Published: June 19, 2008 10:53 am      

Norman students bring home creative writing awards

ADA — Students from Norman North High School swept the fiction awards this spring in the fourth annual R. Darryl Fisher Creative Writing Contest at East Central University. The contest received more than 600 submissions from 300 Oklahoma high school writers.

“Throughout the spring, the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association crowned state champions in a variety of sports and academic competitions,” said Dr. Mark Walling, ECU professor of English and languages. “In April, East Central University contributed to the recognition of excellence in Oklahoma high schools by crowning state champions in creative writing.”

Norman North students, under the tutelage of teacher Kathy Woods, won first through third places in the fiction awards. Gracie Webb captured first place and a $250 prize for her story, “The Slow Dance,” an engaging, lyrical yet tough-minded account of a junior high dance.

Christian Gossin-Wilson won second place and $150 for his narrative of young boy’s odyssey to locate a Christmas present for his lonely father. Taylor Marlow received the $100 third prize for “Cherrydale Secret.”

Three $50 honorable mention awards were granted to Cyndi Trang of Moore High School, Ariel Spears of Byng High School and Josh Bost of Bowlegs High School.

In the poetry competition, Emily Chase of Tahlequah was awarded the first-place $250 prize for “Neighbor,” a mature, lyrical reflection on an old neighbor that the poet knows but does not know, even after years of being her “neighbor.”

Gracie Webb of Norman North, the first-place winner in fiction, claimed second in poetry, while Cyndi Trang of Moore, another dual winner, nabbed third. Lauren Beltran and Corey Fisher of Norman North and Menghan Zhao of Stillwater received the $50 honorable mention awards.

“The generous cash prizes encouraged student entries from schools as small as Vanoss and as large as Tulsa Union, creating a genuine statewide competition,” Walling said.

The Fisher competition, part of ECU’s annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, a gathering which attracts the best professional writers in Oklahoma and the region, is made possible by Dr. Darryl Fisher, an ECU alumnus.

Fisher, who received his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma, has held academic positions at Johns Hopkins, Harvard and Vanderbilt Universities and the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He was director of the Oklahoma Cardiovascular Institute at St. Anthony’s Hospital from 1984-91.

He also received a juris doctorate with honors from Oklahoma City University in 1989 and holds legal licenses in Oklahoma, Texas and the District of Columbia.

In addition to a medical and legal career with enough experience and awards to fill two lifetimes, Fisher has published two suspense novels: “The Broker” (Quill Press, 1996) and “The Plague Merchants” (iUniverse/Writer’s Showcase, 2000).

Fisher established the statewide creative writing competition in 2004, and his efforts have not gone unnoticed, Walling said.

“As one participant observed,” Walling said, “‘I was thrilled to be able to enter a contest that was open to every high school student in Oklahoma. But when I saw that they were awarding cash prizes, I thought, wow, someone really does care about creative writing!’”

The call for submissions for the fifth annual R. Darryl Fisher Creative Writing Competition will be extended in September.