3/15/99

Hayes awarded $1,500 Curtis Owens Literary Prize

Jonas Hayes

Jonas Hayes, a junior English major at Tusculum, has been named as winner of the Curtis Owens Literary Contest, which carries a scholarship prize of $1,500. This is the first year the prize has been given as a result of a contest.

Hayes' winning submission consisted of an essay, "Conformity's Trap," and a chapter titled "Down the Street," from a novel he is writing.

"Down the Street" grew out of Hayes' experience in coming from Ohio, his home state, to Tennessee, where he first became aware of "connections to the land." Hayes says he decided to develop this topic when he noticed that "the beauty of land and land itself were able to offer me something people couldn’t.

"These were two pieces of work I felt really passionate about," he said.

Hayes began writing in high school, with journal entries and short stories. Last fall he attended the Lost State Writer's Conference after submitting a work receiving endorsement from that group.

He is currently collecting oral histories as a part of the Tusculum Oral Histories Project, which is supported by the Tennessee Humanities Council and Rural Resources.

He is the son of Pam and Cliff Hayes of Akron, Ohio.

The Professor Curtis and Billie Belcher Owens Endowed Scholarship Fund was established in 1995 by Professor Curtis Owens, class of 1928, and his wife, Billie, of Richmond Hill, New York.