2000s Annual Writing Prizes
2006
Jill Barnum Midwestern Heritage Prize for Literary Criticism
James Seaton, Michigan State University
“William Dean Howells and Humanistic Criticism”
Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize
Ellen Arl, University of South Carolina, Sumter
“March Afternoon Tea”
David Diamond Student Writing Prize
Michael Merva, Western Michigan University
“An Illusion of Understanding: Listeners and Tellers in Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio and Carson McCuller’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.”
2007
Jill Barnum Midwestern Heritage Prize for Literary Criticism
Christian Knoeller, Purdue University
“Native on Native”
Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize
Todd F. Davis, Penn State Altoona
“Tree of Heaven”
Paul Somers Prize for Creative Prose
Maria Bruno, Michigan State University
“At the Foot of Mt. Etna”
David Diamond Student Writing Prize
Nicholas Kowalczyk, University of Iowa, Nonfiction Writing Program
“Murder in Rustbelt City”
2008
Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize co-winners
Edward Morin, College for Creative Studies
“Yes”
Roy Seeger, Western Michigan University
“Diminishing Returns”
Paul Somers Prize for Creative Prose winner
Dawn Comer, Defiance College
“Raised in the Corn Palace”
David Diamond Student Writing Prize co-winners
Matt Low, University of Iowa
“John Neihardt Writes: Textual Appropriations of Indigenous Storytelling”
Stephanie Carpenter, University of Missouri
“Doctor and Patient”
2009
Jill Barnum Midwestern Heritage Prize for Literary Criticism
Joseph J. Wydeven, emeritus, Bellevue University
“Wright Morris’s Chicago”
Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize
Mary Minnock, Madonna University
“The Time I Took Patsy Higgins Up to Holy Redeemer”
Honorable mention: Linda Bearss, Durand, MI, “Blood in the Trash”
Paul Somers Prize for Creative Prose
Dawn Comer, Defiance College
“Fella with an Umbrella: Finding Joy on the Autism Spectrum”
David Diamond Student Writing Prize
Richmond B. Adams, Southern Illinois University
“‘Holy Moses!’: The Pit, Curtis Jadwin and the Documentary Hypothesis”
