April 16, 2014
Students earn literary and art work honors
CARBONDALE, Ill. – Nine students engaged in creative writing and visual arts recently earned inaugural SIU Carbondale Literary and Art Award honors.
The awards were presented this year during the Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Forum held on April 7.
Pinckney Benedict, a professor of creative writing, and Jon Tribble, managing editor of SIU’s nationally distributed literary journal “Crab Orchard Review,” coordinated the award.
Student selection was an important component of this award. All of the eligible entries came from “Grassroots,” SIU’s undergraduate arts magazine. “Grassroots” features visual art, poetry, fiction and other creative writing from undergraduate students who also edit and produce the magazine.
This year the editors chose 11 works of fiction, 27 works of poetry, and 16 pieces of visual art to include in “Grassroots.” They received approximately 75 submissions.
"The SIU Carbondale Literary and Art Award marks a distinct step forward for the university's literary and visual arts community,” Benedict said. “It's great to see our students' creative activity receiving the recognition and reward that it so richly deserves."
Tribble agreed, saying that recognition at the forum among students engaged in research and other creative projects was particularly inspiring.
Here are the award winners by category, with hometown, and title of their work:
Visual Art
• First place -- B. Ra-el Ali, Carbondale, “Humbleness.”
• Runner-up -- Aaron Farrell, Carbondale, “The Fact of Things.”
• Runner-up -- Sarah Ralls, Anna, “Mirror.”
Poetry
• First place -- Kayla Klugow, Amery, Wis., “Mormor.”
• Runner-up -- Savannah Broadway, Norris City, “A China Bird.”
• Runner-up -- Ashley Mallick, Dixon, “Mama Never Liked the Taste of Coffee.”
Fiction
• Winner -- Sarah Jilek, DeKalb, “Fish.”
• Runner-up -- Abby Beth Allen, Moweaqua, “Mouth Taped Shut.”
• Runner-up -- Kevin Savoie, Bradley, “Absolution.”