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English Department Presents 2022 Literary Awards

Creative Writers Earns Kittay, Bowman and Hardie Awards Wilmington College's English Department took time out from the hustle and bustle of the quickly approaching end of the academic year Thursday (April 21) to recognize outstanding work in various genres of creative writing. PICTURED: Dr. Ursula McTaggart, professor of English, poses with winners of the Bowman Short Story Competition, Hannah Housenecht (LEFT) and Lydi Shelton. BELOW are: Kittay Poetry winners Caden McKay and Alyssa Kensill with Dr. Marta Wilkinson, professor of English; and Cliff Hardie Award winners, from the left, Lydi Shelton, Sydney Morris, Caden McKay and Isabella Quickel with Dr. Laura Struve, professor of English. Students garnered cash awards in the Kittay Poetry Competition, Bowman Short Fiction Contest and Cliff Hardie Literary Analysis Essay Competition. Seth KittaySeth Kittay, a 1968 graduate, funds the poetry awards as a means for encouraging students to write poetry and as an affirmation of the positive effect writing has had on his life. He is a successful entrepreneur and businessman in Los Angeles. This year’s Kittay winners were: first place ($400), "Sonnet 2" by Caden McKay; second place ($200), “Perceptions" by Alyssa Kensill; and third place ($100), “The Love for Myself" by Shawndale Arrington. Also presented were the awards in the Bowman Short Fiction Contest, which is named in memory of the popular WC English professor from the mid-20th century. Winners include first place ($150), “The Dragon's Apprentice" by Lydi Shelton; second place ($100), “Roads Go in Two Directions" by Hannah Houseknecht; and third place ($50), “Untitled" by Aaliyah Creech. HardiaAlan Frankel ’65 funds the Cliff Hardie Literary Analysis Essay Competition in memory of the former English professor who taught at WC from 1960 to 1996. Frankel, who viewed the proceedings via Zoom, has praised his friend and former professor for opening especially enlightening avenues for his creativity when he attended WC in the mid-1960s. Prize recipients include: upper-division first prize ($350), Caden McKay for "The Performance of Jazz”; upper-division second place ($150), Isabella Quickel for "Spirituality, Haunting and Vodou in Sing, Unburied"; lower-division first place ($350), Lydi Shelton for "More Pitiable Than the Dead”; and lower-division second place ($150), Sydney Morris for "Change in Gender Ideals from Canterbury Tales to Othello."