Student Writing Contest
Contest Chair, Susanna Childress, Valparaiso University (susannachildress@gmail.com)
2009 Writing Contest
The Conference on Christianity and Literature is happy to announce the winners of its annual contest for student writers. The winners were chosen from a total of 86 entries: 22 in fiction, 19 in nonfiction, and 35 in poetry. Winning entries were selected through blind judging both in the preliminary and final rounds; an entry had to be approved by a quorum of preliminary judges before it proceeded to the final judge in each category. Neither preliminary nor final judges were given information about the author of the submissions.
Winners, three in each genre of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, will receive a generous selection of books from WordFarm publishing and a full year's subscription to Image and Christianity and Literature. The contest was open to all regularly enrolled undergraduate students. Winners in each category and remarks from the judges about each winning entry are below.
Nonfiction, judged by Rhoda Janzen
First place: "Forsythia: An Incantation"
Grace Olson, Hope College
I would like to be very clear about what moved this essay to the number one position for me. It reads as if written by a mature, seasoned writer, advancing in years as well as wisdom. That is no mean feat in an undergraduate competition! So before I say what there is in this essay, let me compliment what it is not--it is not predictable, mannered, or coy. It doesn't smell like a workshop. It's not wearing a clever beret, sipping an espresso. Now for what it is. It is wry, inquiring, surprising, and as beautiful as its own subject matter. As with many fine nonfiction essays, the power is not in plot, but association. The speaker, by no means a botanist, is researching forsythia, which to her has come to stand for a possible retreat from urban complexity to agrarian simplicity. The essay becomes a spiritual meditation on the notion of calling--yet it never leaves the voice of the curious botanist, whose habit of checking discursive connections moves the plot toward anagnoritic insight. Wow, I thought the first time I read it. This is a writer whose book I would recommend to my friends.
Second place: "Institution Daisies"
Karis Granberg-Michaelson, Hope College
"Institution Daisies" is a bold essay indeed. It intends to shock, but it shocks thoughtfully and well. One might even say that it uses shock therapy. The essay tacks between two surprising tropes. On the one hand, there is mental illness. This is represented by the experiences of a chemically dependent daughter as she navigates the ins and outs of an institutional facility. On the other hand, there is the Reformed Church in America, and by extension, all of organized Christianity. This is represented by a variety of authoritarian models--a sermon-writing daddy, the Book of Church Order, an arresting officer. The shock isn't that the author manages to conflate the two tropes, suggesting that organized religion functions as a kind of mental illness, and that mental illness profits by ritual. Rather, the shock is that the author achieves this conflation with structural subtlety. Given the material, the last thing I was expecting was subtlety!
Third place: "A Discourse on Doubt"
Ethan Lennox, Indiana Wesleyan University
"Discourse on Doubt" turns on the age-old conflict between intellect and spirit. The speaker, safe in "the sanctuary of skepticism," positions doubt against a ministerial father's devout faith and summons many of the ideological objections that critics have traditionally leveled at Christianity. What emerges is not a vexed relationship with a disappointed parent, but a picture of mental and spiritual growth rounded by experience. The beautiful Biblical imagery with which the speaker frames the doubt is structurally superb--it belies the skepticism altogether, and by essay's end, the reader realizes that this is not the story of doubt. It is the story of faith.
Poetry, judged by Jennifer Maier
First place: "Spark" and "Casualties"
Karis Granberg-Michaelson, Hope College
These ambitious and innovative poems achieve the kind of escape velocity that lifts them out of the confines of mere private experience into a more public space. Each demonstrates a mature sense of audience, metaphor, and linguistic dexterity.
Second place: "Sonnet" and "Psalm"
Caitlin Beauchamp, University of Texas at Dallas
I selected "Sonnet" and "Psalm" for their sure-footed mastery of the formal considerations in poetry, their fresh use of imagery, and their sustained and focused attention to subject.
Download copies of "Sonnet" and "Psalm"
Third place: "First Night," "Matthew 27:46" and "Summer Sweet Corn"
Danielle Besch, Abilene Christian University
I chose "First Night," "Matthew 27:46," and "Summer Sweet Corn" for their sophisticated and sure rhythmic sense ("First Night"), combined with a vivid layering of image and association.
Download copies of "First Night," "Matt. 27:46" and "Summer Sweet Corn"
Honorable mention: "The End of the World"
Ethan Lennox, Indiana Wesleyan University
I selected "The End of the World" for its mature sense of audience and the impressive way it traces its narrative trajectory with balance, compassion, and restraint.
Fiction, judged by Nicole Mazzarella
First place: , "Community Theater"
Brent Dill, Abilene Christian University
In the tradition of "Miss Brill," "Community Theater" reveals the desires of Elaine through her close observations of setting and other characters. The writer demonstrates mastery of setting as it adds to the narrative tension and expands our understanding of Elaine. This writer takes great care with all of the minor characters; they are believable, unique, and significant.
Download a copy of Community Theatre
Second place: "Tree"
Naphtali Leyland Fields, Wheaton College
Through the story of a tree, this writer tells the story of humanity. The compelling narrative voice guides readers from the fall of humanity through stories of loss, brokenness, and human failings. Woven throughout the work stands the tree, which offers life and protection. The writer earns the spiritually-symbolic conclusion through a mesmerizing narrative voice and compelling characters rendered in a few words.
Third place: "Popsicles and Cigarettes"
Jessica George, Abilene Christian University
The retrospective narrator of "Popsicles & Cigarettes" avoids intrusion and nostalgia; instead we enter the complexities of young adolescence. The complications created by the father's unemployment rightfully become the back drop for the young boy's concerns about friendship, zip lines, and cigarettes. Yet the family's tensions clearly influence the young man's choices and his feelings of responsibility toward his family at the end. I was drawn into this coming-of-age story and admired the writer's portrayal of youthful friendships.
Download a copy of Popsicles and Cigarettes
The judges for this year's competition:
FICTION: Nicole Mazzarella. Nicole teaches creative writing at Wheaton College. Her first novel, This Heavy Silence, was named one of the best books of 2005 by The Library Journal, the best novel of 2005 by Christianity Today, and received a Christy Award. In addition to her work on her next novel, Nicole is at work on a collection of essays and a screenplay.
NON-FICTION: Rhoda Janzen. Rhoda's new book, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home, will appear from Henry Holt in 2009. Janzen has contributed poems to many journals, including Poetry, The Yale Review, The Gettysburg Review, and The Southern Review. Her first poetry book is Babel's Stair (Word Press, 2006). In 2001 she appeared on the PBS television series Closer to Truth, and she has twice held the University of California's Poet Laureate Award. Janzen teaches creative writing and literature at Hope College, where she is an Associate Professor of English. She lives in Allegan, Michigan.
POETRY: Jennifer Maier. Jennifer is the author of Dark Alphabet, which won the First Book Award from the Crab
Orchard Review Series in Poetry and was named one of the Ten Remarkable Books of 2006 by the Academy of American Poets. Her poetry has appeared in Poetry, American Poet, Poetry Daily, Mississippi Review, and many other journals and has been featured on Garrison Keillor's National Public Radio program The Writer's Almanac. She is an associate professor of literature and creative writing at Seattle Pacific University and serves as Associate Editor of the arts quarterly IMAGE.
Lists of winners from past years can be accessed below.
2008 Student Writing Contest Winners
2006 Student Writing Contest Winners
2005 Student Writing Contest Winners
2004 Student Writing Contest Winners
2003 Student Writing Contest Winners
2002 Student Writing Contest Winners
Questions to Tammy Ditmore (tammy.ditmore@pepperdine.edu)