Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s short story collection, “To Lay to Rest Our Ghosts,” has won the fourth annual Phillip H. McMath Post Publication book award, according to the Arkansas Writers Workshop, which is housed at the University of Central Arkansas.
The McMath Award was founded in 2016 to promote recently published books and to honor central Arkansas author and literary advocate Phillip H. McMath, who selected the overall winner from the seven finalists chosen by students in the Arkansas Writers MFA Workshop.
“Caitlin Hamilton Summie writes with that sublime sense of ‘place’ that is particular and universal, bounded and boundless, known and somewhat new, that great writers have,” McMath said. “Whether it is big city, rural or small town, she reveals the same two things wrapped in a slightly different but always poignant package, mutability and the loss of love, and, as she touches one, she resonates the other. Caitlin Summie has a very special gift, indeed. Marvelous!”
Summie, who earned an MFA with Distinction from Colorado State University, will receive the award Feb. 26 as part of UCA’s Arkatext Literary Festival, which will run Feb. 25 through March 1. As part of the award, she will give a public reading at UCA Downtown on Feb. 26 at 6 p.m. She also will discuss her craft with UCA students earlier that day.
Other finalists for the 2019 award were:
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“ActivAmerica” by Meagan Cass
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“Heating & Cooling” by Beth Ann Fennelly
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“Tremulous Hinge” by Adam Giannelli
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“Cities of Men” by William Jensen
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“Light Into Bodies” by Nancy Chen Long
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“Remember to Forget Me” by Kerry Beth Neville
Entries are now being accepted for the fifth annual Phillip McMath Post Publication book award. In 2019, two awards are being offered, one for prose and one for poetry. For more information, see the Phillip McMath Post Publication book award blog.
The Arkansas Writers MFA Workshop is a writing-intensive study program in creative writing that uniquely prepares graduates for careers as writers and in writing pedagogy and publishing.
The UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication includes the Departments of Art, Music, and Film, Theatre and Creative Writing, as well as the School of Communication. The college’s primary mission is the preparation of the next generation of artists, educators and communicators. For more information about CFAC, visit uca.edu/cfac or call (501) 450-3293.
For more information, contact Vanderslice at (501) 450-3340 or stephv@uca.edu.
