Announcing the Inaugural A. Louise Staman Writing Award Winners!

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A. Louise Staman

The A. Louise Staman Writing Award was established by her husband of over 50 years to provide awards for undergraduate student committed to creative writing as a pursuit.

2026 staman award winners

First Place: Ashlen Ross, nominated by Andrew Zawacki and Magdalena Zurawski

Elizabeth Ashlen Ross

Elizabeth Ashlen Ross is a senior at the University of Georgia, graduating with her Master's in Psychology. They are an avid creative writer interested in poetic forms. She plans to pursue her graduate degree in Clinical Psychology at Johns Hopkins University.

Cas MixonSecond Place: Cass Mixon, nominated by Aruni Kashyap

Cass Mixon is a sophomore English major with a concentration in creative writing at the University of Georgia. She is interested in pursuing a career in publishing, editing, or — if things go well — writing for film. Her pronouns are she/her.

Charlie CamdenThird Place: Charlie Camden, nominated by Aruni Kashyap

Charlie Camden is a third-year student studying Journalism with a minor in Philosophy. After graduating, he wants to move to Chicago and continue working on whatever projects serve him.

About A. Louise Staman

A. Louise Staman

Dr. Mike Staman created this fund in the memory of his late wife, Louise Staman. Her Master's degrees were in French Literature (University of Illinois) and History (Old Dominion University.) Her life's work tended to focus on the academic and intellectual. She owned a small publishing company (Tiger Iron Press) and was a prolific author herself. Her many books include With the Stroke of a Pen, published by Random House, and Loosening Corsets, Home Grown Georgia Poems, Rupert and the Bag, and Restoring Lost Times – Savannah's Anna Colquitt Hunter, all published by Tiger Iron Press. She also published many other authors and made life-long friends in the process. During an earlier part of her career she was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of College Choice International and a researcher/scholar at the University of Missouri's Historical Society, during which time she claimed that an unusually large number of her clients asked for her services because they were convinced that they were somehow related to Jesse James

From The Washington Post, “She wrote about overlooked women…”:

As a writer in Savannah, Ga., Alice Louise Staman profiled women who greatly contributed to her community but were overlooked by the gaze of history.She was fascinated by those underdog characters because she was one, her daughter Karen told The Washington Post. In the 1960s, early in her career, she was fired from teaching at what was then known as Shippensburg State College because she married her husband, Mike, who also was a faculty member, her family said. He kept his job ... Louise’s eldest daughter, Laura, said her mother was most interested in women who changed the future but the present had forgotten.

 

Type of news:
General
Creative Writing Program