The 2002-2003 Mississippi State University Undergraduate Writing Competition concludes with four students taking the top awards for excellence in poetry and fiction.
The creative writing department, headed by Richard Lyons, recently announced the winners of the competition that is open to all MSU majors in the freshman through senior classes.
“There were over 100 submissions this year, a lot of really good work. Since there weren’t enough submissions of essays and plays to meet the required amount, we focused on the poetry and fiction submissions,” Lyons said.
Winning first place for his fictional short story, “Country Bumpkin Spacemen,” is junior psychology major Colin McDaniel, from Hattiesburg, Miss.
“Country Bumpkin Spacemen” is McDaniel’s first award-winning story and was written while in a “crazy mood.”
“The story is a comedy about an utterly ignorant and naive Southern woman who is longing for romance but falling short in her endeavors. One night she is visited by some particular characters from outer space and they strike up interesting conversation. Pretty silly all together,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel’s writing influences range from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Dean Koontz. As for the future, McDaniel hopes to eventually earn his doctorate in psychology, have a great family and eventually “write a couple novels.”
Placing first place for her poem titled, “Divisions,” is Malin McCain from Starkville. Malin graduated from MSU in 1996 receiving her Bachelors of Arts in psychology and recently came back to receive a bachelor’s in education. McCain said her poem began as an assignment for Lyons’ creative writing class and ended up being the one she thought had the best chance for the contest.
“The poem is about New Orleans and the atmosphere of the city, ranging from the upper class people to the lower class people that live there,” McCain said. “Dr. Lyons gave us a specific assignment that involved different descriptive techniques and it kind of just evolved from there.”
Placing second place for her poem titled “Volatile” is junior English major Leslie Nickels, from South Mounds, Okla. Nickels could not be reached for comment.
Placing third place for her poem “Dramatic Monologue for Diane Arbus” is senior liberal arts major Beth Morgan from Greenwood, Miss.
This is Morgan’s first writing award, and it was initially written for an assignment given by Lyons.
“The poem was inspired from a picture created by Diane Arbus, the photographer. She photographs unusual people in their own environment. The picture that inspired this poem was titled A Family on Their Lawn One Sunday Afternoon,” said Nickels.
The story behind the picture is of a girl who wrote to Diane Arbus explaining how strange her family really was and that they were weird enough to be in one of her famous pictures. Morgan’s writing influences include Sylvia Plath and Flannery O’Conner and she would eventually like to go overseas to do missionary work.
The first and second place poems, along with the first place short story will advance to regional competitions sponsored by the Southern Literary Festival to compete with hundreds of other college student pieces from around the United States. The SLF is a regional association founded in 1937 to promote excellence in writing among university and college students.
“Last year we had a student that won here [MSU] and ended up winning again for the same poem at the regional competition, so anything can happen. Plus, having something like this on a resumZ looks really good,” Lyons said.
This year’s festival will be held April 3-5 inGainsville, Ga., at Gainsville College. The festival is hosted annually by the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
While the annual competition is only open to undergraduate students, Dr. Lyons encourages graduate students to compete in higher level competitions.
“The Mississippi Review and the Southern Review are very prestigious competitions that interested graduate students should look into,” Lyons said.
As for advice about entering next year’s competition, Dr. Lyons offered one thing: Meet the deadline.