CONWAY, Ark. (March 16, 2022) – A Hendrix College
senior and the College’s student-run literary magazine will receive
second-place honors at the upcoming Southern Literary Festival, set for April 21-23, 2022
at Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, Mississippi.
Hendrix student Sydney Boone ’23 won second place for
her poem “Anthrōpophagos” in the Southern Literary Festival’s annual
undergraduate writing contest.
“Sydney’s
poem is one of dynamic duality: an embodied, intimate lyric that at once
reaches out for its readers,” said Hendrix-Murphy Visiting Fellow in Poetry Dr.
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach. “We feel her images in our own flesh and hear their
music reverberate in our ears. It is a poem that invokes and awakens our
senses, and as ‘Language slips from our grasp,’ we are left wanting to
experience its power again, longing to reread it after its gorgeous final line:
‘the whisper of your nails through my hair.’”
Quinn Carver Johnson ’21 served as editor-in-chief of
The Aonian literary magazine for the issue entered in this year’s
contest, with Bailey Lindsey ’21 as associate editor. The current editors are
Annemarie Bennett ’22 and Phillip Powell ’23.
The Aonian features fiction, nonfiction, poetry, visual art,
and in this issue’s case, a piece of drama. Judges called the writing “solid
and distinguished,” and praised the journal’s attractive visuals, layout, and choice
of paper that gave it “an impressive feel.” They also noted that The Aonian
was able to secure distinguished writers as judges for its submissions: Nickole
Brown for poetry and Kevin Brockmeier for fiction. (Both writers have been
brought to campus in years past as visiting writers through the Hendrix-Murphy
Foundation Programs for Literature and Language.)
“I admire and applaud the inspired diligence of
Editor-in-Chief Quinn Carver Johnson, Associate Editor Bailey Lindsey, and the Aonian
staff as they put together a beautiful issue during trying times,” said Dr.
Tyrone Jaeger, who serves as faculty advisor to the publication. “In their
introduction, Quinn captures the spirit of why the Aonian is so valuable
to our campus community: ‘Always, we were young, excited artists falling love
with art over and over again.’ Three cheers to that.”
About Hendrix College
A private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas, Hendrix
College consistently earns recognition as one of the country’s leading liberal
arts institutions, and is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools
That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges. Its academic quality and
rigor, innovation, and value have established Hendrix as a fixture in numerous
college guides, lists, and rankings. Founded in 1876, Hendrix has been
affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. To learn more,
visit www.hendrix.edu.