FARMINGTON — Kristen Case, associate professor of English at the University of Maine at Farmington, and Linda Britt, a professor of Spanish, are 2020 Maine Literary Award winners.
The awards are given by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.
“We couldn’t be prouder of Kristen and Linda and all of our faculty for their exceptional accomplishments,” said Edward Serna, UMF president. “In addition to the positive difference they make in the lives of their students, they also contribute a wealth of creative vision to the fabric of Maine.”
Case won the Book Award for Poetry for “Principles of Economics,” a collection of poems that explores grief in the wake of the deaths of her father and her former partner. The book is a series of interconnected elegies that engage other texts, including “The Iliad,” Chopin’s “Ballades,” Shakespeare’s Sonnet 15, Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and her father’s textbook, which is also titled “Principles of Economics.”
“This book is very close to my heart, and I am touched and honored with this award,” said Case.
Britt won the Drama Award for “I Smile, Of Course, And Go On Drinking Tea,” a full-length, six-character play that focuses on the marriage of the poet T.S. Eliot to Vivienne Haigh-Wood, and counts Virginia Woolf and Bertrand Russell among its characters. Lines from Eliot’s poems and Woolf’s fiction are interwoven into character dialogue throughout the play.
“The awards announcement was made at a virtual ceremony, and I was stunned, not only to hear my name called, but also to be recognized on the same roster as Kristen’s amazing work,” said Britt.
The Maine Literary Awards is an annual competition open to all seasonal and full-time Maine residents. The statewide competition is for published books, drama, short works (published or unpublished) and student writing. Authors may self-nominate or can be nominated by others.
