2 Rockville High School writers win competition
Joseph Laflamme

The Journal Inquirer
June 14, 2007

Two students at Rockville High School have come out as winners in the IMPAC-Connecticut State University Young Writer's Competition.

Melanie Lieberman, a sophomore, was awarded the state grand prize for prose for her short story "Mashed Potato Boy and My Fifth Grade Romance."

Hannah Ojard, a junior, was awarded $1,000 as Tolland County poetry winner for her poem "Aunt Karen," beating out 13 poetry finalists from Tolland County.

Given that she prefers writing short stories to writing poetry, Ojard said, she was pleasantly surprised when she found out she had won $1,000 for a poem she based on a real-life conversation with her aunt.

"I just couldn't believe I actually won," Ojard, 16, said. "I'm really not a poetry kind of person."
Lieberman, 16, won an all-expenses-paid trip to Dublin, Ireland, where she is attending a weeklong young writer's festival and workshop and other events connected with the Dublin Writers Festival and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
As the Tolland County winner in prose, Lieberman also was awarded $1,000, competing against eight finalists.

The IMPAC-CSU Young Writers Trust annually awards $1,000 prizes to two finalists from each county, one in prose and one in poetry.

There is one grand prize winner each for prose and for poetry.

Lieberman said she started crying at the statewide awards dinner June 1 when James B. Irwin Sr., founder of the IMPAC Young Writers Award Program, announced she had won the top prize for prose.
"When they called my name I was sort of in shock," Lieberman said. "Your friends and your family can say they like what you write, but to have recognition on that level felt amazing," she said.
At the awards dinner, Irwin and Eastern Connecticut State University Vice President of Academic Affairs Dimitrios S. Pachis presented Lieberman with two plane tickets, an itinerary, and a packet of travel materials for her trip to Dublin, said IMPAC-CSU Chairman Andy Thibault.

IMPAC-CSU judge Ronald Winter said the winning prose entry, which Lieberman said was loosely based on an experience in elementary school, stood out because of its author's mature perspective and wit.
"There was a maturity about it that I found very compelling," Winter, an author and former journalist, said. "I thought it was head and shoulders over the other pieces I read."

Both winners found out about the contest through their creative writing teacher, Victoria Nordlund, who said she encouraged the students to submit their class work to the contest.

The IMPAC-CSU Young Writer's Trust has given more than $150,000 to students in Connecticut in connection with its writing contest since it was established in 1998, Thibault said. About 4,000 students have participated in the program since its inception, he said.

Lieberman said she writes frequently outside the classroom and aspires to be a writer. She hopes to attend Emerson College in Boston.

Ojard said she aspires to be an English teacher or social worker and also hopes to attend college in Boston.

IMPAC, or Improved Management Productivity and Control, now known as Integrated Control Systems, is an international company based in Florida that specializes in management productivity improvement. Irwin is its Florida chairman.

The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award involves libraries from throughout the world and is open to books written in any language. The award - the largest in the world - is a partnership between the Dublin City Council, the Municipal Government of Dublin City, and IMPAC.
The literary award winner was announced today: Norwegian author Per Petterson and his translator, Anne Born, for the novel "Out Stealing Horses."

Petterson received $133,00. Of that amount, Born will get about $33,000.