Calvin Senior Wins Prestigious Writing Contest

May 16, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY

A Calvin senior has won the first prize in the fiction division of the
2005-2006 Conference on Christianity and Literature Student Writing Contest.

Jennifer Langefeld, an English major and writing minor from O'Fallon,
Illinois, won the prize (and the $100 gift certificate from the William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company that goes with it) for her short story, "The
Patron."

Langefeld, a blogger for the Calvin admissions office, says the award is an
encouragement to her as a writer.

"My family has been especially supportive, as has the English faculty and my
classmates," she says, "but it is really encouraging to hear from an outside,
objective judge. I know I still have a lot of growing to do as a writer, but it
helps to hear that I'm doing some things right."

The fiction category was judged by Betty Smartt Carter, a frequent contributor
to Books and Culture and The Christian Century who has written several novels
and is most recently the author of a memoir, Home is Always the Place You Just
Left.

The Conference on Christianity and Literature, a national organization
dedicated to both scholarly excellence and collegial exchanges, annually
sponsors this contest for student writers. Entries must be original and
unpublished and reflect the author's Christian vision.

"This competition has been going on for close to 20 years. It's to recognize
the best student writers," says John Timmerman, the Calvin English professor
for whose creative fiction class Langefeld first wrote The Patron. "I
encouraged any student who wanted to send a story in, and we would pay the
postage. We have not had a prize winner in a few years, and I thought it's
about time we got in there to show what we could do. Jenn is an extremely
gifted young writer, and her short story was a mind blower."

Timmerman considers Langefeld's win as a victory for the entire class.

"We celebrated by bringing in donuts," he says.

For the full story, including a complete list of 2006 winners, see:
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2005_06/langefeld.htm

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Received on Tue May 16 09:43:38 2006