1979 Writing Contest Winners

For the fourth straight year, entries to the All-Church Writing Contest topped the previous grand total: 435 poems (up from last year’s 396), 148 short stories (up from last year’s 121), and 123 articles (up from last year’s 109). The Eliza R. Snow Poetry Writing Contest for Women showed 296 entries, compared to last year’s 349. These numbers do not include the several dozen entries disqualified because they did not meet the rules.

Winners of the 1978 All-Church Writing Contest are:

Poetry division: First prize ($75), Dennis Marden Clark of Kearns, Utah, for “New Name and Blessing” (page 64); second prize ($50), Kristine R. Barrett of Sterling Park, Virginia, for “Elder Hoopes”; and third prize ($40), Kathryn R. Ashworth of Provo, Utah, for “Elegy for Leslie, a Thirteen-Year-Old Girl”. Sister Ashworth is a previous winner in the Eliza R. Snow Contest. Honorable mentions were awarded to Dale Bjork of Amarillo, Texas, a previous poetry contest winner, for “At the Well” and Dixie Lee Partridge of Richland, Washington, for “Of Time and Every Purpose.”

Short story division: First prize ($150), Bruce W. Jorgensen of Provo, Utah, a previous poetry winner, for “Three in the Morning—A Song for One Still Voice” (page 56); second prize ($100), Mark W. Hansen of Provo, Utah, for “Golden Family”; and third prize ($75), Lois G. Kullberg of Vancouver, Washington, for “Two Pass the Time.” Honorable mentions were awarded to Kathryn S. Caldwell of Chester, California, for “The Diary” and Patricia R. Kennington of Ontario, Oregon, for “A Sober Child.”

Article division: First prize ($150), Karen Petersen Jensen of Ogden, Utah, for “The Church Position I Didn’t Want” (page 59); second prize ($100), Jennie L. Hansen of Hunter, Utah, for “Handle with Prayer”; and third prize ($75), Joan Metcalf of San Marino, California, for “Project Love.”

Winners of the Relief Society’s Eliza R. Snow Poetry Contest for Women for 1979 are: First prize ($150), Charlotte Teresa Reynolds of New Albany, Indiana, for “Indian Grandmother” (page 61); second prize ($50), Maxine Reeder Jennings of Ogden, Utah, for “Lydia, Seller of Purple” (page 62); and third prize ($40), Martha Pettijohn Morrise of Roy, Utah, for “Sonnet to Mission-Bound Sons and Daughters” (page 62). Sister Jennings and Sister Morrise are previous Eliza R. Snow winners.

Dennis Marden Clark; Kristine R. Barrett; Kathryn R. Ashworth; Bruce W. Jorgensen; Mark W. Hansen; Lois G. Kullberg; Karen Petersen Jensen; Jennie L. Hansen; Joan Metcalf; Charlotte Teresa Reynolds; Maxine Reeder Jennings; Martha Pettijohn Morrise