Bestselling and award-winning author, Tommy Orange, is serving as guest editor of the 2020 edition of TCJ Student. Orange is also a tribal college graduate.

TCJ Student guest editor and bestselling author Tommy Orange (Cheyenne/Arapaho) has announced the winners of the 2020 TCJ Student creative writing contest. This year, the contest brought in scores of entries in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from tribal college and university (TCU) students from around Indian Country.

The top fiction entries are: “Questions” by Brianna G. Reed of the Institute of American Indian Arts, “The Dream” by Emily Cogliandro of the Institute of American Indian Arts, and “Trapped” by Nicole Martinez of Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College.

The top nonfiction entries are: “Little Peculiarities” by Tovah Strong of the Institute of American Indian Arts, “Long Road Home” by Brianna G. Reed of the Institute of American Indian Arts, and “Fyre” by Waqcecewan Grignon of College of Menominee Nation

The top entries in poetry are: “Quercus” by Vivian M. Carroll of the Institute of American Indian Arts, “Old Dogs of Taos” by Nelson Alburquenque of the Institute of American Indian Arts, and “Gimaamaaminaan Aki” by Awanigiizhik Bruce of Turtle Mountain Community College.

Tribal College Journal also recognizes students who earned honorable mention. They include: Nancy Beauregard of the Institute of American Indian Arts, Michael Coan of Navajo Technical University, Debbie Haddow of the Institute of American Indian Arts, Teklu Hogan of the Institute of American Indian Arts, Charmayne Klah of Navajo Technical University, Jacynthia Oprenov of Ilisagvik College, and Shyrelle D. Sloan of Navajo Technical University. 

“With Tommy Orange serving as guest editor, we had a big turnout and lots of high quality writing,” says TCJ editor Bradley Shreve. “I’d like to thank all the students who participated in the contest, as well as the faculty members who encouraged them to do so. Both the high turnout and quality really speak volumes about the growth and development of creative writing classes and programming at tribal colleges.”

The winning students and those earning honorable mention will be recognized at the American Indian Higher Education Consortium’s awards banquet March 24^th in Albuquerque. The winning entries will appear in the 2020 edition of TCJ Student, which will be published concurrently with the journal’s fall issue. Those earning honorable mention will be published online at tcjstudent.org. Tribal College Journal will continue to accept submissions to its art and film contest through March 27^th. For contest guidelines and more information, visit: www.tcjstudent.org/contest.