By By: Gisselle Venable
Staff-Writer
As the semester comes to a close, we reflect on all the accomplishments made throughout the school year. For the Department of English, this lies in the Student Writing Awards. The event, which took place on April 20, centered around the release of Analecta, IU South Bend’s literary journal of published student works. Quinn Newell was the editor of the 2023 Analecta.
The Student Writing Awards are hosted yearly at the end of the spring semester and serve to honor the passion and talent put into creative student works. Although Analecta contains a variety of art from visual to written, awards are only given to a select group of written pieces – the categories of poetry, non-fiction and fiction. This year’s judge was author Robin Hemley, who also gave a reading from his newly-released book Oblivion following the ceremony.
While there were a number of deserving submissions to the 53rd Analecta, only a select few from each category could be honored. Two to three graduate and undergraduate students from each genre received an award – first, second and third places, as well as an honorable mention or two. Alongside the certificate and recognition, first prize winners also received a copy of Hemley’s book.
The first place award for undergraduate poetry went to Corbin Shelton’s “Payaso”, while second went to Fig Shafer’s “South of the Sunflowers” and third to Mariah Woolley’s “Judas”. Shafer also received an honorable mention for their poem “The Hell Bull” and Woolley for “Pray Mercy for the Biting Things”.
The awards for graduate poetry were given to Emily LePla’s “burnt.” for first prize, “these birds are not fucking around” by Jessica Kado for second and “A Dehydrated Dream for the suffering” by Des Lord for third.
Michelle Hover took first place in undergraduate non-fiction for “Soul of a Mermaid”, while Candice Slovinski took second for “Surviving Depression”. Third place went to Hover again for her story, “She Knew She was Different”.
Teresa Hill won both first and second place in graduate non-fiction – first with “To Have Roots” and second with “Fall 1975: Sixth Grade”. Des Lord took another award with “La Petite Mort”, and Honorable Mention was given to Jessica Kado for “The Cheeto”.
The first place undergraduate fiction winner was Kerry Garrett with “The Great Acrimonious End of MILF WAGON”. Second place went to Brooke Borkowski with “Truly Unlimited Olive Garden Breadsticks” and third to Bobby Simons for “Friction and Time”.
Graduate fiction only had two awards. Elizabeth Grossman won first with “The Box” and Des Lord, earning their third award of the night, won second with “Serpent”.
The final awards of the night were the 2023 Department of English Excellence Awards. Amanda Ross was the first recipient, winning for excellence in writing. Matelyn Standiford was given an Excellence Award in literature, while Quinn Newell was given the award for overall excellence.
After congratulating the recipients on their achievements, Hemley briefly spoke about his history with IU South Bend. Hemley’s mother, Elaine Gottlieb Hemley, taught at IU South Bend in the 1970s, so Hemley recalled familiarity with not only the school, but Analecta itself.
“I saw Analecta all the time when I was growing up,” Hemley reminisced. “I still have copies of Analecta.”
In a separate ceremony on April 18, Zachary Densmore won the annual Schurz Library Undergraduate Research Award for his paper, “Sinn Fein and the Easter Rising.”
Free copies of the 2023 Analecta are available at Franklin D. Schurz Library.
