Acclaimed writer Lydia Davis (fifth from left) was on hand to congratulate all the winners.
The winners of the annual McKinney Writing Contest were announced April 16, during a ceremony featuring acclaimed writer Lydia Davis. The annual contest honors the work of undergraduate and graduate students in several categories including poetry, fiction/drama, essays, and electronic media. The contest was established in 1941 by Samuel McKinney, who graduated from Rensselaer in 1884, in memory of his wife, Mary Earl McKinney. The contest is designed to encourage communication skills among Rensselaer students and promote the liberal arts.
2014 Winners
Undergraduate poetry
First place: Jonah Duch for “Poems 2013-2014”
a collection
Second place: Mary Dalton for “Broken Dolls”
Third place: Bridget Cohen for “Orange Pop” and
Brandon Win for “Friday Night”
Graduate poetry
First place: Jedediyah Williams for “Cindy,” a part of the collection “An Outside Joke”
Second place: Adam Daskalakis for “An Ode to
Melancholy Manifesto.”
Undergraduate fiction/drama
First place: Branson Gerst for “In Service to Cannibals”
Second place: Jony Rozon for “Nick Gogon’s Bed”
Third place: David Gardiner for “The Black Waitress”
Graduate fiction/drama
First place: Simon Ellis for “The Legends We Make Ourselves,” a screenplay
Second place: Anthony Maiorana for “Bitter Summer,”
a short story
Third place: Marco Fernando Navarro for “The Neck
of Jesus,” a short story
Undergraduate essays
First place: Nico Rappoli for “Jaws—A Horror Film Adaptation”
Second place: Kihwan Kim for “February 12th of 2011”
Third place: Cristina Bush for “Who Saved Whom?”
Graduate essays
First place: Jason Coley for “Critical Discourse Analysis of the NRA’s Response to Sandy Hook”
Second place: Ben Schneiderman for “Choice of
Nightmares: Psychoanalysis Meets Conrad and Kafka”
Third place: Elizabeth Anderson for “The Legacy of
Ian McHarg: GIS and Urban Planning”
Undergraduate electronic media
First place: Frank Appio for “No Cymbals for Symbols,” a visual poem
Second place: Nathan Fullerton for “Feedback”
Third place: Chan Wei Sheng Jonathan for
“Half Half Man”