From left to right are Carnes White, Juljia Šukys, Jennifer Frost, Sarah Holly, Emily Waryck and Cynthia Conte
Tusculum College students Jennifer Frost, Carnes White and Cynthia Conte are the winners of the 2015 Curtis and Billie Owens Literary Awards.
The awards, which are given annually to recognize the literary achievements of the college’s students, are open to all Tusculum College students.
Ms. Frost, a sophomore creative writing major from Friendsville won both the competition’s drama and poetry categories. The drama piece she submitted was “Psy-cho-ther-apy in Yazoo, County, Mississippi” and the poetry piece was “For the Birds.”
Mr. White, a senior creative writing major from Pike Road, Ala., won the competition’s fiction category, for his work, titled “Conservation.”
Ms. Conte, a senior creative writing major from Chattanooga, won the competition’s nonfiction category with the submission of “Time Travelism.”
Honorable mentions were given in the fiction, poetry and nonfiction categories. Four students received an honorable mention for original works. Sarah Holly, a junior creative writing major from Johnson City, was recognized for “But Resist the Devil, and “He Will Flee From You” and Laine Callahan, a sophomore creative writing major from Morristown, was recognized for “Languish” in the fiction category. Emily Waryck, a sophomore creative writing major from New Concord, Ohio, was recognized for “’86” in the poetry category. Ms. Holly was also recognized for “Forking the Tongue” in the nonfiction category.
The winners’ works will be included in a publication to be released during the 2015 Old Oak Festival, April 17- 19.
The Curtis Owen Literary Award was established by Curtis Owens, a 1928 graduate of Tusculum College who went on to a teaching career at what is now Pace University in New York, and his wife, Billie. He and his wife established the Owens Award at his alma mater to encourage and reward excellence in writing among Tusculum College students.
The announcement of the winners was made during a reading by creative nonfiction writer Juljia Šukys. Ms. Šukys was a judge for the final round of the competition. The reading was pieces from her most recent book “Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Šimaite. “
Ms. Šukys is a creative nonfiction writer who at first studied literature and continued through her doctoral program and dissertation in literature at the University of Toronto. She began with her first book called “Silence is Death: The Life and Work of Tahar Djaout,” which is about an Algerian author that was gunned down.
Her next book, “Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Šimaite. Epistolophilia” won the 2013 Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award for Holocaust Literature.
Ms. Šukys is currently teaching creative writing at the University of Missouri, Columbia. She publishes a blog that includes the processes of writing creative nonfiction and the life of a writer.