The final Writers in the Library event of the academic year will feature readings by student winners of the John C. Hodges Graduate Writing Prizes. Readings from the winning works will take place in the John C. Hodges Library auditorium on Monday, April 16, at 7:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Prizes are made possible by the English Department through the John C. Hodges Better English Fund, endowed by the same long-time UT English professor for whom UT’s main library is named. This year’s judges were humanities librarian Christopher Caldwell (Poetry) and award-winning novelist Jeanne McDonald (Fiction).

2012 winners of the John C. Hodges Graduate Writing Prizes:

FICTION
First prize: Adam Prince, for “Bruises and Baby Teeth”
Second prize: Tawnysha Greene, “A House Made of Stars”
Third prize: Michael Levan, for “Stara Baba”

POETRY
First prize: Michael Levan, for “I Lose More Each Day I Spend in This Town”
Second prize: Joshua Robbins, “Ars Poetica”
Third prize: Darren Jackson, “We Are Late to Love”
Honorable Mention: Anna Laura Reeve, “Another One of My Poems Bears”

Both first-place winners are already published and well-regarded authors.

Adam Prince’s first collection of stories, The Beautiful Wishes of Ugly Men, will be published in May 2012 with Black Lawrence Press. Stories from the collection have appeared in The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, and Narrative Magazine among others. Prince will receive his doctoral degree at the end of this school year and then serve as the 2012-2013 Tickner Fellow at the Gilman School in Baltimore.

Michael Levan earned his MA from the University of North Texas and MFA in poetry from Western Michigan University. In May, he will receive his PhD in English and Creative Writing from UT. His work can be found in recent or forthcoming issues of Mid-American Review, Fifth Wednesday, Southern Indiana Review, New South, Harpur Palate, and Third Coast.

The public is invited to join the university community for readings by these accomplished, up-and-coming writers.