Writer Ethel Morgan Smith to be featured at Tusculum’s annual Curtis Owens Literary Prize event

The annual Curtis Owens Literary prizes will be announced and a reading will be held by contest judge Ethel Morgan Smith on Thursday, March 15, at Tusculum College.

The event is free and open to the public and will begin at 7 p.m. in the Shulman Atrium on Tusculum’s Greeneville campus.

Ethel Morgan Smith

The awards, which are given annually to recognize the literary achievements of the college’s students, are open to all Tusculum students.

Ethel Morgan Smith is the author of two books: “From Whence Cometh My Help: The African American Community at Hollins College” and “Reflections of the Other: Being Black in Germany.” She has also published in “The New York Times,” “Callaloo,” “African American Review” and other national and international outlets.

Smith has received a Fulbright Scholar-Germany, Rockefeller Fellowship-Bellagio, Italy, Visiting Artist-The American Academy in Rome, DuPont Fellow-Randolph Macon Women’s College, Visiting Scholar-Women’s Studies Research Center-Brandies University, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Bread Loaf Fellowship. She teaches at West Virginia University in Morgantown.

The literary prize winners, who will be announced at the event, will have their works included in the literary journal, “Tusculum Review,” to be released during the 2018 Old Oak Festival.

The Curtis and Billie Owens Literary Awards are annually given to recognize the literary achievements of Tusculum’s creative writing students. The literary award was named for Curtis Owens, a 1928 graduate of Tusculum who went on to a teaching career at what is now Pace University in New York. He and his wife established the award at his alma mater to encourage and reward excellence in writing among Tusculum College students.