Anthropology Major Takes Nation's Top Student Literary Prize, the Sophie Kerr

NEW YORK—An Anthropology major who wrote about a life-changing trip to Tanzania and the simple pleasures of life in a one-intersection town in the Maryland countryside has won the largest student literary prize in the nation, the Sophie Kerr Prize.

Lisa Beth Jones, who grew up in tiny Fork, northeast of Baltimore, was named the winner Tuesday evening, May 17, at a special reception at Poets House in New York. That means she will cap her four years of study at Washington College this coming Sunday by walking off the commencement stage with a check for $61,062—a prize believed to the be the largest awarded to any senior anywhere this graduation season.

For 43 years, the Sophie Kerr Prize has gone to the graduating senior at Washington College who demonstrates the greatest literary ability and promise. Jones earned it with a portfolio of nonfiction work that includes travel writing, recollections of family life on a farm, and excerpts from her senior thesis on African immigrants in America. In writing about the month she spent on a College-sponsored trip to Tanzania the spring of her Junior year, she delivered sensory postcards of the land and the people based on entries from her weathered travel journal.

The committee of 13 English professors who selected Jones from among 30 portfolios, were impressed with the way she shaped a sense of place with her language and with the maturity she brought to her observations and her craft. “She takes a place that means a lot to her, whether her home town or a country in Africa, and, through a constellation of anecdotes and the powers of description, makes that place come alive for others,” says Kathryn Moncrief, the chair of the Sophie Kerr Committee. “Her writing was intimate, honest and vivid.”

While at Washington College, Jones earned a place on the Dean’s List every semester and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She also made time to work in the College’s Geographic Information Systems Lab and to help other students in the campus writing center. She finished her required coursework in December and has since worked as the Grants & Contracts Coordinator at the International Youth Foundation in Baltimore and as a travel writer for Examiner.com.

This year, for the first time, the Sophie Kerr Committee also selected four finalists for the prize. They are:

Maggie Farell, 22, a Drama major from Hatfield, Pa. who submitted a full length stage play and short stories about working her first job—and learning Hindi—at a Dunkin Donuts.

Dan McCloskey, 21, of Ellicott City, Md., an English major who minored in Spanish and Creative Writing. His creative nonfiction manuscript captured in stark and powerful fashion his struggles with the vision deficiencies that render him legally blind.

Insley Smullen, 22, of Frederick, Md., an English major whose fascination with the natural world and love of language shone through in her poetry and creative nonfiction.

And Joe Yates, 22, a Tampa native who double majored in Biology and Studio Art and wrote about everything from elderly relatives to complex scientific theories with sophistication and humor.

The Sophie Kerr Prize is the namesake of an Eastern Shore woman who forged a successful career in the New York publishing world. Born in 1880 in Denton, Md., some 30 miles from Washington College, she graduated from Hood College and launched her career briefly in Pittsburgh as the women’s page editor at two newspapers. After moving to New York, she became managing editor of the Woman’s Home Companion. A prolific writer, Kerr published 23 novels and published hundreds of short stories in the popular magazines of the day, including The Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, and McCall’s.

When she died in 1965, she left more than $500,000 to Washington College with the stipulation that half the income from the bequest would be awarded annually to the senior showing “the most ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor.” Over the years, the endowment from Kerr’s gift has provided more than $1.4 million in prize money to promising young writers, in amounts that have ranged from $9,000 the inaugural year, 1968, to a high of nearly $69,000 in 2009. The winners have gone on to establish careers as writers, editors, teachers, and marketing professionals, and many have published their work as novels or collections of short stories or poetry.

The other half of Kerr’s bequest funds scholarships and library acquisitions, and brings a parade of world-class literary figures from across all genres to campus for public readings and workshops. Such literary luminaries as Edward Albee, Jonathan Franzen, Allen Ginsberg, Toni Morrison and William Styron have visited Washington College under the auspices of the Sophie Kerr Lecture Series.

Washington College is a private, independent college of liberal arts and sciences located in historic Chestertown on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Founded in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington, it was the first college to be chartered in the new nation. For more information, visit http://www.washcoll.edu.

Photo: Lisa Jones with primary school students in Tanzania.

In the News

Baltimore Sun, 5/17/11

Wall Street Journal, 5/17/11

Washington College Names Five Finalists for its Famous Literary Award, the Sophie Kerr Prize

*   *   *
Update 5/17: Anthropology Major Takes Nation’s Top Student Literary Prize, the Sophie Kerr
*   *   *

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College has named five finalists for the famous Sophie Kerr Prize, the largest undergraduate literary prize in the nation. The generous cash prize, this year valued at more than $61,000, is believed to be the largest cash prize of any kind being awarded to a college senior this graduation season. The winner will be announced May 17.

