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M.F.A Candidate Wins $1,000 Scholarship for Women Writers
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, August 1, 2024 /EINPresswire / -- Heidi VanderVelde has won the 2024 Irene Adler Prize for her essay, "Returning." VanderVelde, who receives $1,000 toward her education, is seeking her M.F.A. in fiction at Warren Wilson College. It is the second time, including 2018, that the essay competition winner has been associated with this Asheville, North Carolina college.
Founded in 2017, the annual Irene Adler Prize offers a $1,000 scholarship to a woman pursuing a degree in journalism, creative writing, or literature at a recognized post-secondary institution. The competition is open to writers worldwide.
"Heidi's essay vividly captures a tranquil day at the beach, with a skillfully integrated undercurrent of difficult family history,” said prize founder Lucas Aykroyd . "It is not easy to evoke a lifetime's worth of experience in just 500 words, but this piece features real literary artistry."
Honorable mentions went to Sally Cranswick ("Eve-olution Revolution"), who is pursuing her Ph.D in creative writing at South Africa's University of the Western Cape, and Candice Menefee ("Becoming a Champion"), who is seeking her B.A. in English literature at the University of Central Florida. Each receives a $250 honorarium.
Aykroyd is an award-winning Vancouver writer and public speaker whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Globe and Mail, Ms. Magazine, and Shondaland. He has covered women's hockey for IIHF at six Olympics and served as the editor-in-chief of WomenSport International's newsletter. Aykroyd holds an M.A. in English literature from the University of Victoria, which gave him the Distinguished Alumni Award.
The Irene Adler Prize is named after the heroine of the 1891 Sherlock Holmes detective story "A Scandal in Bohemia" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
For more on the Irene Adler Prize, the 2024 winning essay, and past winners, see:
The 2025 Irene Adler Prize submission guidelines will be released in January.
Lucas Aykroyd
Scholarship Founder
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