Tusculum College students Amanda Clampitt, Amanda Harmon and David Roncskevitz are the winners of the 2009 Curtis and Billie Owens Literary Awards, annually given to recognize the literary achievements of the college’s creative writing students.
Amanda Clampitt of Jefferson City won in the non-fiction category for “We Ain’t the Clampet’s Anymore.” Clampitt is a freshman majoring in museum studies and history.
Amanda Harmon of Greenville, Ala., won the fiction competition for her short story “Midnight Dessert.” Harmon is a junior majoring in English with a double concentration in writing and journalism.
David Roncskevitz of Franklin won the poetry competition with his work, “The Jazzman.” Roncskevitz is a sophomore majoring English with a writing concentration.
The announcement about the literary competition was made recently by award-winning author Kellie Wells. Wells, who is also a creative writing professor at Washington University in St. Louis, was the judge for this year’s competition. The announcement of the award was made prior to a reading at Tusculum by Wells from her work. The reading was part of the college’s 2008-2009 Humanities Series.
The award was named for Curtis Owens, a 1928 graduate of Tusculum College who went on to a teaching career at what is now Pace University in New York. He and his wife established the Owens Award at his alma mater to encourage and reward excellence in writing among Tusculum College students.
The winning students’ work will be featured in “The Oracle,” a publication of creative works by Tusculum College students, which will be included later in the semester inside an edition of The Pioneer Frontier, the student newspaper.
The three winners read their award-winning works at a Student Literary Reading on April 1. Also reading his works was senior Telmo Dantes.
During the reading, the winners of the Freshman Essay Contest were also announced. Winning first prize was Ashley Davis. Second place went to Derek Murrell, and third to Jordan Reams. The English Department was helped in the judging by Marilyn duBrisk, director of the college’s Arts Outreach program.
