Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

The First Gwend~tlvn Brooks Fiction Awarcl
Last February, poet-publisher
Dudley Randall journeyed from Detroit
to present a $200 prize to the
winner of a novella competition
sponsored by poet Gwendolyn
Brooks in her Chicago writers' workshop
. Mr . Randall had read the
submitted novellas without knowing
the authors, and it was a coincidence
that the winner was Mike Cook, who
also was winner of another fiction
contest sponsored by Miss Brooks
in late summer 1967 . (See the November
1967 NEaxo DIGEST . )
Earlier in 1967, Miss Brooks had
proposed the estat~lishment of an annual
competition for literature
to be conducted through NEGRO DI-
GEST, with the winning manuscripts
(Continued
published in the magazine . The
winning authors, of course, would
receive cash awards as well, the
prizes awarded by Miss Brooks .
NEGRO DIGEST is pleased to announce
that Miss Brooks' proposal
has been accepted and that annual
Gwendolyn Brooks Literary Awards
will be made, beginning in the spring
of 1969 . Details of the competition
will be announced in a later issue of
NEGRO DIGEST, including the time
and manner of submission of material,
eligibility, the amount of the
awards, and the names of the
judges .
While Mr. Cook received the prize
for his novella, "Whoever Said
There's A Place Called Home?", all
on page 53)
Prize winner : A beaming Mike Cook (center) accepts congratulations from
judge Dudley Randall and award-giver Gwendolyn Brooks following the
announcement that Mr . Cook had won the first annual Gwendolyn Brooks
Award for fiction . The competition was confined to members of Miss
Brooks' Chicago workshop . Future awards will be open to all writers .
50 March 1968 NEGRO DIGEST