By: SARAH CAWTHON
Staff Writer
saecawth@indiana.edu
Outstanding student writers from the IU South Bend campus were honored at the annual Student Writing Awards Saturday, April 18 in Wiekamp Hall.
The English Department presents the Student Writing Awards once a year to honor the best creative writing by the students at IUSB. Students are able to submit their personal or school assignments focusing in poetry, fiction, drama and creative nonfiction for review by a judge who is featured at the awards ceremony. Winners receive a cash prize and publication in Analecta, IUSB’s literature journal.
“These awards celebrate the high quality of our students’ creative works,” said Clayton Michaels, creative writing advisor. “These students did some really great writing this year.”
Visual artist and poet Allan Peterson was asked to review and judge the students’ work this year. Peterson is the author of five books including “Precarious and Fragile Acts” and has received a number of prizes such as the National Endowment for the Arts.
This year, a record number of impressive creative works were submitted. However, only eight were chosen to receive awards.
The graduate award went to Kristiane Weeks for “Shaken and Stirred.” The Fiction Award first place winner was “Eden” by Savannah Hope and the honorable mentions included Cassandra Laforest’s “For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn” and Aaron Quist’s “33 ½.”
Chad Morgan was given the Nonfiction Award for “Hiding.” Receiving first place for the Poetry Awards was “Love Song For Recovering Codependent,” by Krista Cox and honorable mentions were awarded to Jennifer Jones’s “Tornado Alley” and Anne Marie Lindgren’s “Yellow Silk.”
After the awards were distributed, Peterson gave a reading of a few select poems and a meet and greet was held immediately following for the students to get the chance to speak with Peterson about his work and their own. Refreshments were provided to the students as they were congratulated on their hard work and notable submissions.
“It’s so important that universities support students in their creative endeavors,” Peterson said. “The point of writing is to sit down and figure out what’s really going on. You create great things when you’re forced to look at things differently.”
