Hopwood Newsletter Vol. LXXVIII, 2 lsa.umich.edu/hopwood July 2017 HOPWOOD The Hopwood Newsletter is published electronically twice a year, in January and July. It lists the publications and activities of winners of the Summer Hopwood Contest, Hopwood Underclassmen Contest, Graduate and Undergraduate Hopwood Contest, and the Hopwood Award Theodore Roethke Prize. The Hopwood Program has a new director, former Hopwood Award winner Michael Byers. He is a former Stegner Fellow, holds an MFA from the University of Michigan (1996) and is the author of three books: The Coast of Good Intentions, a book of stories, and the novels Long for This World and Percival’s Planet. The Coast of Good Intentions won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, garnered a Whiting Writer’s Award, and was a New York Times Notable Book, among other citations. Long for This World was also a New York Times Notable Book, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award, won the Virginia Commonwealth University First Novel Award, and won the annual prize for fiction from Friends of American Writers. His stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. We’re happy to announce next year’s speakers. Antonya Nelson will read at the Hopwood Underclassmen Awards Ceremony on Michael Byers January 30 at 3:30 in the Rackham Amphitheatre. She is the author of four novels, including Living to Tell and Bound, and seven short story collections, including Some Fun, Nothing Right, and, most recently, Funny Once. Her short stories have appeared in Esquire, The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Quarterly West, Harper’s, and other magazines. They have been anthologized in Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories. She teaches in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers, as well as in the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program. Continued, page 2 INSIDE: 2 Books and Chapbooks 3 Articles and Essays 4 Reviews 4 Fiction 5 Poetry 6 Dramatic Performances and Publications 7 Film/Video/Audio 8 News and Notes Antonya Nelson 9 Awards and Honors Photo Credit: Dolly Trouster 10 Deaths 11 Special Annoucements Editor Andrea Beauchamp Design Jessica Greer Janet Leahy will deliver the Hopwood Lecture following the announcement of the awards at the Graduate and Undergraduate Hopwood Awards Ceremony. It will be held on April 18, at 3:30 p.m. in the Rackham Amphitheatre. She was a graduate of UCLA’s school of film and television. She started her career as a secretary on the situation comedy Newhart and went on to become a freelance writer for the series. From there she spent eighteen years as a comedy writer, producing, writing and executive producing for series such as Cheers, The Cosby Show, Roseanne, and Grace Under Fire, amongst others. Her work continued in the one hour arena as Consulting Producer on Gilmore Girls, followed by Executive Producer of Boston Legal, Life Unexpected, and Mad Men. She has received several Emmy nominations and awards, as well as the Writers’ Guild and Janet Leahy Peabody awards for her work. LETTER FROM ANDREA: Dear Friends, This will be my penultimate newsletter, sort of a Prospero’s farewell to the stage. I hope to deliver the January one to the designer before I retire at the end of December, but my successor may finish it. I’m very grateful for the past 38 years with the Hopwood Awards Program in what I’ve always considered the best job on campus. To be surrounded by bright, dedicated, energetic young writers, to be able to offer them coffee and encouragement, and to follow their literary careers over the years has been a joy. I have worked with five Hopwood Program directors, first with the critic John Aldridge, and then from 1988 until his retirement in 2015, with Nicholas Delbanco (author of 29 books). We had a wonderful run together and he presided over the program with consummate grace and boundless good humor. Next I worked with the novelist Peter Ho Davies, and then with the poet and fiction writer Laura Kasischke, herself a former Hopwood winner, and lastly with the novelist and short story writer Michael Byers, also a former winner. The students have been fortunate to have such writers on-site; they are exemplars of what it means to be creative writers. In addition to Avery Hopwood’s generosity in endowing the awards program, donors have bestowed additional prizes for works in specific genres; the program has been made more successful by their commitment to rewarding excellence in writing and by their offering encouragement for students at a critical time in their careers. Please continue to send me news of your publications and activities. I’ll follow you with great interest and affection. When the English Department selects a new administrator, I’ll post the name and email address on our website, but do copy me on your messages—it’s always wonderful to hear from you. With very best wishes, Andrea The Hopwood Underclassmen Awards Ceremony