U-M announces Hopwood winners

Twenty-one U-M students received $21,750 in writing prizes in the Hopwood Underclassmen Contest and other contests administered by the Hopwood Awards Program.

With the prizes, the legacy of Avery Hopwood, a 1905 U-M graduate and the most successful Broadway playwright of the 1920s, continues to grow.

Elisabeth Bell of Summit, N.J., receives the Academy of American Poets Prize,Undergraduate Division, from Hopwood Program Director Nicholas Delbanco at the Jan. 24 Hopwood Awards ceremony. (Photo by Scott Galvin, U-M Photo Services)

The Hopwood Underclassmen Contest awarded $10,350 to students in a Jan. 24 ceremony in the Rackham Amphitheatre. Another $11,400 was awarded in other contests administered by the Hopwood program: the Academy of American Poets Prize, Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize, Michael R. Gutterman Award in Poetry, Jeffrey L. Weisberg Memorial Prize in Poetry and the Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship.

The winners from Michigan are: double winner Jennifer Metsker of Ann Arbor, $100, Academy of American Poets Prize, Graduate Division, and $225, Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize; Alison Heeres of Battle Creek, $800, Hopwood Underclassmen Essay; Martin Halprin of Birmingham, $1,000, Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship; double winner Jennifer Reyna of Ecorse, $800, Hopwood Underclassmen Fiction, and $1,000, Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship; Anna Prushinskaya of Farmington Hills, $800, Hopwood Underclassmen Poetry; Kelsey McLees of Flint, $600, Jeffrey L. Weisberg Memorial Prize in Poetry; Amanda Ruud of Lathrup Village, $2,500, Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship; Zack Weber of Northport, $800, Hopwood Underclassmen Poetry; Alex Dimitrov of Royal Oak, $1,000, Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship; Britain Cox of Saline, $1,000, Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship; Bryan Kelly of Sterling Heights, $800, Hopwood Underclassmen Fiction; Caitlin Cowan of West Bloomfield, $800, Hopwood Underclassmen Poetry; and Geoffrey George of West Bloomfield, $1,000 Hopwood Underclassmen Essay.

Out-of-state winners are: triple winner Karl Stampfl of LaGrange, Ill., $800, Hopwood Underclassmen Fiction, $1,000, Hopwood Underclassmen Poetry, and $2,500, Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship; Mimi Xi of Belle Mead, N.J., $500, Jeffrey L. Weisberg Memorial Prize in Poetry; C. C. Song of Hackensack, N.J., $1,250, Hopwood Underclassmen Fiction; Elisabeth Bell of Summit, N.J., $100, Academy of American Poets Prize, Undergraduate Division; Beenish Ahmed of Perrysburg, Ohio, $1,500, Hopwood Underclassmen Essay; Elizabeth Mitchell of Perrysburg, Ohio, $225, Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize; Karyna McGlynn of Austin, Texas, $350, Michael R. Gutterman Award in Poetry; Britta Ameel of Salt Lake City, $300, Michael R. Gutterman Award in Poetry.

The 75-year-old program has awarded more than 3,000 prizes totaling over $2.1 million. Past winners have included Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller—who won his Hopwoods in the 1930s—and current bestselling author Elizabeth Kostova.

For more information on the Hopwood Program, visit: www.lsa.umich.edu/english/hopwood/hopwood.htm.