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Email Announcements Received Today:

1) Watauga Community Foundation Grant Cycle Opens Feb. 27

The board of advisors of the Watauga County Community Foundation (WCCF) announces the application dates for its 2015 grant cycle. The online application will open on Feb. 27 and nonprofit organizations are invited to apply for financial support through the April 7 deadline. In its 22nd year of grantmaking, WCCF will award up to $20,000 in grants to nonprofits serving Watauga County. WCCF awards grants from the Watauga Legacy Fund, a general purpose community fund supported over time by many individual donors through gifts of all sizes. Past grants have generally ranged from $1,000 to $2,000.  In recent years, grants have been awarded nonprofits addressing a variety of issues including health and human services, education and youth development, historic preservation, economic development, arts and culture, environmental preservation, and quality of life issues.  This year, the WCCF board will consider requests of up to $5,000 for projects demonstrating the potential to have significant positive impact on Watauga County. The online application may be accessed from the North Carolina Community Foundation’s website at www.nccommunityfoundation.org.  For questions contact John Francis, NCCF Regional Associate, at 336-745-1739 or jfrancis@nccommunityfoundation.org.

2) Submissions Accepted for Capote Creative Writing Award

Rising juniors and seniors at Appalachian State University majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing are invited to submit their work for a creative writing scholarship. The Truman Capote Literary Trust Award in Creative Writing will be awarded May 1. The competition alternates annually between poetry and prose genres. This year’s award is for creative prose – short story, creative nonfiction or drama. The deadline for entries is 4 p.m. March 18. For more information, contact Susan Weinberg at weinbergsc@appstate.eduStudents entering the competition should submit a file folder or envelope with three stapled copies each of two works: either fiction, creative non-fiction, plays or a mix of two. Play scripts must be submitted in standard format. Prose entries should be double spaced, pages numbered and stapled. Include your name and email address on the front page only. Entries should be delivered to the Department of English office located on the second floor of Sanford Hall beginning March 16. Past recipients of the award are Eric Janken, poetry, 2014-15 and Stephanie Estep, fiction, 2013-14. This year’s judge in novelist Wiley Cash, the New York Times best-selling author of the award-winning novels “A Land More Kind Than Home” and “This Dark Road to Mercy,” published by William Morrow/ HarperCollins Publishers. Cash holds a B.A. in literature from the UNC-Asheville, an M.A. in English from UNC-Greensboro and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. He teaches fiction at UNC-Chapel Hill and in the Low-Residency MFA Program at Southern New Hampshire University.

3) Register Now for the 14th Annual BACC Spelling Bee

It’s time to put your team together for this year’s adult spelling bee. Table of four with four bee bucks is $100. Lots of fun and prizes. Prizes will be awarded for best costume, best decorated table and best spellers. The event will be held at Watauga High School on Tuesday, March 24, from 5-7 p.m. KAMPN will receive a portion of the proceeds. Hosted by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce.

4) Stephenson Center for Appalachia to Host Writer Kevin Keck on Feb. 12

While Thomas Wolfe is famous for both writing and in some ways proving, “You Can’t Go Home Again,” a contemporary Appalachian author disputes the point. Kevin Keck, an adjunct instructor of rhetoric at Lees-McRae, will present a program, “Born Again: My Return to Appalachia,” that explores returning to his mountain roots at Lees-McRae College. His presentation will take place on Thursday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. in Evans Auditorium in the first of this semester’s Stephenson Center for Appalachia Lecture Series. This program is free and open to the public.

5) Abingdon Seeking Street Performers for First Annual Busker Fest

Abingdon is seeking performing artists for the first annual Busker Fest, a new festival celebrating street performers to be held Sept. 5. This Labor Day Weekend, the sidewalks of downtown Abingdon will be filled with weird, wonderful performing art during a brand new busker festival. The Main Street Busker Fest will be held Saturday, Sept. 5, presented by Abingdon Main Street and Abingdon Music Experience. Applications will be accepted through April 1.