2015 Creative Writing Scholarship Winners Announced

2nd Place Winner Emily Snider

Seventy-eight works of short fiction were submitted by high school seniors across the state of Arkansas to Thea Foundation’s 2015 Creative Writing Scholarship Competition. After carefully considering each work, our panel of judges, which included executive producer and host of “Tales from the South” Paula Morell,; awarding winning writer Phillip McMath; former Oxford American publisher Warwick Sabin; and accomplished writer and Arkansas Literary Festival contributor Jay Jennings, selected two winners.

2015 Creative Writing Scholarship Competition Winners:

1st Place: Jackson Floyd, Little Rock Central High School, $4,000

2nd Place: Emily Snider, Mansfield High School, $2,500

This marks the 13th year of Thea Foundation’s scholarship competitions, which began as solely visual arts in 2002 and expanded to include performing arts, film, creative writing, fashion design and poetry slam. This is the fifth year of the Creative Writing Scholarship Competition. Scholarship competitors are judged only on their talent; no GPA, test scores or interest to major in the arts are required for eligibility. To date, Thea Foundation has awarded close to $2 million in scholarships to students across the state. Thea Foundation partners with every four-year college in the state, one technical college and several institutions outside of Arkansas, who match or exceed a student’s scholarship if the student chooses to attend one of those institutions, but students can apply their scholarships at any school.

The winners of each of the six competitions will be honored with an award ceremony May 3, 2015, at Thea Foundation.