Well-known Mississippi author Carolyn Haines will be the keynote speaker for the 21st annual Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Writing Contest Awards on Thursday, April 23, at the college’s Jefferson Davis Campus. The ceremony will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the Arena Theatre and will include selected readings from winning literary works and a reception catered by Chef Todd Reilly and his culinary arts students.
Haines, a native of Lucedale, is an assistant professor of English and the fiction coordinator at The University of South Alabama (USA) and is a prolific author of both serious and humorous Southern tragedies. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from The University of Southern Mississippi and worked for nearly a decade as a reporter and photojournalist. She received her Master of Arts degree in creative writing from USA.
She has published 15 books in her “Bones” series, as well as many fiction and nonfiction books and short stories and dark mysteries under the pseudonym R. B. Chesterton. In all, she has written more than 60 books in a variety of genres. Her numerous awards include:
- Herbert L. Hughes Short Story Award (1985)
- Richard Wright Award (2009)
- Harper Lee Award (2010), Lovey Award (2011)
- Reviewers’ Choice Award (2011)
- Gold Award at the 22nd Annual Gamma Awards (2011)
Her most recent novels are “The Darkling” (2013), written under her pseudonym and published by Pegasus, and “Bone to Be Wild #15,” scheduled for release in May 2015 by St. Martin’s Press.
The awards ceremony caps a literary competition that includes more than 100 submissions from MGCCC students in six poetry, essay, one-act play and short story categories. The literary magazine Illumination is a compilation of the winners’ works, along with artwork provided by Jefferson Davis Campus visual arts students. Each literary winner receives a copy of Illumination along with an award certificate.
Winners in structured verse poetry are Ashley Smith, “La Symphonie de la Lune,” first place; Victoria Stringer, “New Year,” second place; and Eric Millisor, “Simply Drowning,” third place.
In free-verse poetry, winners are Mary Kinsey, “I Will Go Back to that Night,” first place; Eric Millisor, “Reflection,” second place; and Courtney Kirkham, “Generational Disconnect,” third place.
Winners in non-fiction are Alexandra Huninghake, “Paradise Mythology,” first place; Hannah Livingston, “Ugly,” second place; and Nateisha Fairly, “Joining the Military,” third place.
Critical essay winners are Kaitlyn Wilson, “As Above, So Below: Dante Alighieri and the Principles of Hermeticism,” first place; Destinee Dock, “Mother-Daughter Relationships in ‘The Joy Luck Club,’” second place; and Robert Silvernail, “War Pigs,” third place.
Winners in fiction are Mary Kinsey, “The Art of Getting By,” first place; Christopher Blackwell, “Stopgap Shelter,” second place; and Samantha Ulit-Yuhudah, “Flirtation and Coffee,” third place.
Alexandria Huninghake’s “Dance of Injustice” won first place in the one-act play category.
First, second and third prizes may be awarded in each category, depending on judges’ decisions. Judges of this year’s contest were USM Language Arts faculty members Kent Quaney, visiting instructor of English, personal essay; Eric Tribunella, chair and associate professor of English, critical essay; Andrew Milward, assistant professor of English, short story; and Eddie Malone, visiting instructor of English, one-act play. Kathy McAdams, MGCCC’s public information coordinator, judged the categories of free-verse poetry and structured-verse poetry.
The awards ceremony is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Vernon LaCour, Language Arts department chair at the Jefferson Davis Campus, at (228) 897-3790 or vernon.lacour@mgccc.edu.