UAA graduate student wins top national writing prize

Megan Nix, second-year MFA student in UAA's Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program, has won the prestigious, national Editor's Prize at Fourth Genre for her essay, Swim, Memory.

Nix's essay was chosen by the writer, Jocelyn Bartkevicius. The Editor's Prize award comes with a $1,000 prize and publication in Fourth Genre's Spring 2010 issue, a literary publication devoted exclusively to nonfiction. Professor Sherry Simpson, core faculty member in UAA's MFA Program, is Nix's graduate student advisor.

The judge said: "Swim, Memory is a lovely and moving essay that depicts fragmentation in the prelude to and aftermath of Katrina. The segmented form takes readers all over the map, from close-up to historical views of New Orleans, and as far north as Nashville, all the while producing a compelling forward narrative motion. This writer has an original voice, an eye for crackling detail and surprising juxtapositions, and a remarkable way of working reflection and fact into a story about the chaos and confusion of fleeing and returning to tragedy."

MFA faculty and students will be convening on-campus for the summer 2009 residency, July 11 to July 23. Many free and public author readings have been scheduled. Watch the Green & Gold for further announcements or call the Creative Writing & Literary Arts Department at 786-4394.