November 12, 2009: Adie Smith, senior art major and creative writing minor at Belhaven College, received an Honorable Mention in the Janet B. McCabe Poetry Contest sponsored by Ruminate Magazine and judged by Scott Cairns. The Honorable Mention poem, “Along the Natchez Trace,” and another by Adie, “What Has Been Woven,” were both published in the fall issue of Ruminate.

Adie joins two other creative writing students who have placed in national writing contests: Lea Schumacher, Fiction Runner Up, “The Weeping Wall,” Hollins University National Undergraduate Fiction Contest (2008) and Martha Krystaponis, Fifth Place Poetry, “Tessie: Examinations of Belonging,” National Federation of State Poetry Societies Contest (2007).

Belhaven College is the only Christian college in the US offering a Bachelor of Fine Arts in creative writing and one of only 26 undergraduate institutions offering such a degree. The degree program began just five years ago under the leadership of Dr. Randall Smith, and the creative writing department has already shown great promise through its students.