Congratulations to RC students, RC Creative Writing and Literature majors, or participants in courses offered by the same program for your Hopwood Awards. Kudos for achieving this prestigious honor, and for joining a very elite group of former winners whose work indelibly impacts our world. 13 of the 27 awards have an RC connection, and are listed below. A * indicates an RC Creative Writing and Literature Major. 

FIRST- and SECOND-YEAR HOPWOOD AWARDS IN FICTION
Jena Vallina, “The Doglord”
Vivian Chiao, “Two Stories: While I Was Away and Home with the Fairies”*

FIRST- and SECOND-YEAR HOPWOOD AWARDS IN FICTION
Nicole Tooley, “Unfamiliar Family Portraits” 
Jade Wurst, “darkroom”*
Olivia Evans, “Overwinter” 

FIRST- and SECOND-YEAR HOPWOOD AWARDS IN NONFICTION
Olivia Evans, “Sacraments”|”Brookville”|”Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore”|”Solomon’s Temple”

ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS
Lynne Bekdash, “Immigrant Daughter Ghazal” (undergraduate division)*

THE MICHAEL R. GUTTERMAN AWARD
Miriam Saperstein, “control"

THE MARJORIE RAPAPORT AWARD IN POETRY
smitty smith, “twilight”

THE ROY W. COWDEN MEMORIAL FELLOWSHIP
Mylicia Williams, “the birds are running away from me”  
Grace Toll, “Coruscate”*

THE JEFFREY L. WEISBERG MEMORIAL AWARD
Julia Freeman, “Trying to watch anime while my brother fights through chemo”*

THE ROY AND HELEN MEADOR WRITING AWARD
Jena Vallina, “The Doglord”

These honors will be conferred at the First- and Second-Year Hopwood Awards Ceremony on January 22nd, 2020 at Rackham Amphitheater from 5:30 - 7:30pm. Following the announcement of the awards, there will be a reading from Raquel Salas Rivera, Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, winner of the 2018 Ambroggio Prize, & winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry. A light reception will follow. The event is free to attend and open to all!
 

The Hopwood Program administers the Avery Hopwood and Jule Hopwood Awards in writing as well as many other contests and prizes. The program was endowed by Avery Hopwood, a popular American dramatist and member of the Michigan Class of 1905. Mr. Hopwood bequeathed one-fifth of his considerable estate to the University of Michigan with the stipulation that it be used to encourage "the new, the unusual, and the radical" in creative writing among students. During the years that have passed since the first Hopwood Awards were made in 1931, we have been able to award a cumulative total of almost $6,000,000 to more than 3,300 gifted writers. Former winners include Arthur Miller, Robert Hayden, John Ciardi, Frank O’Hara, Marge Piercy, Rosmarie and Keith Waldrop, Merrill Gilfillan, Lawrence Kasdan, Jane Kenyon, Mary Gaitskill, John U. Bacon, Susan Jane Gilman, Gabrielle Civil, Bich Minh Nguyen, Paisley Rekdal, Davey Rothbart, Diane Cook, Elizabeth Kostova, Jesmyn Ward, Celeste Ng, Randa Jarrar, Samiya Bashir, Chigozie Obioma, Jia Tolentino, Brit Bennett, Lillian Li, Danez Smith, and more. More information can be found at the Hopwood website.