The English department is accepting entries for its annual creative writing competition until Feb. 11.
“Writing is essentially an act of bringing something from your soul out into external form so that it can be shared with other humans,” Associate Professor of English Kelly Franklin said. “It is also a discovery process: we come to better understand what is in our souls as we struggle to give it form in language. It is a form of communion, a way of being known and understood, a way of building a bridge or a connection to a person you’ve never even met.”
Students may submit a maximum of one poem and one work of prose to the competition. All materials should be submitted to the box outside Franklin’s office, Delp 205.
Three awards are available for poetry, all of which are open to undergraduate students: the Ambler Literary Award, the Barnes Award for Metered Poetry, and the Margaret Weymouth Jackson Award. For prose, two awards are open: the Dana and Elinor Kies Rose Award, and the Carlotta and Alvin Ewing English Award. The former is open to all undergrads and the latter only to women who are declared English majors.
Sophomore Adam Robbins said he plans to enter both categories of the competition.
“I like to think about how language functions,” Robbins said. “There are certain things that cannot be expressed in words, like when you cry or laugh. I think poetry strikes at that mystery, and so do most forms of art.”
Students must submit three copies of their entries, identified by a pseudonym and paired with a sealed envelope containing their real name, according to flyers posted by the English department. Those who fail to adhere to this will be disqualified.
“I hope students get the joy and fulfillment from writing,” Franklin said. “I hope they are able to access whatever is in their soul that needs utterance and give it form so that it can be shared and read by others. I also hope students learn the basic practice of writing and submitting for a deadline — something that writers have to be able to do.”