The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation announces the winners and honorable mentions in the 2015 Hurston/Wright Founding Members Award for College Writers. The Hurston/Wright Founding Members Award for College Writers is presented to college writers in the genres of fiction and poetry. The award, underwritten by a friend and supporter of the Foundation, awards a total cash prize of $3,000 and seeks to recognize and encourage emerging college creative writers with support early in their writing careers.
Fiction Winner Grace Jean-Pierre of the University of South Florida will receive $1,000 for her story Espwa; Fiction Honorable Mention Sarah Dickerson of the Otis College of Art and Design will receive $250 for her story The Turner Haunt; Fiction Honorable Mention Jasmine Evans of Mills College will receive $250 for her story Blurred Lines.
Poetry Winner Bonita Penn of Lesley University will receive $1,000 for her poem Blame it on the Wooden Arks, blame it on those Boogeymen; Honorable Mention Safiya Sinclair of the University of Southern California will receive $250 for her poem One Hundred Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof; Honorable Mention Renia White of Cornell University will receive $250 for her poem Syndoche.
The winners and honorable mentions will be honored at the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C. on Friday October 23rd in Washington, D.C. At this year’s Legacy Ceremony which also celebrates the Foundation’s 2th anniversary, novelist Edwidge Danticat will receive the Foundation’s North Star Award. S.Epatha Merkerson will host and poets Nikky Finney and Yusef Komunyakaa will be among the guest speakers and presenters.
The poetry judge was Lillian-Yvonne Bertram and the fiction judge was A.J. Verdelle