The Paul Hughes Memorial Writing Award

Hughes emceeing a radio broadcast from
 the rim of the Grand Canyon (1940s)

The Department of English and Languages announces the 2013 Paul Hughes Memorial Writing Award, an annual creative writing competition open to all East Central University students. Any form of creative writing, including poetry, fiction, drama, teleplay, screenplay, and creative nonfiction, is eligible for consideration. Submissions will be accepted in the English department, Horace Mann 301 or Horace Mann 317, until Monday, April 1. Students may also email entries to mwalling@ecok.edu. This deadline will be strictly enforced. Students may submit a total of five individual works. Individual prose submissions may not exceed 10,000 words. Cash prizes will be awarded for first, second and third place. Last year, the awards were $200, $100, and $50. 

Born in Roff, Paul Hughes attended Ada High School and earned his B.A. with honors from East Central in 1936. At ECU, Hughes served as president of the senior class, editor of the campus newspaper, and captain of the debate team. At age 27, Hughes published his first novel, Retreat From Rostov, with Random House. He went on to publish 15 other books, including Challenge at Changsa (Macmillan), Jeff (John Day), and The Salisbury Story (Univ. of Arizona Press), and numerous short stories in magazines such as Collier's, Seventeen, Woman's Home Companion, Vogue, and Liberty. After a brief term as night editor of the Ada Evening News, Hughes began a long career with KTAR Radio and Television, becoming one of the most recognizable air personalities in Arizona. In 1971, he gave the ECU commencement address and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Submitted manuscripts for the award should be neatly typed. Prose should be double-spaced. Poetry should be single-spaced except to separate stanzas. Each work should have a cover page listing the author's name, title of the work, classification (senior. . .), major, address, telephone number, and email address. Notification will be delivered to the email address. The author's name should not appear on the manuscript. Entries will not be returned.

Dr. Mark Walling
Professor
Dept. of English and Languages
East Central University
Ada, OK 74820
(580) 559-5440

Scholarship Merienda: Today at 2 p.m.

"The Meal" (1891) by Paul Gaugin 

Who? Students are invited to the forthcoming Faculty Scholarship Merienda, which will occur Monday, March 4, 2pm -3:45 ish in the North Lounge.

What? Approximately 5-8 faculty members from the department will present their current research and/or creative projects to their colleagues and students in attendance in a casual workshop to receive constructive feedback and inspiration.

Why? We believe students would benefit from listening to these discussions, and we welcome feedback from all audience members, including you.

STD Outbreak on Friday, February 22

"He sprang upon the old woman and ate her up" by Gustave Dore (1832-1883)

Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society, will be having its second meeting of the spring semester tomorrow at 2 p.m. on Friday, February 22nd in the Tower Room in the University Center (that’s the room in the southeast corner of the second floor). 

We will be discussing poetic retellings of fairy tales, provided for us by Drs. Peters and Nicholson-Weir.

Whether you are an STD frequent flier or you’ve never had the pleasure of attending one of our meetings, we hope you’ll find a way to work us into your schedule if you enjoy talking about fiction, poetry, drama, film, ideas, and other topics of literary interest.  And if you know someone who is not on this mailing list but might like to be—English major or not, invite them to give STD a try in February. 

Hope to see you there!

Dr. Steve Benton

Dr. Joshua Grasso (faculty co-sponsors)

February 19: Open Mic Night!

Dr. Murphy writes:

"Literati will be sponsoring a poetry/creative writing reading tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb 19 @ 3:30 for all faculty and students.  Please feel free to come by the NEW Library Student Lounge [that's the photo on the right below--Ed.] to participate or just listen.

"Several of our students will be reading, I’ll be reading some of my favorite poems and flash fiction (and maybe a few poems of my own) and I invite you all to come participate, too.

"It’s a cool venue, at 3:30, so not too late, and should be chock full of fun!

"It’s open mic, so just show up!"

February 14th: This Time, It's Personal

Student Teachers: Save the Date!

February 10: Hada at the Depot

You are invited to the Depot in Norman, Sunday, February 10 for a poetry reading by our own Dr. Ken Hada. For details, go to:http://www.pasnorman.org/programs/poetry.

If you click on this link above, this is part of what you will find:

Second Sunday Poetry Features Ken Hada February 10

Last Updated on Saturday, 02 February 2013 14:36

Award winning poet Ken Hada will read from his recent work at the February 10 Second Sunday Poetry Reading in the Norman Depot, 200 South Jones. The free reading begins at 2:00 pm. All are welcome.

In his “poignant poems, Hada probes the natural and human worlds with equal candor, forcefulness, and literary artistry. His canvas is broad, and he paints it with rare compassion, grit, and unblinking emotional honesty” says Larry D. Thomas, 2008 Texas Poet Laureate.

Hada was raised in rural settings in Oklahoma and Arkansas where he first developed his passion for the outdoors, for flyfishing, canoeing, kayaking and all other kinds of activities that define human interdependence with nature. This association defines much of his poetry. His research interests and creative writing both increasingly merge in the areas of nature writing and ecology concerns, regionalism and the American west.

Ken Hada’s five poetry collections include National Western Heritage Award-winning Spare Parts, and The River White: A Confluence of Brush & Quill (a collaborative effort with his brother Duane’s plein aire watercolors.) Both of these titles were finalists for the Oklahoma Book Award, and Spare Parts was featured four times on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac. Most recently Ken collaborated with his son’s guitar compositions to release a cd titled Like Father, Like Son: A Narrative in Poetry & Guitar.
Ken contributes regularly to a poetry blog at vacpoetry.org/three and often publishes poems in regional journals. He is also a frequent reader of his work at venues around the country. Ken completed his PhD at The University of Texas in Arlington, and is a professor at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma where he directs the annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival.

The nature photographs of George Williams on exhibit in the Depot Gallery can be enjoyed while attending the reading.

Second Sunday Poetry Readings are a program of The Performing Arts Studio providing a monthly venue for selected regional poets to share their work. Former Oklahoma Poet Laureate and Oklahoma Book Award winner Carl Sennhenn hosts.