EUGENE, Ore. — (May 9, 2012) — The six winners of Oregon Quarterly’s 13th annual Northwest Perspectives Essay Contest will read their essays on Thursday, May 24, at the University of Oregon. The readings will take place at 7 p.m. in the Gerlinger Alumni Lounge, 1468 University St. The event is free and open to the public. 

The readings will feature “Killdeer,” by 2012 open category contest winner Kristin Funk and “Because It Is There” by student category winner Rachel Hammer. Attendees will also hear the second- and third-place winners read from their essays: “We, the Good People,” by Mary DeMocker and “Reciprocity” byAdam David Nilsson in the open category; and “All that Jazz,” by Janie Kliever and “We Are So Small Here” by Amy Shannon in the student category. 

The readings will be introduced by this year’s judge, Robin Cody, author of the novel “Ricochet River” and “Voyage of a Summer Sun,” winner of the Oregon Book Award for literary nonfiction. Both works appear on the Oregon State Library's “150 Oregon Books for the Oregon Sesquicentennial” list.

The Northwest Perspectives Essay Contest is an annual competition sponsored by Oregon Quarterly magazine and The Duck Store. The contest, featuring previously unpublished writings about the Northwest, is open to nonfiction writers competing in student and open categories.

The winner in the open category receives $750 and publication in the summer 2012 issue of “Oregon Quarterly,” which is distributed to nearly 100,000 readers. The student winner receives $500; the second- and third-place writers in both categories also receive cash prizes. 


About the University of Oregon

The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

Contact:Julie Brown, UO media relations, 541-346-3185, julbrown@uoregon.edu

Source:Ann Wiens, Oregon Quarterly, 541-346-5048,awiens@uoregon.edu

Link:Oregon Quarterly, http://OregonQuarterly.com

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