The Pilot's limerick contest for this month has a deadline of Feb. 24, with results appearing on March 30. The leading line: "March Madness at our house will mean..."

Of course, March Madness doesn't have to be about basketball, as this verse from Pilot columnist Joe Piper demonstrates:

March Madness at our house will mean

We still have a small TV screen.

To add to dad's fears

It contains rabbit ears.

I hope he don't rupture his spleen!

E-mail your verses to joelimericks@embarqmail.com. Or mail them to Limericks, The Pilot, PO Box 58, Southern Pines, NC 28388.

Randolph Writers

The Randolph Writers will meet at the Moring Arts Center at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19. All area writers, from beginners to professional level are invited to attend, says a spokesman.

Members will read brief selections. The writing contest will be discussed.

For more information contact Robin Emerson at robinsemerson@aol.com.

The Randolph Writers is an activity sponsored by the Randolph Arts Guild.

Book Contest Opens

The North Carolina Poetry Society announces the opening of the 2008 contest for the Brockman Campbell Book Award. The award recognizes an outstanding book of poetry written by a North Carolina poet and published in the previous year.

The presentation of the Brockman Campbell Award, including a reading by this year's winner, will be the featured event of the NCPS meeting Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities in Southern Pines. The public is invited to attend this event where the winner of the award will receive a $200.00 cash prize.

This year's judge is Kwame Dawes, the Distinguished Poet in Residence, Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts, and founder and executive director of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative. An accomplished poet, playwright, and author, Dawes serves as the director of the University of South Carolina Arts Institute and the programming director of Jamaica's Calabash International Literary Festival.

Complete information on applying for the 2008 Brockman Campbell Book Award is available at www.NCPoetrySociety.org or by contacting Contest Chair Jenny Braswell at 113 Charlotte St., Rocky Mount, NC 27804. Deadline for entries is May 1.

New Book

PublishAmerica announces the publication of "A Barefoot Kid from Lumbee County" by Douglas Wilson of Sanford.

Born the son of a sharecropper during the Great Depression, Douglas Wilson never knew how poor he was. Though his parents endured hard times, never once did he feel he lacked for anything. As a parent, he patterned his life after his own father, working hard and providing so that his children never knew the struggles to make ends meet.

Now, as a grandfather of eight, he engages memories of his past through stories told to his grandchildren.

PublishAmerica is a traditional publishing company whose primary goal is to encourage and promote the works of new, previously undiscovered writers.