Five UB Students Win Poetry Prizes

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Award-winning poetry in competitions sponsored by the University at Buffalo Libraries and the Department of English in the UB College of Arts and Sciences have earned five students cash prizes and honorable mentions.

Jessica Smith of Birmingham, Ala., a senior majoring in English and comparative literature, won the Academy of American Poets University and College Poetry Prize. She won the Friends of the University Libraries Undergraduate Poetry Prize last year. Honorable mention for the Academy of American Poets prize went to Brendan Keane of New York City, a senior majoring in history and English.

Shane Jones of Albany, a junior majoring in English, won the Friends of the University Libraries Undergraduate Poetry Prize. He won honorable mention last year for the Academy of American Poets prize.

Lauren Shufran of Buffalo, a junior double majoring in English and Media Study, is the winner of the Scribbler's Prize. The prize was established in 1939 by the Scribbler's Club, which organized in 1893 to encourage local women writers, as a counterpart to the Press Club, which was not open to women.

For the second consecutive year, Chong Yean Matthew Tan of the Republic of Singapore, a senior majoring in English, is the recipient of the Arthur Axlerod Memorial Award. The award was established in 1975 through the English department by Mr. and Mrs. Harold Axlerod, the parents of Arthur Axlerod, an undergraduate in the English department.

Tan also received honorable mention this year for the Friends of the University Libraries Undergraduate Poetry Prize.