Students will have the opportunity to hear original fiction this Monday as English Department Prize victors read their winning compositions aloud.
The English Department's annual prize competition elicits entries from student writers across campus. This year, the competition drew well over 200 entries.
The department awarded 10 prizes: four poetry prizes, two fiction prizes, and one prize each for non-fiction, first-year composition, extemporaneous composition and best scholar of English literature in the junior class.
Although the pool of talent is large, English Department Coordinator Bobbie Olmstead remarks that the prizes go to the star "standouts," often winners from years past.
Increased participation from students, whether winners or not, is a positive development for the campus and, according to Olmstead, the hallmark of a growing interest in creative writing.
Two categories in particular seem to resonate with the student body.
This year "Poetry was through the roof," said Olmstead. The recently established Bowdoin Nonfiction prize also drew a healthy influx of non-fiction entries.
As this year's prize competition reflects, Bowdoin students are feeding the expansion of the college's creative writing culture.
Beginning next semester, author Brock Clark joins Adjunct Lecturer Jane Brox and Writer-In-Residence Anthony Walton as instructors of Creative Writing,
Clark comes to the College filling a tenure track position. His arrival marks a transition within the English department as it intends to expand its offerings for creative writing classes.
Brox remarked on the event saying that, "It is an opportunity for students across campus to hear the work of their peers. And for the winners, the reading gives them a wider audience than they might normally have."
The readings also help the students practice a key skill, namely, "to consider the distinctions between work that is read aloud and work that is on the page," Brox added.
The readings will be held in the Faculty Room in Massachusetts Hall, Monday April 26 at 4:30 p.m. All are encouraged to attend.
-Compiled by Daisy Alioto.