UNIVERSITY NEWS - OCTOBER 2003

MEDIA CONTACT: Stacia Smith
561-297-2971, ssmith@fau.edu
Kristine M. McGrath
561-297-1168, kmcgrath@fau.edu

FAU President and First Lady Announce Winners of Inaugural
Creative Writing Awards

BOCA RATON, FL (September 10, 2003) - Florida Atlantic University President Frank T. Brogan and First Lady Courtney Brogan today announced the winners of the inaugural Frank and Courtney Brogan Creative Writing Awards in a reception at FAU's Eleanor R. Baldwin House. Tee Angel won the award for prose writing with her story "Watching Stardust," and Diane Larson won the poetry award with "Iris." Each award is accompanied by a $500 scholarship.

Angel is beginning her second year in the Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at FAU. Originally from Augusta, Georgia, she moved to south Florida 18 years ago to raise her family. She works as a clinical research coordinator at Boca Raton Community Hospital. "Watching Stardust" is a short story about a mother and child looking for falling stars.

Larson was an FAU poetry contest winner in 2001 and 2002 and was awarded the Karen O'Brock Scholarship for Excellence in Writing in May 2001. She graduated summa cum laude from FAU. She is now taking graduate courses at the University and works at Memorial Hospital Pembroke as a medical technologist. She and her husband live in Cooper City and have a son and a daughter, "Iris," the subject of her award-winning poem.

"These students have created some very moving work," said Courtney Brogan. "Frank and I are taking this opportunity to recognize their talent."

The winning pieces were selected from the 2003 edition of FAU's literary magazine "Coastlines." The First Lady chose the winners from six finalists nominated by faculty in the
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Creative Writing Awards
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Department of English at FAU's Dorothy F. Schmidt College and Arts and Letters. Finalists included Kathleen Moorhead and William Cooper for prose and Manual Jaramillo and Scott Kubec for poetry.

"'Coastlines' represents a serious commitment by our students to master carefully-crafted intellectual and artistic expression," said Dr. William A. Covino, dean of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters. "In these pieces, the students explore the capacity of prose and poetry to evoke the shades of experience that comprise the human condition. Pain, loss, joy, sexuality and humor are among the qualities of life that these writers treat in various ways."

Today's reception honored the winners as well as celebrated the new Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at FAU. To commemorate the occasion, Boca Raton Mayor Steven Abrams has proclaimed September 10 "Creative Writing Day" in the City of Boca Raton.

For more information on FAU's creative writing program or to receive the newest issue of "Coastlines," please call the Department of English at 561-297-2973.
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