U-M students share more than $50,000 in Hopwood Awards and other creative writing prizes

April 22, 1997
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ANN ARBOR—Twenty-four students at the University of Michigan will share $41,350 in prizes in the 66th annual Avery and Jule Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing. Another 15 students, including five Hopwood winners, will receive $12,800 in other writing contests administered by the U-M Hopwood program.

Funded by a bequest from U-M alumnus and Broadway playwright Avery Hopwood, the Hopwood Awards are given in the essay, fiction, poetry and drama/screenplay categories. They also are divided into a major category for graduate students and a minor category for undergraduates, with seniors having the option to compete in either.

Winners of the Hopwood Awards and other prizes administered by the Hopwood Committee, along with hometowns, include: MICHIGAN: ADA—Bich Minh Nguyen, graduate student in English, $2,500 in the Hopwood major essay category for “The Heart of the Dragon,” $1,750 in the Hopwood major poetry category for “Premonitions” and $500 for the Helen S. and John Wagner Prize. ANN ARBOR—Tasha Antonello, graduate student in English, $1,200 in the Hopwood major poetry category for “Under One Light”; John W. Fulton, graduate student in English, $1,400 for the Chamberlain Award for Creative Writing; Ian Lawler, junior in the Residential College, $1,200 for the Dennis McIntyre Prize for Distinction in Playwriting; Deanne Lundin, graduate student in English, $1,700 in the Hopwood major essay category for “Alligator Blues”; Ron Nyren, graduate student in English, $1,700 in the Hopwood major short fiction category for “Dividing by Zero and Other Stories” and $500 for the Andrea Beauchamp Prize; V. Prasad, senior in the College of Engineering and College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $1,200 in the Hopwood major drama/screenplay category for “Sid Says” and $2,200 for the Kasdan Scholarship in Creative Writing; Ian Twiss, graduate student in English, $1,200 in the Hopwood major short fiction category for “Bodies of Knowledge.” BIRMINGHAM—William Citrin, senior in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $1,700 in the Hopwood minor poetry category for “As It Is Written.” BLOOMFIELD HILLS—Gordon L. Smith, senior in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $1,700 in the Hopwood minor drama/screenplay category for “Moscow.” DETROIT—Mary Trombley, junior in the Residential College, $1,400 in the Hopwood minor essay category for “Essays”; and Lisonya D. White, sophomore in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $200 for the Jeffrey L. Weisberg Memorial Prize in Poetry for “Home.” EAST LANSING—James M. Wilson, junior in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $1,000 for the Arthur Miller Award of the University of Michigan Club of New York Scholarship Fund. LIVONIA—Dean Bakopoulos, senior in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $2,000 in the Hopwood minor essay category for “History: Three Essays.” MAPLE CITY—Holly W. Spaulding, senior in the Residential College, $1,200 in the Hopwood minor poetry category for “Brigg’s Meadow” and $1,000 in the Hopwood minor essay category for “What Things Are Steadfast?” MUSKEGON—Donn J. Bialik, sophomore in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $200 for the Jeffrey L. Weisberg Memorial Prize in Poetry for “The Way a Stone Thinks.” OSCODA—Aric Knuth, sophomore in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $1,200 for the Dennis McIntyre Prize for Distinction in Playwriting. PLEASANT RIDGE—Sara K. Talpos, senior in the Residential College, $1,700 in the Hopwood minor poetry category for “The Distance In-Between.” SOUTHFIELD—F. Brandon Fizer, senior in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $1,850 in the Hopwood minor fiction category for “Positively” and “Commuting” and $500 for the Robert F. Haugh Prize; Michael Zilberman, junior in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $1,000 for the Leonard and Eileen Newman Writing Prize for Dramatic Writing for “Mercury Men.” THOMPSONVILLE—Jeremiah Chamberlin, senior in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $1,200 in the Hopwood minor fiction category for “The Things We Have Left Behind.” TROY—Ronica Bhattacharya, graduate student in English, $1,700 in the Hopwood major short fiction category for “Five Stories”; Mark Heasley, senior in the Residential College, $1,700 in the Hopwood minor fiction category for “Ashes, Ashes.” WEST BLOOMFIELD—Audra L. Sielaff, recent graduate of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $1,700 in the Hopwood minor drama/screenplay category for “Paper or Plastic?” and $500 for the Naomi Saferstein Literary Award.

OUT-OF-STATE: CALIFORNIA: SAN CARLOS—Belinda Kremer, graduate student in English, $1,200 in the Hopwood major poetry category for “My Skin, Which Is Only Temporary”; SAN FRANCISCO—Sarah Stone, graduate student in English, $1,850 in the Hopwood major fiction-novel category for “Touristic Potential.”

CONNECTICUT: NORWICH—Sheilah Coleman, graduate student in English, $1,000 for the Leonard and Eileen Newman Writing Prize for Fiction for “A Catalog of Misfits.”

ILLINOIS: EVANSTON—Raymond Y. Phillips (deceased), senior in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $1,500 in the Hopwood minor drama/screenplay category for “Stand”; NAPERVILLE—Matt Reichl, senior in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, $1,000 in the Hopwood major drama/screenplay category for “Ageless, Ohio.”

MARYLAND: ELKTON—Spencer R. Short, graduate student in English, $1,100 in the Hopwood major poetry category for “Ark Conditions.”

MASSACHUSETTS: DANVERS—Amy Q. Barry, graduate student in English, $1,200 for the Meader Family Award; NORTHAMPTON—Therese Stanton, graduate student in English, $1,850 in the Hopwood major fiction-novel category for “California Dreaming” and $1,700 in the Hopwood major essay category for “Blood Debts.”

NEW YORK: ISLIP—Jardine R. Libaire, graduate student in English, $1,200 in the Hopwood major short fiction category for “It’s a Girl!”

WASHINGTON: SPOKANE—Glori Simmons, graduate student in English, $1,200 for the Meader Family Award.

Phone: (313) 647-1847

Hopwood Awards