Tusculum College students Britany Menken and Joseph Borden are the winners of the 2014 Curtis and Billie Owens Literary Prize, which is given annually to recognize the literary achievements of the college's creative writing students.
Menken, a senior from Maryville, Tenn., who won the competition's nonfiction category, submitted a work titled "A Girl, Not the Girl."
Borden, who won the competition's fiction, poetry and scriptwriting categories, submitted a fiction piece titled "Hell or High Water" and poems titled "We Should Have Rained," "Clockstop Blues," "Down in the Valley," "For Austin, Long Age," "It's Seasonal," "Like Clockwork" and "On the Line." He also submitted a script titled "Backover." Borden is a senior from Lyles, Tenn.
Of the four categories, fiction, nonfiction, poetry and scriptwriting, four students received an honorable mention for the works each submitted. Madilyn Elliot, a sophomore from Johnson City, Tenn., was recognized for "Lenses" in the fiction category; Ginny Lay, a senior from Laurel Bloomery, Tenn., was recognized for "Snake, Drop, and Roll" in the non-fiction category, Melissa Mauceri, a senior from Pigeon Forge, Tenn., was recognized for "Madness is Genius" and "I Pray to the Lord My Soul to Keep" in the poetry category; and Caitlin Hobgood, a sophomore from Greeneville, Tenn., was recognized for her script, "Losing Face."
The literary award was established by Curtis Owens, a 1928 graduate of Tusculum College who went on to a teaching career at what is now Pace University in New York. He and his wife Billie established the Owens Award at Tusculum to encourage and reward excellence in writing among Tusculum College students.
The announcement of the winners was made during a reading by scriptwriter David Muschell, who served as the judge for the final round of competition. Muschell has won awards for his plays from MultiStages in New York City, Stage 3 Theatre in Sonoma, Calif., Feedback Books in Bloomington, Ill., The Southeast Playwright's Project, The Deep South New Play Contest, The Beverly Hills Theatre Guild and The Alleyway Theatre in Buffalo, N.Y. Thirteen of his plays have been published, and his work has been produced in 23 states, Canada and Japan.
