Tampa campus office manager wins Creative Loafing award

Craig Anderson '15 with Professor Helen Wallace at the awards event.

by Anne W. Anderson

photo by Alaina Tackitt

Craig Anderson '15, PEL's Tampa campus office manager and PEL academic writing coach,  has won the Readers' Pick Award for Fiction in Creative Loafing's 2016 Writing Contest  for his story "Lucky Stars". This year's contest attracted more than a hundred stories and poems, each addressing the theme of Green.

Fiction judge and local novelist Sheree L. Greer, commented that in Anderson's story, "which made it to my personal top three . . . green was about a rebirth and an implicit challenge to discover. The main character, Frankie-but-not-really, learned lessons in aim — from the misfire of a dart to the deliberate stroke of a thumb."

Creative Loafing editor David Warner read the fiction entries and selected the top ten, which he then sent on to Greer. Greer, who also teaches creative writing, composition, and literature courses at St. Petersburg College, selected first, second, and third place winners. (Read Greer's thoughts about the fiction entries HERE.)

All poetry entries were read by St. Petersburg Poet Laureate and Eckerd professor Helen Pruitt Wallace, who made her selections. (Read Wallace's thoughts about the poetry entries HERE.)

How does a green ninja turtle figure in to Anderson's story?

Additionally, the top ten entries in both categories also were posted on line for readers to choose their favorites. Winners and finalists were feted at a Reading and Issue Release Party on March 16 -- hence the Green theme -- at Creative Loafing's event venue, CL Space, in Ybor City.

Not only was Anderson's story readers' favorite, it also inspired the artwork for the March 17 issue cover, which contained the article about the contest winners.

Anderson, who graduated last year from Eckerd College's Program for Experienced Learners with a degree in Human Development and then returned for a minor in Creative Writing, has been accepted to Arcadia University's low-residency Creative Writing MFA program. He begins this August with a session in Philadelphia and travels, for the 2017 session, to Edinburgh, Scotland. Anderson's work also has appeared in Glitterwolf Magazine (issue 5), The Legendary (October 2014), and the 2014 Eckerd Review.

Anne W. Anderson is PEL's director of blended and online learning.