Creative writing prize winners to read Thursday

The Department of English will host the Philip Freund Prize for Creative Writing Alumni Reading at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2 in the Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium in Klarman Hall.

Lauren K. Alleyne ‘06, Tacey M. Atsitty ‘11, Jennine Capo Crucet ‘03, and Stephen D. Gutierrez ’87, winners of the prize given by the Department of English Program in Creative Writing, each receive a $5,000 stipend, and an invitation to participate in a reading series.

The reading is supported by the Philip Freund ‘29 endowment. Freund was a novelist, short-story writer, poet, documentary film writer, playwright, television dramatist, essayist and literary critic. He lectured at Cornell in 1948 and is best known for the 9,000-page series on the history of theatre, “Stage By Stage.” The prize honors graduates upon their successful publication.

Alleyne is the author of “Difficult Fruit.” Her work is widely published in journals and anthologies, including Guernica, Crab Orchard Review, Colorado Review, and Prairie Schooner, among others. Her most recent awards include first place in the 2016 Split This Rock Poetry Contest and a 2015 Picador Guest Professorship at the University of Leipzig. Alleyne is an associate professor of English and assistant director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University.

Atsitty, Diné (Navajo), is Tsénahabiłnii (Sleep Rock People) and born for Ta'neeszahnii (Tangle People). She is a poet and has been the recipient of several writing awards and fellowships. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in New World Literature, Crab Orchard Review, Kenyon Review Online, Prairie Schooner, Crazyhorse and other publications. Her first book is “Rain Scald” (University of New Mexico Press, 2018).

Capó Crucet is the author of “Make Your Home Among Strangers,” a New York Times Editor’s Choice book and the winner of the 2016 International Latino Book Award, and of “How to Leave Hialeah,” winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Prize and the John Gardner Book Award. Her work has appeared on PBS NewsHour, in The New York Times and has been awarded an O. Henry Prize. She currently teaches at the University of Nebraska.

Gutierrez is the author of “Elements, Live from Fresno y Los,” which won an American Book Award, and “The Mexican Man in His Backyard.” His stories and nonfiction essays appear in Fourth Genre, River Teeth, Fiction, Santa Monica Review, ZYZZYVA, New California Writing, Sudden Fiction Latino and many other journals and anthologies. An award-winning playwright, he teaches at California State University East Bay.

The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in the English Lounge, 258 Goldwin Smith Hall.

Yvette Lisa Ndlovu is a communications assistant for the College of Arts & Sciences.