Students share more than $120,000 in writing awards

May 3, 2000
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EDITORS: Award recipients are listed by hometown.

ANN ARBOR—Several University of Michigan students will share $123,900 as recipients of major writing awards through the Hopwood Awards Program.

The Hopwood contest offers awards for major drama/screenplay, minor drama/screenplay, major essay, minor essay, major fiction—novel, major short fiction, minor fiction, major poetry and minor poetry.

The Hopwood Program also administers the following writing contests: the Kasdan Scholarship in Creative Writing, the Arthur Miller Award of the U-M Club of New York Scholarship, the Jeffery L. Weisberg Poetry Prize, the Dennis McIntyre Poetry Prize, the Chamberlain Award for Creative Writing, the Helen S. and John Wagner Prize, the Andrea Beauchamp Prize, the Robert F. Haugh Prize, the Meader Family Award, the Naomi Saferstein Literary Award, the Leonard and Eileen Newman Writing Prizes and the Paul and Sonia Handleman Poetry Award.

The Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing are funded by Avery Hopwood, U-M alumnus and Broadway playwright. The awards were presented by Prof. Nicholas Delbanco, director of the Hopwood Awards Program, before a lecture by poet and former U-M English Prof. Donald Hall.

Award winners are:

MICHIGAN:ANN ARBOR—Heather Abner, a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) student in the English Department, received $3,000 in the Hopwood Major Poetry contest for “The Last Cowboy Poems.” Peggy Adler, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received $1,500 in the Hopwood Major Short Fiction contest for “Drifting.” Kate Bell, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received $3,500 in the Hopwood Major Drama/Screenplay contest for “Sanctuary.” Francesca Delbanco, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received $6,000 in the Hopwood Major Drama/Screenplay contest and the $1,500 Gershenson Prize for Distinction in Playwriting and Screenwriting for “Centrifugal Force: A Play in Two Acts.”

Paul Graham, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received $3,000 in the Hopwood Major Essay contest for “Trio: Three Short Essays on Finding My Father.” Karen Hwa, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received a $1,000 Leonard and Eileen Newman Writing Prize for Fiction for “Giant Heaven.” Valerie Laken, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received $3,500 in the Hopwood Major Short Fiction contest and a $600 Andrea Beauchamp Prize for “Love Among the Losers: Stories.” Patrick O’Keeffe, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received a $1,700 Chamberlain Award for Creative Writing for “Above the Bar.”

Alex Ralph, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received $3,500 in the Hopwood Major Fiction-Novel contest for “Andricott” and $2,000 in the Hopwood Major Short Fiction contest for “Nightsweats and the Kasbah Asma.” Jess Row, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received $2,000 in the Hopwood Major Short Fiction contest for “The Secret of Bats.” Jessica Belle Smith, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received $4,500 in the Hopwood Major Essay contest for “In the Museum of Our Natural History.” Matthew Smith, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received $6,000 in the Hopwood Major Fiction-Novel contest for “The Asian Fetish.” Katherine Van Dis, a 1999 graduate of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA), received $2,000 in the Hopwood Minor Fiction contest for “The Coming of Snow.”

BIRMINGHAM—Timothy E. Furstnau, an LSA junior, received $4,500 in the Hopwood Minor Poetry contest and a $1,500 Paul and Sonia Handleman Poetry Award for “Tourism of a Lesser World.”

BLOOMFIELD HILLS—David Garcia, a School of Music junior, received a $1,600 Dennis McIntyre Prize for Distinction in Undergraduate Playwriting.

CASNOVIA—Joseph Groenke, a Residential College and School of Natural Resources and Environment senior, received $1,500 in the Hopwood Major Award Fiction-Novel contest for “Ten Miles from Bliss.”

FARMINGTON HILLS—Joshua Herman, an LSA senior, received $1,500 in the Hopwood Minor Drama/Screenplay contest for “Boys to Men.”

FRANKLIN—Natasha Higgins, a Residential College sophomore, received $4,000 in the Hopwood Minor Fiction contest for “The Juggler.”

HOWELL—Gary Lutz, an LSA sophomore, received the $150 Jeffrey L. Weisburg Memorial Prize in Poetry for “1st Movement.”

HUNTINGTON WOODS—Erin Podolsky, an LSA senior, received $4,500 in the Hopwood Minor Drama/Screenplay and a $900 Naomi Saferstein Award for “Sunday Drive.”

JACKSON—Oliver Thornton, an LSA senior, received a $3,500 Kasdan Scholarship in Creative Writing for “Grand Haven.”

LAMBERTVILLE—Jamie Vazquez, an LSA senior, received a $1,600 Dennis McIntyre Prize for Distinction in Undergraduate Playwriting.

MACOMB—Melissa Jones, an LSA senior, received $1,500 in the Hopwood Minor Essay contest for “Behind Genius: The Romantic Secret in Paglia’s Closet.”

MIDDLEVILLE—Leah Dodd, an LSA senior, received $2,000 in the Hopwood Minor Essay contest for “Connecting With Home.”

MUSKEGON—Joseph Ryzner, a Residential College senior, received $3,500 in the Hopwood Major Drama/Screenplay contest for “A Dream Life.”

NORTHVILLE—David Anderson, an LSA junior, received $3,000 in the Hopwood Minor Drama/Screenplay contest for “The Return of Jack Gordon.”

PLYMOUTH—Eseohe Arhebamen, a Residential College sophomore, received $2,500 in the Hopwood Minor Poetry contest for “Perhaps I Will Dry in the Sun,” a $2,000 Arthur Miller Award for “Ubhi’s Song,” and a $250 Jeffery L. Weisberg Memorial Prize in Poetry for an untitled poem. Gabriel Burnstein, an LSA junior, received $3,000 in the Hopwood Minor Drama/Screenplay contest for “Broadway Joe.”

ROCHESTER HILLS—Carol Ullmann, a Residential College senior, received $2,000 in the Hopwood Minor Fiction contest for “Raoul’s Story and I Am Zor.”

TRAVERSE CITY—Michael Lombardo, an LSA senior, received $3,000 in the Hopwood Minor Poetry contest for “On the Couch.”

WEST BLOOMFIELD—Howie Kahn, an LSA senior, received $5,000 in the Hopwood Minor Essay contest for “Two Pieces: Back to a Beautiful End and From My Window: An Elegy.”

WHITE LAKE—Jason Kirk, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received $5,000 in the Hopwood Major Poetry contest and a $600 Helen S. and John Wagner Prize for “Choice Cuts of Reverb and High Smut.”

OUT-OF-STATECALIFORNIA:NEWARK—Yue John Liu, an LSA sophomore, received $4,500 in the Hopwood Minor Fiction contest and a $1,000 Robert F. Haugh Prize for “Eight Hours to Pittsburg.”

FLORIDA:GAINSVILLE—Diane Chang, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received $4,000 in the Hopwood Major Essay contest for “Bloodlines.”

IDAHO:TWIN FALLS—Jeremy Gregerson, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received a $1,500 Meader Family Award for “Golden Sections.”

INDIANA:MARTINSVILLE—Jason Bredle, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received $3,000 in the Hopwood Major Poetry contest for “Standing in Line for The Beast, King’s Island, Cincinnati, Ohio,
NEW JERSEY:MARGATE—Benjamin Paloff, an M.F.A. student in the English Department, received a $1,500 Meader Family Award for “Anatomy for the Halfhearted.”

REPUBLIC OF SINGAPOREVanessa Mae-Chern Heng, an LSA junior, received $1,500 in the Hopwood Minor Poetry contest for “From the S.E.A.”