The Etruscan Prize

The Etruscan Prize is awarded each year to a member of the Wilkes Creative Writing student community who submits one page of any genre (prose, script, poetry or play) that sings. Since 2010, Etruscan Press has awarded a Wilkes University Creative Writing graduate student for their writing excellence.

Mildred Mills of Atlanta, Ga. was awarded the Etruscan Prize during the Wilkes University Maslow Family Graduate Creative Writing Program residency. The Etruscan Prize is awarded each year to a member of the Wilkes Creative Writing student community who submits one page of any genre (prose, script, poetry or play) that sings. This is the thirteenth consecutive year Etruscan Press awarded a Wilkes University Creative Writing graduate student for their writing excellence.

Mills’ submission, “Daddy’s House: A Place to Run Away From,” was the prize winner. This was the fifth year the Etruscan Prize was awarded for a work of creative nonfiction. Prize recipients from prior years were awarded for works of fiction, memoir, and poetry. Mills is pursuing her Master of Arts in Creative Nonfiction in the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing. Wilkes University faculty member Beverly Donofrio has served as Mills’ mentor.

Etruscan author Stephen Benz judged the award. Benz commented about Mills’ submission: “Daddy’s House” is a prose piece that emerges from the same wellspring that has given us the blues and traditional country music. And these rich paragraphs, too, thrum with music, the music intrinsic to the piece’s down-home rural setting. There’s music in the birds, the bees, the soil, the blossoms, the cotton fields, the farmyard, and the cinderblock home that the writer skillfully describes for us. Most of all, there’s music in the language that the writer uses to convey the scene and to express the deepest yearnings of the soul.”

“As in traditional American music, it is a language that is at once plain spoken and lyrical. And like the best blues or country songs, just when we think we know where things stand, there’s a sudden reversal,” Benz says. “The gentle nostalgia that begins the piece yields to a more complicated questioning of the meaning of home. The compelling voice that we hear in ‘Daddy’s House’ sings to us of joy and frustration, comfort and confusion, beauty and grit. It is a voice that we listen to with fascination, eager to hear more.”

Benz has published four books of creative nonfiction, including Topographies and Reading the Signs (both from Etruscan Press). He has also published a book of poems, Americana Motel (Main Street Rag Publishing Co.), along with essays in New England Review, Creative Nonfiction, River Teeth, and Best American Travel Writing. He lives in Albuquerque, where he teaches at University of New Mexico. Website: www.stephenconnelybenz.com

Previous Recipients of The Etruscan Prize

2021: Etruscan Press Executive Director Phil Brady; 2021 Etruscan Prize recipient John Cornelius of Nesopeck, Pa.; and Etruscan Press Production Editor Pamela Turchin at the June 25, 2021 Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing Program ceremony. (Photo credit: Kirsten Peters)

2019: Etruscan Press Executive Editor Robert Mooney; Etruscan Press Executive Director Phil Brady; 2019 Etruscan Prize recipient Iris Ouelette of Pittston, Pa.; and Etruscan Press Managing Editor Bill Schneider at the June 21, 2019 Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing Program ceremony. (Photo credit: Shawn Hatten)

2018: Etruscan Press Executive Director Phil Brady, 2019 Etruscan Prize recipient Sarah Bedford of Hunlock Creek, Pa., and Etruscan Press Executive Editor Robert Mooney at the June 22, 2018 Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing Program ceremony. (Photo credit: Shawn Hatten)

2017: Etruscan Press Executive Director Phil Brady, 2017 Etruscan Prize recipient Ronnie Stephens of The Colony, Texas, and Etruscan Press Executive Editor Robert Mooney at the June 23, 2017 Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing Program ceremony. (Photo credit: Shawn Hatten)

2016: Etruscan Press Production Editor Heather Taylor, 2016 Etruscan Prize recipient Jeremiah Blue of Phoenix, Ariz., and Etruscan Press Managing Editor Bill Schneider at the July 8, 2016 Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing Program ceremony at Mesa Center for Higher Educat​​ion in Mesa, Ariz. (Photo credit: Carol White)

2015: Etruscan Press Executive Director Phil Brady and 2015 Etruscan Prize recipient Vanessa Taylor of Rosedale, NY at June 27, 2015 Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing Program ceremony at Wilkes University (Photo credit: Shawn Hatten)

2014: Etruscan Press Executive Director Phil Brady, 2014 Etruscan Prize recipient Ahrend Torrey of Baton Rouge, LA, and Etruscan Executive Editor Robert Mooney at June 21, 2014 Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing Program ceremony at Wilkes University (Photo credit: Shawn Hatten)