Keene Prize Winners Announced

Prizewinners for the prestigious Keene Prize for Literature were announced this morning, and UT's Michener Center for Writers continues to dominate: Out of 58 submissions for the annual award, two Michener grads and two current Michener MFA candidates made the shortlist, with Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig winning the top prize for her play Lidless, described as "a poetic treatment of the issue of torture at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." Cowhig will receive $50,000 – one of the largest student literary prizes in the world – while an additional $50,000 will be split between three additional finalists, Malachi Black for the collection of sonnets Cantos from Insomnia; Sarah Cornwell for her short stories "Mr. Legs," "Champlain," and "Other Wolves on Other Mountains"; and Sarah Smith for her collection of poetry, Enormous Sleeping Women. Full press release after the jump.

**** AUSTIN, Texas — Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, a graduate of the James A. Michener Center for Writers at The University of Texas at Austin, has won the 2009 Keene Prize for Literature for her play titled "Lidless," a poetic treatment of the issue of torture at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Keene Prize is one of the world's largest student literary prizes. Cowhig will receive $50,000 and an additional $50,000 will be divided among three finalists. Cowhig's play was chosen out of 58 submissions in drama, poetry and fiction. In the play, a former Guantanamo detainee dying of liver disease journeys to the home of his female interrogator to demand reparation for the damage she wreaked on his body and soul. It recreates the traumatic experience of interrogation and moves toward reconciliation between its protagonists. "Political without being propagandistic, moving without being sentimental, 'Lidless' uses theatrical space, physical bodies and talismanic objects to create a bold imaginative intervention into the debate about torture," said Elizabeth Butler Cullingford, chair of the Department of English and chair of the award selection committee. In addition to the Keene Prize "Lidless" has been selected by playwright Sir David Hare as the winner of the 2009 Yale Emerging Playwrights Prize. The play was produced at the university's Lab Theatre last spring and will be given staged readings at Houston's Alley Theatre, Ojai Playwrights Conference and Yale Repertory Theatre/It will be published by Yale University Press. The three finalists include Malachi Black for the collection of sonnets "Cantos from Insomnia" and Sarah Cornwell for her short stories "Mr. Legs," "Champlain" and "Other Wolves on Other Mountains." Both are master's of fine arts candidates at the Michener Center. The other finalist, Sarah Smith, a Michener Center graduate, was selected for her collection of poetry, "Enormous Sleeping Women." Established in 2006 in the College of Liberal Arts, the Keene Prize is named after E.L. Keene, a 1942 graduate of the university, who envisioned an award that would enhance and enrich the university's prestige and reputation in the international market of American writers. The competition is open to all university undergraduate and graduate students, and the prize is awarded annually to the student who creates the most vivid and vital portrayal of the American experience in microcosm. Students submit poetry, plays and fiction or non-fiction prose.