In the News

Jo McDougall.  Photo Courtesy of Dixie Knight Photography

The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum has announced the winners of its 3rd Annual Short Fiction contest. Mike Smith of Lyon College won first place for his story “Courage,” which the judge said, “has compelling characters and dialog, and it kept me interested all through the story. The author tells a story vividly and with a sure control.” Smith was selected from a field of submissions from undergraduate students at public and private institutions in the state of Arkansas.

Justin Duyao of Harding University won second place. The judge said his story, “SportsCenter and Cigarettes,” “is a story well told about love and change and disappointment, and it is paced well. Its ending surprised me.” Austin Ellis of John Brown University won third place for his story “Most Wonderful Things” The judge says: “The setting is compelling and mysterious, and the characters, children dealing with their parents’ conflict, are believable. The imagery, especially in the ending line, is powerful.”

The contest was judged by Jo McDougall. She is the author of a memoir, Daddy’s Money: a Memoir of Farm and Family, University of Arkansas Press, and seven books of poetry, including her most recent, In the Home of the Famous Dead: Collected Poems, University of Arkansas Press (2015), and The Undiscovered Room, Tavern Books (2016). She has taught fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry at various universities in the South and the Midwest and has directed the fiction, non-fiction, and poetry writing workshops at the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Educational Center.  She has also conducted prose and poetry workshops at the Writers Place, Kansas City, Missouri; the Chautauqua Institute; Round Top Writing Festival, and others. She is the author of numerous essays and book reviews published in Midwest Quarterly and Georgia Review. She is the winner of awards from, among others, the DeWitt Wallace Readers Digest Foundation, the Academy of American Poets, and the Porter Prize Fund, as well as fellowships from the MacDowell Colony. McDougall’s work has appeared in such journals as Georgia Review, Hudson Review, Kenyon Review, Toad Suck Review, and New Letters. She has been inducted into the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame. A graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of Arkansas, McDougall was co-director of the creative writing program at Pittsburg State University, where she also directed the Distinguished Visiting Writing Series. She lives in Little Rock.

PIGGOTT – Winners of the 14th Annual Hemingway-Pfeiffer Student Art Exhibition were announced January 30 at a reception at the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum in Piggott.  The annual juried art competition invites students within a 50-mile radius of Piggott to submit art for exhibition at the museum.  This year, works were submitted by eight school districts in Northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri.  Prizes for the competition were provided by the Matilda and Karl Pfeiffer Museum and Study Center of Piggott.

Student art was exhibited on the campus of ASU-Jonesboro from January 11-22. The exhibition was then on display at the museum’s Educational Center in Piggott from January 26-29, with a reception for artists and awards ceremony on January 30.  This year’s winner was See No Evil by Anna Oppenheim, a freshman at Bay High School.

The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum & Educational Center recently held its Summer Writers’ Retreat. Over the course of the week, twelve talented writers came together to hone their skills and to form a community in Northeast Arkansas at the site where Ernest Hemingway penned much of his iconic novel A Farewell to Arms.

Garry Craig Powell of Conway, AR, served as mentor for the retreat. Powell grew up in England and attended the universities of Cambridge and Durham, and later, the University of Arizona. He has lived in Spain and Portugal, Poland and the United Arab Emirates, which is the setting for his novel-in-stories, Stoning the Devil (Skylight Press, 2012), which was long-listed for the Frank O’ Connor Short Story Award and the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. The book has been described as “mesmerizing” by both George Singleton and Naomi Shihab Nye. His short stories have appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2009, McSweeney’s, Nimrod, New Orleans Review and other literary magazines, and he has been awarded fellowships by the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow, the Hambidge Foundation, and the Arkansas Arts Council. Garry Craig Powell is an Associate Professor in the Writing Department at the University of Central Arkansas, where he teaches creative writing to undergraduates and graduate students, and he is completing a historical novel about the life of Gabriel D’ Annunzio, Italy’s greatest poet, playwright, playboy, and war hero in the early twentieth century–and also, arguably, the “John the Baptist” of the Fascist movement. For more information, see his website, garrycraigpowell.com.

