huffington Post and the Raleigh News and Observer. Her novel, Secrets of Gray Lake, was published by Anaphora Press in 2015, and she has recently published short fiction in Brevard College’s Pisgah Review and the online journal Mused.