PVCC Creative Writing Competition
First place winners realize rewards of writing, creativity

By Ryan Donada, December 2011
Fine Arts Editor

Every year PVCC hosts a creative writing competition with categories for poetry, fiction, nonfiction and journalism.  This year, there were more than 73 entries.

“I am particularly proud of this year's entries and I feel they were among the best we have ever had,” says Dr. Lois Roma-Deeley, contest coordinator, “I congratulate each of you on the fine work you have created this semester.”

All of the winning selections, including merit winners, will be published in the 2012 edition of the “The Paradise Review,” PVCC’s student literary anthology, and will be available in April 2012.

This anthology is archived on the shelves of PVCC’s library and is displayed at the Associated Writing and National Conference book fair — a book fair that is among the largest in the nation.

In April, there will be a student reading where winners will read excerpts of their works. A specific time and location of the event will be released in the future.

First place winners:

Travis Duprey

Travis Duprey — Fiction

Travis Duprey discovered how much of a writer he is during his time at PVCC where he has earned his Certificate of Completion in Journalism and has studied creative writing.

“I have these plans,” says Duprey. “I feel a new sort of long calm energy. Writing might be good to me.”

Duprey is in the process of completing his bachelor’s degree in justice and inquiry at Arizona State University and is applying to master of fine arts programs nationwide. He has won numerous writing competitions at PVCC during his tenure at the college where he currently serves as Puma Press web editor and assistant copy editor.

Susan Hulsebos

Sue Hulsebos — Creative nonfiction

Sue Hulsebos is honored and excited to receive the Award for Creative Non-Fiction. For the past five years she has been working with the visual arts teachers at PVCC. A fellow student who highly recommended Professor Lois-Roma Deeley’s writing classes prompted her entrance into the Creative Writing program.

“This was excellent advise, and now I am working hard to develop my hand in both pencil-and-paper mediums, writing and drawing,” Hulsebos says. 

She will receive her Associate of Arts in Fine Arts in 2012 from PVCC and will pursue the Creative Writing Certificate at PVCC, to be offered in 2012.

Melissa Barrett-Traister — Poetry

Melissa Barrett-Traister

To Melissa Barrett-Traister poetry is a form of freedom. “It’s the one area I designate to myself to be free,” she says. She adds that it gives her the power to react to herself and other people.

Barrett-Traister is always pleased to see her work being published. “To me it’s significant to be published in an academic journal,” she says, “It shows the amount of work I have put towards a school; its my contribution.”

In the past, Barrett-Traister has written many long confessional poems. However, in this poem, she took a new direction and she is happy to see her new approach to poetry noticed and heard.

She has been published for her poetry and fiction around Maricopa and in various literary journals throughout the years.

Earning her Bachelor of Arts in English literature at Arizona State University and currently working on her teaching certificate, she wants to teach at the college level.