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Poston wins Thomas Wolfe Scholarship, full, four-year award in creative writing

By JENA WITTKAMP
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Hannah Poston, 18, of Newtown, Pa., has been awarded the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s second Thomas Wolfe Scholarship in creative writing. She will be a freshman when classes start Tuesday (Aug. 26).

The scholarship, first awarded last year, provides a student with full financial support for four years. Candidates are chosen based on their written work, which can include poetry, fiction, plays and literary non-fiction. The winner must possess focused literary ability and promise. Artistic merit is the chief criterion for selection.

"We hoped to find someone who was a prodigy, already on the way to becoming an extraordinary writer, and one who would really develop his or her skills further here at UNC," said Bland Simpson, assistant professor of English and director of the creative writing program and the scholarship. "We want to be sure we've got the person who will be the best for Carolina." Poston was chosen from among 100 applicants from across the country.

"She’s very well traveled," Simpson said. "It shows up in her poetry with very vivid images about living abroad." Poston has lived in East Jerusalem and traveled in Russia, Vietnam and the United States.

Poston, who attended George School in Newtown, studied writing at the Pennsylvania Governor’s School of the Arts summer program.

"I write to articulate the things I discover, be they truths or simple observations," Poston said. "Writing is about telling my version of the world, but placing the words in such a way that they are stunning to encounter is just as important."

The scholarship honors author and UNC alumnus Thomas Wolfe, who gained prominence after publication of his novel "Look Homeward, Angel" in 1929. Frank Borden Hanes Sr. of Winston-Salem, a novelist, poet and retired journalist who graduated from UNC in 1942, contributed $2 million to establish the scholarship. Hanes, who founded UNC’s Arts and Sciences Foundation in 1975, has long supported faculty and programs in the literary arts.

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(Wittkamp, of Raleigh, is a senior majoring in women’s studies and journalism and mass communication.)

Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/students/poston_hannah.jpg

Contacts: Bland Simpson, 962-4007; Lisa Foley-Pellicani, 962-4000