May 6, 2024
Faculty from the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY) Writing and Literature program of the English Department presented the 2024 James Tolan Student Writing Awards during an afternoon ceremony May 3 in Richard Harris Terrace at 199 Chambers Street.
This year marked the 20th anniversary for the ceremony, which recognize outstanding writing by students in the College’s Writing and Literature program. English Department Chair Adele Kudish delivered welcoming remarks and Writing and Literature Professor Holly Messitt shared a remembrance of James Tolan— a professor and poet in the BMCC English department from 2003 until 2017—for whom the awards are named. The awards given to students at the ceremony are funded entirely by BMCC English faculty.
“The award ceremonies are always emotional days, where we celebrate our students and we remember our beloved colleague Jim Tolan,” said Professor Messitt. “This year’s program was no different.”
In addition to hearing the student awardees read from their work, the well-attended event featured Special Guest Reader, English Professor Jason Schneiderman, who shared three of his poems including “Staircase” from the collection “You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World,”; “Gay Divorce,” from Professor Schneiderman’s forthcoming collection “Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire;” and “In Memoriam, Fanny Imlay (1794-1816)” from his fourth collection “Hold Me Tight.”
Writing and Literature major Stephanie Pacheco—who was recently named U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate by youth literary organization Urban Word— read her poem “’Yo, Steph! Where You From?”
The writing awards are an enduring component of the Writing and Literature program. Alumni Evan Williams (2021) said that winning the award was an “affirmation that my stories were worthy to be read and enjoyed.”
“I’m grateful to be a part of the community of writers who have been funded financially and emotionally by the James Tolan award and hope that others after me get to experience the same pleasure, “ said Williams, who is currently completing the creative writing program at City College (CUNY).
Professor Messitt noted that a number of successful writers had graduated the Writing and Literature program such as 2010 Tolan award winner Nicole Goodwin, also known as GOODW.Y.N. In 2023, Goodwin was long-listed for a Pulitzer Prize in poetry for their collection “War Cries.” Other graduates have transferred from BMCC to pursue bachelor’s and graduate degrees in journalism, creative writing and other fields.
English Professor Diane E. Simmons developed the idea for an award recognizing student writing in 2003, soon after the BMCC Writing and Literature program began. Professor Simmons worked closely with Professor Tolan to make the awards ceremony a reality and in 2004, they hosted the first ceremony.
Professor Tolan—who passed away in 2017—was a poet whose collection of poems, “Mass of the Forgotten,” was published in 2013. A posthumous collection, “Filched,” was released in 2018. As a professor, he challenged his students to take learning into the city, offering them opportunities to see working poets and writers at New York literary landmarks such as The Cornelia Street Café, Poets House and the Nuyorican Poets Café.
This year’s James Tolan Student Writing Award recipients—all Writing and Literature majors— are:
Ohary Ahedo – Scholarship, “Fractured Temporalities: The Radical Ontological
Becomings in Buñuel’s Los Olvidados and Iñarritu’s Amores Perros“
Athena Anthea – Journalism, “The Life and Death of Subhradeep Dutta”
Kaya Fader – Fiction, “Sunset on the Palace of the Leader of the World” and Scholarship, “Sir Nose d’Voidoffunk”
Stephanie Pacheco – Poetry, “What I Have Learned” and Fiction, “While the Music Plays”
Martin Argueta – Fiction, “The Tenant”
Isabela Bandeira – Scholarship, “The Tricky Cat in the Hat”
Roxanna Andrea Cardenas Colmenares– Scholarship, “The Burden of Being Curly and Not Straight”
Timber Sides – Fiction, “The Game”
For more information about BMCC’s Writing and Literature Program in the English Department, click here.
- Tolan awards are fully funded by BMCC English faculty
- This was the 20th year for the awards ceremony
- Special guest reader Professor Jason Schneiderman shared three poems
