LCC's LAND writing winners named

By Jonah Unger
Staff Writer

The winners of the 2021-22 LAND writing contest at LCC have been announced.

The LAND writing contest is a competition in which creative students get a chance to showcase their writing, and have the chance to win cash rewards in the process. 

“Each year, the Liberal Arts Network for Development (LAND) sponsors five student competitions to recognize outstanding student work,” said Professor of English and Writing Rosalie Petrouske, the coordinator of the LAND writing competition.

There are three categories of competition: essay, poetry and short fiction. First-place winners in each category get $100, second-place finishers get $75 and third-place finishers receive $25.

“We had around 40 students submit to this year's competition,” Petrouske said. “It gives our students a chance to showcase their work and be recognized for exceptional writing.”

LCC student Charles Parker was a big winner in the contest. He placed three times: with a short-fiction piece titled “Excelsior;” and with two poems, “The Green Man in the Garden,” and “The Ritual.”

Parker said he drew inspiration for the story “Excelsior” while gardening. 

“I was writing that as an assignment for one of the creative writing classes I was taking over the summer, and I had been trying really hard to come up with a good idea,” Parker said. “It’s funny how it happens sometimes – when you’re not thinking about something (is) when you get the idea.”

Parker is a creative writing major at LCC who earned his bachelor's degree at Michigan State University 10 years ago. He said he had been doing a lot of technical writing his whole life, but during the pandemic he decided to pursue his dreams of creative writing and publishing a novel.

“The whole reason I started taking these creative writing classes was because I wanted to write a novel,” Parker said. “I really started thinking I might have a novel in me, but had no idea how to approach a project like that.”

This is Parker's first time entering a writing competition. He said he was really inspired by the classes he had been taking at LCC to participate in the competition. 

“I was really kind of blown away,” Parker said. “That's when I realized, ‘You know what? I can do something like this.’”

This is the 38th annual LAND competition. The prize winners are listed below:

ESSAY
First Place: “Black Music Being Miseducated” by Melissa Carter.
Second Place: “Covering All the P’s: Process, Packaging, Philosophy, Philanthropy and Pickles!” by Stanley Bullard.Third Place: “UnThanksgiving” by Micky Niezgoda.

POETRY
First Place: “The Green Man in the Garden” by Charles Parker.
Second place: “The Ritual” by Charles Parker.
Third place: “Many Waters” by Nomi Alchin. 

SHORT FICTION:
First Place: “Excelsior” by Charles Parker.
Second place: “Insurrection” by Bonnie Goupil.
Third Place: “As I Lay Here Dying” by Kera Thompson. 

For more information on the competition, click here. Rosalie Petrouske can be contacted at petrousr@lcc.edu.