2008 Woodie Awards
The Grady bunch present winners
Award-winning student literature honored at ceremony
Kyle Kernan
Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: Style
The easy going, spiraling mind of the boy becomes contemplative about eating a bowl of peaches, and it turns into a morality struggle. The character's personality is fleshed out. Kohler's words come off the page during her performance and transform into a monologue that could inspire a play. "My hands had become slippery, and my chin was getting syrupy, but that peach just kept on being delicious, and so I kept on eating it. When I had finished it, without even knowing I was going to, I reached up and I took another peach."
Kohler was inspired to write about the contemplative boy based upon a secret she saw in a PostSecret book, called "I ate all the blueberries." The book chronicles many personal stories of guilt, regret and dreams. Someone had constructed a brown construction paper bowl and put into it paper blueberries, as each constructed blueberry was intricately made and drawn. The importance of this secret of eating the blueberries perplexed Kohler, and she was motivated to create a character that faced a similar dilemma to see what consequences it would bring.
Kohler's story was described by judge Desautels: "A sustained and convincing first-person narrative carries the day in 'Mysterious Ways.' The story's eccentric perspective calls to mind the 'touched' narrators populating Jim Thompson's noire pulps."
Kohler hopes to keep teaching for a few years and then go on to a Ph.D. program she also hopes to publish some of her writing one day.
The undergraduate winners of poetry and prose read first, with graduate winners read next. They were introduced by professors Jennifer Moxley and David Kress.
Poetry readings included graduate winner for first place, Rebecca Griffin, who read the poem "Outside Bullfrog, Nevada," a somberly nostalgic poem of a ghost town that gives reasons why it's destined to die away.
Zachary Richards, a graduate student in electrical engineering and honorable mention in the Grady Awards, read a series of emotional poems that captured the audience's attention.
Kohler was inspired to write about the contemplative boy based upon a secret she saw in a PostSecret book, called "I ate all the blueberries." The book chronicles many personal stories of guilt, regret and dreams. Someone had constructed a brown construction paper bowl and put into it paper blueberries, as each constructed blueberry was intricately made and drawn. The importance of this secret of eating the blueberries perplexed Kohler, and she was motivated to create a character that faced a similar dilemma to see what consequences it would bring.
Kohler's story was described by judge Desautels: "A sustained and convincing first-person narrative carries the day in 'Mysterious Ways.' The story's eccentric perspective calls to mind the 'touched' narrators populating Jim Thompson's noire pulps."
Kohler hopes to keep teaching for a few years and then go on to a Ph.D. program she also hopes to publish some of her writing one day.
The undergraduate winners of poetry and prose read first, with graduate winners read next. They were introduced by professors Jennifer Moxley and David Kress.
Poetry readings included graduate winner for first place, Rebecca Griffin, who read the poem "Outside Bullfrog, Nevada," a somberly nostalgic poem of a ghost town that gives reasons why it's destined to die away.
Zachary Richards, a graduate student in electrical engineering and honorable mention in the Grady Awards, read a series of emotional poems that captured the audience's attention.
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