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English department invites student submissions for creative writing award (with a prize of in-state tuition) By
Leon D'souza The Utah State University English department in cooperation with the College of Natural Resources is inviting submissions for the first annual Jenny and Thad Box Creative Writing Award. The award, which can be made to an undergraduate or graduate student, covers one semester of in-state tuition and includes publication in the student-run journal of creative nature writing, Petroglyph. Submissions can take the form of essays, poetry, fiction or dramatic works that explore the interconnectedness of people and the environment. The deadline for submissions is Nov. 15. Requirements for submission include a cover letter detailing intent to apply for the award, a conventional mailing address, an email address if one is available, and two copies of the writing to be considered. Participants are urged to limit the length of any single submission to between one and 30 pages. If a 30-page submission is excerpted from a longer work, the judges may request the complete document. Entries will be judged by a distinguished panel, which will include Melody Graulich, editor of Western American Literature; Shanan Ballam, editor of Petroglyph, Ken Brewer, a Logan poet and former USU English professor, and Barbara Middleton, extension specialist in the Department of Rangeland Resources. Submissions should be sent to: Professor Jeffrey Smitten, Head Paul Crumbley, assistant professor of English, spoke to the Hard News Café Thursday about the significance of the award. "There is a largely unidentified community of writers who work in poetry, in the short story -- the traditional creative writing areas -- and drama and play writing. But there are those who do work with the essay that may not think of themselves as involved in creative writing. This award is designed to appeal to that whole broad range of writers," Crumbley said. According to Crumbley, Thad Box, former dean of the College of Natural Resources and a widely published author and columnist, introduced the idea of a creative writing award last year. "Box is interested particularly in the way the natural resources focus ought to be informing what we are doing in the humanities, and what we are doing in the humanities ought to be more directly a part of what the scientists in natural resources do. Creative writing is the way to do that," Crumbley said. "We're all really committed to the idea that the university ought to play a role in forming public understanding of our human relationship with the environment, locally and regionally. This should be part of the university mission -- to help the citizenry of the Utah region understand how best to manage the resources that are present in such abundance," he added. Crumbley hopes the award will motivate recipients to continue writing. "We also hope that over time, the award will act as incentive to other people who haven't thought of themselves as writers necessarily, who might begin to imagine the role they might have in helping to define the university community here as a community of writers," he said. The award is also part of an effort to elevate Petroglyph by increasing awareness about the journal as an important venue for writers to explore their creative abilities, as well as to learn the nuances of effective writing. Crumbley said that this year, in line with its efforts to promote creative nature writing, the English department will hire a creative writer who focuses on the environment. "We in the English department are attempting to formalize our relationship with the College of Natural Resources so that institutionally, we're working toward making environmental writing a more important, more prominent, and more fully institutionalized dimension of what we do at the university. The creative writing award is a part of this larger effort," Crumbley said. The winner will be announced at 8 p.m. Dec. 6 in the Ellen Eccles Conference Center Auditorium. Former Aggie and eminent nature writer Rick Bass will read from his works and present the award.
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