Recently, BMCC’s Writing and Literature Degree Program hosted its 5th Annual English Department Faculty Writing Awards. Award recipients were honored for their literary achievements in creative writing, which included poetry, drama, fiction, autobiography and academic writing.
The awards were presented by the members of the BMCC Writing and Literature Degree Program Committee. The student award winners who were honored at the ceremony were Emilie Gruchow, David Cuevas, Vanusa Pedrozo, Christina Perez, Christopher Ludgate, Andrea Hall, Edwin Aponte and Sekou Black.
This event was special because a keynote speaker, Felicia C. Sullivan, was in attendance. Sullivan is the founder of a literary magazine called Small Spiral Notebook and the author of The Sky Isn’t Visible from Here, a personal memoir. For Sullivan, writing was a way out because she was “forced at an early age to be an adult.” According to Sullivan, books and sheets of loose-leaf paper saved her.
“Every story’s been told,” she told the audience. “The magic is in how you tell it.”
Honoring Jane Young
BMCC English professor Holly Messitt told the audience that the judging committee received more than 65 essays this year for consideration. The English Department faculty raised $2,600 for the awards and was matched by two thousand dollars from the BMCC fund.
Emilie Gruchow was the recipient of the $1,000 Jane J. Young Faculty Writing Award, an award named in memory of the beloved BMCC English professor and PSC (Professional Staff Congress) Chapter Chair, who recently passed away.
Before Gruchow took the stage, Messitt read some of Young’s literary work aloud. According to Messitt, Young was “a poet, a union leader, a wonderful writer and a woman of infinite energy.”
Gruchow read a portion of her winning essay, Redirecting the Rhizome: Problems Confronting Caribbean Literary Theory; something she initially wrote for an Ethnic Studies’ class.
“It’s an honor” she said, of winning. “I just found out I was getting the award when I opened the program.”
Eight Students in Total Honored
Student David Cuevas was the winner of the $1,000 Faculty Writing Award for his work of fiction Anti-gang, which was inspired by his experiences with martial arts. “I’d like to thank the kid who beat me,” he joked to the audience.
Christina Perez read an excerpt from her autobiography, November, about the loss of a friend. Perez and student Vanusa Pedrozo were the winners of the $500 Faculty Writing awards.
Students Christian Ludgate, Andrea Hall, Edwin Aponte and Sekou Black—whose family flew in from California for the awards ceremony—were the $400 Faculty Writing Award winners.
Excited to be honored, Black joked, “I like being up here. I’m going to open my award right now.”
Award Requirements
According to English Professor Diane Simmons, the awards are announced to students in the program via emails, fliers and BMCC web site. Also, faculty members announce the awards in their classes. Students submit their own work for consideration and faculty does not choose submissions.
Then, a 12-member Writing and Literature Degree Program Committee reads the submissions –this year there were 60–and selects the winners.
Students who have a 3.0 in English and have completed twelve credits may apply for the English Department Faculty Writing Awards.
