Front cover of “illumination,” the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College literary journal.
The Language Arts Department at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Jefferson Davis Campus will host the annual MGCCC Tri-Campus Writing Contest Awards Ceremony on Thursday, April 23, 12:30-1:30 p.m., in the Arena Theater. Dr. Sue Walker, Alabama Poet Laureate and the Stokes Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama will speak at the event. Students will also read their work aloud during the ceremony, which will be followed by a reception in the Arena foyer.
Each year, students from the Jackson County, Jefferson Davis, and Perkinston campuses are encouraged to submit their best compositions in the genres of poetry, short short story, short story, essay and one-act play. A first-, second- and third-place winner is chosen in each category, and the winning submissions are published in the college literary journal, “illumination,” which is illustrated with photographs of student artwork. The publication will be displayed at the awards ceremony.
“The Writing Contest and the awards ceremony are college-wide events, and their continuing success is the result of dynamic team effort” says Dr. Chance Harvey, event coordinator and language arts instructor at the Jefferson Davis Campus. “Each instructor in language arts encourages students from their Composition I, Composition II and sophomore literature classes to enter their original work in the contest. It is not unusual for freshman composition students to win first place.” Each work is proofread and organized by category before being sent to the judges. Judges this year include Betty O’Brian, Kevan Brown, Sue Bennett, Willie Ulmer Daniels and Ryan Pierini.
Once the winning writers are selected, artwork by Jefferson Davis Campus art and design students will be selected based on the themes of the literary work published in the book, and included in the journal.
