The four top student finalists from MCC’s recent annual Writing Contest will have their work entered into a statewide competition with publication in a magazine and attendance at a professional conference awaiting the winners.
Six winners and three honorable mentions were selected from categories of fiction and poetry amid a record number of submissions by MCC students. Only the top two in each category had their work qualify for the statewide competition. Local prizes included $125 for first place, $75 for second place, and $50 for third place.
In the fiction category, William Renzy took first for “Nothing to Hide,” while , second place went to Bonny K. Lownds for “The Vigil,” and third place to Kwame James for “Retreat.”
In the poetry category, Kwame James won for “Good Ol’ English,” while taking second place was Marina Falkowski for “Drown,” and third place went to Douglas Moseler for “There She Lies.” Honorable mentions were also given to James Champion, Jennifer Lance, and William Renzy for their additional submissions.
Additional mentions in poetry go to “That Year They Came Out of the Ground” by Bianca Bova, “My Blue Skies” by Kellie Crowell, “The World is a Patriot” by Jennifer Lance, and “Smoke Child” and “Fertile Woman in Me” by Hannah Forner.
“The Writing Contest showcases our school’s talent, and helps to unlock the potential in our students,” says Gretchen Cline, an MCC English Department instructor and the contest organizer, “It also refines students’ writing skills and urges them to demonstrate their work.”
Cline attributes the record number of submissions to better communication with students.
“In previous years the contest was a lot less formal, but now with student e-mail we can reach out to a lot more students, and share information on a much larger scale.”
The contest is in its tenth year and the fourth in partnership with the Liberal Arts Network for Development (LAND).
“Using LAND as a model, we were able to construct a contest that presented the best work that MCC had to offer.” She says, “Having LAND as an affiliate also adds a certain ‘academic’ weight that makes it more significant than it once was.”
The model seems to be working. Since involving LAND, two MCC students last year were published in the LAND magazine and two more the year before that.
LAND is sponsoring the statewide competition. The winners will be published and earn recognition in the LAND writing contest magazine which will be distributed to community colleges across Michigan. They also will be invited to attend the LAND conference in Bay City in February 2013, where they will receive their awards.