The Christian County Literacy Council is accepting original poems, essays and short stories for its fifth bell hooks Memorial Writing Contest.
Each year the contest has invited writers to focus on a theme prominent in works by bell hooks, the Hopkinsville native who was an internationally acclaimed feminist and activist who wrote some 40 books in her life.
Previous themes for the contest were love, belonging, change and learning.
This year the theme is community, the writing contest committee announced in a press release.
RELATED: ‘To me, she’s Gloria Jean’
Since it was introduced in 2022, the bell hooks Writing Contest has been limited to Kentuckians; however, this year anyone in the world may apply.
bell hooks’ writings are “loved and appreciated around the world,” literacy council executive director Francene Gilmer said in the press release. “I applaud this committee for recognizing her worldwide influence and extending the invitation for so many others to participate in this writing contest.”
The contest has four categories — poetry, short essay (500 to 700 words), long essay (700 to 1,500 words) and short story (500 to 1,500 words). Prizes will be awarded in four age divisions — 5 to 8, 9 to 12, 13 to 17, and adult.
Submissions will be accepted online. The entry deadline is Jan. 15. Winning entries will be published in a book available to purchase next year.
bell hooks was born Gloria Jean Watkins, the daughter of Veodis and Rosa Bell Watkins. Her pen name was adopted from her great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks, also of Hopkinsville. She chose to lowercase bell hooks to place greater emphasis on the substance of her writing rather than on her own identity.
Some of her best-known book titles included “Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism,” “Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood,” “Belonging: A Culture of Place” and “All About Love,” an enduring classic and popular book that was on the New York Times Best Seller list for an extended period.
bell hooks died on Dec. 15, 2021, at her home in Berea. She was 69.
(Read more about bell hooks in the Hoptown Chronicle archives.)
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
