Ellicott City Writer Wins Prestigious Literary Award

ELLICOTT CITY, MD — A 21-year-old Ellicott City writer enrolled at Washington College won the prestigious Sophie Kerr Prize in Literature, the nation's largest literary award for college undergraduates worth $63,537. The six finalists in the running for this award represented the liberal arts and sciences in a range of majors and minors, from creative writing and English to environmental studies and sociology.

“The committee notes remarkable strengths in the quality and diversity of writing that ranges from journalism, creative nonfiction, critical essays and excerpts from senior theses, to various forms of poetry and fiction, both short and long. Judging from the advanced level of accomplishment and the maturity of voice and vision already demonstrated, the committee expects to be hearing from these writers in years to come," said Sean Meehan, professor and chair of English and director of writing who chairs the Sophie Kerr Committee.

Mary Sprague, an English major from Ellicott City, serves as editor-in-chief of the student literary magazine Collegian and as copy editor for the student newspaper The Elm. Sprague’s portfolio, Diorama, is a collection of short prose pieces most often about interpersonal relationships, sexuality, sexual assault and isolation. During an online ceremony held Friday, Sprague read pieces from her portfolio.

“The committee recognized in Mary Sprague’s work a vision and voice of language that is rarely seen and heard from an undergraduate, even amongst Washington College’s very talented writers,” Meehan said in a news release. “In a breathtaking portfolio, Sprague achieves a fusion of beauty and wit in prose that manages to move the reader toward a complex, aesthetic awareness all the while building a recognizable world that is familiar and alive with unforgettable images, such as a grandmother falling asleep before the ambient glow of a television. The committee judged Sprague’s maturity as a writer to be amongst the most advanced it has observed in recent years, and eagerly looks forward to reading and hearing more from this promising writer in the future.”

Sprague said she started out writing long pieces, but a prose poetry class taught her to craft short sentences and "inhabit those small moments."

"I really like how small I can get things without losing any of their impact," she said.