The 2011 finalists represent a mix of disciplines—not only English majors and Creative Writing minors, but also majors in Biology, Anthropology and Art. The portfolios they submitted to the Sophie Kerr Committee in late April contained a diverse sampling of writing, too, from poetry and fiction to non-fiction and travel writing. The finalists are:

Maggie Farrell, a 22-year-old Drama major from Hatfield, Pennsylvania. Farrell served as the president of Fakespeare, a comedic Shakespearean troupe, and the student-run Riverside Players. She received the Mary Martin Scholarship, which is awarded to a student majoring in Drama who demonstrates great dedication to any area of the theater arts. Her portfolio includes a collection of short stories about her first job and examples of her work as a playwright. After graduation, she will be apprenticing at the Hedgerow Theatre in Media, Pennsylvania.

Lisa Jones, a 22-year-old from Fork, Maryland, who majored in Anthropology and minored in Creative Writing. Jones achieved distinction as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was on the Dean’s List every semester of her college career. She also served as a writing center consultant and worked in the Geographic Information Systems Lab. The highlight of her academic career was spending time abroad in Tanzania last spring learning about Maasai culture and volunteering in primary schools. Her portfolio comprises creative non-fiction—including personal essays about her experiences in Tanzania and life growing up in a small town—and a portion of her thesis that focuses on African immigrants in the United States. After finishing her Washington College classes early in December, she put her passion for international development and writing to work as the Grants & Contracts Coordinator at the International Youth Foundation in Baltimore.


Dan McCloskey, a 21-year-old from Ellicott City, Maryland, who majored in English and minored in Spanish and Creative Writing. McCloskey worked for the past year as the editor-in-chief of the College’s magazine of features and creative arts, The Collegian, and also as a technical support assistant at the campus Information Technology Help Desk. His portfolio includes a large section of his creative non-fiction manuscript “LIGHTS,” which focuses on his experiences with a vision deficiency and anxiety disorder. His portfolio also contains poems, other small non-fiction pieces, and two critical essays that examine specific uses of narrative and style in Shakespeare’s work and in modern poetry. He hopes to pursue his MFA with a focus in non-fiction.

Insley Smullen, a 22-year-old student from Frederick, Maryland. Smullen majored in English with a minor in Creative Writing. She was a member of the Writers’ Union, a club for student writers on campus, and worked at the College’s Rose O' Neill Literary House. Her portfolio spans a wide range of genres, from short stories to poetry to creative nonfiction. After graduation, she plans to continue her exploration of the art of writing and photography and find a job that supports what she describes as her “obsession with the written word.”

Joseph L. L. Yates, a 22-year-old double major in Biology and Studio Art who hails from Tampa, Florida. Yates founded and served as President of both the Artists’ Union, a club for students in the visual arts, and the Guerrilla Musical Theatre Troupe, which creates improv song-and-dance performances. He worked as a consultant for the Multimedia Production Center on campus and as a staff writer for the features periodical, The Collegian. His portfolio of writing includes creative nonfiction that addresses both his personal life and contemporary scientific theory, several works of fiction, a smattering of poems, and one “not-quite-children-oriented storybook.” After graduation, Yates hopes to find a job as a writer.

This is the first time in the 44-year history of the prize that the Sophie Kerr Committee, which includes the 13 members of the English Department faculty and the college president, has named finalists. In the past, the name of the single recipient was announced but the names of those who came close remained a secret the committee members vowed not to disclose. As one committee member has commented about the winner-takes-all approach of the past, “One senior walks away from graduation with a check for $64,000, and the student who comes in second never even knows it.”

The naming of finalists is just one of the changes the College is making in announcing and awarding this year’s Prize. For the first time ever, there will be a special reception for the finalists in New York City, where for 40 years Sophie Kerr lived and built her successful career as a national magazine editor and writer. The reception is being held Tuesday, May 17, at 6:30 p.m. at Poets House, a literary center and poetry library on the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan. Internationally prominent author Colum McCann, whose novel Let the Great World Spin won the 2009 National Book Award, will offer keynote remarks and announce the big winner.

At a simultaneous party on the Washington College campus in Chestertown, the local and campus community can watch the announcement live on several big screens. The party will be held in the Casey Academic Forum on campus, 300 Washington Avenue, beginning at 6:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. (For more information, call the alumni office at 410-778-7812.) Those unable to be in New York or Chestertown can watch the ceremony live by streaming the simulcast from a link provided on the College homepage: (http://www.washcoll.edu).

Come May 22, the Sunday of Washington College’s 228th Commencement, the Sophie Kerr Prize, in the form of a check for $61,062.11, will be officially awarded to the winner.