This year’s Grady Awards were judged by Kate Colby (poetry) and Martin Riker (fiction), both recent visitors to the New Writing Series.
In the undergraduate division, Riker selected Katherine Skvorak’s manuscript for first place. Micah Valliere was runner-up. At the graduate level, Tori Hood was the winner and Morghen Tidd runner-up.
For undergraduate poetry, Colby awarded Noah Loveless first place and Brieanna Welch runner-up. The winner at the graduate level was Martin Conte. Elizabeth Northcote, no longer in the program, received honorable mention.
Here are the brief biographical statements supplied by this year’s winners.
Martin Conte is a writer, steelpan musician, and contingent laborer. His writing has appeared under his name in The Aurorean, Sixfold, Glitterwolf, and others. It has also appeared, not under his name, on a certain Maine-based retail conglomerate’s webpage in the form of ad-copy, but shh, don’t tell anyone. He is the co-editor of Thieves & Liars, a Something of student writing, and a co-founder of the Unsafe Space writing workshop in Portland, Maine. As with any recognition like this, the true joy is to share the stage with the fierce talent of the other recipients, a joy he is most grateful for.
Victoria (Tori) Hood has landed in Maine for her graduate degree after falling in love with the campus for her undergraduate degree. Originally from Pennsylvania, Tori strives to get away from the concrete and into the trees while working on her semi-horror-semi-absurdist-definitely-fiction fiction. Tori likes to draw from her punk roots that her parents raised her in and often calls her dad to discuss such things. Her work has appeared in Blood Moon Rising magazine, lifesbookstore.com, The Open Field and in her notebooks when she should be taking notes for class. She is a co-editor of Thieves and Liars, a compilation of graduate student work, and is curator of Writer’s Night, an open-mic night for Orono-Bangor writers.
Noah Loveless is a third year English and Philosophy double major with a creative writing concentration. He is interested in continental philosophy and the work of Walter Benjamin as well as the diverse world of contemporary poetry and poetics. Some of his favorite people writing today are Ocean Vuong, Carmen Maria Machado, Tim Earley, and CAConrad. He can usually be found at the library or WMEB the student radio station. And his favorite movie is Ratatouille.
Katie Skvorak is a third year English major with a minor in creative writing and a concentration in analytical writing. She is currently planning her Honors Thesis for next year, which will be a creative writing piece exploring how truth and fiction inform each other through the re-telling of her own family’s particularly outrageous history. Katie works as an RA on campus, as a Peace Corps ambassador, a Writing Center Tutor, and a writer for the Maine Journal through ASAP Media Services. Her interests include hiking and kayaking, dancing poorly to disco music, habitually over-watering her houseplants, and, of course, writing.
Morghen Tidd is a second-year Master’s candidate studying creative writing with an interest in autofiction. When she’s not haunting the halls of Neville, she can be found wandering aimlessly through Hannaford’s aisles, talking about her parrot Renly, or thinking about aliens. On a productive day, she can be found doing all three.
Micah Valliere has been to the Grady Awards podium before. It’s a pleasure to welcome him back.
Brienna Welch did not provide a biographical statement. She’s awesome anyway.