was held on January 27, 2017. The awards were presented by Professor Laura Kasischke, Director of the Hopwood Awards Program, and Tracy K. Smith gave a poetry reading. The judges for the Underclassmen Contest and the other poetry contests were all former Hopwood Award winners. Lizzie Hutton and Benjamin Landry judged the poetry and Emily McLaughlin and Ian Singleton judged the Underclassmen Contest’s fiction and nonfiction. Elizabeth Goodenough judged the Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship. And the winners were: Hopwood Underclassmen Fiction: Zoya Gurm, $800; Kate Velguth, $800; Daphnecay Cantuba, $1,000; Laura Dzubay, $1,500 Hopwood Underclassmen Nonfiction: Elena Ramirez-Gorski, $2,000; Kate Velguth, $2,000 Hopwood Underclassmen Poetry: Julia Moss, $800; Zoya Gurm, $1,500; Miriam Saperstein, $1,500 Academy of American Poets Prize: (Graduate Division) Clare Hogan, $100; (Undergraduate Division) Hannah Klemkow, $100 2 Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize: Jonathan Holland, $650 Michael R. Gutterman Award in Poetry: Fatimah Asghar, $500; Tara E. Jay, $700 Jeffrey L. Weisberg Memorial Prize in Poetry: Caroline Rothrock, $650; Sara Carretero, $850 Roy and Helen Meador Writing Award: Elena Ramirez-Gorski, $2,000 Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship: Stephanie Mullings, $1,000; Ben Rappoport, $1,000; Tierra Christian, $2,000; Brooke White, $2,000; Josh Mandilk, $5,000; Serena Scholz, $5,000 The Graduate and Undergraduate Awards Ceremony was held on April 20. Former Hopwood Awards Program Director Nicholas Delbanco presented the lecture. The local judges for the contests were: Enoch Brater, Jamien Delp, Pamela Erbe, Kate Glahn, Michael Hinken, Supriya Kelkar, Matthew Moser Miller, Lynne Raughley, Eddie Rubin, Leslie Stainton, Alison Swan, E. J. Westlake, and Hopwood Award winners Frank Beaver, John Ganiard, Nicholas Harp, Bradford Kammin, Todd McKinney, James Pinto, Sharon Pomerantz, Greg Schutz, and Ali Shapiro. The national judges were: Drama: Robert Boswell and D. Tucker Smith Novel: Bich Minh Nguyen and Chigozie Obioma (Hopwood winners) Screenplay: Christopher Cosmos and Olivia Dahan Nonfiction: John D’Agata and Susan Neville Short Fiction: Antonya Nelson and Steven Schwartz Poetry: James Harms and Diane Seuss Hopwood Award Theodore Roethke Prize: Clarisse Baleja Saidi Kasdan Scholarship in Creative Writing: Kasdan Pictures And the Hopwood Award winners were: Hopwood Drama: Clarisse Baleja Saidi, $2,500; Maxim Vinogradov, $6,500; Jeff Henebury, $10,000 Hopwood Novel: Jonathan Holland, $2,000; Yasin Abdul-Muqit, $2,500; Graham Cotten, $2,500; Kristen Roupenian, $6,500 Hopwood Screenplay: Abigail Buchmeyer, $2,500; Owen Dawson, $2,500; Fahim Rahman, $2,500; Nikita Mungarwadi, $3,000 Hopwood Undergraduate Nonfiction: Meagan Malm, $2,000; Kathryn Cammell, $3,000; Yoshiko Iwai, $10,000 Hopwood Graduate Nonfiction: Austin Gorsuch, $6,000; Laura Preston, $10,000 Hopwood Undergraduate Short Fiction: Rachel Beglin, $2,000; Sabrina Deutsch, $3,000; Lily C. Buday, $3,500; Jean Anne Heng, $6,000 Hopwood Graduate Short Fiction: Graham Cotten, $3,000; Callie Collins, $3,500; Nell David, $6,000, Kristen Roupenian, $6,000 Hopwood Undergraduate Poetry: Hannah Klemkow, $3,000; Isabel Sandweiss, $3,000; Shana Toor, $4,000; Sofia Fall, $5,500 Hopwood Graduate Poetry: Fatimah Asghar, $3,000; Franny Choi, $4,000; Robert E. Heald, $4,000; Courtney Faye Taylor, $4,500 Hopwood Award Theodore Roethke Prize: Clarisse Baleja Saidi, $5,000 Winners of other prizes administered by the Hopwood Awards Program: Andrea Beauchamp Prize (donated by Professor John Wagner): Kristen Roupenian, $1,100 Frank and Gail Beaver Script Writing Prize: Abigail Buchmeyer, $1,300 Chamberlain Award for Creative Writing: Samuel Jensen, $1,300; Kristin Nelson, $1,300; Laura Preston, $1,300 Helen J. Daniels Prize: Yoshiko Iwai, $3,000 Geoffrey James Gosling Prize: Kristen Roupenian, $850 Paul and Sonia Handleman Poetry Award: Sofia Fall, $3,000 Robert F. Haugh Prize: Jean Anne Heng, $2,800 Kasdan Scholarship in Creative Writing: Karly Thomas, $2,500; Noah Kieserman, $6,500 Dennis McIntyre Prize for Distinction in Undergraduate Playwriting: Maxim Vinogradov, $7,500 Meader Family Award: Clare Hogan, $2,100; Leah Xue, $2,100; YoungEun Yook, $2,100 3 Arthur Miller Award: Kate Velguth, $2,700 Leonard and Eileen Newman Writing Prizes: In Dramatic Writing: Abigail Buchmeyer, $2,000; Owen Dawson, $2,000; Kelsey Fox, $2,000; Nikita Mungarwadi, $2,000; Fahim Rahman, $2,000 In Fiction: Vaqaas Aslam, $2,000; Rachel Beglin, $2,000; Lily C. Buday, $2,000; Sabrina Deutsch, $2,000; Serena Scholz, $2,000 Naomi Saferstein Literary Award: Nikita Mungarwadi, $1,300 Stanley S. Schwartz Prize: Lily C. Buday, $600 Helen S. and John Wagner Prize: Courtney Faye Taylor, $1,100 John Wagner Prize: Laura Preston, $1,100 Publications by Hopwood Winners* Books and Chapbooks Donald Beagle What Must Arise, poetry, Library Partners Press, 2017.