U-M’s Hopwood Awards program is special because it honors the tradition of the individual writer seeking to create literature, says the writing program’s top awards winner for 2011.
Joseph Horton, who won $12,300 at The Graduate and Undergraduate Hopwood Awards Ceremony on April 20 in Rackham Amphitheatre, says a lone author crafting a narrative is “the best way to tell a story.”
The Littleton, Colo., native was among 37 winners sharing 53 prizes totaling $187,350. Horton, who just completed a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English, says the money will tide him through coming months and pay for his trip this summer to the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, where he is presenting one of his plays.
The Avery and Jule Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing are among the nation’s oldest contests for student writers. They are supported by a bequest from Avery Hopwood, a 1905 U-M graduate who was the most commercially successful Broadway playwright of the 1920s, and Jule Hopwood, his mother.
This year’s Hopwood lecturer was poet Elizabeth Alexander. Alexander is the author of numerous books of poetry, most recently “Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010,” a young adult collection and two volumes of essays. Her poem “Praise Song for the Day” was delivered at President Obama’s inauguration.
Winners of awards presented at the ceremony were:
❙ Nawaaz Ahmed, Ann Arbor, Hopwood Novel award, $3,500, for “Sings Like a Bird”; Hopwood Graduate Nonfiction award, $4,000, and The John Wagner Prize, $1,000, for “Why the Sky Is Skin and Flesh”; and the Hopwood Graduate Short Fiction award, $3,500, for “Love Is a Lamp of God.”
❙ Samiya Bashir, Ann Arbor, Hopwood Graduate Poetry award, $4,500, and The Helen S. and John Wagner Prize, $1,000, for “Laws of the Black Body.”
❙ Kathryn Beaton, Ann Arbor, The Arthur Miller Award of the University of Michigan Club of New York Scholarship Fund, a tuition credit of $2,000 and an autographed copy of “Death of a Salesman,” for “A Black Hole the Size of Ann Arbor.”
❙ Russell Brakefield, Comstock Park, The Hopwood Award Theodore Roethke Prize for the Long Poem or Poetic Sequence, $5,000, for “The High and Lonesome Sound”; and The Meader Family Award, $2,700, for “Distances Between the Head and Chest.”
❙ Anna Brenner, San Mateo, Calif., Hopwood Graduate Short Fiction award, $2,500, for “All the Crazy People I Know.”
❙ Roohi Choudhry, Ann Arbor, Hopwood Graduate Nonfiction award, $2,500, for “On Island.”
❙ Zack Crawford, Farmington Hills, Hopwood Undergraduate Poetry award, $9,000, and The Paul and Sonia Handleman Poetry Award,” $2,600, for “The Valley Below.”
❙ Christy Duan, Troy, Hopwood Undergraduate Nonfiction award, $3,000, for “Slowly, Slowly and Other Stories.”
❙ Ben Ellmann, Ann Arbor, the Leonard and Eileen Newman Writing Prize in Dramatic Writing, $1,000, for “Max Mayhem.”
❙ Aislinn Frantz, Dowagiac, Hopwood Drama award, $4,000, for “You Can Spend Your Whole Life Running.”
❙ John Ganiard, Green Bay, Wis., Hopwood Graduate Poetry award, $3,000, for “Spirit I Do Not Want.”
❙ Ali Gordon, New York City, The Dennis McIntyre Prize for Distinction in Undergraduate Playwriting, $3,500, for “Gibson Fleck.”
❙ Tian-Jun Gu, West Bloomfield, Hopwood Screenplay award, $9,000; and The Naomi Saferstein Literary Award, $1,200, for “Dragon Kings.”
❙ Eli Hager, Chevy Chase, Md., Hopwood Undergraduate Short Fiction award, $9,000, and The Robert F. Haugh Prize, $2,700, for “A City in Africa,” “Wedding After Winter,” “A Consequence” and “On a Blue Ridge Highway.”
❙ Francine Harris, Ann Arbor, Hopwood Graduate Poetry award, $2,500, for “Boy with Flower.”
❙ Joseph Horton, Littleton, Colo., Hopwood Novel award, $7,500, and The Geoffrey James Gosling Prize, $800, for “Deep Rez”; and the Hopwood Screenplay award, $4,000, for “Reservation Roll.”
❙ Perry Janes, Royal Oak, Hopwood Screenplay award, $2,000, for “Vacants”; and the Hopwood Undergraduate Poetry award, $8,000, for “Transmissions from Detroit.”
❙ Lauren Jordan, Southfield, Hopwood Drama award, $6,000, for “Quad Life: A Trashy Tale.”
❙ Dan Keane, Ann Arbor, Hopwood Graduate Short Fiction award, $2,500, for “No Story Is Worth a Life.”
❙ Patricia Khleif, Ann Arbor, Hopwood Novel award, $6,500, for “The Absence of Layla Halabi.”
❙ Kendra Langford Shaw, Ann Arbor, Hopwood Graduate Nonfiction award, $3,000, for “Reading the Air: Two Years as a Japanese Sensei.”
❙ Jen Leija, St. Clair Shores, Hopwood Undergraduate Nonfiction award, $9,000, and The Helen J. Daniels Prize, $2,900, for “Feast.”
❙ Dave Lucas, Mentor, Ohio, Hopwood Graduate Nonfiction award, $3,000, for “That Father Lost.”
❙ Kate Middleton, East Ivanhoe, Australia, Hopwood Drama award, $3,000, for “River Run Dry”; Hopwood Graduate Poetry award, $2,500, and The Meader Family Award, $1,000, for “Ephemeral Waters.”
❙ Kelci Parker, Albion, The Frank and Gail Beaver Script Writing Prize, $1,000, for “The Hairless Grave.”
❙ James Pinto, Ann Arbor, Leonard and Eileen Newman Writing Prize in Fiction, $1,000, for “Men Somewhat Addled by Present Circumstances.”
❙ Noveed Safipour, Saratoga, Calif., Hopwood Undergraduate Nonfiction award, $3,000, for “It’s About That Time.”
❙ Gregory Samra, Plymouth, Hopwood Screenplay award, $2,500, for “Whiskey River.”
❙ Rocco Samuele, Ann Arbor, Hopwood Graduate Short Fiction Award, $4,000, and The Andrea Beauchamp Prize, $1,000, for “Cleveland Stories,”
❙ A. Brad Schwartz, East Lansing, The Dennis McIntyre Prize for Distinction in Undergraduate Playwriting, $3,500, for “Me & My Shadow.”
❙ Andrew Schwem, Boyne Falls, Hopwood Undergraduate Short Fiction award, $4,500, and The Stanley S. Schwartz Prize, $550, for “Burial.”
❙ Ali Shapiro, Ann Arbor, Hopwood Graduate Poetry award, $3,000, for “Advanced Search”; and The Chamberlain Award for Creative Writing, $3,400, for “Follow the Leader” and “The Great Escape.”
❙ Anna Sheaffer, Carlisle, Pa., The Meader Family Award, $2,000, for “Aisle View: Prose Poems.”
❙ Rebecca Spooner, Oak Park, Ill., Hopwood Drama award, $3,000, for “Stuffed.”
❙ Sasha Tandlich, Pembroke Pines, The Kasdan Scholarship in Creative Writing, $4,500, for “Claudette.”
❙ Kaitlin Williams, New Boston, Hopwood Undergraduate Short Fiction award, $2,500, for “My Deer.”
❙ Laura Winnick Hamden, Conn., Hopwood Undergraduate Poetry award, $3,000, for “How That Could Be.”
