Creative Writing Students Win Awards

Two students who produced work in creative writing classes taught by Al Haley have each won first place in the annual Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers student writing contest.

• Alikay Wood won first place in fiction for her story “Academy 6”
• Alikay also won first in nonfiction for her piece “All That’s Left to Do Is Fall”
• Stephanie Martin won first place in poetry for a group of poems

In this contest members are allowed to nominate one undergraduate and one graduate work in each of the three major literary genres. Al Haley is the ACU member of TACWT who nominated these students.

The honor includes a $100 prize and an invitation to read at the annual TACWT meeting held in September.

Alikay graduated in May. She is headed to New York City where she has a job at a Christian publishing house. Her short story was a witty, satirical take on a dystopian high school in which it’s not clear, until the end, if this is just a somewhat eccentric school or a mental institution. “All That’s Left to Do Is Fall” ponders some of the recent knowledge obtained about the origin of the cosmos and how this could affect one’s sense of who they are in day-to-day life.

Stephanie graduated in December 2014. She was accepted into the Professional Science Masters in Biotechnology at the University of San Francisco. A notable feature of her poetry was how she integrated her knowledge of science into the poems.

(Thanks to Al Haley for this article.)