Contact: Maridith Geuder
Three poems and a short story are earning the top awards in this year's undergraduate writing competition at Mississippi State University.
Organized by creative writing faculty members in the English department, the annual challenge is open to all MSU majors in the freshman-through-senior classes.
Richard Lyons, the department's director of creative writing, said campus winners are eligible to advance to regional competition sponsored by the Southern Literary Festival, a regional association founded in 1937 to promote excellence in writing among university and college students.
"MSU students regularly have earned distinction among counterparts from more than 100 academic institutions," Lyons said.
Chosen by top English graduate students at MSU, winners of the 2002-03 Undergraduate Writing Competition include [by hometown]:
GREENWOOD--Beth Morgan, third prize for her poem "Dramatic Monologue for Diane Arbus." She is a senior general liberal arts major and the daughter of Dale Morgan and Bonnie Morgan.
PURVIS--Colin McDaniel, first prize for his short story "Country Bumpkin Spacemen." He is a junior philosophy major and the son of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney McDaniel.
SOUTH MOUNDS, Okla.--Leslie Nickles, second prize for her poem "Volatile." She is a junior English major and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Nickles.
VERNON, Ala.--Malin McCain, first prize for her poem "Divisions." She is a senior elementary education major. [Parents not listed].