WEST GLOVER — Green Mountain Power (GMP) and Vermont Magazine recently announced Erica Walch of Newfane and Mark Creaven of West Glover are the 2020 winners of the Vermont Writers’ Prize.
Walch was selected for her short story, “The Key Word,” and Creaven for his poem, “Time in Vermont.”
Both works appear in the Summer issue of Vermont Magazine, and this is the first year a specific poetry honor has been awarded.
The growing number of poems entered in the contest over the last few years convinced the organizers to create an individual poetry prize starting this year.
Creaven’s poem makes the Vermont countryside pop to life.
A shed, an iconic silhouette along many Vermont roadways, is a central feature of this poem and Creaven was inspired by one in Waterbury.
It begins:
It stood solid
In the middle of a disused field
On Route 100.
Its slate grey cedar slats and shakes
Weathered from the years
Of storm and heat.
The Prize is a collaboration between Vermont Magazine and Green Mountain Power to recognize writing about Vermont and Vermonters, while honoring the literary legacy of the late Ralph Nading Hill Jr., a Vermont historian, and writer and long-time member of Green Mountain Power’s Board of Directors.
It is considered by Vermont writers to be one of the state’s premier literary prizes.
Creaven lives in West Glover and writes poems, but does not consider himself a poet.
He has been among other things an army officer, a teacher, and a photographer.
He has also been an EMT for 25 years.
