NORMAN MAILER CAPE AND ISLANDS

COMMUNITY COLLEGE WRITING AWARDS ANNOUNCED

Tyrone A. Smith, a student at Bristol Community College, has been named the winner of the first annual Norman Mailer Cape and Islands Community College Writing Awards sponsored by The Norman Mailer Writers Colony and the Fine Arts Work Center both based in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Smith’s winning work, his memoire entitled “Fruit of Adversity,” a gritty and emotion-stirring account of the writer’s experiences while on combat duty in Iraq was chosen by a judging panel at the Fine Arts Work Center. At the Bristol Community College’s annual Awards Night on May 27, 2010, he will receive a $1,000 cash award, along with a trophy and a study program this summer at the Colony and the Fine Arts Work Center. He will participate in writing workshops and be mentored by established writers in field of creative writing. Michael Lennon, Norman Mailer’s official biographer, and board member of the Colony, will present Smith with his prizes.

Four finalists in the competition were also announced this week. They are Sarah Martin of Bristol Community College for her creative non-fiction story “Adam,” about the untimely death of her brother; Patricia B. Bertschy of Cape Cod Community College for her memoire “The Long Walk” about her relationship with her physician father; Madison Freed of Cape Cod Community College for her literary analysis, “Marriage and the ‘Awakened’ Woman in Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour;’” and Taryn Atwood of Massasoit Community College for her creative nonfiction, “Nana,” recounting her grandmother’s life at Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi concentration camp. The finalists will each receive a certificate of achievement and a check for $250 during an award ceremony at his or her home campus on June 1, 2010 at Cape Cod Community College and on June 2, 2010 at Massasoit Community College.

In February of this year a call for entries was sent out to students at Bristol, Cape Cod and Massasoit community colleges in Fall River, West Barnstable, and Brockton, Massachusetts, respectively. Forty-three students submitted entries, which were judged by three community college faculty members who are all members of the CONNECT Writing Group, a consortium of writing faculty representing the six institutions of higher education in southeastern Massachusetts. In addition to the community colleges mentioned above, the consortium includes Bridgewater State College, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The judges selected five finalists, whose writing was then sent to Lawrence Schiller, a long-time collaborator with Norman Mailer, who worked with his colleagues at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA to choose the winner.

For additional information contact Michael Olendzenski of the Cape Cod Community College at 1 505 362-2131, Ext 4469 or Lawrence Schiller at The Norman Mailer Center at 1 800 835 7853.