Three Winners Selected in Prairie Creative Nonfiction Award Contest
Two College of DuPage Students and one community member are the winners of this year's Prairie Creative Nonfiction Award Contest at College of DuPage.
Mill Wallace took first place, while COD students Mary Jane Bradley-Smith and Dodi Dolendi earned second and third place, respectively. All three are Naperville residents and will be published in the Spring 2011 issue of the Prairie Light Review, the award-winning juried magazine produced twice each year by student editors at College of DuPage.
In addition, the three winners will meet in a Winners Workshop on Monday, April 4, with author Sonya Huber during the Writers at Work Conference at COD. Huber is the author of two creative nonfiction books: “Opa Nobody” in 2008, which was shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize, and “Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir.”
Wallace, author of the winning “Launching Armory,” first began writing fiction and creative non-fiction in 2008. He has written five business books, of which several have gone into reprint. Mill's literary influences include John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Ring Lardner and other American writers of the 1920s through the 1960s. His subject matter comes from his childhood in North Carolina, his travels across North America and his family. He has a bachelor's degree in English and an MBA from Wake Forest University.
Bradley-Smith, who wrote “It's a Doggie-Dog World,” is a former marketing communications and public relations specialist who now focuses on creative writing. Her current project is an 18th century historical novel.
Dolendi, author of “More Than a Mere Image,” is a dental assistant who pursues her passion for writing as a student at College of DuPage. She is the author of a personal essay “My Pearls Are Italian,” published in COD's ESSAI and a work of prose/haiku poetry “Miniature Symphonies” published in The Prairie Light Review.
The Writers at Work conference allows participants to explore the writing and publishing worlds with authors who have published works in various genres and formats. The event is free and open to the public. The following sessions begin at 7 p.m. in the Student Resource Center, Room 2800: “The Working Writer” with Huber on April 4, “Imagination Empowers Compassion” on April 5, “Writing as Exploration into Relationships” on April 6, and “Reading the Past to Write the Present” on April 7. An Open Mic event will be held at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 8, in SRC 1750.
For more information on this free event, call (630) 942-2311, e-mail whiteacr@cod.edu or visit cod.edu/writersatwork.