The Morgan County African American Museum and its partners announce the second annual Raymond Andrews Prize for high school students in Morgan County. The purpose of the contest is to build excitement for creative writing among area youth. Students may submit entries in fiction or creative non-fiction between Feb. 1, 2021, and March 1, 2021. Winners will be announced in April of 2021. The top entries will be selected by a guest celebrity judge for cash prizes.

Earlier in 2020, the Morgan County African American Museum awarded $600 in prizes to the top four finishers in the inaugural Raymond Andrews Prize for Creative Writing. Quintavious Proby was the top winner, with Melanie Howard, MJ Faulkner, and Dylan Lange also earning cash awards. Novelist Anthony Grooms, who teaches Creative Writing at Kennesaw State University, served as guest judge for the competition.

Raymond Andrews, the namesake for the prize, was born in the Plainview Community of Morgan County in 1934. He published three novels and four other books. Almost all of them are set in the fictional Muskhogean County, which is a stand-in for Morgan County. Andrews is a member of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. He died away in 1991.

Andrews was a friend and mentor to Anthony Grooms. About the award Grooms said, “I am so pleased that Ray is getting this attention and getting it in this way because he was always encouraging students. And in a way, some thirty years after his death, he is still encouraging students.”

High school students living in Morgan County, Georgia, regardless of which high school those students attend, are eligible to compete. Also, students attending Morgan County High School, regardless of their home address, are eligible. For complete rules and eligibility please see the contest guidelines at the Morgan County African American Museum’s website (mcaam.org). Winners will read from their stories at a public event in May 2021, depending on current health and safety stipulations.