Student poets honored

RELEASED: May 15, 2008

DANVILLE, KY—Lisa Williams, Centre associate professor of English, has won some of the most coveted prizes for poetry, including the Barnard Women Poets Prize, the Rome Prize in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an Academy of American Poets Prize, and an Elliston Prize. A published and much lauded poet such as Williams is not easily impressed. But she was tremendously impressed with this year's Cantrell Poetry Prize winners and Creative Writing Prize winners, awarded at the 2008 Centre Honors Convocation on May 6.

This year's winners of the Cantrell Poetry Prize were senior Ali Hamilton of Versailles, Ky., and senior Annie Maggard of Catlettsburg, Ky. Senior Drew Kingsolver was a runner-up for the prize. The winners of the Creative Writing Prize were first-year student Chris Frederick of York, Penn., and first-year student Chelsea Apple of Hermitage, Tenn. Senior Drew Kingsolver of LaGrange, Ky., received an honorable mention.

The Cantrell Poetry Prize is sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. The prizewinners as well as the honorable mention recipients will receive certificates from the Academy of American Poets and will also have their names published in the Academy's annual report, which will go to press this coming fall and will be sent out to Academy members and member institutions.

"The decision was extremely difficult because there were an unprecedented number of brilliant entries," Williams says. "So the judges decided to split the prizes this year. Even so, there just weren't enough prizes to reward all of the gifted writers who entered."

Click the following links for samplings of the prize-winning student portfolios:

"Concerto No. 51" by Annie Maggard
"Green Summers" by Ali Hamilton
"Growing Things" by Chelsea Apple
"Hummingbird" by Chris Frederick           

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