The Robert Penn Warren Award for Best MFA Thesis

Poetry: Kristin Sanders
Fiction: Jennifer Nunes

William Jay Smith MFA Award for Poetry

Kristin Sanders for “This poem is not sad, nor is it lonely”

Judge: Alexandria Peary’s first book of poems is Fall Foliage Called Bathers & Dancers (2008). She holds a MFA in poetry from the University of Iowa (’94) and a second MFA in poetry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (’99) and is currently working on her doctorate in Composition from the University of New Hampshire. Her poetry and nonfiction has appeared in journals including The Gettysburg Review; The Massachusetts Review; jubilat; Stand; Crazyhorse, Fence; Brain, Child; and Verse. Her work has received an award from the Academy of American Poets and a Pushcart Prize nomination.

David Madden MFA Award for Fiction

Shelby Goddard for “Minor Tragedies”

Judge: Michael Griffith’s books are Spikes: A Novel and Bibliophilia: A Novella and Stories.  His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Southwest Review, New England Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Southern Review, Oxford American, and many other periodicals. he is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, and others.

Kent Gramm MFA Award for Nonfiction

Shelby Goddard for “The Great State of Jefferson”

Judge: Sara Bongiorni’s essays and articles have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Shanghai Daily News, International Herald Tribune and Consumers Digest, among other publications.  Her nonfiction book, “A Year Without ‘Made in China:’ One Family’s True Life Adventure in the Global Economy,” was published by John Wiley & Sons in 2007. She graduated from the University of California, San Diego, and completed a master’s degree in journalism at Indiana University-Bloomington.  

Ruth Elizabeth McClain Cassidy MFA Award for Screenwriting

Jane Stubbs for “The Somnambulist”

Judge: Ali Duffey has been a producer and arts administrator for over twenty years, based in New Zealand, Australia & the USA. She has produced, directed and researched dozens of hours of arts documentaries, travel shows and music-related productions, most destined for international markets. Since moving to New Orleans eight years ago, her work has included three years as Director of the New Orleans Film Society, working as Development Associate on Hurricane on the Bayou, an iMAX film for MacGillivray-Freeman Films, and as Field Producer on New Orleans,  a two-hour PBS “American  Experience” documentary, for Insignia Films, New York.

Romulus Linney MFA Award for Playwriting

Susan Kirby-Smith for “Household”

Judge: Les Wade is the Billy J. Harbin Professor in the LSU Department of Theatre. He writes on contemporary American and British drama and has also won awards for his playwriting.