After nearly 30 years of submitting “Achmed’s Lesson” into different contests, Wilmington’s Brad Field is the 2015 winner of the Doris Betts Fiction Prize. Field will receive $250 from the North Carolina Writers’ Network and his story, “Achmed’s Lesson,” will be published in the North Carolina Literary Review’s 25th issue in 2016.
“I wrote ‘Achmed’s Lesson’ 30 years ago about an event that I saw over 50 years ago,” Field said. “I have been sending this story out for possible publication about three times a year for 30 years. It shows a foreign student grappling with nonacademic American worklife. He learns things and he teaches Americans something.”
Field chose the North Carolina Writers’ Network contest because he is both a member of the network and a North Carolina writer.
“I was hoping for a break,” he said. “Every writer is always hoping for a break.”
This year alone Field has entered 60 contests nationally. Currently, his focus is on writing plays. Field’s one-act play, “Belle,” will be read May 27 at Cameron Art Museum as part of the Page to Stage Unlimited theatre program.
“I am circulating plays nationally among theatres some six or seven full-length plays,” Field said.
When he’s not writing, Field enjoys spending time on Lake Michigan in the summer.
Friday, May 29, Pomegranate Books is hosting a reading of “Achmed’s Lesson” and the second place winner, “Eminent Domain” by Kathryn Etters.
“My speech these days is imprecise, so I have deputized a friend to read a couple extracts from the story,” Field said.
