Photm h% S«**n hwlun «nd Mark \ Irn
John Higgins and Catherine Heising won first prizes in the l.ane County Literary Guild Contest.
Higgins won his award for poetry and Heising won in the short story contest.
Two writers recognized for talent
By Birgit Schreiber
Sivesind
Emerald Contributor
Two University students
have been rewarded for their
writing talent bv the Lane
County Literary Guild, which
awarded them first-place prizes
for poetry ami fiction during
the Eugene Celebration in Sep
tember.
John Higgins, a sophomore
in journalism, and Catherine
Heising. pursuing a master's
degree in fine arts were the two
recipients of tin? awards.
Higgins' award-winning
poem. "Childhood in a War
Zone" was inspired by a 9
\ ear-old Nil araguan boy he met
in that country during a visit
Higgins made there in February
lima as part of a Witness for
Peace delegation
The boy bet ante a hero in his
village after warning of an im
pending Contra attack
Capturing human emotions
and human experiences on the
page is a goal Higgins said he
hopes to i am into .1 career as .1
journalist
"journalism needs more con
text. not just facts." he said
"What does it feel like to live
in Nicaragua? What does it feel
like to live in a terrorist state
every day of your life?"
This human impact and hu
man toll is what Higgins tried
to capture in his award-win
ning poem, which he said was
his first “serious” award he
has ever won for his writing
Higgins wrote the first ver
sion of the poem in a poetry
workshop at the University
during spring term last school
year The workshop was in
structed by Garrett llougo. as
sociate professor in Knglish and
a former Pulitzer Prize nomi
nee.
"1 liked him because he real
ly wanted to write from deep
feeling." Kongo said of Hig
gins "He wasn't afraid to en
gage in difficult content matter
and tell comfortable sharing it
with others in the class 1 ap
prei iate the sharing of emotion
and experiem e
Higgins' plan is to pursue
writing creatively while work
ing with journalism, possibly
in the area of broad* asting
Heising was nut expecting
that one of her two entrees
would win, hut her short story
"On the Way Home" won tirsl
place in the fiction category
Heising graduated from the
University of California at San
Diego in 1‘IH0 where she ma
jored in biology and minored
in visiiiil arts
lleising said she lias written
other fiction pit* es she believes
are better than the award-win
ning one. She says the reason
why she won was because she
took the step of entering, and
entering the right story
"The reason I picked that
one is because it had something
to do with Oregon.” sire said,
saying it had to do with living
in the country "And I knew 1
could read it in front of an au
dience if 1 had to."
Like Higgins, she too was
given (lie opportunity to road
tier work at tile Holt Center in
front of approximately 200 |Mto
pl«.
"So many writers have to he
alone to write.'' she saiil
"There's the writer and the
computer Thi'ii to fat e all
those people and read was vers
difficult
The annual Lane Literary
Awards is ,i joint elforl of
H7ia/‘s //.i/i/ieoing, the Lane
Literary timid and the Lane
Arts Council Higgins' poem
Childhood in a War-Zone"
and lleising's short story "On
the Wav Home" alone with
other aw.trd winner s poetry
and fiction can he read in
hu ifu a l.itt'rurv \/./gu/ine
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