April 30, 2024

Two East Mississippi Community College students placed in the 2023-24 Mississippi Community College Creative Writing Association’s (MCCWA) annual workshop and contest.

Students from community colleges across Mississippi competed in categories that included Creative Nonfiction, Dramatic Writing, Literary Essay, Poetry and Short Fiction.

EMCC student Elizabythe McBeth took second place in the Short Fiction category for her piece titled “Faded Footprints.”

“It’s like me walking back through my grandparents’ house,” McBeth said. “I would stay with them, along with my two cousins. It was kind of reminiscing about that.”

Arin Franks poem, “Creating for You” earned second place in the Poetry category.

“My poem is about a kind of twisted feeling of having to mark your territory with pieces of yourself to keep someone,” Franks said. “It's a story of giving and giving, in hopes of finding a physical object worthy enough to keep your memory alive after a relationship has ended.”

McBeth is a Columbus native who is taking general studies on EMCC’s Golden Triangle campus. She plans to enroll in the Mississippi University for Women’s Department of Baccalaureate Nursing once she graduates from EMCC.

Franks is a Springville, Alabama native who resides in Columbus. She graduated from EMCC last year with majors in political science and English. She is enrolled at Mississippi State University where she is studying pre-law, with an eye towards enrolling at a law school. The MCCWA contest includes entries written in 2023 and early 2024.

Submissions by McBeth and Franks were written while taking EMCC humanities instructor Marilyn Ford’s Creative Writing class.

“Arin is an absolute wonderful poet,” Ford said. “She is a very introspective young lady and her poems are oftentimes about the evolution of self and that transitory time when we begin to try to figure out who we are in our teens.

“Elizabythe just started in Creative Writing this semester but has already shown such talent that when we learned submissions were due in February, I think I told her, ‘You have like 36 hours to finish this story you are working on and get it back to me.’  She finished it in time and did a wonderful job with the story.”

Works by Franks and McBeth were also featured in EMCC’s magazine of creativity titled “Syzygy.”

The magazine highlights the works of EMCC students in categories that include Ceramics, Creative Nonfiction, Design, Short Fiction, Drawing and Poetry. Faculty advisors and judges choose the winning entries to be included in the magazine.

Franks earned first place in Poetry in the 2023-24 edition of “Syzygy,” while McBeth took top honors in the Short Fiction category. McBeth was also named the recipient of the Betty Killebrew Literary Award, which recognizes the top submission amongst all entries.

Other winners include Haidi Salihaj, who earned first place in the Design category, and Breelyn Smith, who took top honors in the Drawing Category. The winners were honored April 23 during Awards Day on the Golden Triangle campus when instructors recognized their “outstanding students” for the past year. McBeth was also recognized as the “Outstanding Creative Writing Student.”

“I am always pleasantly surprised by the quality of the submissions to our ‘Syzygy’ magazine each year,” Ford said. “This year was no different. We have some very talented students and I am proud of what they have accomplished.”