Charles Johnson Student Fiction Award Winners

THE CHARLES JOHNSON STUDENT FICTION AWARD

2009 Winner

[2005 Charles Johnson Winner, Kevin A. González]

CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW is pleased to announce "Pineapple" by Sarah Nance (University of Wisconsin-Madison) as the winner of the 2009 Charles Johnson Student Fiction Award. This year's selection was made by CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW's prose editor, Carolyn Alessio.

Sarah Nance is a senior English major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was recently awarded an Honors Senior Thesis Summer Research Grant from the Letters & Science Honors program at UW-Madison for research she conducted earlier this summer for her senior thesis. Earlier this year, she received the Mary Brabyn Wackman Scholarship from the Department of English, as well as the Thomas W. Parker Scholarship from Letters & Science.

We would also like to congratulate the finalists for the 2009 award: "Start Anywhere" by Melissa A, Castillo-Garsow (Arizona State University); "Bitten" by Rachel Furey (Southern Illinois University Carbondale); and "The Middle Seat" by Deborah Gardner (University of Washington).

2008 Winner

CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW is pleased to announce "A Strange People" by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan (University of Pennsylvania) as the winner of the 2008 Charles Johnson Student Fiction Award. This year's selection was made by CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW's prose editor, Carolyn Alessio.

Mecca Jamilah Sullivan is from Harlem, New York. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in the anthologies WHAT I KNOW IS ME, BABY REMEMBER MY NAME, and X-24 UNCLASSIFIED, and in the journals BLOOM, PHILADELPHIA STORIES, LUMINA, AMISTAD, ROOTS & CULTURE, BLACK IVY, and IN/VISION. She has received honors and awards for fiction, playwriting, critical writing, and teaching from Temple University, The Boston Fiction Festival, New World Theater, the NAACP, the New York State Summer Writers Institute, and other organizations. She holds a B.A. in Afro-American Studies from Smith College and an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Temple University. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in English Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, and working on her first novel.

We would also like to congratulate the finalists for the 2008 award: "Riding the Waves" by Rachel Furey (Southern Illinois University Carbondale); "The Five Points of Performance" by Christopher Mohar (University of Washington); and "Heritage Park" by Michele Poulos (Virginia Commonwealth University).

2007 Winner

CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW is pleased to announce "Monsters" by Lowell Brower (University of Washington) as the winner of the 2007 Charles Johnson Student Fiction Award. This year's selection was made by CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW's prose editor, Carolyn Alessio.

Lowell Brower was born in Delavan, Wisconsin in 1981. He is a former Fulbright Scholar to Tanzania, and a current MFA student at the University of Washington. This is his first publication.

We would also like to congratulate the finalists for the 2007 award: "4th of July" by Thomasa Bonner (Methodist University, Fayetteville, North Carolina); "Division" by Cassie Kosty (University of Washington); "Ghosts" by Shannon Ward (Methodist University, Fayetteville, North Carolina).

2006 Winner

CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW is pleased to announce "Half Life" by Catherine Zobal Dent (Binghamton University) as the winner of the 2006 Charles Johnson Student Fiction Award.

Catherine Zobal Dent’s short stories have appeared in journals including THE PORTLAND REVIEW, MACGUFFIN, and PATERSON LITERARY REVIEW. She is an advisory editor for HARPUR PALATE, the online journal ELSEWHERE, and the undergraduate publication REFLECTOR. Currently, she teaches creative writing at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.

We would also like to congratulate the finalists for the 2006 award: "The Far Water" by Zack Bean (Pennsylvania State University, State College); "Captain Aluminum" by Christi Clancy (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee); "Breath of the Wok" by Deb Jurmu (Southern Illinois University Carbondale).

2005 Winner

CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW is pleased to announce "Current" by Kevin A. González (University of Wisconsin, Madison) as the winner of the inaugural Charles Johnson Student Fiction Award.

Kevin A. González was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1981. His stories appear in PLAYBOY and VIRGINIA QUARTERLY REVIEW, and his poems appear in POETRY, CALLALOO, HOTEL AMERIKA, and NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. Currently, he is a graduate fellow at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

We would also like to congratulate the finalists for the 2005 award: "Lying" by Celeste Ng (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor); "The Grand Concourse" by J. M. Appel (Columbia University, New York City); "Adopting" by Chad Simpson (Southern Illinois University Carbondale).

