John B. Marek

For the second time in four years, John took home First Place in the Adult Prose category at the Anson County Writers' Club Award Ceremony, held Sunday, February 23rd at the Little Theater in Wadesboro, N.C. His short story "'Esque" beat out strong entries "If It's Black and White It's a Holstein" by Kelly Liddington, and "Come Ye Thankful People, Come" by Kaye Ratliff, which won Second and Third Place, respectively. The judges praised the way John's story "started as a conventional narrative, then took the reader to unexpected places with a winning mix of humor, pathos, and metaphor." John joins just a handful of multiple-Anson winners in the thirty-one-year history of the awards. His short story "Bandito" also won the Adult Prose category in 2016. The award comes with a cash prize and publication in the triennial Anson Pathways collection. In his acceptance speech, John explained the title of the story:...

John had a great meeting last night with Main Street Writers in Davison. The special guest author was Dale Neal, who describes his book, Appalachian Book of the Dead , as a "Southern Gothic Buddist mystery." Dale read the first chapter of the book and answered our questions about his writing process and how he got published. We also workshopped John's short story "Bittersweet Gypsum" and it was great getting the group's feedback on his piece.