By Gargoyle news staff
Posted Wednesday, March 28, 2007, The OG, news & student awards

ALL UNI STUDENTS are invited to enter the second annual Iris Chang and Peter Kolodziej Writing Awards competition.

The contest will honor both fiction and nonfiction writing. A $100 check, a book prize, and a plaque will be awarded to the winner in each category. The contest will be open to all Uni students, subfreshman through senior.

The inaugural winners last year were Shara Esbenshade, Class of 2008, fiction, and Matthew Freeman, Class of 2006, nonfiction. Jackie Hedeman, Class of 2007, won honorable mention in fiction. Esbenshade and Emma Anselin, Class of 2007, won honorable mention in nonfiction.

Submissions must have been written between April 15, 2006, and April 19, 2007, and must not exceed 2,500 words. Entries may include work written for classes. Writings that have previously appeared in Uni or non-Uni publications are also eligible.

Students are limited to one entry per category but may submit work in both categories. The winners will be announced May 24 at Uni's annual year-end awards ceremony. The entries will be judged by a person or persons not associated with Uni High.

Entry forms and information sheets are now available in the main office. The deadline is 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 19. All submissions should be sent to Gargoyle adviser David Porreca.

— For a PDF of the 2007 entry form, click here.

— For a PDF of the 2007 information sheet, click here.

The contest is in memory of Iris Chang, Class of 1985, a best-selling author who died in November 2004, and Peter Kolodziej, a 1979 Uni graduate and Vanderbilt University scientist who died in March 2005.

Chang and Peter's younger brother, Daniel Kolodziej, were editors of Unique literary magazine for two years and shared a passion for good writing. Daniel, who graduated from Uni in 1986, established the writing awards with help from Chang's classmates.

Now an attorney, Daniel said the competition was an appropriate way to honor Peter's memory because of his brother's interest in the written word.

“He read all the time (he was never without a book) and was an accomplished scientific author,” Daniel told Gargoyle reporter Daisy Hassani last year.

Peter was a Harvard- and MIT-trained biochemist and biologist whose research focused on the genetic factors involved in the development of neurons and the trachea. Peter became a faculty member at Vanderbilt University in 1996 as an assistant professor of cell and developmental biology and an assistant investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Chang graduated from Uni and the University of Illinois to become the acclaimed author of three nonfiction books: “The Rape of Nanking,” “The Chinese in America: A Narrative History,” and “Thread of the Silkworm.”

Daniel told Hassani that he hopes the contest will foster an even greater appreciation for writing among Uni students.

“Writing is the most fundamental form of communication and art — it is infinitely flexible and powerful and essential to inform, change opinions, explore new ideas, and allow humans to relate to each other and their environment,” he said. “I hope the award will encourage students to develop their writing skills and help others to do so as well.”

RELATED

— Downloadable PDF: 2007 contest entry form

— Downloadable PDF: 2007 contest information sheet

— 2006 Gargoyle coverage: New writing contest announced for Uni students

— 2006 Gargoyle coverage: Student achievements honored at ceremony