"...Since those halcyon days of deep-pocketed patrons are long gone, struggling writers typically have to make do with the occasional grant or free lit mag subscriptions. But for the lucky few – three so far – there's the pinch-me-I'm-dreaming Keene Prize for Literature, a not-uncontroversial $50,000 jackpot delivered annually to one University of Texas student or recent graduate...."

"...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...."

"...It is endowed by (and named for) E.L. Keene, a 1942 UT graduate and Revlon chemist who stated in his will that he wanted to “encourage the writing of good American literature.”..."

"...• Katherine Noble this week became the first undergraduate student to win the Keene Prize for Literature for her poetry collection, Like Electrical Fire Across Silence. The senior English student spoke with The Daily Texan about some of her inspirations, her influences, and her intentions for the future..."

"...Brian Hart is no stranger to accolades – in 2006, he become the first-ever recipient of the University of Texas’ Keene Prize for Literature, the largest student literary prize in existence. Now his debut novel is netting him some awfully nice notices..."

"...The Michener Center for Writers grad has won a second major literary prize for her play Lidless, which is also proving a hot property on the national new play circuit. The drama, in which a former Guantánamo detainee dying of liver disease confronts the woman who interrogated him 15 years earlier and demands half her liver as restitution for the physical and psychological trauma he suffered, has received the 2009 Keene Prize for Literature, awarded by the University of Texas' College of Liberal Arts to a student work that creates "the most vivid and vital portrayal of the American experience in microcosm." The prize comes with $50,000...."

"...They have changed the venues he must sometimes pursue to see his work into print, abetting Barnes & Noble's rapid, bestseller-driven growth. But to go so far as to argue, as Pallmeyer does, that our "access to literature may indeed be in danger" -- whether because of chain bookstores' mammoth market presence or because of publishers' commercial priorities -- is unsophisticated, and more than a little hyperbolic..."