Melita Schaum Awarded Fall 2010 Orlando Nonfiction Prize
MELITA SCHAUM is the author of two books on the modern poet Wallace Stevens and two books on women’s issues. Her fifth book, A Sinner of Memory, a collection of her memoir essays about the wonders and catastrophes of midlife was named runner up for the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writer Award for 2004, and finalist for ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year. Her poetry, short fiction and literary essays have appeared in such...
Allison Alsup Awarded Spring 2010 Orlando Short Fiction Prize
ALLISON ALSUP is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, now living with her husband in New Orleans where they are slowly renovating a one hundred thirty year old cottage. Two years ago, she made a shift from full-time teaching to part-time work so that she could devote more time to her fiction. “Quick and Clever” is a stand alone piece from an emerging work focusing on the early generations of Chinese immigrants. Another...
CJ Hauser Awarded Spring 2010 Orlando Flash Fiction Prize
CJ HAUSER is a spinner of yarns and writer of fiction who lives in Brooklyn, New York. She has published fiction in The Brooklyn Review and the L magazine and believes New York is the best possible place to grow a story. She is currently at work on a novel about fishing towns, taxidermy, and love. Read CJ’s award winning flash fiction story, “Buoys,” here.
Jennifer Ruden Awarded Spring 2010 Orlando Nonfiction Prize
JENNIFER RUDEN received her MFA in creative writing from University of Oregon, and volunteered for a one year term with AmeriCorps in New Mexico where she still resides with her husband and two children ten years later. When not teaching literacy skills to disadvantaged youth, you can find Jennifer holed up in some secret place writing. Her stories and essays have appeared in Puerto del Sol, Literary Mama, Amarillo Bay, Mamazina, Word...
Tanaya Winder Awarded Spring 2010 Orlando Poetry Prize
TANAYA WINDER is from the Southern Ute and Duckwater Shoshone Nations and was raised on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation in Ignacio, Colorado. She was a finalist in the 2009 Joy Harjo Poetry Competition and her work is forthcoming in Cutthroat: a journal of the arts’ 5th Anniversary Issue and the Spring 2010 issue of Yellow Medicine Review: a journal of Indigenous Literature, Art, and Thought. She currently lives, works, and...
Genevieve Kaplan Awarded 2009 To the Lighthouse Prize
The winner of AROHO’s first annual To the Lighthouse Poetry Publication Prize is Genevieve Kaplan’s manuscript, “in the icehouse.” Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Genevieve Kaplan is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz and the Iowa Writers Workshop. She currently lives in Southern California where she is pursuing a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing. She is the founding editor of the Toad Press...
Lyn Hawks Awarded Fall 2009 Short Fiction Orlando Prize
LYN HAWKS holds a BA in English and an MA in Education from Stanford University. She has taught English and creative writing in middle and high schools, and currently she develops curriculum at Duke University Talent Identification Program. Lyn is co-author of The Compassionate Classroom: Lessons that Nurture Wisdom and Empathy and Teaching Romeo and Juliet: A Differentiated Approach. She writes fiction and maintains a writers’...
Alyssa Cooper Awarded Fall 2009 Flash Fiction Orlando Prize
ALYSSA COOPER began her writing career while studying art history at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her fascination with writing as a medium of art—meant to depict—soon took focus, and she graduated with a B.A. in Creative Writing. Ms. Cooper maintains that it is her love for visual and performance art that provides the creative lens for her written works, and she finds inspiration while dancing or strolling art galleries. “The...
Patricia Henritze Awarded Fall 2009 Nonfiction Orlando Prize
PATRICIA HENRITZE is a writer and theater artist whose collaborations have taken her from Atlanta to Chicago to Budapest. She has received grants from Theater Communications Group, Fulton County Arts Council and Poets&Writers, Inc. Currently, Patricia is Artist-in-Residence at Gardenhouse Dance, teaches theater at Clayton State University and is a member of Working Title Playwrights. Read her winning essay, “Learning to...
Mary Ellen Sanger Awarded Fall 2009 Orlando Poetry Prize
MARY ELLEN SANGER lived for 17 years in Mexico, and has published short stories and poems in Spanish and English in several Mexican journals, including Luna Zeta and Zocalo. Her essay “A Grammar of Place” was anthologized in Mexico, a Love Story, published in 2006 by Seal Press. She was a finalist for the Room of Her Own Foundation “Gift of Freedom” in 2007, and was awarded a writers’ grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund/Money...
Leslie C. Youngblood Awarded Spring 2009 Orlando Short Fiction Prize
LESLIE C. YOUNGBLOOD received her MFA from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. Along with writing short stories, she’s currently at work on her first novel. She teaches at Lincoln University, Jefferson City, MO. Read her winning short story, “Smoking Demon,” here.
Jennifer Woodworth Awarded Spring 2009 Orlando Flash Fiction Prize
Read Jennifer’s winning flash fiction story, “The Rings,” here.
Page Lambert Awarded Spring 2009 Orlando Nonfiction Prize
PAGE LAMBERT, recipient of Literary Fellowships from the Wyoming Arts Council in poetry and prose, and a past Fellow at the Jentel Artist Residency Program, is the author of the memoir In Search of Kinship (Fulcrum) and the novel Shifting Stars (Tor/Forge, St. Martins; finalist for the Mountains and Plains Book Award). Read her winning essay, “These Things I Can Love,” here.
Faith Scott Awarded Spring 2009 Orlando Poetry Prize
Read Faith’s winning poem, “Negrita,” here.
Barb Johnson Awarded 5th Gift of Freedom
Barb Johnson has spent most of her adult life working as a carpenter. In 2004, at age forty-seven, she entered the MFA program at The University of New Orleans. During her time there, she won the Robert F. Gibbons Award, The Svenson Award for Fiction, The Gulf Coast Teachers of Creative Writing Award, Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers, and a grant from The Astraea Foundation. She has been a finalist for the...
Summer Wood Awarded 4th Gift of Freedom
Summer Wood, 4th Gift of Freedom Recipient But for a writer to be that brave, she needs to know—to believe firmly, and to be reminded often—that there are people out there for whom the truth matters, people who need her stories.—Summer Wood, from her Gift of Freedom application Summer Wood is a fiction writer fromTaos, New Mexico. She is the recipient of the 4th Gift of Freedom Award.
Meredith Hall Awarded 3rd Gift of Freedom
Meredith Hall, 3rd Gift of Freedom Recipient Writing is an entirely selfish act. In order to write, I must remove myself from the world. I must claim a universe of solitude around me like a silent star roaming in unbounded space. I can be in relation to no one.—Meredith Hall, from her Gift of Freedom application Meredith Hall of Pownal, Maine, is the recipient of the 3rd Gift of Freedom Award for Creative...
Jeannine Harkleroad Awarded 2nd Gift of Freedom
Jeannine Harkleroad, 2nd Gift of Freedom Recipient A carefully aligned series of events or objectives, each having their own obstacle, i.e my sculpture, have a force of their own. These objects are simply activated, their imperfections uncoil.—Jeannine Harkleroad, from her Gift of Freedom application. Jeannine Harkleroad, a sculptor from Richmond, Virginia
Jennifer Tseng Awarded 1st Gift of Freedom
Jennifer Tseng, 1st Gift of Freedom Recipient [T]o create a poem is to create a world. I do so in order to engineer a logic of my own making, an arena in which records are set straight, confusions clarified, lost things found, strange doors opened.—Jennifer Tseng, from her Gift of Freedom application Jennifer Tseng, a poet from Los Angeles, California, is the recipient of the 1st Gift of Freedom Award.