Author Anne Enright on Campus April 18th


As Friends has done in the past, the group has contributed $250 toward the McKinney Writing Contest, Rensselaer's annual writing competition administered by the Department of Language, Literature, and Communication. The contest is open to all enrolled undergraduate and graduate students, and monetary prizes are presented to the winners. What's also nice is that the awards are bestowed upon the winners by a well-known writer at the awards ceremony. 

 

This year's awards will be presented on Wednesday, April 18th, in the Biotech Auditorium, Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. The guest writer is Anne Enright, who won the 2007 Man Booker Prize for her novel The Gathering.  She also has published essays, short stories, a non-fiction book, and several other novels. The Irish author's writing explores themes such as family relationships, love and sex, and Ireland's difficult past.  Her latest novel is The Forgotten Waltz (2011). Enright will read from one of her works at 8:00 pm and then award prizes to this year's contest recipients. A reception will follow.  The reading/ceremony is free and open to the public.

Again this year, Friends is covering one-half the cost of the first 100 softcover copies of the McKinney Contests author/speaker's books sold in the campus bookstore (during regular store hours) to enrolled students, staff, faculty, and Friends.  Enright's The Gathering and The Forgotten Waltz are the books for sale.  Enright will be available to sign them after the ceremony.  For more information, see http://www.llc.rpi.edu/pl/mckinney-contest-speaker.

      Dr. Samuel P. McKinney

I didn't realize this, but in doing a little research I discovered that the McKinney contest has been occurring every year since 1941, thanks to Dr. Samuel McKinney who graduated from the Institute in 1884.  After his retirement from medicine, the good doctor became interested in what Rensselaer was doing in the liberal arts area.  Because he felt that more should be done to recognize Rensselaer students' communication skills, McKinney established an endowment in honor of his deceased wife that would provide acknowledgement and monetary awards to students who exhibited talent in various writing genres.  Since the beginning, faculty in the Department of Language, Literature, and Communication have overseen and judged the contest.


Adrienne Birchler
Coordinator
Friends of the Folsom Library