"Ganesh Tree" by Jacob Yelton was the magazine's cover art.
BLOUNTVILLE, TN – Echoes and Images, the student literary magazine of Northeast State Community College in Blountville, won second place in the southern division of the Community College Humanities Association's (CCHA) National 2009 Literary Magazine Competition.
The win marks the second consecutive year that the magazine has earned the second place award for overall quality.
"We would like to kindly thank the wonderful students who contributed such amazing pieces of writing, art, and photography to this year's edition, and made it a winner," said Tempi Hale, instructor of English at Northeast State and one of the journal's four faculty editors.
Published in the spring, the magazine features poems, short stories, essays, and visual art of painting and photography by currently enrolled Northeast State students. Hale along with fellow faculty editors Tamara Baxter, Gretchen McCroskey, and Christal Hensley reviewed student entries and edited the publication. Regional artists JoAnn Asbury, Connie Jordan Green, Kenneth Murray, and Donald Seacrest judged the entries by category.
The first place visual arts winner – "Ganesh Tree" by Jacob Yelton for 2009 – served as the magazine's cover art. The 2009 edition features a nonfiction essay about putting up a Christmas tree after a divorce; the loss of a childhood friend; poems about bemused anger of life's daily scenes and the frustration of writing; a painting of a geisha; and a photograph of a kiss on the railroad tracks.
Echoes and Images has been consistently recognized for excellence by the CCHA. In addition to choosing the three best literary magazines, Association judges also choose the best work in each artistic category. Last year, Association judges selected "The Picture of My Daddy," written by former Northeast State student Thomas Mink, as the best work of nonfiction in the Southern division.
Founded in 1979, the CCHA is the only national organization for humanities faculty and administrators dedicated to preserving and strengthening the humanities in two-year colleges. The Association's literary magazine competition awards honor community colleges in five geographical divisions throughout the United States.
