University of Michigan Celebrates Hopwood Award Winners
The University of Michigan’s Hopwood Program announced its 2024 graduate and undergraduate winners of the Avery and Jule Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing and other writing contests administered by the Hopwood Program.
More than 100 winners and finalists received monetary awards totaling more than $192,000.
This week’s awards ceremony at Rackham Auditorium featured a lecture by Kemp Powers, Golden Globe Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, playwright, producer and director.
The Hopwood Awards are funded by a bequest from Avery Hopwood, a 1905 graduate and successful Broadway playwright, and Jule Hopwood, his mother. Past winners include Arthur Miller, Robert Hayden, Jesmyn Ward, and Celeste Ng.
This year’s winners and hometowns include:
Hopwood First- and Second-year Fiction
Paris LeClaire, Fennville, Michigan, “Help! I think I’m in trouble!”
Hopwood First- and Second-year Nonfiction
Alina Murata, Battle Creek, Michigan, “Everything a daughter has to love and hate”
Hopwood First- and Second-year Poetry
Joseph Provenzano, Ann Arbor, “Unicycling towards eternity”
Hopwood Undergraduate Fiction
Katherine Hattersley, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, “This is how I remember it”
Hopwood Undergraduate Nonfiction
Kelly Tang, Pittsburgh, “To love, and be loved”
Safa Hijazi, Dearborn, Michigan, “Eve’s interlude” & “A letter to Persephone”
Hopwood Undergraduate Poetry
Alex Kim, Ellicott City, Maryland, “guide to gods/guide to Korean transness”
Hopwood Graduate Fiction
Yash Kambhat, Ann Arbor, “–You come, too”
Hayley Boyd, Portland, Oregon, “Seabedding” and “St. Francis Park”
Hopwood Graduate Nonfiction
Oluwakemi Falodun, Lagos, Nigeria, “Longing” and “Soro-Soke: The language of our time”
Clara Rosarius, Cologne, Germany, “Pondgirl” and “Lithium”
Hopwood Graduate Poetry
Noor Al-Samarrai, Dearborn, Michigan, “Selections from Baghdad: City of Memory”
Hopwood Award Theodore Roethke Prize
Claudia Creed, Ludlow, England, “Topology”
Hopwood Novel
Sarah Anderson, Ann Arbor, “Fallow”
Hopwood Drama
Samuel Aupperlee, Grandville, Michigan, “My name is not John”
Hopwood Screenplay
Adam Miros, Ann Arbor, “!Macias!
Daniela Castillo, Traverse City, Michigan, “Righteous Women”
Non-Hopwood Winners and Finalists
Arthur Miller Award
Ariel Litwak, Miami, “Twin,” “Thalassophilia” and “Excerpts”
Roy Cowden Memorial Fellowship–Ann Arbor
Bryce Murray, Ann Arbor, “Fisher of Men”
Roy Cowden Memorial Fellowship–Dearborn
Adam Almaleky, Dearborn, Michigan, “How have Muslims impacted Metro Detroit?”
Roy Cowden Memorial Fellowship–Flint
Christina Feldermann, Grand Blanc, Michigan, “Unveiling the dangers of Christian nationalism”
Cora Duncan Award in Fiction
Savanna Cowley, Ann Arbor, “Loon”
Peter Philip Pratt Award in Fiction
Camille Nagy, Oak Park, Michigan, “The rite of the turnpike”
Academy of American Poets Prize
Graduate winner: Lailah Fritz, Chevy Chase, Maryland, “Dawn”
Undergraduate winner: Giovanni Smith, Detroit, “out of body Day 1”
Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize
Diepreye Amanah, Charlotte, North Carolina, “Sweet cream butter, Smoked Paprika”
Jeffrey L. Weisberg Memorial Prize in Poetry
Charlie Shang, Ann Arbor, “transition”
Meredith Knight, Plymouth, Michigan, “The sugar shack”
Marjorie Rapaport Award in Poetry
Rachel Toma, Rochester, Michigan, “We both love eating dolma” and “Wearing dishdashas”
Michael R. Gutterman Award in Poetry
Claudia Creed, Ludlow, England, “Elegy for lost learning”
Keith Taylor Award for Excellence in Poetry
Nicole Tooley, Ann Arbor, “Tuned to migration”
David Porter Award for Excellence in Journalism
Cecilia Ledezma, Lima, Peru, “23rd century dreams”
Frank and Gail Beaver Script Writing Prize
Sam Rao, Canton, Michigan, “The Ripening”
Text/Image Composition Prize
Holly Tschirhart, Ann Arbor, “Stairs”
Kasdan Scholarship in Creative Writing
Yoel Gebremariam, Ypsilanti, Michigan, “Fra Mauro”