The Postgraduate Prize for the Best Conference Paper is open to Postgraduate conference participants each year. The aim of the competition is to encourage excellence in research and scholarship in the academic Creative Writing discipline, and to reward Postgraduate research candidates participating in the AAWP conference for their achievements in writing excellent conference papers.
The judging committee for the conference prize consists of members of the AAWP Executive Management Committee. Papers submitted were judged according to the criteria of: clarity of the research question; significance of the inquiry; originality in thought and approach; appropriateness of the writing style – sophisticated, accessible, lucid and agile.
For the 2009 conference, there were 11 entries, which were judged by 4 judges. There were many very good entries, but the papers noted as the most fully realised according to the criteria by each of the judges were chosen because of the soundness of their research focus, originality of their contribution to the discourse on Creative Writing practices, and their ability to engage the reader through clarity of argument and writing style. From this process, the judging committee is delighted to announce the results as follows:
Winner:
Brooke Davis, 'Relearning the World': Finding a space to grieve with Lewis, Didion and Woolf
"A clearly established and accessible research question that links the subjectivity of grief to narrative processes and products, utilising a methodical approach to exemplars and her own experience. Fabulous."
Highly Commended:
S. Jane Modric, Examining Alchemy: the problems with trash collection
"An interesting account, in the form of a narrative, of the development of an examination of one’s own creative process. I like this one a lot, for its poise and personal voice and understatement."