For Immediate Release
Date: June 8, 2020
Contact: Kesha Lee
202-248-5051 or Info@hurstonwright.org
College Writing Awards go to students at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Mississippi
Washington, DC—The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation’s 2020 Award for College Writers goes to a student at the University of Cincinnati, for fiction, and a student at the University of Mississippi, for poetry. Each wins a $1,000 cash prize and free tuition to attend a Hurston/Wright Writing Workshop, sponsored by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Sakinah Hofler, a PhD student in English and Comparative Literature at the University of Cincinnati, wins the fiction prize for her story “The Gifts We Don’t Need.” Sadia Hassan, an MFA candidate at the University of Mississippi, wins the poetry prize for her collection titled “Black Girl Prayer Poems.”
Novelist Naima Coster, author of Halsey Street, judged the fiction competition. In selecting Hofler’s story, Coster said, “‘The Gifts We Don’t Need’ is a complex and sensitive exploration of family secrets, sisterhood, and silence. The story renders the interior life of a girl living through a summer that will alter her family forever. The narrative voice is fierce, and the events wholly memorable. A powerful, propulsive story.”
Poet Venus Thrash, author of The Fateful Apple, judged the poetry competition. In selecting Hassan’s poetry, Thrash said, “What distinguishes these poems is the use of language, form, and imagery combined with compelling and substantive content to drive the poems’ messaging home. The language is concise without clunky phrasing bogging the work down in unnecessary words. The imagery, vivid. The poetic instincts are present, come naturally, and are evident in the poems’ movement, rhythm, form, and flow.”
The award, which debuted in 1991 and is the longest-running program of the Hurston/Wright Foundation, encourages college creative writers with support early in their writing careers. Over 80 students from 65 colleges and universities submitted their work for the 2020 competition. The judges, who have sole discretion in making the selections, are sent entries without information that would identify the authors or their schools.
This is the seventh year that the award has been sponsored by Amistad and HarperCollins Publishers. Tracy Sherrod, editorial director of Amistad, said “It is a great honor for Amistad/HarperCollins to continue supporting the Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers. I have seen recipients of this award go on to become prominent literary voices. We are proud to be a part of this exciting work.”
Former Hurston/Wright college writers who have found publishing success include Tayari Jones, Natalie Baszile, Mitchell S. Jackson, and Nate Marshall.
The winners will be honored at the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards ceremony. Details regarding the ceremony, which typically takes place in Washington, D.C., will be made public in the coming months. The Legacy Awards ceremony also features the announcement of the winners of the juried awards for debut fiction, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as presentation of awards for college writers and career achievement. More than 200 literary stars and representatives of the publishing industry, media, politics, arts, and academia participate in the annual ceremony.
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The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation was founded in 1990 in Washington, D.C., and is dedicated to discovering, mentoring and honoring Black writers. Through workshops, master classes and readings, the organization preserves the voices of Black writers in the world literary canon, serves as a community for writers, and continues a tradition of literary excellence in storytelling established by its namesakes. The Hurston/Wright Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Learn more at www.hurstonwright.org.
HarperCollins Publishers is the second largest consumer book publisher in the world, with operations in 17 countries. With 200 years of history and more than 120 branded imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year in 16 languages, and has a print and digital catalog of more than 200,000 titles. Writing across dozens of genres, HarperCollins authors include winners of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals and the Man Booker Prize. HarperCollins, headquartered in New York, is a subsidiary of News Corp and can be visited online at corporate.HC.com.