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Thursday, May 10, 2001
Contact: Peter Bailley
news@knox.edu
309-341-7715
Elaine Farrugia, a senior at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, has been named the winner of the annual Nick Adams Short Story Contest, a regional competition that draws entries from a dozen colleges throughout the Midwest.
Farrugia's story, "At Auction: Items Offered by Hannah Elise Montgomery," was selected from the more than 30 stories submitted by students from schools that belong to the Associated Colleges of the Midwest. Entries were judged by Sharon Solwitz, co-editor of "Another Chicago Magazine." The first place award includes a $1000 honorarium.
"'At Auction' is about two generations of attempts and failures at love," Solwitz stated about Farrugia's story. "I was impressed by the author's deft use of an innovative form— a list of items to be auctioned, each of which segues into a scene of a story that continually gathers momentum. The end is particularly satisfying, in that it integrates the human story with the list of furniture items, making it clear why that list was selected to govern that particular story. Highly accomplished, sophisticated."
Related Pages:
Elaine Farrugia's story and other Nick Adams finalists at http://www.acm.edu/faculty/NickAdams.
Farrugia is an English Writing major and is completing a novella written in vignettes set in Malta during the 1950s and 1960s. The novel draws on interviews farrugia conducted with her relatives in and from Malta. "I have always enjoyed manipulating language and exploring its lyrical and rhythmic potential," Farrugia says.
Another story by a Knox College student, "Debt" by William Boast, received an Honorable Mention. Other finalists were "The Job" by Joshua Kalven (Colorado College); "My Brother Steven" by Marison Brit (Grinnell College); "People in the Forest" by Mark Doten (Macalester College); and "Graced Land" by Caitlin Spies (Macalester College).
The Nick Adams Short Story Contest has been held annually since 1973 by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, a consortium of fourteen private liberal arts colleges, which includes Beloit College, Carleton College, Coe College, The Colorado College, Cornell College, Grinnell College, Knox College, Lake Forest College, Lawrence University, Macalester College, Monmouth College, Ripon College, St. Olaf College, and the College of the University of Chicago. The contest, named after a character in several stories by Ernest Hemingway, is supported by a gift from an anonymous donor.
Founded in 1837, Knox is an independent, four-year, liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with 1,220 students from 47 states and 41 nations. Knox's "Old Main" is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.
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