Winners of the 2007 High School Writing Awards

Front (Left to Right): Maria Rothan (McAuley), Luke Maile (Covington Catholic);
Back: Rebecca Trimbur (Notre Dame), John Moffat (St. Xavier), Karen Bullock (Madeira), Bryan Le (St. Xavier). 

Essay
First Place: Luke Maile - Covington Catholic 
Honorable Mention: Joseph Konerman - St. Xavier 
Honorable Mention: John Moffat - St. Xavier

Fiction
First Place: Bryan Le - St. Xavier 
Honorable Mention: Ben Eldredge - St. Xavier 
Honorable Mention: Max Rolfes - St. Xavier

Poetry
First Place: Rebecca Trimbur -  Notre Dame 
Honorable Mention: Theresa Meyer -  McAuley 
Honorable Mention: Karen Bullock - Madeira    

Participants

 Judges' Bios

Sitting (Left to Right): Jeff Hilliard, Jack Hettinger, Karl Zeulke
Standing: Darryl Reed, Ben Bryant, Patrick Barney, Katrina Fraley Matt Murtland, Ann Mazzaro

 Elizabeth Bookser Barkley, Ph.D. , is the author of three books:  Loving the Everyday:  Meditations for Moms,Woman to Woman:  Seeing God in Daily Lifeand When You Are a Godparent.  She worked for three years as a reporter for the Catholic Telegraph and has written numerous feature articles for national and regional publications including Catholic Update, Catholic Digest, St. Anthony Messenger, Young and Healthy, and  Cincinnati Magazine.  She was the 2000 Ohio Carnegie/CASE Professor of the Year.

Patrick Barney - Why Patrick Barney enjoys writing is an enigma.  He has spent countless hours of his life in front of his computer, composing sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph, trying, all the while, to figure out why in the world he feels he must continue typing the words in his head.  When he’s not writing for his own amusement, he’s shuffling through school papers, doing his best to keep his assignments in order so that he can graduate (finally!) from college this May.

Mary Baumgartner is a freshman, training to work in the Writing Center next year.  She hasn't decided on a major yet, but is considering art and education.  Mary lives in the hills of Indiana between a cow pasture and a corn field.  She can usually be found studying to keep up her good grades, or working at Greendale Cinema.  She enjoys spending what little free time she has with her friends and family.

Chris Beerman is a senior majoring in English. He lives in the Colerain area and graduated from Colerain High School. Chris is a WWII historian, likes to read and enjoys writing short fiction. He is also working on a screenplay. Chris will graduate in May 2007.

Maureen Braniff is a junior who will graduate in 2007 with a bachelor’s of arts degree in English and a minor in communication studies.  She is from Mishawaka, Indiana, a small town near South Bend.  Maureen is involved with the campus activities board and is a campus ambassador for the Admission department here at the college.  She has been working in the Mount’s Writing Center since October of 2005.

Katrina Fraley is a senior who will graduate in May of 2007 with a bachelor’s of arts in English and minors in American Studies, History, and Philosophy. A Cincinnati native, Katrina is planning on continuing her education at the University of Cincinnati in the fall.  She is former Poetry editor and co-founder of  LOL: Lions-On-Line, a Mount St. Joseph online literary magazine.

Christine Grote is a senior English major with minors in Written Communication and Women’s Studies.   Christine is a non-traditional student, having completed a previous degree in Chemical Engineering in 1979 from the University of Dayton.  She works in the Writing Center as a consultant and is the editor of MSJ’s newspaper, Dateline and the Mount’s online literary magazine, LOL: Lions-on-Line.

Jack Hettinger is retiring from teaching in May, after 32 years at the Mount and several other colleges.  He takes with him only happy memories, and among the happiest is serving a number of times as a judge in the humanities Department’s annual writing competition.  It has been a pleasure to read the work of emerging writers and to collaborate with his fellow writer-judges in choosing the recipients of the awards.  It hasn’t been easy, and he remembers vividly many good works that did not receive an award in spite of their fine qualities.  Jack has published seven stories in some pretty good literary magazines and expects an eighth to appear in the fall.

Jeff Hillard, M.A., M.F.A.,  is associate professor of Englishand the author of three books of poetry.  He is also the recipient of a Post-Corbett Award for Literary Artist (1993) and the SisterAdele Clifford Award for Teaching Excellence (1998).  At the Mount, Jeff teaches literature, writing, and communications courses.  He has been with the Humanities Department since 1987.

Diana Lampe is a junior who works as a consultant in the Writing Center.  Even though Diana is a biology major, she doesn’t appreciate pillbugs–those cute little roly-poly crustaceans that live under logs and can roll up into cute little balls.  Diana loves to travel, she loves ice cream in the winter, and she can fly a kite.  Diana is not an aquatic dancer.

Whitney Luken is a senior English major with minors in written communication and history. She has been called various forms of the adjective "insane" for completing her undergraduate degree in three years. Following graduation in May, Whitney has plans to remain a permanent student by pursuing her masters in creative writing with an emphasis in poetry. (Ultimately, she would like to receive her Ph.D. in English from Berkeley.) She was the creative non-fiction editor of the Mount's literary publication, Lions-On-Line, and currently contributes film and literary reviews to the Mount's newspaper, Dateline. In addition to the smell of fresh-cut grass, Whitney enjoys the poetry of Billy Collins and has absolutely no idea what she wants to do with her life. Note: Whitney was an MSJ Writing Contest poetry winner her sophomore year at Taylor High School.

Ann Mazzaro is a sophomore, majoring in English education.  Ann works in the Writing Center, and she hopes to teach English at the high school level, possibly even college one day.  Like any good English major, she loves to read and write, and her favorite books are Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  There’s more: She likes hiking, sunsets, sunrises, waterfalls, and fish.  One of her best friends is a bluegill.

Matthew Murtland is a senior graduating in May 2007 with a bachelor of arts in English and a minor in History.  He is from Wilmington, Ohio and is currently the President of the Student Government Association.  He is also actively involved in Campus Ministry, Habitat for Humanity, a member of the Honors Program and a Campus Ambassador for the Admission department at the College.

Darryl Reed is a current sophomore and former English major.  He recently changed his major to Graphic Design–choosing to minor in both English and Written Communication–and looks to graduate in 2010.  Darryl is the News Editor for MSJ’s student newspaper, Dateline.

Alex Shields is a freshman, training for service in the Writing Center next year.  Alex hasn’t declared a major yet, but he is leaning towards history and communication since he is a history buff (especially the history of the Civil War) and because he is also a communication buff (he talks constantly and he writes pretty well).  He is on the Mount’s track team because Alex runs like the wind.

Karl Zuelke, Ph.D., is serving in his fourth year as director of the Writing Center.  He earned his MFA from Indiana University and his Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati, where he produced a dense and difficult dissertation on science and nature writing.  His favorite books are Walden, Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, Gravity’s Rainbow, and Tess of the d’Urbervilles. His hobbies these days include woodworking, classical guitar (which he’ll get back to when his broken shoulder heals), skiing (hence the broken shoulder), fishing, and painting.  He will take to the woods with a backpack at any opportunity.  Dr. Zuelke lives in Northern Kentucky with his wife, Elizabeth, his 11-year-old son, Evan, and two elegant cats named Cassie and Molly.

Other judges for the contest included Benjamin Bryant and Jacob Dean .