THE CHARLES JOHNSON STUDENT FICTION AWARD

The Charles Johnson Student Fiction Award from Southern Illinois University Carbondale is an annual award competition intended to encourage increased artistic and intellectual growth among students, as well as reward excellence and diversity in creative writing. Each year, $1000 and a signed copy of a Charles Johnson book will be awarded to the winner. The winning entry will also be published in the Winter/Spring issue of CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW. The award is co-sponsored by Charles Johnson, CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW, and the SIUC Department of English and College of Liberal Arts.

The award competition is open to all undergraduate and graduate students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents currently enrolled full- or part-time in a U.S. college or university. There is no entry fee. Entrants may only submit one story. All entries will be screened by published and accomplished writers and editors. The award winner will be selected by Charles Johnson. Finalists must meet all contest guidelines and be able to verify their status as students. (Evidence of current enrollment: a xeroxed copy of a grade transcript, a class schedule or receipt of payment of tuition showing your full- or part-time status for the Spring 2010 semester. The name of the institution and its address must be clear. Please indicate the name of the department of your major field of study.)

Submit one unpublished short story, no longer than 20 pages in length. All entries must be typed double-spaced. Please type or print full name, complete address, phone number, e-mail address, and name of college or university attending on a cover page for the manuscript. Cover letters are not required. Submissions must be postmarked in February 2010. Entries will not be returned, and we are unable to provide feedback on the entries. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but the contest director must be informed immediately if a story is accepted for publication elsewhere.

Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for notification of contest results. If you would like confirmation that the manuscript has been received, please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard as well. The winner will be announced in September 2010 on the Southern Illinois University Carbondale website <http://johnson.siuc.edu/winners.html>.

Mail entries (with a self-addressed stamped envelope) to:

Allison Joseph

Charles Johnson Student Fiction Award

English Department– Mail Code 4503

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

1000 Faner Drive

Carbondale, IL 62901

You may e-mail questions or comments to aljoseph@siu.edu. Electronic submissions and faxes are not accepted.

Dr. Charles Johnson, a 1998 MacArthur Fellow, received the National Book Award for his novel MIDDLE PASSAGE in 1990, and is a 2002 recipient of the Academy Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2003, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has published three other novels, including DREAMER (1998) OXHERDING TALE (1982) and FAITH AND THE GOOD THING (1974) as well as two story collections, THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE (1986) and SOULCATCHER (2001). Among his many books are KING: THE PHOTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (co-authored with Bob Adelman, 2000), AFRICANS IN AMERICA: AMERICA’S JOURNEY THROUGH SLAVERY (co-authored with Patricia Smith, 1998), BEING AND RACE: BLACK WRITING SINCE 1970 (1988), BLACK MEN SPEAKING (co-edited with John McCluskey Jr., 1997), and two books of drawings. His newest book is TURNING THE WHEEL: ESSAYS ON BUDDHISM AND WRITING (Scribner, spring 2003). In the fall of 2004, University of Washington Press will publish PASSING THE THREE GATES: INTERVIEWS WITH CHARLES JOHNSON, edited by Dr. James McWilliams, and in February, 2005 Scribner will publish his third story collection, DR. KING’S REFRIGERATOR AND OTHER BEDTIME STORIES. His work has appeared in numerous publications in America and abroad, has been translated into nine languages, and he has received the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award from the Corporate Council for the Arts as well as many other awards. In 2003, The Charles Johnson Society was inaugurated at the American Literature Association. In 1999 Indiana University published a “reader” of his work entitled, I CALL MYSELF AN ARTIST: WRITINGS BY AND ABOUT CHARLES JOHNSON.

Born in Evanston, Illinois, Charles Johnson began his career as a cartoonist and had his work published when he was just 17. Many of his cartoons were published first in the DAILY EGYPTIAN, the campus newspaper at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. As an undergraduate at SIUC, Johnson studied with, and was deeply influenced by, novelist and literary theorist John Gardner. A Ph.D. in philosophy, Charles Johnson earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from SIUC in 1971 and 1973, respectively. In 1995, he received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Southern Illinois University, and in 1994 an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Northwestern. A literary critic, screenwriter, philosopher, international lecturer and cartoonist with over 1,000 drawings published, he was the S. Wilson and Grace M. Pollock Endowed Professor of English at the University of Washington in Seattle. He retired in the Summer of 2009. You may visit his author’s website at www.oxherdingtale.com, and additional information on his work can be found at these web pages, http://johnson.siuc.edu and http://charlesjohnson.wlu.edu.