Announcement of the 2014 Winners of the Williams-Mystic/Joseph Conrad Ocean Essay Contest

Press Release:

Announcement of 2014 Winners of the Williams-Mystic/Joseph Conrad Ocean Essay Contest

15 January 2015
Contact: Mauro Diaz-Hernandez
Director of Admissions
Williams-Mystic:
The Maritimes Studies Program of Williams College and Mystic Seaport
[email protected]
860.572.5359 x2
www.mystic.williams.edu

 

Williams-Mystic, the Maritime Studies Program of Williams College and Mystic Seaport, is pleased to announce the following recipient and honorable mention of the 2014 Joseph Conrad Ocean Essay Contest:

 Nikki Fisher ’18 of Southern New Hampshire University has won $500 for her short story “Solitude of a Siren,” commended by our guest judge as “a refreshing take on the classic myth of the siren.”

Agatha Fenech ’15 of Cedar Falls High School earned Honorable Mention for her scholarly essay “A Sea of Perspective: The Many Roles of the Sea in Lord Jim” and has been awarded free passes to the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, CT.

Hannah Glaser ’15 of Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale earned Honorable Mention for her essay “Divide” and has also been awarded free passes to the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, CT.

 

Williams-Mystic: The Maritime Studies Program of Williams College and Mystic Seaport is a study away semester for undergraduates. The curriculum is composed of four classes for Williams College credit: Literature of the Sea, Maritime History, Marine Policy, and Marine Sciences.  Students spend the semester living at Mystic Seaport, the Museum of America and the Sea.  As part of the semester, students attend three week-long field seminars. The first is offshore on a tall ship; the second is to the Pacific Coast; and the third is to coastal Louisiana.  Students of all colleges and majors are welcome.

Philosophy and History of the Prize:  Williams-Mystic and an anonymous donor wish to encourage writing about the world’s oceans or major water bodies. We wish to reward promising writers with the opportunity, as part of their college career, to study about and travel on the ocean and live at Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea, the largest maritime museum in the world.  Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was one of the greatest of our maritime authors.  He wrote both fiction (Typhoon) and nonfiction (The Mirror of the Sea).  Mystic Seaport owns and maintains the tall ship Joseph Conrad (1882), which is a historic ship that circumnavigated the world with young people.  The prize deadline is in October of each year.