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MCC Daily Tribune

MCC student-authors win awards in League for Innovation's 2022-2023 national writing competition!

Great news!

This year, not one, but two MCC student-writers, Chase Leonard and Jay Green, have each won separate awards in this year's annual League for Innovation's 2022-2023 Student Literary Awards competition, the League's highly competitive national writing contest!

Jay's fine essay “Dress-Up" was first selected as a first-place winner of the Rice Award for Best Personal Essay in our own English/Philosophy Department's Annual Writing Awards Contest. As such, Jay's piece then automatically qualified to move on and compete at the national level in the League's highly competitive contest, and was chosen as the 3rd-place winner in the category of Personal Essay.

Chase's great play Clowning Around was first selected as a winner in our own Sixth-Act's Annual One-Act Play Contest. Chase's piece, also, then automatically qualified to move on and compete at the national level in the League's contest, and was chosen as the 2nd-place winner in the One-Act Play category.

From the League:

  • Chase Leonard was chosen as the 2nd place winner in the category of One-Act Play for “Clowning Around.”
  • Jay Green was chosen as the 3rd place winner in the category of Personal Essay for “Dress-Up.”

"Chase will receive a check for $200 and Jay will receive a check for $100. All students who participated at the international level, including the winners, will receive a certificate of recognition for their work."

"The League congratulates Chase and Jay for their hard work and talent and, indeed, all of your institution’s students who entered the competition. Host Coordinators John Stilla and Nora Esperanza provided this statement:

'In this year’s competition, students were asked to find, explore, and create spaces of belonging through writing. Our jurors marveled at their ability to do just that: connect the personal to something larger; create characters who stand out as compelling, realistic, and complex; employ imagery that is memorable and emotionally impactful; and let vulnerability pour out onto the page. The maturity of the writing was a recurring comment in this year’s competition, speaking to the depth and power that comes from writers reflecting on their own experiences as they search for those spaces in our world in which they can bring their full, true selves.'"

As we have been of MCC winners in the League's competition over the years, including most recently last year, we are again so proud, now of Chase and Jay, for their wins this year, and happy for their impressive successes!

Patrick Callan, English/Philosophy Department Writing Awards Committee

Patrick Callan
English/Philosophy
06/30/2023