The recipients of this year’s Grady Awards for Creative Writing will read from their winning manuscripts in a special New Writing Series event on Thursday, April 27, 2017.
The reading, which will be hosted by members of the creative writing faculty, starts at 4:30pm in the Allen & Sally Fernald APPE Space, 104 Stewart Commons, University of Maine. It is free and open to the public.
Recognized this year in the poetry category are Joseph Ahern, Brendan Allen, Katherine Dubois, and Paul Eaton. The external judge was Jenn McCreary (NWS F16).
Recognized this year in the fiction category are Kaitlyn Abrams, Brady Andrews, Alex Terrell, and Morghen Tidd. The external judge was Amber Sparks (NWS F16).
KAITLYN ABRAMS is a second year graduate student and teaching assistant in the English Department at the University of Maine. A ukulele player and wildlife enthusiast from Seattle, Washington, Kaitlyn is also the Chief Editor of Spire: The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability, whose inaugural edition will be released on May 4th, 2017. In the upcoming academic year, she will attend the University of Oxford for a Master of Science in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance. Abrams was awarded second place for fiction at the MA level.
BRENDAN ALLEN is a first year graduate student and a midwesterner to a fault. Before grad school, he split his time between grooming trails in Montana, growing moringa trees in Arizona, writing poetry in Colorado, and, from time to time, slinging 20 ounce lattes to subsidize it all. Creatively, he’s interested in intersections between ecopoetics, lived space, and everyday social networks. You can currently find him neck deep in 90s poetry journals or helping facilitate student performances at The Happenings Series alongside a team of friends and colleagues. Allen was awarded first place for poetry at the MA level.
BRADY ANDREWS is an undergraduate fourth-year student majoring in English with a concentration in Analytical Writing, and a more personally important minor in Creative Writing. He is a current Writing Center tutor and a former winner of the Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King Scholarship in the Fall of ’16. When not chasing his cats, Sandor and Gregor, throughout his apartment Brady can usually be found frantically scribbling in his notebook, or with more than 75% of his mind off adventuring in places like the Trader’s Fist, the Inner Hill, or the Ell Mountains. Fancying himself a ‘lost soul’ from the Medieval Ages, Brady has taken it upon himself to explore his origins, both as a human being and as a writer. In exchange for his sword, armor, and horse Brady has picked up the pen, or rather the keyboard, to create beautiful images and worlds for people searching for their own ‘Caledonia.’ He was awarded second place for fiction at the BA level.
KAT DUBOIS is a graduating senior in English with a pre-law minor. One time she found someone’s wallet on the ground and she reported it to the appropriate authorities. The PHI-major friends she asked to write this think “she’s an all-around good person. I mean not the fucking Buddha or anything but who is? Except for literally the Buddha. But that’s really an unreasonable standard to hold most people to.” If she could trade this award for funding, she would do so lickety-split. Dubois was awarded first place for poetry at the BA level.
PAUL EATON is a graduate student in the MA English program. Eaton was awarded second place for poetry at the MA level.
ALEX TERRELL is pursuing her Master of Arts in English at the University of Maine, Orono and she is interested in writing fiction about representations of individuated Black experience and Black bodies, magical realism, Afro-futurism and the supernatural as a motif. Her short story “Black Dog” is forthcoming in the Black Warrior Review.
MORGHEN TIDD does not like writing bios. She is a fifth year undergraduate student studying English and French. She is currently focusing on the way narrative works in contemporary fiction. Her spare time is spent with her parrot, Renly, and thinking about The X-Files. Tidd was awarded first place for fiction at the BA level.
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The UMaine New Writing Series was founded in 1999 and is sponsored by the English Department and the National Poetry Foundation with support from the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, The Fiddlehead Fund, the New Writing Series Fund, the Lloyd H. Elliott Fund, the Milton Ellis Memorial Fund, the Honors College, the University of Maine Humanities Center, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the IMRC, and to donors Allen and Sally Fernald, for use of the Fernald APPE space.
If you have a disability that requires accommodation for a NWS event, please contact the office of Disability Support Service, 121 East Annex, 581-2319 (Voice) or 581-2311 (TDD).
The authors who appear in the NWS write for adult audiences and make use of a wide spectrum of language and subject matter. We are happy to advise parents and secondary school teachers about the suitability of specific events for their children or students. Just contact Series coordinator Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818 a few days in advance.
The University of Maine does not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, including transgender status and gender expression, national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information or veteran’s status in employment, education, and all other programs and activities. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies: Director, Office of Equal Opportunity, 101 North Stevens Hall, 207-581-1226.
UMaine New Writing Series 