Hopwood writing awards presented to 24

Twenty-four students received $26,550 in writing prizes in the Hopwood Underclassmen Contest and other awards 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.

The Hopwood Underclassmen Contest awarded $12,850 to 11 students in a Jan. 30 ceremony in the Rackham Amphitheatre. Another $13,700 was awarded through 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.

Students from Michigan included:

Cyan James, Ann Arbor, $550, Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize; K.C. Trommer, Ann Arbor, $100, Academy of American Poets, Graduate Division; Hayley Berkshire, Grand Rapids, $600, Hopwood Underclassmen Poetry; Natasha Stagg, Grand Rapids, $1,000, Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship.

Keilor Kastella, Gregory, $1,500, Hopwood Underclassmen Poetry; Melissa Shook, Grosse Pointe Farms, $1,500, Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship; Lauren Keils, Huntington Woods, $600, Hopwood Underclassmen Poetry.

Lauren Walbridge, Kalamazoo, $800, Hopwood Underclassmen Fiction; Noelle Williams, Lake Odessa, $2,500, Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship; Audra Puchalski, Rochester Hills, $500, Jeffrey L. Weisberg Memorial Prize in Poetry.

Jennifer Leija, St. Clair Shores, $1,250, Hopwood Underclassmen Poetry; James Dean Menter Jr., Sturgis, $1,000, Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship; Erin Schlitts, Traverse City, $1,000, Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship.

Erica Krutsch, Warren, $2,000, Roy Cowden Memorial Fellowship; Shaelyn Smith, West Branch, $1,250, Hopwood Underclassmen Poetry; Jessica Vosgerchian, Westland, $1,250, Hopwood Underclassmen Nonfiction; Chris Pruitt, Ypsilanti, $350, Michael R. Gutterman Award in Poetry.

Out-of-state students included: Rebecca Shafer, Evanston, Ill., $1,500, Hopwood Underclassmen Fiction; Xiaoqian Donica Liu, Chesterfield, Mo., $600, Hopwood Underclassmen Nonfiction;Clare Smith Marash, New York, N.Y., $1,500, Hopwood Underclassmen Fiction.

Beenish Ahmed, Perrysburg, Ohio, triple winner: $1,000, Hopwood Underclassmen Nonfiction; $1,000, Hopwood Underclassmen Poetry and $650, the Jeffrey L. Weisberg Memorial Prize in Poetry; Evan Briggs McGarvey, Providence, R.I., $100, Academy of American Poets, Undergraduate Division; Michelle Brown, Washington, D.C., $450, Michael R. Gutterman Award in Poetry.

One international student was honored. Nithya Marie Joseph, Bangalore, India, $2,000, Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship.

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