Wilkes University Graduate Student Iris Ouellette of Pittston, Pa. Awarded the 2019 Etruscan Prize

Wilkes-Barre, PA (07/08/2019) — Wilkes University graduate student Iris Ouellette of Pittston, Pa. was awarded the Etruscan Prize at the Wilkes University Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing closing banquet held on June 21, 2019. The Etruscan Prize is awarded each year to a member of the Wilkes Creative Writing student community who submits one page of any genre (prose, script, poetry or play) that sings. This was the tenth consecutive year Etruscan Press recognized a Wilkes University Creative Writing graduate student for their writing excellence.

Ouellette's submission, "Into the Acadian Sea," was the prize winner. Ouellette is pursuing her master of fine arts in the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing and previously completed her master of arts in fiction. Wilkes University faculty member Nina Solomon has served as Ouellette's mentor for the novel that was her creative thesis project in the creative writing program. This was the fourth year the Etruscan Prize was awarded for a work of fiction. Prize recipients from prior years were awarded for works of fiction, memoir, and poetry.

Etruscan author Renée D'Aoust judged the award. D'Aoust commented about Ouellette's submission: "Into the Acadian Sea" evokes haunting longings for the sea and for love lost. The scene is palpably real, yet emotionally mysterious. Grief-stricken worries of the human heart are set against a stark, beautiful landscape. While the central character waits for the return of one who does "business in great waters," we, the readers, also wait, enchanted by this page, ready for more.

Author of Body of a Dancer (Etruscan Press, 2011), Foreword Reviews Book of the Year finalist for autobiography and memoir, D'Aoust has numerous publications and awards to her credit, including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts Journalism Institute for Dance Criticism at American Dance Festival, support from the Puffin Foundation and grants from the Idaho Commission on the Arts. Her writing has appeared in several anthologies.

Photo: Etruscan Press executive editor Robert Mooney; Etruscan Press executive director Phil Brady; 2019 Etruscan Prize recipient Iris Ouellette of Pittston, Pa., and Etruscan Press managing editor Bill Schneider at the June 21, 2019 Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University award ceremony.

For more stories about Wilkes University and its students, faculty and staff, please visit News@Wilkes.

About Etruscan Press

Housed at Wilkes University and partnering with Youngstown State University, Etruscan is a non-profit literary press working to produce and promote books that nurture the dialogue among genres, cultures, and voices. Etruscan publishes books of poems, novels, short stories, creative non-fiction, criticism, translation, and anthologies.

Etruscan was one of five finalists for the 2015 AWP Small Press Publisher Award. Three works from Etruscan's collection of poetry were named finalists for the National Book Award and another was named to the Longlist (the NBA's "Top Ten" in poetry). Other titles are recipients of the Poetry Society of America's "First Book Award," the Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Award, and PEN Oakland's "Josephine Miles Award." Three poems published by Etruscan were selected for Best American Poetry. Most recently, titles published by Etruscan Press were awarded the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize, nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Poetry, the Poet's Prize, named a finalist for the Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Award, Housatonic Book Award, Helen Smith Memorial Prize for Best Book of Poetry, and longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.

About the Wilkes University Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing

Wilkes University's Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing offers the master of arts and master of fine art degrees in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, playwriting, publishing and documentary film. Program faculty are working, producing writers who mentor students one-on-one through the process of creating a full-length creative project. The Graduate Creative Writing program is offered in two formats. In the low-residency format, students learn online and attend two eight-day residencies each January and June. For the weekender program, students will learn online and attend four face-to-face weekend class sessions each term. For more information, please visit www.wilkes.edu/creativewriting or call 570-408-4527.

About Wilkes University:

Wilkes University is a private, independent, non-sectarian institution of higher education dedicated to academic and intellectual excellence through mentoring in the liberal arts, sciences and professional programs. Founded in 1933, Wilkes is on a mission to create one of the nation's finest doctoral universities, offering all of the programs, activities and opportunities of a large university in the intimate, caring and mentoring environment of a small college, open to all who show promise. The Economist named Wilkes 25th in the nation for the value of its education for graduates. In addition to 46 majors, Wilkes offers 24 master's degree programs and five doctoral/terminal degree programs, including the doctor of philosophy in nursing, doctor of nursing practice, doctor of education, doctor of pharmacy, and master of fine arts in creative writing. Learn more at www.wilkes.edu.

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