VOCES, created by Latinos of Montclair, is a Latino thought leaders series dedicated to creating an open space to uplift the voices and perspectives of Latino/e authors, artists, elected officials, community advocates, business leaders, and culture makers. Each gathering is designed to create space to reflect on Latinidad at this moment – its complexities, its beauty, and its future.

The event will take place at ����vlog’s Conference Center and is expected to draw an audience from across New Jersey of community members, students, and literature enthusiasts.

Díaz, best known for his celebrated works The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Drown, has long been recognized for his groundbreaking exploration of identity, diaspora, and belonging. His writing, deeply rooted in the Dominican American experience, has reshaped contemporary literature and inspired a generation of readers and writers to examine the intersections of culture, history, and imagination. In recent years, Díaz has extended his voice beyond fiction, contributing powerful op-eds that confront the realities facing American Latinos amid an increasingly polarized political climate.

At this special VOCES event, Díaz will discuss “the intersections of culture, history, and imagination in the context of the current political climate,” engaging in a candid fireside conversation followed by an audience Q&A and book signing.

. ����vlog students, faculty and staff can attend for free, but must reserve a ticket and show their University ID at the door. Books will be available for purchase on-site.

�ٲ��ٱ�:��Thursday, December 4
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: University Hall Conference Center

About the VOCES Latino Thought Leaders Series

The VOCES Series, created by Latinos of Montclair, is dedicated to uplifting the voices and perspectives of Latine authors, artists, elected officials, community advocates, business leaders, and culture makers. Each gathering creates an open space to reflect on Latinidad at this moment – its complexities, its beauty, and its future. Through intimate fireside conversations, VOCES celebrates literature, identity, community building, and the power of storytelling to inspire social and cultural transformation.

About Latinos of Montclair

Latinos of Montclair is a New Jersey–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering community, celebrating culture, and amplifying the diverse voices of the Latino community through arts, education, and civic engagement. The organization produces signature cultural programs such as the Latino Heritage Celebration, Día de los Muertos Festival, and the VOCES Thought Leaders Series.

Department Scholarships and Awards

The Frank G. and Nicole McGuire Scholarship:��James Diamond

The Bessie Saslaw Solomon Memorial Scholarship:��Victony Garcia

The Shari Kandell Scholarship: Jordan Newbury

The W. Leonard Newman Award:��Julia Abata

The Bernard Fleischmann Memorial Award:��Faith Monesteri

The Elizabeth Dean Eler Memorial Award: Miranda Kawiecki

The English Department Teacher Education Award:��Menen Gowdie

The Anthony Lovasco Shakespeare Award: Jenny Both

The Murray Prosky Prize in Irish Literature: Cailin Carragher

The Janet Holt scholarship:��Miranda Kawiecki

The Vivien L. Kwiatek Scholarship: Jacob Kaczorowski, Andres Lopez, Annette Torres Moya, Ptissem Assou, Natalie Mignanelli, Samantha Granados, Debbie Martinez

Graduate Scholarships and Awards

The Mary Bondon Graduate Scholarship: Faith Monesteri

The Lawrence H. Conrad Memorial Scholarship: Briana Tolbert-Fitzgerald

Creative Writing Awards

Johnny Muller Memorial Scholarship in Fiction

• First place: Kate McKeever – “Wax Fruit”
• Second Place: Kaitlyn McCarthy – “Palm to Palm”

Tom Benediktsson Award for Poetry

• Winner: Josephine Estes – “Eponym Driving,” “Laps,” and “Diary,”
• Runner-up: Sophie LeManquais – “Predispositional,” “Road Thoughts,” and “What I Have Now”

English Department Award for Flash Fiction

• Winner: Abigail Makovoz – “Grisha’s Dream”
• Runner-up: Katelyn McKeever – “BlackDog, Running”

Minnie Max Award for Creative Nonfiction

• Winner: Oluwaferanmi Fadayomi – “Call Me by My Name”
• Runner-up: Josephine Estes – “In a Field”

View past winners here

]]> /english/2025/04/25/announcing-the-2025-english-department-scholarship-and-award-recipients/feed/ 0 /english/wp-content/uploads/sites/98/2020/09/041420_2312_Campus-Spring.jpg.4.1x.generic-300x169.jpg /english/2025/03/26/university-wide-creative-writing-contests/ /english/2025/03/26/university-wide-creative-writing-contests/#respond Wed, 26 Mar 2025 15:45:46 +0000 /english/?p=209580 The English Department is pleased to announce that the submission period is open for the 2025 Creative Writing Awards. All current Montclair State undergraduate students, regardless of major, can enter the awards listed below. For a full list of all awards offered by the English Department, please visit the Awards & Scholarships website.

Deadline for all submissions: 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 7. Decisions by late April.

