Burack Scholarship; MacArthur winners

Once again, we are accepting entries to the Sylvia K. Burack Scholarship competition, which is open to full-time undergraduate students in the U.S. and Canada. This year's topic:

"Select a work of fiction or poetry that has influenced the way you view the world and the way you view yourself. Discuss the work and explain how it affected you."

This is the seventh year that we've offered this writing award, and every year we receive hundreds of thoughtful, well-written entries from students in many states and provinces. This year's winner will receive $500 and a one-year subscription to The Writer. For complete rules, go to our 2010 Sylvia K. Burack Scholarship page.

The 2009 MacArthur Fellows were announced today, and four writers were among the 24 recipients:

Edwidge Danticat, who has written about the lives of Haitian immigrants in many novels and stories, including The Farming of Bones and the memoir Brother, I'm Dying.

Deborah Eisenberg, who has looked at contemporary American life in Twilight of the Superheroes, All Around Atlantis and other story collections.

Heather McHugh, the Milliman Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Washington, Seattle, and author of eight books of poetry, including Eyeshot.

Jerry Mitchell, an investigative reporter at the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger whose work led to convictions in four cold-case murders from the Civil Rights era.

The MacArthur awards are also known as "genius grants"; each winner receives $500,000 over a period of five years. The New York Times writes: "While all the fellows are accomplished, the MacArthur grants are distinctive because they reward the expectation of future achievement, said Robert Gallucci, who became president of the MacArthur Foundation this summer. 'We're looking for you to continue in a creative way, without anyone looking over your shoulder,' he said."

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