Outstanding writers from the TCU community were honored at the Creative Writing Awards Tuesday night in the Dee J. Kelly Alumni Center.
This year there were 315 submissions from across seven colleges, including the AddRan College of Liberal Arts, the Bob Schieffer College of Communication, the Neeley School of Business, the College of Fine Arts, the College of Science and Engineering, the College of Education and the Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences.
The Department of English has held the Creative Writing Awards every year since 1935 and all TCU students and alumni are welcome to compete in one of the 26 contests, though some contests are open to specific credit-hour based classification or current TCU students only.
“We give away close to $4000 in prize money each year,” said Lynn Herrera, the administrative assistant in the English department.
Those who received first place in each of the categories won checks for amounts specified in the application.
“The students we honor today have harnessed the written word to construct entire imagined worlds, iridescent images and impassioned arguments and criticism,” said Matthew Pitt, assistant professor of English and chairman of the Writing Committee.
Pitt invited attendees to the second installment of Homegrown Live Oak, which will take place April 16 in Moudy South.
Following his welcome speech, Pitt began to announce the honorable mentions and winners of each of the 26 awards, starting with contests sponsored by the Woman’s Wednesday Club in Fort Worth.
Prizes ranged from $50 to $500 and sponsors for each award varied.
Before announcing the winner of the David Vanderwerken Short Story Contest, Pitt took a moment to pay tribute to Dr. Vanderwerken, who died in January.
“At last year’s Creative Writing Awards ceremony, I was able to stand at this podium and announce to [Dr. Vanderwerken] that we had decided to rename this next contest after David,” Pitt said. “Fitting tribute to someone who had sponsored the award for many years.”
Pitt said that he was proud to report that several members of the English department are continuing to fund the contest “in honor of [Vanderwerken’s] commitment and generosity to his students and their writing.”
Among the winners was Student Body President Cody Westphal, who read an excerpt from his piece “First Love(s)” which took first place of the Bill Camfield Memorial Award for Humorous Fiction, Screenplays and Essays. The crowd laughed as he read his recollection of falling in love with his teachers as a child.
Winning pieces were published in a book Herrera put together. The book was given at the awards ceremony.