Four Creative Writing Awards (open to all Montclair State undergraduate students):

1. �� submit one story or excerpt from a longer piece (must be labeled as such), limited to 20 pages total, double-spaced. $1000
2. �� submit a maximum of three poems. If you are submitting more than one poem, the limit is 60 lines per poem. If one long poem, the limit is 150 lines. $300
3. �� submit a single piece of fiction under 1,000 words, not including the title. It must be self-contained, not part of a larger work. $300
4. �� submit one piece of nonfiction writing, limited to 20 pages total, double-spaced. $300

Lee Behlman is a professor of English at ����vlog, where he’s taught since 2006. He’s a scholar of Victorian literature and his most recent publication is a 2023 book from Palgrave-Macmillan called , which he co-edited with Olivia Loksing Moy from Lehman College-CUNY. He teaches classes on nineteenth-century poetry and fiction, the Bible as Literature, The Golden Age of Children’s Literature, and most recently, on Detective and Crime Fiction. He grew up locally in Queens and has been a dedicated customer of Watchung Booksellers since the moment he moved to New Jersey.

Nick Hernandez teaches English at and loves spending his time rock climbing, playing in a band, and reading. His head is usually in the clouds but he still manages to balance a comically small tea cup on his person throughout the day. His favorite class to teach is dedicated to reading by Angela Davis, kindly provided by a generous .

From writing one or two stories for his Weehawken High School newspaper to being the
sports editor for two years at the Montclarion, he “wasn’t the traditional English major,”
Zimmerman explained. Intrigued by his father’s stories about famous baseball heroes of the time,
and inspired by his love of reading sports magazines, Zimmerman had ambitions to become a
sportswriter.

While he never became a full-time sportswriter, he went on to major success at The
Record. He began as a regional news reporter when he first joined its staff. “I didn’t know what
story I’d get, but it was exciting,” he stated.

His assignments got him into many interesting situations, which included Zimmerman
getting the opportunity to meet legendary Yankee players Yogi Berra and Elston Howard while
writing a story about the building of the largest Yoohoo! bottling facility (at the time) in
Carlstadt, NJ.

Zimmerman was also inside the Yankee locker room to do stories on other players. But
his most interesting sports interview came when he met and interviewed Elston Howard at
Howard’s home in Teaneck. Zimmerman got an early-morning assignment to cover a story about
the Yankee catcher and left fielder, as he’d just won The American League’s Most Valuable
Player in 1963. “The sports department didn’t do a story about this, so they asked me to go to his
house and interview him,” Zimmerman said.

He fondly remembered not wanting to wake up Howard for the story since it was eight in
the morning, but later found out that the Yankee player was already up; he’d been baling water
from the basement since 3A.M. As a result, “I was the first person who interviewed Elston
Howard for that award,” Zimmerman laughed.

He also covered stories that had him traveling to New York City, specifically
remembering writing about and interviewing a seminary student from Yonkers who was a
longshoreman on the docks of New York during the summer. Zimmerman’s journey also brought
him to Norfolk, Virginia, to land on an aircraft carrier via a WW2 fighting plane, with six other
journalists who were invited onto the excursion. He recalled bringing a “Send Help” banner that
was folded inside a road map in his car, as a joke. While on that assignment, Zimmerman met a
lieutenant commander from Bergen County who rescued United States astronaut Gus Grissom
after a sub-orbital flight mission.

Zimmerman’s focus changed when he was assigned courtroom coverage for the paper. “I
would go to the courthouse every day to check lawsuits,” he stated during his presentation.
During this period, he discovered a lawsuit with examples of racial and ethnic bias in real estate
practices in Wayne, NJ, which became a major story.

Another experience came when Zimmerman covered the murder of two policemen in
Lodi at a local bar. Because Zimmerman was headed home and the bar was on the way, he got
there before any other reporter and before the scene was ready: “I saw bodies under blankets,
before being escorted away. I worked late in the night and co-wrote the story about the murders.”
Zimmerman said. “I also covered the murder trial.” The crime that Zimmerman covered was the
Trantino Murder, one of the most famous of the era.

Zimmerman later became a political writer during his time for The Record. Covering
political figures who came into Bergen County and New Jersey, he had the opportunity to meet
eventual president Gerald Ford when he was the minority house leader, and covered large
political events in other states and territories, such as Kentucky, Idaho, Puerto Rico, and
Missouri. He also covered the Republican National Convention.

His biggest achievement was his coverage of the United States – Soviet Union Summit in
Glassboro, NJ in 1967, earning himself a White House press badge. He would later donate the
badge to Rowan University during its 100-year anniversary.

Zimmerman later left the newspaper business and focused on politics and coordinated
campaigns for New Jersey politicians. Because Leon had so many stories to tell about the first
part of his post-Montclair career, he told the audience he would be willing to come back again to
talk about those other experiences.

The English Department and Office of Alumni Engagement were pleased to have Leon
return many decades after his graduation. His story took him from Montclair to the Yankee
locker room, to an MVP’s living room, to an aircraft carrier, to a notorious murder scene, to the
Republican National Convention, and to a major geopolitical summit–and that was just the first
part of his remarkable career.

Leon’s wife, son, and granddaughter attended the presentation to watch him tell his story,
along with a fellow 1950s English major and current English majors and faculty.

– Written by Victoria Ribarich