Twenty-three students received 25 writing awards in the Ilona Karmel Writing Prizes program this year.
Initiated in 1985, the competition was named in 1995 to honor the contributions made to the writing program by former senior lecturer and chair of writing prizes Ilona Karmel, who retired last year.
"The main purpose of the competition is to encourage students in writing and to show that we value writing at MIT," said Professor Alan P. Lightman, head of the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, which administered the contest.
The Program in Women's Studies co-sponsored a new prize this year, named in honor of professor emeritus Louis Kampf. The first Louis Kampf Prize in Women's and Gender Studies was awarded to Marwan M. Kazimi, a senior in biology and chemical engineering from Newton, MA, for his essay "Depression and Gender."
In the Boit Manuscript competition in fiction, Ivana Komarcevic, a senior with a joint major in mathematics and music and theater arts from Belgrade, Yugoslavia, won first place for her unfinished manuscript "Void." Second prize in fiction went to Todd J. Boutin, a senior in writing and humanistic studies from Auburn, ME.
Lawrence K. Chang, a junior in electrical engineering minoring in creative writing from Sterling Heights, MI, was first-place winner for drama in the Boit Manuscript Prize for his play "Wings of a Raven." Ms. Komarcevic (see above) won second place, and Lin-Ann Ching, a sophomore in architecture from Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, earned honorable mention.
Charolette Deane White Iverson from Pleasant Grove, UT, a senior with a major in writing and humanistic studies, won first place in the poetry category in the Boit manuscript competition for her collection of poems entitled "Sun Fire Family."
First place in the Robert A. Boit Writing Prize in the short story category was awarded to Esther S. Dutton, a senior in aeronautics and astronautics from Merritt Island, FL, for her story "Mud." Second place went to Yulan Liao, a chemical engineering senior from San Francisco, CA. Soyoung Kang, a senior in architecture from Philadelphia, placed third and Ms. Iverson earned honorable mention.
In the essay category of the Robert A. Boit Writing Prizes, Minh H. Dinh, a sophomore in chemical engineering from Springfield, VA, won first place for her essay "Teapot Tales." Mr. Kazimi was awarded second place and Marsha Fawn Novak, a senior in brain and cognitive sciences from Park Forest, IL, won third place.
Brent Ridley, a senior in chemistry from Huntington Beach, CA, was awarded first place in the poetry category of the Boit Writing Prize for his collection of poems called "Stale Light." Stephanie Jenrette, a junior in chemical engineering from Burlington, NC, received second place, and Lucius Lau, a senior in biology from Honolulu, won third place.
First place in the DeWitt Wallace Prize for Science Writing for the Public was awarded to Patrick McCormick, a sophomore in electrical engineering and computer science from Moorestown, NJ, for his essay, "The Nanosecond Phoenix." A. Arif Husain, a junior in brain and cognitive sciences with a minor in biology from Okeechobee, FL, earned second place, and Shelly-Ann N. Davidson, a junior in biology from Kingston, Jamaica, received honorable mention.
In the Ellen King Prizes for Freshman Writing, Mark Meier of Carlisle, PA, took top honors for his short story, "Spinning Flints." Jessica Nordell of Green Bay, WI, placed second and Timothy M. Murithi, a freshman in electrical engineering and computer science from Nanyuki, Kenya, earned honorable mention.
First place for the S. Klein Prize in Science and Technical Writing was awarded to August W. Chang, a junior in biology from East Greenwich, RI, for his work "Isolation of Putative Cell Wall Mutants in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by Screening for Hypersensitivity or Resistance to Calcofluor White or Congo Red." Karen Chenausky, a graduate student in health sciences and technology who lives in Cambridge, placed second.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on June 5, 1996.