Writers began each day with time to write and then came together to look at samples of Hemingway’s writing as models for their own. They enjoyed lunch together at the Educational Center and ended the afternoon with a group meeting to reflect, share, and discuss the processes used by each writer. The format allowed writers time to focus on their own creative interests, to receive feedback on their work, and to form relationships with other writers. Writers also enjoyed a reading of Powell’s own work.

Writers’ Retreats are held twice annually at the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum in Piggott. The next retreat is scheduled for Nov. 2-6, 2015, with Pat Carr of Fayetteville serving as mentor. The museum will also hold a special writing retreat for military veterans in July. This special opportunity is held in partnership with the Arkansas Humanities Council.

The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum has announced the winners of its 2nd Annual Short Fiction contest. Justin Lee Hunsperger of the University of Central Arkansas won first place for his story “Coming Home,” which the judge said “is a wonderfully written piece that illuminates the familial struggles of addictions of all sorts and the pains they bring to families.” Hunsperger is a junior mid-level education major, with an emphasis on language arts and science. He is a native of Missouri and spent nine years as a combat medic.

Sheree Hackworth of Lyon College and Logan Hilliard of the University of Arkansas were runners-up for the prize. Joining Hunsperger, Hackworth, and Hilliard on the shortlist are La’Teaikia Alexander (University of Arkansas), Keith Laster (University of Arkansas), Kelby Newcomb (Lyon College), and M. Jackson Tyler (John Brown University).

The contest was judged by Roland Mann, a writer, editor, speaker, and professor. He is best known for co-creating and writing the comic series Cat & Mouse. As editor, Roland is best known for his work at Malibu/Marvel Comics where he edited a host of titles. He also served as Editor and Publisher of Silverline. In addition to his work in comics, Roland has been a newspaper editor, and more recently he teaches Creative Writing at the university level. He is also a frequent speaker at writing workshops/conferences. His first novel, Buying Time, was published in 2010. Roland can be found on his website www.rolandmann.me.

The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Short Fiction Contest is open to undergraduate students at public and private institutions in the state of Arkansas.

The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center will sponsor its Second Annual Short Story Contest. This is a state-wide competition open to all undergraduate students currently enrolled in an Arkansas college or university, regardless of major. The only stipulations are that the submitted material must be an unpublished fictional short story on any subject matter no more than five pages in length. All submissions are due to the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum no later than March 31, 2015. Winners will be notified by the end of April.

Last year, forty-four entries were submitted from eleven institutions across the state.  Emily Hill, a sophomore at Hendrix College in Conway, won first place.

This year’s judge is Roland Mann of Orlando, Florida. Mann is a writer, editor, speaker, and professor. He is best known for co-creating and writing the comic series Cat & Mouse. As editor, Roland is best known for his work at Malibu/Marvel Comics where he edited a host of titles. He also served as Editor and Publisher of Silverline. In addition to his work in comics, Roland has been a newspaper editor, and more recently he teaches Creative Writing at the university level. He is also a frequent speaker at writing workshops/conferences. His first novel, Buying Time, was published in 2010. Roland can be found on his website www.rolandmann.me.

Students interested in the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Short Story Contest should contact us.

1st Place Winner Isaiah Woods

Winners of the 13th Annual Hemingway-Pfeiffer Student Art Exhibition were announced January 31 at a reception at the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum in Piggott. The annual juried art competition invites students within a 50-mile radius of Piggott to submit art for exhibition at the museum. This year, 67 works were submitted by eight school districts in Northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri. Prizes for the competition were provided by the Matilda and Karl Pfeiffer Museum and Study Center of Piggott.

Student art was exhibited on the campus of ASU-Jonesboro from January 12-23. The exhibition was then on display at the museum’s Educational Center in Piggott from January 26-30, with a reception for artists and awards ceremony on January 31.

The first-place winner was Clueless by Isaiah Woods, a freshman at Bay High School. The second-place winner was Hootie by Hailey Saffell, a junior at Greene County Tech High School. The third-place winner was Skull by Cody Crittenden, a junior at Piggott High School.

Those receiving Honorable Mention awards include Jessie Martin of Bay High School; Savannah Wells, Alex Whitaker, and Carlley Riggan of Greene County Tech High School; and Ashlynn Prince and Trent Kelsey of Neelyville High School.