CONWAY,
Ark. (April 6, 2020) – A poetry
manuscript by Hendrix College creative writing major/religious studies minor
Jacie Andrews ’20 has been selected as winner of the National Federation of
State Poetry Societies’ Florence Kahn Memorial Award.
The
manuscript, Sweetwork, earned Andrews a $500 cash prize,
publication of her work plus 75 free copies, and a $300 stipend for travel to
the NFSPS Annual Conference in June to read her poetry. Unfortunately, the 2020
NFSPS Conference was canceled recently due to the corona virus
pandemic. Andrews’ Sweetwork will be published in June as a
perfect-bound 6” x 9” chapbook and marketed through Amazon.com. She will
receive all proceeds from her book’s sales.
Dawn Leas, judge of NFSPS’ 2020 College
Undergraduate Poetry Competition, offered the following assessment of Andrews’s
writing:
“Sweetwork brims with diction, language,
and imagery that immediately pulls the reader into a specific time or scene to
learn more about what it means to have faith or to question it; what it means
to keep going or give up; what it means to have an abundance of or very little
hope. The poems are lean yet full of lyrical lines that often break into a run
to the finish line. ‘Magic’ ends with: ‘But nobody pays / attention when you /
are usually good / And I was usually good.’ Pay attention to Sweetwork.
It’s so much more than ‘usually good.’”
Murphy
Visiting Fellow in Poetry Dr. Erin Hoover encouraged Andrews to submit her work
after having her as a poetry student.
“Jacie has written a collection that challenges and
pays homage to rural Southern life,” Hoover said. “These sensory,
character-driven poems whose people know ‘damn well that / slice and salt
was always / our only instruction’ offer those who have been denied power the
chance to discover it, perhaps even the opportunity to heal.”
Andrews, a Springfield, Arkansas native who has spent
summers during college in Florissant, Colorado, serves as the Hendrix Creative
Writing Program’s student assistant, as social media intern for the C.D. Wright
Women Writers Conference, and as committee chair for Word Garden, a reading
series featuring the best in Hendrix student creative writing.
About Hendrix College
A private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas, Hendrix College
consistently earns recognition as one of the country’s leading liberal arts institutions,
and is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will
Change the Way You Think About Colleges. Its academic quality and rigor,
innovation, and value have established Hendrix as a fixture in numerous college
guides, lists, and rankings. Founded in 1876, Hendrix has been affiliated with
the United Methodist Church since 1884. To learn more, visit www.hendrix.edu.