Hi all, my name is M. Holladay Brantley and I’m an MFA Creative Writing student at NC State University focusing in fiction. In 2022, my short story “The Sparrow and the Lily” was a finalist for the James Hurst Prize for fiction. I was also a 2021 and 2020 finalist for my short stories, “The Purification of Augustine Albemarle” and “Snakes,” respectively. “The Purification of Augustine Albemarle” went on to win the 201 NC State Undergraduate fiction prize and “Snakes” received an Honorable Mention from the 2021 North Carolina College Media Association.
Some of my more recent publications include my short story, “The Purification of Augustine Albemarle,” and my poem, “fridge magnets,” in the 2022 edition of Windhover literary magazine. I was also published in Windhover‘s 2019 edition for the short story “Penny Girls,” Windhover‘s 2020 edition for the poems “Guessing,” “life lessons from my mother,” and “four letter words,” and Windhover’s 2021 edition for the short story “Snakes,” and the poem “lunch lady.” In high school, I also wrote book reviews for Quailridge Books in Raleigh.
I received a B.A. in English, concentration creative writing, and a B.A. in Psychology from NC State University in 2022. While an undergraduate at NC State, I served in leadership in NCSU’s English Club and was a member of the Collegiate Carolina Shag Club (until COVID wrecked that, #rip).
Currently, I’m is working on an episodic novel tentatively called My Grandmother Didn’t Want Me, which follows the main protagonist Emmy Wilkes as she navigates life growing up in rural, eastern North Carolina in the 1940s and 1950s. When I want to procrastinate my novel, I enjoys combining Southern Gothic and preternatural elements in short stories that usually tend to feature fire in one way or another.