Thomas Wolfe Scholarship at UNC

The Creative Writing Program and the Department of English of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are pleased to announce the Thomas Wolfe Scholarship, which offers full four-year financial support to one incoming freshman per year.

The Thomas Wolfe Scholarship's level of support will be equal to that of the University's well-known Morehead Scholarships. Whereas the Morehead Scholarship places broad emphasis on a candidate's exemplary leadership, community service, academic excellence, and physical vigor, the Thomas Wolfe Scholarship seeks to identify and reward students with exceptionally focused literary ability and promise.

Thomas Wolfe Scholarship applicants must apply simultaneously to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by the October 15, 2013 EARLY admission deadline and must meet all academic requirements for EARLY admission. These are two distinct application processes and require different forms and separate mailings.

The Thomas Wolfe Scholarship award, the first of its kind at UNC-Chapel Hill, will be based largely on written work submitted by candidates. Artistic merit is the chief criterion of selection. Students who write poetry, fiction, plays, literary non-fiction (personal narratives, memoir, travel and nature essays, literary journalism, belles-lettres) are eligible. Multiple genre submissions are also encouraged, though submissions are limited to one application per student.

The application process will require the submission of up to fifty (50) pages in prose, forty (40) pages in poetry, or sixty (60) in play writing, in English. In addition to completing an application questionnaire, candidates will submit a five-hundred-word personal essay entitled "Why I Write."

The age of entering freshmen under The Thomas Wolfe Scholarship shall not exceed twenty-two (22) years. The scholarship is not available to undergraduate college students seeking to transfer to UNC-Chapel Hill from other institutions. All applicants shall be citizens of the United States of America.

The Board of Advisors of The Thomas Wolfe Scholarship may award the scholarship to a new recipient annually. However, the Board of Advisors may decide not to award the scholarship in any given year due to financial constraints, the quality of applicants, or other sufficient reason, in the Board's sole discretion. The decision of the Board of Advisors will be final. The submission of an application will constitute assent to all conditions and stipulations expressed herein.

The Thomas Wolfe Scholarship will begin accepting applications beginning September 1st, 2013, with the deadline for submissions being October 15, 2013 (submissions must be postmarked by that date). Preliminary screening will be completed in Early February 2014, with final screening concluding in early March. A minimum of three outstanding candidates will then be brought to the UNC-Chapel Hill campus for interviews, and a final selection of the next Thomas Wolfe Scholar will be made in early April 2014.

http://englishcomplit.unc.edu/creative/scholarships/tws for more information.